Buddhist Titles of Attainment, Ordination and Teaching

The arhat is a standing rather than an office: one in whom craving, aversion and delusion are wholly extinguished and who will not be reborn. The page records that Mahayana writing can present this goal as lesser than the bodhisattva ideal, and that the Theravada rejects that reading.

Ordination of a bhikkhu needs a quorum of existing monks inside a properly determined boundary, and a defective quorum makes it invalid. The monk keeps 227 rules in the Theravada recension, and four of them, including killing a human being and falsely claiming spiritual attainments, end his membership permanently.

The nuns' order was founded in the Buddha's lifetime on condition of the eight garudhammas, and the Theravada lineage died out in Sri Lanka in the eleventh century. Revival began in 1996 using the East Asian Dharmaguptaka lineage, and the Thai and Burmese hierarchies still do not accept it.

Ajahn is the Thai form of the Pali word for teacher, and it is the ordinary respectful title for a senior monk of at least ten rains. It is closely tied to the Thai forest tradition of Ajahn Mun and Ajahn Chah, and Luang Por is a more affectionate elaboration.

Sayadaw is the Burmese title that originally meant royal teacher, given to abbots who tutored kings. Ledi Sayadaw opened insight meditation to the laity around 1900, and Mahasi Sayadaw and Mogok Sayadaw shaped the modern vipassana movement.

Roshi literally means old master, but what stands behind it is dharma transmission from one teacher to one student, the only authorisation Zen recognises. In Japan it is largely a term of respect, while in the West it has become closer to a formal rank, which is why the page flags open arguments about what transmission certifies.

Sensei is the everyday Japanese word for teacher, used of doctors and martial-arts instructors as well as Zen teachers. In Western Zen it often ranks below roshi, and its weight depends entirely on the lineage using it.

A lama is defined by transmission and the authority to confer tantric empowerment, not by monastic status. Married lay lamas are ordinary in the Nyingma and Sakya traditions, and the page warns that lama and tulku are not the same thing.

Rinpoche means precious one and is a form of address that confers and authorises nothing. Most rinpoches are recognised tulkus, but the title can also be given for attainment and seniority without any claim of rebirth.

A geshe is a Gelug scholar who has finished a curriculum of fifteen to twenty years or more of study and formal debate. The highest grade, geshe lharampa, goes to those who excel in public debate, and the Sakya school confers a comparable qualification.

Khenpo is the Nyingma, Kagyu and Sakya counterpart of the Gelug geshe, a scholar-monk qualified to teach and ordain. The same word means the abbot or preceptor of a monastery or shedra, and some nuns now receive the equivalent title khenmo.

A terton reveals terma, treasure-teachings said to be concealed by Padmasambhava and Yeshe Tsogyal, whether recovered from rock, lake or sky or arising in the mind. Because the role rests on revelation outside the ordinary chain of transmission, the tradition developed criteria of authenticity against the charge of forgery.