In Buddhism, the Sakadāgāmin, "returning once" or "once-returner" is a partially enlightened person, The second stage of The Four Stages of Awakening...
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The first moment of the attainment is termed the path of stream-entry (sotāpatti-magga), which cuts through the first three fetters. The person who experiences it is called a stream-winner (sotāpanna)...
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These four stages are Sotāpanna (stream-enterer), Sakadāgāmi (once-returner), Anāgāmi (non-returner), and Arahant. The oldest Buddhist texts portray the Buddha as referring to people who are at one of these four stages as noble people (ariya-puggala) and the community of such persons as the noble sangha (ariya-sangha)....
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All monks who followed the Buddha's teachings and attained sainthood were considered great disciples of the Buddha. Depending on each individual's efforts in practice and the karmic conditions they encountered, the level and form of attaining sainthood varied. The Buddha's Sangha had the great fortune of directly receiving the teachings of the Fully Enlightened One, resulting in a large number of saints, numbering in the thousands.
When speaking of the great disciples of the Buddha, the scriptures often mention ten individuals, known as the "Ten Great Disciples."...
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An Upasika is a female lay follower of Buddhism. Unlike nuns (bhikkhunis), Upasikas live at home, can participate in worldly life, and are not monastics. They hold faith in the Triple Gem (Buddha, Dharma, Sangha), strive to live ethically, and perform good deeds. The Pali term for female lay follower is Upasika, which translates to "one who serves."...
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The congregation of laymen is only for good men who live at home, have not yet become monks, and still enjoy worldly pleasures. These men have faith in the Triple Gem, live virtuously and create merit The Pali male layperson is Upāsaka, translated as "The one who serves, the person who serves", this noun refers to the male layperson....
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A person who is training to become a monk (Sāmaṇera), not yet officially ordained to become a Bhikkhu (Monk)....
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The Bhikkhuni Sangha is the congregation of Buddhist nuns, including practicing nuns: novice nuns and learned women (sāmaṇerī, sikkhāmānā).
These are women who have become monks, abandoned their families and lived without families, and accepted a life of celibacy.
A new woman joining the nun community must undergo two years of female ordination before becoming a novice nun, receive novice nun ordination for two years and reach the age of twenty before receiving full bhikkhunī ordination....
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Sangha (IPA: [sɐnɡʱɐ]) is a Sanskrit word used in many Indian languages, including Pali which means "association", "assembly", "company" or "community"; in these languages, sangha is frequently used as a surname.
In Buddhism, sangha refers to the monastic communities of bhikkhu (monks) and bhikkhuni (nuns). These communities are traditionally referred to as the bhikkhu-sangha or the bhikkhuni-sangha. As a separate category, those Buddhists who have attained any of the four stages of enlightenment, whether or not they are members of the monastic community, are referred to as the āryasaṅgha ("noble Sangha")....
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The word Dharma in Sanskrit, or Dhamma in Pali, is a very broad noun. It encompasses and contains all. One of the meanings of Dharma is truth, dharma, the self-nature of all things. It also means the special elements of a phenomenon and the natural laws that govern that phenomenon. Dharma also means the teachings of the Buddha and the path leading to enlightenment. Therefore, the word Dharma covers everything. Everything in this world is Dharma, because everything must obey its own natural law.
These are also the teachings and commandments of the Buddha during the 45 years from the time he attained enlightenment until the Buddha passed away into Nirvana(Nibbana), recorded in the Tripitaka.
It is also the law of nature, and the laws in Buddhism are taught to end suffering...
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