Grateful for these teachings, the five bhikṣus embraced Śākyamuni as their teacher and became disciples, thereby forming the first Saṃgha, a group of renunciates who adopted the precepts and rules for monastic discipline and had the same goal. This thereby put in place the “Three Jewels” in which Buddhists take refuge: the Buddha, Dharma, and Saṃgha. The Three Jewels are defined in several ways, including (1) as being separate and individual entities, (2) as being individual entities that are unified in essence, namely, the Buddha’s unsurpassed truth, pure merit, and harmonized merit, and (3) as concretely existing in this world in the form of Buddha statues, sūtras, and the saṃgha. Furthermore, saṃgha can be defined as a “manifest saṃgha,” comprised of five or more renunciates who live in the same area. It can also be understood to mean the “saṃgha in the four directions,” or all Buddhist monastics.