Dharma means teaching, especially the teaching of the Buddha and his followers. Dharma also involves the wider idea of truth, especially the truth about the way things are. This idea is taught in various summaries, such as the Four Noble Truths, the Noble Eightfold Path, the Three Marks of Existence, and the Twelve-Linked Chain of Dependent Origination.

The sangha is the Buddhist religious community. It consists of four groups of people: laymen, laywomen, bhikkhus (monks), and bhikkhunis (nuns). These people are called the sons and daughters of the Buddha. The laypeople support monks and nuns with gifts of food, shelter, and clothing. In return the monks and nuns give to the laypeople the example of lives lived close to the example of the Buddha. Monks and nuns also have a special task to preserve and pass on the dharma.

Often the word sangha is used to mean just the monastic community. In most Buddhist countries, monks are expected to live a life of poverty, meditation, and study. Some Buddhists become monks for life. Others serve in the sangha for short periods of time. The monks wear special orange or red robes, and are a common sight in Buddhist countries.

The Four Noble Truths.
The starting point for Buddhists is dukkha, the realization that life is unsatisfactory. This is summarized in the first of the Four Noble Truths--that all is suffering. Gautama's encounter with old age, sickness, and death started his quest for enlightenment. He then discovered the teaching that is expressed in the second Noble Truth - that suffering originates in people's desire, greed, or attachment to things. Greed, hatred, and ignorance are like three fires which must be blown out.

Buddhism is not, however, pessimistic. Having stated the problem of suffering and its cause, the third Noble Truth says that suffering can be stopped. The Buddhist greeting "May all beings be happy" is optimistic. Happiness, in this sense, is a permanent state of peace and calm, which Buddhists say is too profound to be described. It is usually called nirvana, a Sanskrit word that conveys the image of stopping, or "blowing out."

What needs to be blown out in this case are the flames of greed, hatred, and ignorance. A Buddhist believes that trying to describe this state to anyone is as difficult as describing to a fish what it is like to live on dry land, or describing the colours of the rainbow to someone who is colour-blind.

The fourth Noble Truth is that there is a path to the happiness of nirvana. This path involves morality, meditation, and wisdom. The eight stages on the path are spelled out in more detail in the Noble Eightfold Path, which starts with two stages of wisdom, goes on to four essential types of morality, and ends with two stages of meditation.