Hīnayāna is a Sanskrit term that was at one time applied collectively to the ''
Śrāvakayāna'' and ''
Pratyekabuddhayāna'' paths of
Buddhism
Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...
.
This term appeared around the first or second century. The Hīnayāna is considered as the preliminary or small (''hina'') vehicle (''yana'') of the Buddha's teachings. It is often contrasted with
Mahāyāna
Mahāyāna ( ; , , ; ) is a term for a broad group of Buddhist traditions, Buddhist texts#Mahāyāna texts, texts, Buddhist philosophy, philosophies, and practices developed in ancient India ( onwards). It is considered one of the three main ex ...
, the second vehicle of the Buddha's teachings, or the great (''maha'') vehicle (''yana''). The third vehicle of the Buddha's teachings is the
Vajrayana
''Vajrayāna'' (; 'vajra vehicle'), also known as Mantrayāna ('mantra vehicle'), Guhyamantrayāna ('secret mantra vehicle'), Tantrayāna ('tantra vehicle'), Tantric Buddhism, and Esoteric Buddhism, is a Mahāyāna Buddhism, Mahāyāna Buddhis ...
, the indestructible (''vajra'') vehicle (''yana'').
Western scholars used the term ''Hīnayāna'' to describe the early teachings of Buddhism, as the ''Mahāyāna'' teachings were generally given later. Modern Buddhist scholarship has deprecated the term as pejorative, and instead uses the term ''
Nikaya Buddhism
The term Nikāya Buddhism was coined by Masatoshi Nagatomi as a non-derogatory substitute for Hinayana, meaning the early Buddhist schools. Examples of these groups are pre-sectarian Buddhism and the early Buddhist schools. Some scholars exclud ...
'' to refer to
early Buddhist schools
The early Buddhist schools refers to the History of Buddhism in India, Indian Buddhist "doctrinal schools" or "schools of thought" (Sanskrit: ''vāda'') which arose out of the early unified Buddhist monasticism, Buddhist monastic community (San ...
. ''Hinayana'' has also been inappropriately used as a synonym for
Theravada
''Theravāda'' (; 'School of the Elders'; ) is Buddhism's oldest existing school. The school's adherents, termed ''Theravādins'' (anglicized from Pali ''theravādī''), have preserved their version of the Buddha's teaching or ''Dharma (Buddhi ...
, which is the main tradition of Buddhism in
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...
and
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...
.
In
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 ...
, "Hīnayāna" (, ) is a term literally meaning the "small/deficient vehicle" or "small path."
Etymology
The word ''hīnayāna'' is formed from the adjective ''hīna'' (
Devanagari
Devanagari ( ; in script: , , ) is an Indic script used in the Indian subcontinent. It is a left-to-right abugida (a type of segmental Writing systems#Segmental systems: alphabets, writing system), based on the ancient ''Brāhmī script, Brā ...
: हीन) meaning "little", "poor", "inferior", "abandoned", "deficient", "defective"; and the noun ''yāna'' (Devanagari: यान): "vehicle", where "vehicle" or "path" refers to "a way of life that leads to enlightenment". The Pali Text Society's ''Pali-English Dictionary'' (1921–25) defines ''hīna'' in even stronger terms, with a semantic field that includes "poor, miserable; vile, base, abject, contemptible", and "despicable".
The term was translated by
Kumārajīva
Kumārajīva (Sanskrit: कुमारजीव; , 344–413 CE) was a bhikkhu, Buddhist monk, scholar, missionary and translator from Kucha (present-day Aksu City, Aksu Prefecture, Xinjiang, China). Kumārajīva is seen as one of the great ...
and others into
Classical Chinese
Classical Chinese is the language in which the classics of Chinese literature were written, from . For millennia thereafter, the written Chinese used in these works was imitated and iterated upon by scholars in a form now called Literary ...
as "small vehicle" (小 meaning "small", 乘 meaning "vehicle"), although earlier and more accurate translations of the term also exist. In Mongolian (''Baga Holgon'') the term for hinayana also means "small" or "lesser" vehicle or better called path, while in Tibetan there are at least two words to designate the term, ''theg chung'' meaning "small vehicle" and ''theg dman'' meaning "inferior vehicle" or "inferior spiritual approach".
Thrangu Rinpoche has emphasized that ''hinayana'' is in no way implying "inferior". In his translation and commentary of
Asanga
Asaṅga (Sanskrit: असंग, , ; Romaji: ''Mujaku'') (fl. 4th century C.E.) was one of the most important spiritual figures of Mahayana Buddhism and the founder of the Yogachara school.Engle, Artemus (translator), Asanga, ''The Bodhisattva P ...
's ''Distinguishing Dharma from Dharmata'', he writes, "all three traditions of hinayana, mahayana, and
vajrayana
''Vajrayāna'' (; 'vajra vehicle'), also known as Mantrayāna ('mantra vehicle'), Guhyamantrayāna ('secret mantra vehicle'), Tantrayāna ('tantra vehicle'), Tantric Buddhism, and Esoteric Buddhism, is a Mahāyāna Buddhism, Mahāyāna Buddhis ...
were practiced in Tibet and that the hinayana which literally means "lesser vehicle" is in no way inferior to the mahayana."
