Sangha

From the Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that anyone can change

Jump to: navigation, search
Sangha of monks.
Sangha of monks.

Buddhism


Beliefs

Three Jewels
Four Noble Truths
Noble Eightfold Path
Buddhahood
Enlightenment
Nirvana

People

Gautama Buddha
Dalai Lama
Bodhisattva
Sangha

Practices

study Dharma
Meditation
Metta

This box: view  talk  edit

In Buddhism, the word sangha means "assembly" or "community."[1] For Buddhists, there are two sanghas that are very important:

  1. the community of Buddhist monks and nuns
  2. the community of noble disciples[2]

In Buddhism, there are three things that a Buddhist shows the greatest respect: the Buddha, the Dhamma (the Buddha's teaching), and the Sangha (the Buddha's community). So, for instance, when the sangha is talked about in very old Buddhist books, the following words are often used:

"The Sangha of the [Buddha]'s disciples who have practiced well... who have practiced straight-forwardly... who have practiced methodically... who have practiced masterfully ... they are the Sangha of the [Buddha]'s disciples: worthy of gifts, worthy of hospitality, worthy of offerings, worthy of respect, the incomparable field of merit for the world."[3]

[change] Notes

  1. See, for instance, Rhys Davids & Stede (1921-25), p. 667, entry for "Sangha" (retrieved 2007-11-11 from "Univ. of Chicago" at http://dsal.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/philologic/getobject.pl?c.3:1:2839.pali); and, Bullitt (2005).
  2. Bullitt (2005).
  3. For example, this quote can be found in one of the oldest Buddhist books, the "Anguttara Nikaya" (AN), in a talk given by the Buddha called the Mahanama Sutta (Thanissaro, 1997).

[change] References

  • Rhys Davids, T.W. & William Stede (eds.) (1921-25). The Pali Text Society’s Pali–English Dictionary. Chipstead: Pali Text Society. A general on-line search engine for the PED is available at http://dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/pali/.


Personal tools