Three Trainings

The Three Trainings are study, contemplation, and meditation (ཐོས་བསམ་སྒོམ་གསུམ་, tö sam gom sum):

1. ཐོས་ (Tö) = Studying dharma texts or listening to the dharma being taught
2. བསམ་ (Sam) = Contemplating, reflecting or thinking deeply about the meaning of a teaching
3. སྒོམ་ (Gom) = Meditating or familiarizing one's self with the meaning of a teaching

• From the Rangjung Yeshe Dictionary:
  • 'Learning' means receiving oral teachings and studying scriptures in order to clear away ignorance and wrong views.
  • 'Reflection' is to eradicate uncertainty and misunderstanding through carefully thinking over the subject.
  • 'Meditation' means to gain direct insight through applying the teachings in one's personal experience

Read more: http://dictionary.thlib.org/internal_definitions/public_term/65729#ixzz5AymBS8gs

There are also the three higher trainings (ལྷག་པའི་བསླབ་པ་གསུམ་, lhagpé labpa sum)

1. ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་ཀྱི་བསླབ་པ་ = The Training in Discipline (Skt. adhiśīlaśikṣa)
2. ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན་གྱི་བསླབ་པ་ = The Training in Meditative Absorption (Skt. samādhiśikṣa)
3. ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་བསླབ་པ་ = The Training in Wisdom (Skt. prajñāśikṣa)

avidyā - Literally "unknowing," it refers to a lack of knowledge or misunderstanding of the nature of reality. As such, it is considered to be the root cause of suffering and the basis for the arising of all other negative mental factors. Skt. अविद्या Tib. མ་རིག་པ་ Ch. 無明