According to the
World Fellowship of Buddhists
The World Fellowship of Buddhists (WFB) is an international Buddhist organization. Initiated by Gunapala Piyasena Malalasekera, it was founded in 1950 in Colombo, Ceylon (present-day Sri Lanka), by representatives from 27 nations. Although Therav ...
, the term Hīnayāna should not be used to refer to any extant form of Buddhism.
Origins
According to
Jan Nattier
Jan Nattier is an American scholar of Mahāyana Buddhism.
Early life and education
She earned her PhD in Inner Asian and Altaic Studies from Harvard University (1988), and subsequently taught at the University of Hawaii (1988-1990), Stanford Unive ...
, it is most likely that the term Hīnayāna postdates the term Mahāyāna and was only added at a later date due to antagonism and conflict between the bodhisattva and śrāvaka ideals. The sequence of terms then began with the term ''Bodhisattvayāna'' "bodhisattva-vehicle", which was given the epithet Mahāyāna "Great Vehicle". It was only later, after attitudes toward the bodhisattva teachings had become more critical, that the term Hīnayāna was created as a back-formation, contrasting with the already established term Mahāyāna. The earliest Mahāyāna texts often use the term Mahāyāna as an epithet and synonym for Bodhisattvayāna, but the term Hīnayāna is comparatively rare in early texts, and is usually not found at all in the earliest translations. Therefore, the often-perceived symmetry between Mahāyāna and Hīnayāna can be deceptive, as the terms were not actually coined in relation to one another in the same era.
According to
Paul Williams, "the deep-rooted misconception concerning an unfailing, ubiquitous fierce criticism of the Lesser Vehicle by the
ahāyānais not supported by our texts." Williams states that while evidence of conflict is present in some cases, there is also substantial evidence demonstrating peaceful coexistence between the two traditions.
Mahāyāna members of the early Buddhist schools
Although the 18–20
early Buddhist schools
The early Buddhist schools refers to the History of Buddhism in India, Indian Buddhist "doctrinal schools" or "schools of thought" (Sanskrit: ''vāda'') which arose out of the early unified Buddhist monasticism, Buddhist monastic community (San ...
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.
Paul Williams has also noted that the Mahāyāna never had nor ever attempted to have a separate
vinaya
The Vinaya (Pali and Sanskrit: विनय) refers to numerous monastic rules and ethical precepts for fully ordained monks and nuns of Buddhist Sanghas (community of like-minded ''sramanas''). These sets of ethical rules and guidelines devel ...
or ordination lineage from the early Buddhist schools, and therefore
bhikṣus and
bhikṣuṇīs adhering to the Mahāyāna formally adheres to the vinaya of an early school. This continues today with the
Dharmaguptaka
The Dharmaguptaka (Sanskrit: धर्मगुप्तक; ; ) are one of the eighteen or twenty early Buddhist schools from the ancient region of Gandhara, now Pakistan. They are said to have originated from another sect, the Mahīśāsakas f ...
ordination lineage in East Asia and the
Mūlasarvāstivāda
The Mūlasarvāstivāda (; ) was one of the early Buddhist schools of India. The origins of the Mūlasarvāstivāda school and their relationship to the Sarvāstivāda remain largely unknown, although various theories exist.
The continuity of t ...
ordination lineage in
Tibetan Buddhism
Tibetan Buddhism is a form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet, Bhutan and Mongolia. It also has a sizable number of adherents in the areas surrounding the Himalayas, including the Indian regions of Ladakh, Gorkhaland Territorial Administration, D ...
. Mahāyāna was never a separate sect of the early schools. 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.
The seventh-century Chinese Buddhist monk and pilgrim
Yijing
The ''I Ching'' or ''Yijing'' ( ), usually translated ''Book of Changes'' or ''Classic of Changes'', is an ancient Chinese divination text that is among the oldest of the Chinese classics. The ''I Ching'' was originally a divination manual in ...
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 the
Mahāsāṃghika
The Mahāsāṃghika (Brahmi script, Brahmi: 𑀫𑀳𑀸𑀲𑀸𑀁𑀖𑀺𑀓, "of the Great Sangha (Buddhism), Sangha", ) was a major division (nikāya) of the early Buddhist schools in India. They were one of the two original communities th ...
Nikāya,
Sthavira nikāya
The Sthavira nikāya (Sanskrit "Sect of the Elders"; ; ) was one of the early Buddhist schools. They split from the majority Mahāsāṃghikas at the time of the Second Buddhist council.
Scholarly views Origin
The Sthavira nikāya was one of the ...
, Mūlasarvāstivāda Nikāya, and
Saṃmitīya Nikāya. 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.
To identify entire schools as "Hīnayāna" that contained not only śrāvakas and
pratyekabuddhas 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 of ''Hīnayāna'' given by Yijing is that the term referred to individuals based on doctrinal differences.
Hīnayāna as Śrāvakayāna
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 term
Śrāvakayāna was "the more politically correct and much more usual" term used by Mahāyānists. 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.
