One of the most famous of the numbered lists in Buddhism is that of the Three Treasures, the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. These translate into the veneration of the founder, the teaching and the community of followers. As we explore the nature of "Humanistic" Buddhism, it is important to view it in terms of the three most basic factors in the tradition. First, we can consider some of the features of the life of the Buddha as they relate to our contemporary situation. The Buddhist tradition defines five or six destinies for rebirth of sentient beings. In these destinies, there is no special category for those who become a Buddha. The supreme enlightenment which leads to Nirvana does not occur to someone who is born into a sphere reserved for Buddhas. `Sakyamuni, in common with all other described Buddhas of this world system, finds his final enlightenment in only one of the rebirth situations, and that is the human one. There is however, one category of persons who reach the final goal outside of the human condition. We are told that the path of the Arhat may include the possibility of being a Never Returner. There is a description of the layman Kakudha who, the Buddha reports, will achieve the final state from the heavens. [1] But for `Sakyamuni and Maitreya and the other Buddhas, birth as a human is the pattern that is needed before enlightenment. Even after the Nirvana, the Buddhists carefully gathered up the physical remains of the Buddha's body and enshrined them. The relic cult based on these physical remains was a major practice of Buddhism and helped constitute the institutional form of the early days of the religion. [i] In this sense, Buddhism has been "Humanistic" from the very beginning. There was, and remains, a focus on the issues of being human that dominate the teachings of the tradition. This fact should be kept in mind when we evaluate the role of being human within Buddhism. 在佛教眾多名相中，就屬三寶一詞最為人知，三寶是指佛、法、僧三寶，也就是佛教創教者佛陀、佛陀所說之教法、以及(隨其教法而修之)信眾團體。當我們在探究人間佛教的特質時，從佛教傳統中這三個最基本的元素著眼來看人間佛教，這是很重要的。 首先，我們可以參考佛陀一生的幾個特點中，與我們現代情況有相關之處。在佛教傳統中將眾生之輪迴分為五或六種命運，在這些命運中並沒有特別為成佛者歸出一類來，究竟證悟的涅槃之境，並不會發生在那些生在為佛所保留的界地的人身上，釋迦牟尼佛跟其他在這個世系的諸佛一樣，也是通過唯一的輪迴方式，也就是人身的方式，獲得最後的證悟之道; 但是，有一種人是以人身以外的形式成就究境的目標，我們知道，在修證阿羅漢道上的方式中，還包括有可能不再輪迴的阿那含果位。就佛陀的預言，有一位叫迦羅鳩馱 (Kakudha) 的在家者，將會在天界證得最高果位，但就釋迦牟尼佛、彌勒菩薩、及其他諸佛而言，人的出生在世則是證悟前所需的一種形式。即使是證得涅槃之後，佛教徒也是小心翼翼的將佛的舍利子收集並供奉起來，這種供奉身體殘留的舍利子是佛教徒主要的修行，同時也幫助建立這個宗教早期的習俗。就這一觀點來看，佛教從一間始就很"人間"化，這個傳統的教法不管是在過去，現在也仍然保留著對作為人本身這個主題的強調與重視，當在我們評估作為人本身在佛教中所扮演的角色時，應切記這一事實。
