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Hīnayāna (Sanskrit:/ˌhiːnəˈjɑːnə/,हीनयान),[1] literally meaning "Small Vehicle" or "Lesser Vehicle",[2] is a term that was at one time applied collectively to theŚrāvakayāna ("Listeners Vehicle") andPratyekabuddhayāna ("Solitary-realizers Vehicle")paths ofBuddhism by followers of theMahāyānaBuddhist school.[2] This term appeared inClassical India around the 1st or 2nd century CE.[2] TheHīnayāna is considered as the preliminary or small (hīna) vehicle (yāna) of the Buddha's teachings. It is often contrasted with theMahāyāna ("Great Vehicle"), the second vehicle of the Buddha's teachings, whose followers consider to be the advanced, greater (mahā) vehicle (yāna).[2] The third vehicle of the Buddha's teachings is theVajrayāna ("Diamond Vehicle" or "Thunderbolt Vehicle").[3]
Western scholars used the termHīnayāna to describe the early teachings of Buddhism, as theMahāyāna teachings were generally given later.[4]Modern Buddhist scholarship has deprecated the term as derogatory and polemical,[2] and instead uses the termNikāya referring to theearly Buddhist schools.Hīnayāna has also been inappropriately used as a synonym for theTheravādaBuddhist school, which is the main tradition of Buddhism inSri Lanka andSoutheast Asia.[2]
The wordhīnayāna is formed from the adjectivehīna (Devanagari: हीन)[5] meaning "little", "poor", "inferior", "abandoned", "deficient", "defective"; and the nounyāna (Devanagari: यान):[6] "vehicle", where "vehicle" or "path" refers to "a way of life that leads to enlightenment". ThePali Text Society'sPāli-English Dictionary (1921–1925) defineshīna in even stronger terms, with a semantic field that includes "poor, miserable; vile, base, abject, contemptible", and "despicable".
The termHīnayāna was translated byKumārajīva and others intoClassical Chinese as "small vehicle" (小 meaning "small", 乘 meaning "vehicle"), although earlier and more accurate translations of the term also exist. InMongolian (Baga Holgon) the term for hinayana also means "small" or "lesser" vehicle or better called path,[7] while inClassical Tibetan there are at least two words to designate the term:theg chung, meaning "small vehicle",[8] andtheg dman, meaning "inferior vehicle" or "inferior spiritual approach".[9]
According toTibetan Buddhist monk andKagyu masterThrangu Rinpoche, the termHīnayāna is in no way implying that theŚrāvakayāna ("Listeners Vehicle") andPratyekabuddhayāna ("Solitary-realizers Vehicle") are somehow "inferior"Buddhist paths to liberation in comparison to the later two vehicles (i.e.,Mahāyāna andVajrayāna). In his translation and commentary ofAsaṅga'sDistinguishing Dharmā from Dharmāta, he writes: "all three traditions of Hīnayāna, Mahāyāna, and Vajrayāna were practiced in Tibet, and the Hīnayāna, which literally means "lesser vehicle", is in no way inferior to the Mahāyāna".[10]
According toJan Nattier, it is most likely that the termHīnayāna postdates the termMahāyāna and was only added at a later date due to antagonism and conflict between proponents of theBodhisattva andArhat ideals within theSaṃgha. The sequence of terms then began with the termBodhisattvayāna ("Bodhisattva Vehicle"), which was given the epithetMahāyāna ("Great Vehicle"). It was only later, after attitudes toward the Bodhisattva ideal had become more critical, that the termHīnayāna ("Small Vehicle" or "Lesser Vehicle") was created as a back-formation,[2] contrasting with the already established termMahāyāna.[11]
Theearliest Mahāyāna texts often use the termMahāyāna as an epithet and synonym forBodhisattvayāna but the termHīnayāna is comparatively rare, and the latter is usually not found at all in the earliest translations. Therefore, the often-perceived symmetry betweenMahāyāna andHīnayāna can be deceptive, as the terms were not actually coined in relation to one another in the same era.[12]
According toPaul Williams, "the deep-rooted misconception concerning an unfailing, ubiquitous fierce criticism of the Lesser Vehicle by the [Mahāyāna] is not supported by our texts".[13] Williams states that while evidence of conflict is present in some cases, there is also substantial evidence demonstrating peaceful coexistence between the two traditions.[13]
Although the 18–20early Buddhist schools are sometimes loosely classified as Hīnayāna in modern times, this is not necessarily accurate. There is no evidence that Mahāyāna ever referred to a separate formal school of Buddhism but rather as a certain set of ideals, and later doctrines.[14]Paul Williams has also noted that the Mahāyāna never had nor ever attempted to have a separatevinaya or ordination lineage from the early Buddhist schools, and thereforebhikṣus andbhikṣuṇīs adhering to the Mahāyāna formally adheres to the vinaya of an early school. This continues today with theDharmaguptaka ordination lineage in East Asia and theMūlasarvāstivāda ordination lineage inTibetan Buddhism. Mahāyāna was never a separate sect of the early schools.[15] From Chinese monks visiting India, we now know that both Mahāyāna and non-Mahāyāna monks in India often lived in the same monasteries side by side.[16]
