Dhammacari is a term used in some Theravada

Theravada

Theravada ; literally, "the Teaching of the Elders" or "the Ancient Teaching", is the oldest surviving Buddhist school. It was founded in India...

 Buddhist communities to refer to lay devotees (upāsakas

Upasaka

Upāsaka or Upāsikā are from the Sanskrit and Pāli words for "attendant". This is the title of followers of Buddhism who are not monks, nuns, or novice monastics in a Buddhist order, and who undertake certain vows...

) who have seriously committed themselves to Buddhist practice for several years. Dhammacaris follow four training vows in addition to the traditional Five Precepts that all lay devotees follow.

History

In the early 1990s Bhante Madawala Seelawimala of American Buddhist Seminary in Berkeley and Bhante Walpola Piyananda of Dhamma Vijaya Buddhist Vihara in Los Angeles decided to establish this formal initiation ceremony to train future American Buddhist leadership.

See also

• anagarika
  Anagarika
  In Theravada Buddhism, an anagarika is a person who has given up most or all of his worldly possessions and responsibilities to commit fulltime to Buddhist practice. It is a midway status between monk and layperson where one takes on the Eight Precepts for the entire anagarika period, which could...
  
   (lay attendant)
• bhikkhu
  Bhikkhu
  A Bhikkhu or Bhikṣu is an ordained male Buddhist monastic. A female monastic is called a Bhikkhuni Nepali: ). The life of Bhikkhus and Bhikkhunis is governed by a set of rules called the patimokkha within the vinaya's framework of monastic discipline...
  
   (monk)
• samanera
  Samanera
  A samanera ) may be translated as novice monk in a Buddhist context. The literal meaning is 'small samana', that is, small renunciate where 'small' has the meaning of boy or girl. In the Vinaya monastic discipline, a man under the age of 20 cannot ordain as a bhikkhu, but can ordain as a samanera...
  
   (novice monk)
• upāsaka
  Upasaka
  Upāsaka or Upāsikā are from the Sanskrit and Pāli words for "attendant". This is the title of followers of Buddhism who are not monks, nuns, or novice monastics in a Buddhist order, and who undertake certain vows...
  
   (lay devotee)

Source

• Prebish, Charles S., and Kenneth K. Tanaka
  Kenneth K. Tanaka
  Kenneth Ken'ichi Tanaka , also known as Kenshin Tanaka or Ken'ichi Tanaka is a scholar, author, translator and ordained Jōdo Shinshū priest.He is author and editor of many articles and books on modern Buddhism.-Biography:...
  
  , editors The Faces of Buddhism in America. Berkeley: University of California Press, c1998 1998.