School
Hinayana
Overview
Hīnayāna (Sanskrit: , हीनयान), literally meaning "Small Vehicle" or "Lesser Vehicle", is an umbrella term for the early Buddhist schools, at one time used by the Mahāyāna school to refer to the pre-Mahāyāna Buddhist paths to liberation. Specifically, it encompasses the Śrāvakayāna ("Listeners Vehicle") and Pratyekabuddhayāna ("Solitary-Realizers Vehicle") paths. Some Mahāyāna Buddhists consider the Hīnayāna as preliminary, individual-focused (hīna) pathways or "vehicles" (yāna) towards liberation offered by the Buddha's teachings, in contrast to the "greater" (mahā) vehicle (yāna) or second path, esteemed more highly as devoted to helping all beings seek enlightenment (bodhicitta), and not just oneself.
Some early Western scholars adopted 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 Hinayana as derogatory and polemical, and instead uses the term Nikāya referring to the early Buddhist schools. Hīnayāna has also been inappropriately used as a synonym for the Theravāda Buddhist school, which is the main tradition of Buddhism in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.
Above these in a direction towards the East dwell other Scythians, who have revolted from the Royal Scythians and so have come to this region.
Herodotus, The History of Herodotus — Volume 1
States what Hinayana is.
Then change and motion begin and all this evolution goes on. This state of things is going on cyclically, periodically; that is to say, there is a period of disturbance of the balance, when all these forces begin to combine and recombine, and this universe is projected; and…
Swami Vivekananda, Jnâna Yoga, Part II
States what Hinayana is.
This conception is signified by the spoken word; and it is called the word of the heart signified by the word of the voice. As God is above all things, we should understand what is said of God, not according to the mode of the lowest creatures, namely bodies, but from the similitude of the highest creatures, the intellectual substances;…
Aquinas Thomas, Summa Theologica, Part I
States what Hinayana is.
Philosophers who discussed Hinayana
Related ideas
- Vaibhāṣika
- Japan
- Korea
- Sarvastivada
- David Kalupahana
- Harvard University
- Kagyu
- Kumārajīva
- Śūnyatā
- Vietnam
- Xuanzang
- Paris
- Sri Lanka
- Sanskrit
- Buddhist canons
- Mahayana
- Southeast Asia
- Sangha
- Mahayana sutras
- Tibetan Buddhism
- Theravada
- Tibet
- Buddhism
- The Buddha
Place in the tradition
Part of Chinese philosophy.