Also Known as Cumulative Discipline 
Formally stated, the sevenfold assembly consists of the upasaka(male lay devotee), upasika(female lay devotee) siksamana(female candidate for novitiate), sramanera(novice monk),sramanerika(novice nun), bhikhu(fully ordained monk), and bhikhuni(fully ordained nun). These terms designate levels of commitment to practice, starting with the basic five precepts, or training rules, for laity.

Not formally stated, but of equal importance, is the vow to do good and refrain from doing evil. One's actions should always be for the benefit of all sentient beings. The thrust of Buddhist discipline is a blameless coexistence with the rest of the world, as well as improved mindfulness and inner peace. There are two ways to uphold the precepts. One is called stop and hold,which means that one should stop,or refrain from doing evil, and holdto the precepts. The second one is called to do and to hold.This simply means that you should do good and abide by the discipline. The discipline has the function of helping you avoid evil and do good, and upholding it enables you to purify your body and mind. While that is being accomplished, the outflow of impurities, or asrava,diminishes; and these conditions, in turn, facilitate samadhi.

Dhyanais absorption meditation at varying levels; when extended over long periods of time, it is sometimes referred to as samadhi. These levels (usually four) are accounted for in Ch'an practice, and there are, as well, several different kinds of Ch'an. There are, for example, mundane Ch'an, supra-mundane Ch'an, and the Ch'an of the highest Mahayana realization, to mention  only three.

Meditation can be practiced while sitting, standing, walking or lying down and anywhere in between; but because our minds are ordinarily so very disorganized, the best way to practice for most of us is to sit regularly in a quiet place. Having seated yourself, simply put everything else aside and concentrate on whatever your object of concentration may be. With your mind, speech and action already cooled down through discipline, there is occasion for natural and steady access to samadhi.When no thought arises, the pure substance of mind appears; and the state of stillness and illumination gradually manifests itself.

The quality of that stillness is undefinable, and yet it is not as if the sitter were a statue carved from stone. In this context, illuminationis understood as awareness without subject-object duality. There is no longer someone being aware of something, and, consequently, there is no need for thought or verbalization.

The early sages emphasized that a moment of meditation honors Buddha more than building pagodas as numerous as the sandgrains in the Ganges River. The pagodas, it is argued, can be demolished, unlike the one-pointed mind that transcends time and space.

It cannot be repeated often enough that very little can be achieved without observing the precepts. Indeed, discipline dispels the attachment and the suffering that accompany it and leads to the passionless, pure path to Nirvana. Anasrava,or passionless purity, is the opposite of asrava,the outflow of the passions and their filth. Asravais further known as the discharge of mind-energy leading to the loss of truth. Anasrava,by definition, means the absence of outflow and seclusion from the stream of passion and, thus, from the stream of suffering.