What are the three trainings? Ethics, concentration and wisdom, with examples

The three trainings (tisikkha) are three areas of self-training, ethics, concentration and wisdom: their meaning in the suttas and the Navakovada, their link with the eightfold path, and examples of conduct in daily life

The three trainings (tisikkha) are the three areas of self-training in Buddhism: ethics (sīla), training body and speech to be well conducted; concentration (samādhi), training the mind to be calm and steady; and wisdom (paññā), training to know and see things as they really are. The Thai ไตร (Pali ti) means three, and sikkhā means study or training, so tisikkha means simply 'the three trainings'. In the suttas the Buddha says that the more than one hundred and fifty monastic training rules are all included in these three. This page explains what the three trainings are, what each one means according to the suttas and the Navakovada, how the three affect one another, and what they look like in everyday conduct.

Tisso imā, bhikkhave, sikkhā.
Katamā tisso?
Adhisīlasikkhā, adhicittasikkhā, adhipaññāsikkhā.

Mendicants, there are these three trainings. What three? The training in higher ethics, in the higher mind, and in higher wisdom.

AN 3.89

What are the three trainings?

The full Pali name of each training begins with adhi, 'higher' or 'superior', meaning training aimed at freedom from suffering rather than ordinary goodness alone. In the Paṭhamasikkhattaya Sutta (AN 3.89) the Buddha explains each one:

1. Training in higher ethics (adhisīlasikkhā): the sutta describes a mendicant who is ethical, restrained by the monastic code, well conducted, sees danger in the slightest fault, and keeps the rules they have undertaken. For lay people, the base of this training is the five precepts: refraining from killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying and intoxicating drink.
2. Training in the higher mind (adhicittasikkhā): training the mind to be calm and steady. The sutta speaks of being secluded from sense pleasures and unwholesome states and entering the first to the fourth absorption. For most people this begins with training the mind to stay longer with what it is doing, and giving up the five hindrances that block it.
3. Training in higher wisdom (adhipaññāsikkhā): the sutta says it is knowing as it really is: this is suffering, this is its origin, this is its cessation, and this is the way to its cessation; in other words, understanding the four noble truths for oneself.

The Navakovada and Thai textbooks in general call the three trainings simply the training in ethics, the training of the mind and the training in wisdom, or ethics, concentration and wisdom. 'Mind' in the name of the second means concentration, because it trains the mind to be steady. So the three trainings cover outward behaviour, the heart, and understanding: all three levels of a life.

What the three trainings mean, and why they are called training

The word 'training' tells us that Buddhism stresses practice, not belief alone, like learning music or a sport, where you repeat something until it becomes second nature. In the Tatiyasikkhā Sutta (AN 3.88) the Buddha says that the more than one hundred and fifty training rules recited by monks every fortnight are all included in the three trainings:

Sādhikamidaṁ, bhikkhave, diyaḍḍhasikkhāpadasataṁ anvaddhamāsaṁ uddesaṁ āgacchati
yattha attakāmā kulaputtā sikkhanti.
Tisso imā, bhikkhave, sikkhā yatthetaṁ sabbaṁ samodhānaṁ gacchati.

Mendicants, these more than one hundred and fifty training rules come up for recitation every fortnight, and in them gentlemen who care for their own good are trained. All of them are included in these three trainings.

AN 3.88

The point is that the many detailed rules are not goals in themselves but tools for training in three areas. Someone who understands the principle of the three trainings sees that every rule of practice exists to calm body, speech and mind and to help them see more clearly. For lay people this keeps us from getting stuck on outward forms, and reminds us to ask which kind of training the thing we are doing actually serves.

The three trainings and the eightfold path in the Navakovada

The Navakovada, the standard first-level Dhamma textbook, explains under the eightfold path which training each path factor belongs to. Below is the Navakovada's wording, quoted as written, in our English translation:

• Of the eight path factors, right view and right thought are included in the training in wisdom.
• Right speech, right action and right livelihood are included in the training in ethics.
• Right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration are included in the training of the mind.

This means that the noble eightfold path and the three trainings are the same path seen from two angles. The path names eight factors; the three trainings group them into three to make them easier to train. Notice that the path begins with right view, on the side of wisdom, while the three trainings run from ethics to concentration and then to wisdom. The two do not conflict. A first understanding of why we train is the wisdom that points the way; then the actual training starts with ethics. When ethics is steady, concentration can settle, and concentration deepens wisdom a step further, in a spiral that keeps rising.

