Like all mortals, he experienced successive rebirths while moving up the Scale of Being. This included several lives as fish and as animals as well as humans. The stories of these lives are referred to as the Jataka Tales or Zat. All these tales are moral tales in nature and are the equivalent of Sunday School or Church School stories. Making merit improves a person's karma, and good karma increases the chances for attaining Nirvana.
Buddhist monasteries serve social and educational functions, as well as their religious functions.
The village school was traditionally located within the monastery compound and the monks frequently reared orphaned boys. Some monks prescribed medications for the ill or cast horoscopes. Includes ritual Includes petitionary prayer Liberal 3. Tantrayana Enormous variety of gods which may include Hindu as well as Buddhist deities as well as widely varying practices, including sexual and magical, many of which are secretly practiced in closed monasteries by initiates.