The only difficulty in the use of "monks" is caused by the members of the sect in Japan which, since the middle of the fifteenth century, has abolished the prohibition against marrying on the part of its ministers, and other prohibitions in diet and dress.

Sang and sang-kea represent the Sanskrit sangha, constituted by at least four members, and empowered to hear confession, to grant absolution, to admit persons to holy orders, &c.; secondly, the third constituent of the Buddhistic Trinity, a deification of the _communio sanctorum_, or the Buddhist order.

The name is used by our author of the monks collectively or individually as belonging to the class, and may be considered as synonymous with the name sramana, which will immediately claim our attention.
(4) Meaning the "small vehicle, or conveyance." There are in Buddhism the triyana, or "three different means of salvation, i.e.of conveyance across the samsara, or sea of transmigration, to the shores of nirvana.

Afterwards the term was used to designate the different phases of development through which the Buddhist dogma passed, known as the mahayana, hinayana, and madhyamayana." "The hinayana is the simplest vehicle of salvation, corresponding to the first of the three degrees of saintship.

Characteristics of it are the preponderance of active moral asceticism, and the absence of speculative mysticism and quietism." E.H., pp.