{{Short description|Term for preliminary Buddhism before Mahayāna}} {{for|the American death metal band|Hinayana (band)}} {{Early Buddhism}} {{Buddhism}}
'''''Hīnayāna''''' (Sanskrit: {{IPAc-en|ˌ|h|iː|n|ə|ˈ|j|ɑː|n|ə}}, {{lang|sa|हीनयान}}),<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.sanskritdictionary.com/h%C4%ABnay%C4%81na/281660/1|title=Sanskrit Dictionary}}</ref> literally meaning "Small Vehicle" or "Lesser Vehicle",<ref name="Tola-Dragonetti 1996">{{cite journal |author1-last=Tola |author1-first=Fernando |author2-last=Dragonetti |author2-first=Carmen |year=1996 |title=The Conflict of Change in Buddhism: The Hīnayānist Reaction |editor-last=Durt |editor-first=Hubert |journal=Cahiers d'Extrême-Asie |volume=9 |issue=1: ''Mémorial Anna Seidel. Religions traditionnelles d'Asie orientale: Tome II'' |location=Paris |publisher=Éditions de l'École française d'Extrème-Orient |pages=233–254 |doi=10.3406/asie |issn=2117-6272 |jstor=45276191}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Tola-Dragonetti 1996"/> 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.<ref name="Tola-Dragonetti 1996"/>
Some early Western scholars adopted the term ''Hīnayāna'' to describe the early teachings of Buddhism, as the ''Mahāyāna'' teachings were generally given later.<ref>Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary (Oxford, 1899), "Proper Noun: simpler or lesser vehicle. Name of the earliest system of Buddhist doctrine (opposite to the later Mahayana; see Yana)."</ref> Modern Buddhist scholarship has deprecated the term ''Hinayana'' as derogatory and polemical,<ref name="Tola-Dragonetti 1996"/> 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.<ref name="Tola-Dragonetti 1996"/>
==Etymology== The word ''hīnayāna'' is formed from the adjective ''hīna'' (Devanagari: हीन)<ref>{{cite web | title= Sanskrit Dictionary for Spoken Sanskrit | url= http://www.spokensanskrit.de/index.php?script=DI&beginning=0+&tinput=hina+&trans=Translate&direction=AU | access-date=2010-06-29}}</ref> meaning "little", "poor", "inferior", "abandoned", "deficient", "defective"; and the noun ''yāna'' (Devanagari: यान):<ref>{{cite web | title= Sanskrit Dictionary for Spoken Sanskrit | url= http://www.spokensanskrit.de/index.php?script=DI&tinput=yaana&country_ID=&trans=Translate&direction=AU | access-date=2009-04-15}}</ref> "vehicle", where "vehicle" or "path" refers to "a way of life that leads to enlightenment". The Pali Text Society's ''Pāli-English Dictionary'' (1921–1925) defines ''hīna'' in even stronger terms, with a semantic field that includes "poor, miserable; vile, base, abject, contemptible", and "despicable".
The term ''Hīnayāna'' was translated by Kumārajīva and others into Classical Chinese 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 ''Hīnayāna'' also means "small" or "lesser" vehicle or better called path,<ref>"It is also certain that Buddhist groups and individuals in China (including Tibet), Korea, Vietnam, and Japan) have in the past, as in the very recent present, identified themselves as Mahāyāna Buddhists, even if the polemical or value claim embedded in that term was only dimly felt, if at all.", ''Macmillan Encyclopedia of Buddhism'', 2004, page 492.</ref> while in Classical Tibetan there are at least two words to designate the term: ''theg chung'', meaning "small vehicle",<ref>{{cite web |url= http://rywiki.tsadra.org/index.php/theg_chung |title=Rangjung Yeshe Wiki - Dharma Dictionary:theg chung |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |website=Rangjung Yeshe Wiki |publisher=Tsadra Foundation }}</ref> and ''theg dman'', meaning "inferior vehicle" or "inferior spiritual approach".<ref>{{cite web |url= http://rywiki.tsadra.org/index.php/theg_dman |title=Rangjung Yeshe Wiki - Dharma Dictionary:theg dman |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |website=Rangjung Yeshe Wiki |publisher=Tsadra Foundation }}</ref>
According to Tibetan Buddhist monk and Kagyu master Thrangu Rinpoche, the term ''Hīnayāna'' is in no way implying that the ''Śrāvakayāna'' ("Listeners Vehicle") and ''Pratyekabuddhayāna'' ("Solitary-realizers Vehicle") are somehow "inferior" Buddhist paths to liberation in comparison to the later two vehicles (i.e., Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna). In his translation and commentary of Asaṅga's ''Distinguishing 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".{{sfn|Rinpoche|2004|p=113}}
