The dangers of not taking refuge in the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha is if you have no spiritual path, if you have no wise friends, if you have no teacher who can guide you, where are you going to go? It's almost that simple.
According to the scriptures, the Buddha was someone who perfected these teachings, finding a path leading out of Dukkha, and showing us the path to follow in order so we can end Dukkha. The Sangha are the people who have also perfected or partly perfected the path, and the teachings themselves are what we have to use today, whether we have teachers of not, we still have the teachings.
Take away these teachings and what have your got? You've got an average human being, who is going to watch TV four hours a night or whatever it is, who is going to live a life centered around themselves, who's going to give a tiny bit to charity, but more often than not nothing at all.
You're going to have a person who usually lives their life around themselves and consumes a lot, especially in the West, while much of the world is suffering.
So if you have no spiritual teachings to push you in the direction of doing good, avoiding harm and purifying the mind, then what are your dangers going to be? In Buddhism we go further than that in the sense of rebirth. As to your dangers, if you don't develop as a good kind human being you're likely not to get a better chance in your next life. So that's another danger. It's just theoretical for us here as we don't know rebirth personally, but it's a possible danger so you want to consider that as well.
Now as to the terms Buddha, Dhamma, Sangha some people get a little bit, "Oh wait a bit, wait a bit, I'm not sure if I want to be a Buddhist". OK, some of you may not know whether you're a Buddhist or not. On your forms some of you said "Yes", some of you said "No", and sometimes we get people who say "I don't know". Almost all of you could say you're a Buddhist sympathizer as we see all that Buddhism has something good to offer. You may like to know whether you are a Buddhist if you've never thought about it before. All you have to do is to say "Yes" to three questions - it's that simple. Does anyone want to know these questions?
The questions are very simple: Do you respect the Buddha? It's as simple as that. Do you respect the man who started this whole tradition, who has been able to give you these teachings. This is at least your second retreat, and some of you have practiced with us for over 10 years. Obviously most, if not all, of you do respect the person who has started these teachings. So the answer is "Yes". The second question - Do you respect the Dhamma, the teachings themselves? I think the answer is obvious as you have returned for another retreat so you must respect it. The third question - Do you respect the Sangha? Which in particular means all of the noble Sangha, people who have been enlightened from the Buddha through to today. Any of those people who have perfected the teachings or partly perfected them, are partly or fully enlightened. Do you respect them?, and I would assume for most if not all of you the answer is "Yes".
When people answers "Yes" to these three questions, by definition they are a Buddhist. Whether you think you are or not, if you answer "yes" you are. Because the definition of being a Buddhist is not whether you believe in something, it is whether you respect something. Whether you respect the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Sangha. And taking refuge in these things that you already respect is very easy. You've come back now for another retreat, so in a sense you're taking refuge in me and Rosemary, in this center, in the teachings. You're being helped and you're being supported. There are other words that are somewhat similar to having a refuge, where you're going to feel at home with people who are like-minded, you've come here to be in this refuge for 10 days and hopefully develop within it. So when you consider the dangers of not having good friends, then you understand why it is important to take refuge in the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Sangha.