Upasaka (Skt. upāsaka; Tib. དགེ་བསྙེན་, genyen, Wyl. dge bsnyen) or upasika (Skt. upāsikā; Tib. དགེ་བསྙེན་མ་, genyenma, Wyl. dge bsnyen ma) — respectively, a male or female lay practitioner, or 'pursuer of virtue'. One of the pratimoksha vows. Jan Nattier writes: :An upāsaka is not simply a “non-monastic Buddhist”; rather the term refers to a specific category consisting of lay Buddhist (one might better use the terms “lay brother” and “lay sister”) who are particularly diligent in their Buddhist practice. Specific activities are generally associated with becoming an upāsaka, that is, taking the three refuges, observing Five lay vows | the five ethical precepts, frequenting the monastery in order to hear teachings and make offerings, and taking extra vows on festival or Sojong | uposatha days (which in essence involve emulating monastic behavior). Moreover, the role of the upāsaka, as the etymology of the term (“one who serves”) would imply, is to associate with and to be of service to the monastic community.<ref>Jan Nattier, A Few Good Men: The Bodhisattva Path According to the Inquiry of Ugra (Ugraparipṛcchā): A Study and Translation, (University of Hawaii Press, 2003), 78, footnote 11.</ref>
The Tibetan term དགེ་བསྙེན་ dge bsnyen (which translates the Sanskrit upāsaka) is etymologically explained as 'being close to' (Tib. བསྙེན་, Wyl. bsnyen) 'virtue' (Tib. དགེ་བ་, Wyl. dge ba). The Sanskrit word upāsaka means 'one who serves' or a 'servant'.
There are four types of upasaka or upasika:
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