==Origins== {{Main|History of Buddhism in India|Pre-sectarian Buddhism}} {{Further|Early Buddhist schools|Schools of Buddhism|Southern Buddhism}}
According to Jan Nattier, 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 proponents of the Bodhisattva and Arhat ideals within the Saṃgha. 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 ideal had become more critical, that the term ''Hīnayāna'' ("Small Vehicle" or "Lesser Vehicle") was created as a back-formation,<ref name="Tola-Dragonetti 1996"/> contrasting with the already established term ''Mahāyāna''.{{sfn|Nattier|2003|p=174 (footnote 6)}}
The earliest Mahāyāna texts often use the term ''Mahāyāna'' as an epithet and synonym for ''Bodhisattvayāna'' but the term ''Hīnayāna'' is comparatively rare, and the latter 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.{{sfn|Nattier|2003|p=172}}
According to Paul Williams, "the deep-rooted misconception concerning an unfailing, ubiquitous fierce criticism of the Lesser Vehicle by the [Mahāyāna] is not supported by our texts".{{sfn|Williams|Williams|2004|p=43}} Williams states that while evidence of conflict is present in some cases, there is also substantial evidence demonstrating peaceful coexistence between the two traditions.{{sfn|Williams|Williams|2004|p=43}}
==Mahāyāna members of the early Buddhist schools==
Although the 18–20 early 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.{{sfn|Nattier|2003|pp=193-194}} Paul Williams has also noted that the Mahāyāna never had nor ever attempted to have a separate vinaya 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 ordination lineage in East Asia and the Mūlasarvāstivāda ordination lineage in Tibetan Buddhism. Mahāyāna was never a separate sect of the early schools.{{sfn|Williams|2009|pp=4-5}} 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.{{sfn|Williams|2000|p=97}}
The seventh-century Chinese Buddhist monk and pilgrim Yijing 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 Nikāya, Sthavira nikāya, Mūlasarvāstivāda Nikāya, and Saṃmitīya Nikāya.<ref>Walser, Joseph (2005) ''Nagarjuna in Context: Mahayana Buddhism and Early Indian Culture'': pp. 41</ref> 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.<ref>Walser, Joseph (2005) ''Nagarjuna in Context: Mahayana Buddhism and Early Indian Culture'': pp. 41-42</ref>
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.{{sfn|Williams|2009|p=5}}
==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.<ref>Isabelle Onians, "Tantric Buddhist Apologetics, or Antinomianism as a Norm," D.Phil. dissertation, Oxford, Trinity Term 2001 pg 72</ref> 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.<ref>Jonathan A Silk. What, if anything, is Mahayana Buddhism? Numen 49:4 (2002):335-405. Article reprinted in Williams, ''Buddhism, Vol III'', Routledge, 2005</ref>
==Hīnayāna and Mahāyāna==
===Views of Chinese pilgrims=== The Chinese monk Yijing, who visited India in the 7th century, distinguished Mahāyāna from Hīnayāna as follows:
{{Blockquote|Both adopt one and the same Vinaya, and they have in common the prohibitions of the five offenses, and also the practice of the Four Noble Truths. Those who venerate (regard with great respect) the bodhisattvas and read the Mahāyāna sūtras are called the Mahāyānists, while those who do not perform these are called the Hīnayānists.{{sfn|Williams|2009|p=5}}}}
In the 7th century, the Chinese Buddhist monk Xuanzang describes the concurrent existence of the Mahāvihara and the Abhayagiri 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".<ref>Baruah, Bibhuti. ''Buddhist Sects and Sectarianism.'' 2008. p. 53</ref> 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''."{{sfn|Hirakawa|Groner|2007|p=121}}
