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Ekayāna (, ) is a
Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...
word that means "one path" or "one vehicle". It is used in the
Upanishads The Upanishads (; , , ) are late Vedic and post-Vedic Sanskrit texts that "document the transition from the archaic ritualism of the Veda into new religious ideas and institutions" and the emergence of the central religious concepts of Hind ...
and the
Mahāyāna sūtras The Mahayana sutras are Buddhist texts that are accepted as wikt:canon, canonical and authentic Buddhist texts, ''buddhavacana'' in Mahayana, Mahayana Buddhist sanghas. These include three types of sutras: Those spoken by the Buddha; those spoke ...
.


Upanishads

In the ''
Brihadaranyaka Upanishad The ''Brihadaranyaka Upanishad'' (, ) is one of the Mukhya Upanishads, Principal Upanishads and one of the first Upanishadic scriptures of Hinduism. A key scripture to various schools of Hinduism, the ''Brihadaranyaka Upanisad'' is tenth in the ...
'', "ekayāna" took on special significance as a metaphor for a spiritual journey. The phrase ''vedānāṃ vāk ekayānam'' translates approximately to "the one destination of the
Vedas FIle:Atharva-Veda samhita page 471 illustration.png, upright=1.2, The Vedas are ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism. Above: A page from the ''Atharvaveda''. The Vedas ( or ; ), sometimes collectively called the Veda, are a large body of relig ...
is the spirit of the word".


Mahayana Buddhism

Ekayāna sutras of primary influence are the ''
Lotus Sutra The ''Lotus Sūtra'' (Sanskrit: ''Saddharma Puṇḍarīka Sūtram'', ''Sūtra on the White Lotus of the True Dharma'', zh, p=Fǎhuá jīng, l=Dharma Flower Sutra) is one of the most influential and venerated Buddhist Mahāyāna sūtras. ...
'', the '' Śrīmālādevī Siṃhanāda Sūtra'',Buswell, Robert E., Lopez, Donald S. Jr. (2014). The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, Princeton: Princeton University Press, p.281-2 the ''
Ratnagotravibhāga The ''Ratnagotravibhāga'' (Sanskrit, abbreviated as RGV, meaning: ''Analysis of the Jeweled Lineage, Investigating the Jewel Disposition'') and its ''vyākhyā'' commentary (abbreviated RGVV to refer to the RGV verses along with the embedded comm ...
,'' and the
Tathāgatagarbha sūtras The Tathāgatagarbha sūtras are a group of Mahayana sutras that present the concept of the "womb" or "embryo" (''garbha'') of the tathāgata, the buddha. Every sentient being has the possibility to attain Buddhahood because of the '' tathāga ...
,Grosnick, William (1981)
Nonorigination and Nirvana in the Early Thatagatagarbha Literature
Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 4/2, 34
which also include the '' Tathāgatagarbha Sūtra'', the ''
Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra The ''Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra'' (Sanskrit; , ; Vietnamese: ''Kinh Đại Bát Niết Bàn'') or ''Nirvana Sutra'' for short, is an influential Mahayana, Mahāyāna Buddhist Sutra, scripture of the Buddha-nature class. The original ...
,'' and the '' Aṅgulimālīya Sūtra''. Sutras with similar teachings include the ''
Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra The ''Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra'' (Sanskrit: लङ्कावतारसूत्रम्, "Discourse of the Descent into Laṅkā", , Chinese: 入楞伽經) is a prominent Mahayana Buddhist sūtra. It is also titled ''Laṅkāvatāraratnasūt ...
'' and the '' Avatamsaka Sutra''. The ''Lotus Sutra'' declares that "the three vehicles of the
Śrāvaka Śrāvaka ( Sanskrit) or Sāvaka (Pali) means "hearer" or, more generally, "disciple". This term is used in Buddhism and Jainism. In Jainism, a śrāvaka is any lay Jain so the term śrāvaka has been used for the Jain community itself (for exam ...
(disciple), Pratyekabuddha (Solitary Buddha), and
Bodhisattva In Buddhism, a bodhisattva is a person who has attained, or is striving towards, '' bodhi'' ('awakening', 'enlightenment') or Buddhahood. Often, the term specifically refers to a person who forgoes or delays personal nirvana or ''bodhi'' in ...
are actually just three expedient devices (
upaya In Buddhism, upaya (Sanskrit: उपाय, , ''expedient means'', ''pedagogy'') is an aspect of guidance along the Buddhist paths to liberation where a conscious, voluntary action "is driven by an incomplete reasoning" about its direction. Up ...
kausalya) for attracting beings to the one buddha vehicle, via which they all become buddhas."