The seventh-century Chinese Buddhist monk and pilgrimYijing wrote about the relationship between the various "vehicles" and the early Buddhist schools in India. He wrote, "There exist in the West numerous subdivisions of the schools which have different origins, but there are only four principal schools of continuous tradition." These schools are theMahāsāṃghika Nikāya,Sthavira nikāya, Mūlasarvāstivāda Nikāya, andSaṃmitīya Nikāya.[17] Explaining their doctrinal affiliations, he then writes, "Which of the four schools should be grouped with the Mahāyāna or with the Hīnayāna is not determined." That is to say, there was no simple correspondence between a Buddhist school and whether its members learn "Hīnayāna" or "Mahāyāna" teachings.[18]
To identify entire schools as "Hīnayāna" that contained not only śrāvakas andpratyekabuddhas but also Mahāyāna bodhisattvas would be attacking the schools of their fellow Mahāyānists as well as their own. Instead, what is demonstrated in the definition ofHīnayāna given by Yijing is that the term referred to individuals based on doctrinal differences.[19]
Scholar Isabelle Onians asserts that although "the Mahāyāna ... very occasionally referred to earlier Buddhism as the Hinayāna, the Inferior Way, [...] the preponderance of this name in the secondary literature is far out of proportion to occurrences in the Indian texts." She notes that the termŚrāvakayāna was "the more politically correct and much more usual" term used by Mahāyānists.[20] Jonathan Silk has argued that the term "Hinayana" was used to refer to whomever one wanted to criticize on any given occasion, and did not refer to any definite grouping of Buddhists.[21]
The Chinese monkYijing, who visited India in the 7th century, distinguished Mahāyāna from Hīnayāna as follows:
Both adopt one and the sameVinaya, and they have in common the prohibitions of thefive offenses, and also the practice of theFour Noble Truths. Those who venerate (regard with great respect) thebodhisattvas and read theMahāyāna sūtras are called the Mahāyānists, while those who do not perform these are called the Hīnayānists.[19]
In the 7th century, the Chinese Buddhist monkXuanzang describes the concurrent existence of theMahāvihara and theAbhayagiri vihāra in Sri Lanka. He refers to the monks of the Mahāvihara as the "Hīnayāna Sthaviras" and the monks of Abhayagiri vihāra as the "Mahāyāna Sthaviras".[22] Xuanzang further writes, "The Mahāvihāravāsins reject the Mahāyāna and practice the Hīnayāna, while the Abhayagirivihāravāsins study both Hīnayāna and Mahāyāna teachings and propagate theTripiṭaka."[23]
Mahayanists were primarily in philosophical dialectic with theVaibhāṣika school ofSarvāstivāda, which had by far the most "comprehensive edifice of doctrinal systematics" of the nikāya schools.[24] With this in mind it is sometimes argued[by whom?] that the Theravada would not have been considered a "Hinayana" school by Mahayanists because, unlike the now-extinctSarvastivada school, the primary object of Mahayana criticism, the Theravada school does not claim the existence of independentdharmas; in this it maintains the attitude ofearly Buddhism. Additionally, the concept of the bodhisattva as one who puts off enlightenment rather than reaching awakening as soon as possible, has no roots in Theravada textual or cultural contexts, current or historical. Aside from the Theravada schools being geographically distant from the Mahayana, the Hinayana distinction is used in reference to certain views and practices that had become found within the Mahayana tradition itself. Theravada, as well as Mahayana schools stress the urgency of one's own awakening in order to end suffering.[25][26][27] Some contemporary Theravadin figures[who?] have thus indicated a sympathetic stance toward the Mahayana philosophy found in theHeart Sutra and theMūlamadhyamakakārikā.[28][29]
The Mahayanists were bothered by the substantialist thought of the Sarvāstivādins andSautrāntikins, and in emphasizing the doctrine ofśūnyatā,David Kalupahana holds that they endeavored to preserve the early teaching.[30] The Theravadins too refuted the Sarvāstivādins and Sautrāntikins (and followers of other schools) on the grounds that their theories were in conflict with the non-substantialism of the canon. The Theravada arguments are preserved in theKathavatthu.[31]
Some western scholars[who?] still regard the Theravada school to be one of the Hinayana schools referred to in Mahayana literature, or regard Hinayana as a synonym for Theravada.[32][33][34][35][36] These scholars understand the term to refer to schools of Buddhism that did not accept the teachings of theMahāyāna sūtras as authentic teachings of the Buddha.[33][35] At the same time, scholars have objected to the pejorative connotation of the term Hinayana and some scholars do not use it for any school.[37]
Robert Thurman writes, "'Nikaya Buddhism' is a coinage of ProfessorMasatoshi Nagatomi ofHarvard University, who suggested it to me as a usage for the eighteen schools of Indian Buddhism to avoid the term 'Hinayana Buddhism,' which is found offensive by some members of the Theravada tradition."[38]
Within Mahayana Buddhism, there were a variety of interpretations as to whom or to what the termHinayana referred.Kalu Rinpoche stated the "lesser" or "greater" designation "did not refer to economic or social status, but concerned the spiritual capacities of the practitioner".[39] Rinpoche states:
The Small Vehicle is based on becoming aware of the fact that all we experience in samsara is marked by suffering. Being aware of this engenders the will to rid ourselves of this suffering, to liberate ourselves on an individual level, and to attain happiness. We are moved by our own interest. Renunciation and perseverance allow us to attain our goal.[40]
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