===Philosophical differences=== Mahayanists were primarily in philosophical dialectic with the Vaibhāṣika school of Sarvāstivāda, which had by far the most "comprehensive edifice of doctrinal systematics" of the nikāya schools.<ref>""one does not find anywhere else a body of doctrine as organized or as complete as theirs". . . "Indeed, no other competing schools have ever come close to building up such a comprehensive edifice of doctrinal systematics as the Vaibhāśika." ''The Sautrantika theory of seeds (bija) revisited: With special reference to the ideological continuity between Vasubandhu's theory of seeds and its Srilata/Darstantika precedents'' by Park, Changhwan, PhD, University of California, Berkeley, 2007 pg 2</ref> With this in mind it is sometimes argued{{By whom?|date=July 2025}} that the Theravada would not have been considered a "Hinayana" school by Mahayanists because, unlike the now-extinct Sarvastivada 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—or Sarvastivada—textual or cultural contexts. 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.{{sfn|Hoffman|Mahinda|1996|p=192}}{{sfn|King|1999|p=86}}{{sfn|Thera|Bodhi|1998|p=42}} Some contemporary Theravadin figures{{Who?|date=July 2025}} have thus indicated a sympathetic stance toward the Mahayana philosophy found in the ''Heart Sutra'' and the ''Mūlamadhyamakakārikā''.{{sfn|Lopez|2005|p=24}}<ref>{{cite web|last=Fronsdal|first=Gil|author-link=Gil Fronsdal|title=Emptiness in Theravada Buddhism|url=https://www.insightmeditationcenter.org/books-articles/articles/emptiness-in-theravada-buddhism/|publisher=Insight Meditation Center|access-date=August 21, 2019}}</ref>
The Mahayanists were bothered by the substantialist thought of the Sarvāstivādins and Sautrāntikins, and in emphasizing the doctrine of śūnyatā, David Kalupahana holds that they endeavored to preserve the early teaching.{{sfn|Kalupahana|2015|p=6}} 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''.{{sfn|Kalupahana|2015|p=24}}
===Opinions of scholars=== Some western scholars{{Who?|date=July 2025}} 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.<ref name="google">{{cite book|title=Buddhism in Its Connexion with Brāhmanism and Hindūism: And in Its Contrast with Christianity|author=Monier-Williams, M.|date=1889|publisher=John Murray|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uiUVAAAAYAAJ|access-date=2015-06-13}}</ref>{{sfn|Gombrich|2006|p=83}}{{sfn|Collins|1990|p=21}}{{sfn|LeVine|Gellner|2007|p=14}}{{sfn|Swearer|2006|p=83}} These scholars understand the term to refer to schools of Buddhism that did not accept the teachings of the Mahāyāna sūtras as authentic teachings of the Buddha.{{sfn|Gombrich|2006|p=83}}{{sfn|LeVine|Gellner|2007|p=14}} 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.<ref>MacMillan Reference Library of Buddhism, 2004, page 328</ref>
Robert Thurman writes, "'Nikaya Buddhism' is a coinage of Professor Masatoshi Nagatomi of Harvard 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."<ref>Robert Thurman and Professor Masatoshi Nagatomi of Harvard University: Robert Thurman, in ''The Emptiness That is Compassion'', footnote 10, 1980.</ref> Thurman explains his own use of the term when he writes:{{Blockquote|Lest any reader be offended by any presumed derogatory tone implied in the term, let me make clear that I mean "individual" (not "inferior") by "Hīna-," and "universal" (not "superior") by "Mahā-" of Mahāyāna. The former aims at ''individual'' liberation, not stressing the cultivation of love and compassion (''maitrīkaruṇā''). The latter aims at ''universal'' liberation, heavily stressing those virtues, but also including the necessity for individual liberation at the same time.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Buddhist Hermeneutics|author=Thurman, Robert A. F.|date=1978|publisher=Oxford University Press|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/1462752|journal=Journal of the American Academy of Religion|volume=46|issue=1|pages=37|access-date=2026-01-16}}</ref>}}
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".{{sfn|Rinpoche|1995|p=15}} Rinpoche states:{{Blockquote|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.{{sfn|Rinpoche|1995|p=16}} }}
==Notes== {{Reflist}}
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==External links== * [http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma3/theramaya.html "Theravada - Mahayana Buddhism"] Dr. W. Rahula's article * [http://www.budsas.org/ebud/ebdha091.htm Mahayana - Hinayana - Theravada] introduced by Binh Hanson, webmaster of "BuddhaSasana" (www.budsas.org)
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Category:Buddhist terminology Category:Pejorative terms Category:Schools of Buddhism