How ethics, concentration and wisdom support each other

In the Mahāparinibbāna Sutta (DN 16), which tells of the last months of his life, the Buddha often gave this talk to the monks, at many places along his final journey:

iti sīlaṁ, iti samādhi, iti paññā.
Sīlaparibhāvito samādhi mahapphalo hoti mahānisaṁso.
Samādhiparibhāvitā paññā mahapphalā hoti mahānisaṁsā.
Paññāparibhāvitaṁ cittaṁ sammadeva āsavehi vimuccati, seyyathidaṁ—
kāmāsavā, bhavāsavā, avijjāsavā.

Such is ethics, such is concentration, such is wisdom. Concentration imbued with ethics is very fruitful and beneficial. Wisdom imbued with concentration is very fruitful and beneficial. The mind imbued with wisdom is rightly freed from the defilements, namely the defilements of sensuality, of existence and of ignorance.

DN 16

'Imbued' here is like soaking or steeping. Ethics soaks into concentration and gives it quality: someone who has not lied to or harmed anyone sits down with nothing to regret, so the mind settles easily. Concentration soaks into wisdom: an undistracted mind sees the truth clearly. And wisdom that sees things as they are lets the mind release its clinging. So the three trainings are not three separate subjects but one training with three sides.

The Visuddhimagga by Buddhaghosa divides the whole work into three parts following the three trainings, ethics, concentration and wisdom, and it begins from a verse in the suttas saying that a wise person, established in ethics and developing the mind and wisdom, can untangle this tangle. The stages of training in that work are explained on the seven purifications page.

The three trainings: examples of conduct in daily life

The three trainings are not only for monks. Here are examples of actions and habits that train each side every day.

• Ethics at home: not lying to your family even about small things, not saying hurtful things when angry, and doing your share of the housework.
• Ethics at school or work: not copying homework, not cheating in exams, not taking shared things for private use, and not passing on rumours.
• Concentration: doing one task at a time with the phone out of reach, sitting with the breath for ten minutes a day, and returning to what you are doing each time you notice the mind has wandered.
• Wisdom: when angry, asking yourself where the anger comes from; when disappointed, noticing that the suffering comes from wanting things your way; and when successful, remembering that this success too is impermanent.

A single event can train all three. When someone says something unkind to you, not insulting them back is ethics; noticing the anger and breathing until the mind is still is concentration; and seeing that the anger arises and passes, and that you do not have to obey it, is wisdom. That is the three trainings in real life, with no need to wait for a visit to a temple.

The three trainings for lay people

Lay people can begin the three trainings with what is already in their lives. For ethics, keep the five precepts regularly, and on observance days or retreat days perhaps the eight precepts. For concentration, set aside a little time every day to sit or walk. For wisdom, a sutta (DN 33) names three kinds: wisdom from hearing or reading (sutamayā paññā), wisdom from reflection (cintāmayā paññā) and wisdom from meditation (bhāvanāmayā paññā). Reading this page is a start on the first kind, but the wisdom that ends suffering has to come from seeing for yourself in vipassana practice.

Full practice, full result

In AN 3.88 the Buddha says that one who fulfils ethics, concentration and wisdom may sometimes slip on a minor rule and recover, yet stays firm in the rules fundamental to the spiritual life, and progresses stage by stage up to the ending of the defilements. He concludes:

Iti kho, bhikkhave, paripūraṁ paripūrakārī ārādheti padesaṁ padesakārī.
Avañjhāni tvevāhaṁ, bhikkhave, sikkhāpadāni vadāmi.

So, mendicants, one who practises fully succeeds fully, and one who practises partly succeeds partly. But these training rules are never barren, I say.

AN 3.88

This is encouraging for beginners: partial training brings partial results, no training is wasted, and slipping and starting again is itself part of the three trainings.

Common misunderstandings

• You do not have to wait until your ethics is perfect before you start meditating. All three can be trained together, and each helps the others.
• Concentration in the three trainings does not mean only deep absorption. Steady attention in daily life is also training on this side.
• Wisdom is not only book knowledge. It is seeing the causes and effects of suffering in your own mind.
• Ethics is not a set of bans imposed by someone else. It is something we take on ourselves so as not to harm ourselves or others.

In short, the three trainings are ethics, concentration and wisdom: a principle that gathers all of Buddhist practice into three words. You can begin today with small actions, and they deepen little by little towards freedom from suffering.

Based on: Tatiyasikkhā Sutta (AN 3.88) · Paṭhamasikkhattaya Sutta (AN 3.89) · Mahāparinibbāna Sutta (DN 16) · Navakovada (public domain) · Saṅgīti Sutta (DN 33) · Visuddhimagga, by Buddhaghosa