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)