After the three traditional refuges, sometimes I use a fourth refuge: taking refuge in the great mother. I take refuge in the supreme mother, the perfection of sublime knowing, that straddles both the understanding of the empty nature of things, and the relative way in which we work. It is a bridge between the relative and the absolute, and is called “the mother of all Buddhas,” because it is through this depth of understanding that Buddhas become Buddhas—understanding saṃsāra and nirvāṇa, the absolute and the relative, and how they are inseparable.