Buddhism also recognizes a class of "In dividual Buddhas," that is, men who have at tained Nirvana by their own insight, but who are not omniscient and who do not preach the Truths to others. Furthermore, there is a long array of supernatural beings, such as gods of various ranks, demons, terrestrial spirits and ghosts. Many of these are simply taken over from the popular beliefs of ancient India, and they are of slight importance in the orthodox doctrine, however much we may suspect that they were feared and worshiped by the mass of Gotama's adherents. In the cosmology of Buddhism these and all other sentient beings are distributed among 31 states of existence; namely, four formless or immaterial heavens, 16 heavens of pure form, six sensuous heavens, the worlds of men, demons, ghosts and animals respectively, and the realms of hell. Every such state, however, is limited in du ration, by reason of the law of impermanence, and even the highest gods are subject to rebirth and degradation, unless through discipleship they at tain Nirvana.
The external organization of the Buddhist religion has always consisted chiefly in the institution known as the "Order° or ((Congre gation" (sangha), which is placed on an equal ity with the Buddha and the Law or Doctrine as one of the ((Three jewels," or supreme ob jects of veneration. The mendicant life as an aid to religious training had been recognized by the Brahmans even before Gotama's time, and it was natural that he and his disciples should gradually develop it into a regular monastic order, especially as the following of the Path to the full extent involved the renunciation of ordinary worldly pursuits. The monk is there fore the typical Buddhist, and, as a rule, only the monk may hope to attain Nirvana during this life.
Any man may enter the Order, regardless of his race or caste, unless he is disqualified physically, e.g., by a loathsome disease, or legally, e.g., by being a slave. The rules of discipline distinguish two stages in the monastic life, that of novice and that of itinerant mendi cant (Sanskrit bhikshu, Pali bhikkhu). A per son becomes a novice by making a profession of faith, which consists in repeating three times the formula: "I take refuge in the Buddha. I take refuge in the Law, I take refuge in the Order," and by assuming the monastic garb. He is then bound to observe the "Ten Pre cepts"; namely, to abstain from taking life, from taking what is not given, from unchastity, from false speaking, from using intoxicating liquors, from eating at forbidden times (i.e., between midday and the following sunrise), from worldly amusements, from using per fumes and ornaments, from using a high or broad bed and from accepting gold or silver.
The full ((initiation," which could be given only to those who were 20 years of age or over, was effected by a formal vote of the chapter of monks. The rules of discipline required a monk to secure his food by begging, to possess no property but his three robes of reddish brown or yellow rags, his alms-bowl, girdle, razor, needle and water-strainer, and to lodge either as a hermit in the forest or with a few companions in an ((abode" (vifuira) near but not in a village or town. Dur ing the greater part of the year the monks usually traveled from place to place, but they were restricted to a fixed abode during the three months of the rainy season. Four times each month the monks of any given dis trict assembled for the uposatha, a sort of sabbath-day observance, and twice a month on such occasions they listened to the recital of the Patimokkha (Sanskrit Pratimoksha), a very old code of monastic discipline. These ob servances, together with a yearly ceremony of begging one another's pardon at the close of the season of retreat, constituted the simple ritual of the Order. Grave breaches of dis cipline were punished by expulsion, minor ones by penance or reprimand; and anyone who felt himself unequal to the monastic life might voluntarily return to the lay state.
Beside the Order or Congregation of monks stood that of the nuns (Sanskrit bhikshunis, Pali bhikkhutps), which, according to the tra dition, was instituted by Gotama rather un willingly at the request of his aunt, who desired to renounce the world. The nuns were strictly subordinated to the monks in various ways and seem always to have been inferior to them both in numbers and in importance.
Outside the two branches of the Order and in no definite connection with them was the mass of lay disciples (updsakas). No initiatory rite was required of these except the mere formula of ((taking refuge" in the Buddha, the Law and the Order; and no special command ments were laid upon them except the observ ance of the first five of the "Ten Precepts" already mentioned, although it was considered meritorious for a layman to observe the sixth, seventh and eighth also, particularly on upo satha days. In practice the chief religious exercise of the laymen and laywomen consisted in supporting the monks and nuns by gifts of food, banquets, robes, dwelling-places and the like, and in listening to their preaching. The veneration of relics of the Buddhas, and of sacred trees and places, was also a form of worship on the part of the laity.