Hīnayāna and Mahāyāna
Views of Chinese pilgrims
The Chinese monk
Yijing
The ''I Ching'' or ''Yijing'' ( ), usually translated ''Book of Changes'' or ''Classic of Changes'', is an ancient Chinese divination text that is among the oldest of the Chinese classics. The ''I Ching'' was originally a divination manual in ...
, who visited India in the 7th century, distinguished Mahāyāna from Hīnayāna as follows:
In the 7th century, the Chinese Buddhist monk
Xuanzang
Xuanzang (; ; 6 April 6025 February 664), born Chen Hui or Chen Yi (), also known by his Sanskrit Dharma name Mokṣadeva, was a 7th-century Chinese Bhikkhu, Buddhist monk, scholar, traveller, and translator. He is known for the epoch-making ...
describes the concurrent existence of the
Mahāvihara and the
Abhayagiri vihāra
Abhayagiri may refer to:
* Abhayagiri vihāra a ruined monastic complex of great historical significance in Sri Lanka
* Abhayagiri Buddhist Monastery, a Theravadin Buddhist monastery in Redwood Valley, California
See also
* Abhaya (disambiguati ...
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". Xuanzang further writes, "The Mahāvihāravāsins reject the Mahāyāna and practice the Hīnayāna, while the Abhayagirivihāravāsins study both Hīnayāna and Mahāyāna teachings and propagate the ''
Tripiṭaka
There are several Buddhist canons, which refers to the various scriptural collections of Buddhist sacred scriptures or the various Buddhist scriptural canons. ''."
Philosophical differences
Mahayanists were primarily in philosophical dialectic with the
Vaibhāṣika
Sarvāstivāda-Vaibhāṣika () or simply Vaibhāṣika () is an ancient Buddhist tradition of Abhidharma (scholastic Buddhist philosophy), which was very influential in north India, especially Kashmir.Westerhoff 2018, pp. 60–61. In various tex ...
school of
Sarvāstivāda
The ''Sarvāstivāda'' (; ;) was one of the early Buddhist schools established around the reign of Ashoka (third century BCE).Westerhoff, The Golden Age of Indian Buddhist Philosophy in the First Millennium CE, 2018, p. 60. It was particularl ...
, which had by far the most "comprehensive edifice of doctrinal systematics" of the nikāya schools. With this in mind it is sometimes argued that the Theravada would not have been considered a "Hinayana" school by Mahayanists because, unlike the now-extinct
Sarvastivada
The ''Sarvāstivāda'' (; ;) was one of the early Buddhist schools established around the reign of Ashoka (third century BCE).Westerhoff, The Golden Age of Indian Buddhist Philosophy in the First Millennium CE, 2018, p. 60. It was particular ...
school, the primary object of Mahayana criticism, the Theravada school does not claim the existence of independent
dharmas; in this it maintains the attitude of
early 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. Some contemporary Theravadin figures have thus indicated a sympathetic stance toward the Mahayana philosophy found in the ''
Heart Sutra
The ''Heart Sūtra'', ) is a popular sutra in Mahayana, Mahāyāna Buddhism. In Sanskrit, the title ' translates as "The Heart of the Prajnaparamita, Perfection of Wisdom".
The Sutra famously states, "Form is emptiness (''śūnyatā''), em ...
'' and the ''
Mūlamadhyamakakārikā
The ''Mūlamadhyamakakārikā'' (), abbreviated as ''MMK'', is the foundational text of the Madhyamaka school of Mahāyāna Buddhist philosophy. It was composed by the Indian philosopher Nāgārjuna (around roughly 150 CE).Siderits and Katsura ...
''.
The Mahayanists were bothered by the substantialist thought of the Sarvāstivādins and
Sautrāntikins, and in emphasizing the doctrine of
śūnyatā
''Śūnyatā'' ( ; ; ), translated most often as "emptiness", " vacuity", and sometimes "voidness", or "nothingness" is an Indian philosophical concept. In Buddhism, Jainism, Hinduism, and other Indian philosophical traditions, the concept ...
,
David Kalupahana holds that they endeavored to preserve the early teaching. 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 the ''
Kathavatthu''.
Opinions of scholars
Some western scholars 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.
These scholars understand the term to refer to schools of Buddhism that did not accept the teachings of 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 ...
as authentic teachings of the Buddha. 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.
Robert Thurman writes, "'Nikaya Buddhism' is a coinage of Professor
Masatoshi Nagatomi of
Harvard University
Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
, 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."
[Robert Thurman and Professor Masatoshi Nagatomi of Harvard University: Robert Thurman, in ''The Emptiness That is Compassion'', footnote 10, 1980.]
Within Mahayana Buddhism, there were a variety of interpretations as to whom or to what the term ''Hinayana'' 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". Rinpoche states:
Notes
Sources
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External links
"Theravada - Mahayana Buddhism"Dr. W. Rahula's article
introduced by Binh Hanson, webmaster of "BuddhaSasana" (www.budsas.org)
{{Authority control
Pejorative terms
Buddhist terminology