Chinese Buddhism

While the "One Vehicle" Buddhism declined in India along with the rest of Buddhism, it became a key aspect of the Chinese acculturation and acceptance of Buddhism. The Chinese assimilation of Buddhism met in the vast diversity of Buddhist texts the problem of sorting through them for the core of Buddhist teaching. This problem was solved by Chinese Buddhist teachers by taking up one or more of the Ekayana Sutras as central to the understanding of the diversity of Buddhism. The
doctrines Doctrine (from , meaning 'teaching, instruction') is a codification of beliefs or a body of teachings or instructions, taught principles or positions, as the essence of teachings in a given branch of knowledge or in a belief system. The etymolo ...
and practices of
Tiantai Tiantai or T'ien-t'ai () is an East Asian Buddhist school of Mahāyāna Buddhism that developed in 6th-century China. Drawing from earlier Mahāyāna sources such as Madhyamaka, founded by Nāgārjuna, who is traditionally regarded as the f ...
(Japanese
Tendai , also known as the Tendai Dharma Flower School (天台法華宗, ''Tendai hokke shū,'' sometimes just ''Hokkeshū''), is a Mahāyāna Buddhist tradition with significant esoteric elements that was officially established in Japan in 806 by t ...
) and Huayen (Japanese
Kegon The Huayan school of Buddhism (, Wade–Giles: ''Hua-Yen,'' "Flower Garland," from the Sanskrit "''Avataṃsaka''") is a Mahayana Buddhist tradition that developed in China during the Tang dynasty (618-907).Yü, Chün-fang (2020). ''Chinese Bu ...
) Buddhist
sect A sect is a subgroup of a religion, religious, politics, political, or philosophy, philosophical belief system, typically emerging as an offshoot of a larger organization. Originally, the term referred specifically to religious groups that had s ...
s were able to present a synthesis of the diversity of Buddhism that was understandable and palatable by the Chinese worldview.


Chan Buddhism

Chan Buddhism affected this synthesis in a unique way by focusing on the practice of meditation as taught in the
Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra The ''Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra'' (Sanskrit: लङ्कावतारसूत्रम्, "Discourse of the Descent into Laṅkā", , Chinese: 入楞伽經) is a prominent Mahayana Buddhist sūtra. It is also titled ''Laṅkāvatāraratnasūt ...
as the core method of personally realizing the Ekayana teachings while at the same time acknowledging the transcendental and devotional aspects represented by the Avatamsaka Sutra and the
Lotus Sutra The ''Lotus Sūtra'' (Sanskrit: ''Saddharma Puṇḍarīka Sūtram'', ''Sūtra on the White Lotus of the True Dharma'', zh, p=Fǎhuá jīng, l=Dharma Flower Sutra) is one of the most influential and venerated Buddhist Mahāyāna sūtras. ...
, respectively. The Indian Buddhist monk
Bodhidharma Bodhidharma was a semi-legendary Bhikkhu, Buddhist monk who lived during the 5th or 6th century CE. He is traditionally credited as the transmitter of Chan Buddhism to China, and is regarded as its first Chinese Lineage (Buddhism), patriarch. ...
(c. 5th to 6th century), who is considered the founder of Chan Buddhism, was said to have brought the "Ekayāna school of Southern India" to China and passed it down along with the ''Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra'' to his primary disciple,
Dazu Huike Dazu Huike (487–593; ) is considered the Second Patriarch of Chan Buddhism and the twenty-ninth since Gautama Buddha. He was the successor to Bodhidharma. Biography Sources As with most of the early Chán patriarchs, very little firm data is ...
(487-593), known as the Second Founding Ancestor of the Chan lineage., Guifeng Zongmi (780 - 841) was an accredited master of both the Chan and Huayan lineages. In his treatise, ''The Original Person Debate'' ( zh, t=原人論), he explicitly identifies the Ekayāna teachings as the most profound type of spiritual realization and equates it with the direct realization of one's own nature: Thus, according to Zongmi who was a lineage master of both Huayan and Chan, he clearly distinguished the Ekayana from the Mahayana, and the Mahayana teachings of Yogacara (his Mahayana class 3) and Madhyamaka (his Mahayana class 4) were eclipsed by the more profound Ekayana teaching of "manifesting nature."


See also

*
Mahāyāna sūtras The Mahayana sutras are Buddhist texts that are accepted as wikt:canon, canonical and authentic Buddhist texts, ''buddhavacana'' in Mahayana, Mahayana Buddhist sanghas. These include three types of sutras: Those spoken by the Buddha; those spoke ...
*
Yana Yana may refer to: Locations *Yana, Burma, a village in Hkamti Township in Hkamti District in the Sagaing Region of northwestern Burma * Yana, India, a village in the Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka, India * Yana, Nigeria, an administrative c ...


References


Bibliography

* Apple, James B. (2015),
The Single Vehicle (ekayāna) in the Avaivartikacakra sūtra and Lotus sūtra
(PDF), Bulletin of the Institute of Oriental Philosophy, 30: 13-43 * * Nattier, Jan (2007)
One Vehicle in the Chinese Agamas
Annual Report of The International Research Institute for Advanced Buddhology at Soka University 10, 181-200 * * Teiser, Stephen F.; Stone, Jacqueline Ilyse, eds. (2009). ''Readings of the Lotus Sutra'', New York: Columbia University Press * Gethin, Rupert M.L. (2001). ''The Buddhist Path to Awakening'', Oxford: Oneworld Publications, pp. 59–66. {{ISBN, 1-85168-285-6 Buddhist philosophical concepts Hindu philosophical concepts