Hinayana

"Hīnayāna" is a Sanskrit term that was at one time applied collectively to the Śrāvakayāna and Pratyekabuddhayāna paths of Buddhism. This term appeared around the first or second century. Hīnayāna was often contrasted with Mahāyāna, which means the "great vehicle". Early Western scholars fell into using the term Hīnayāna to describing the early doctrine of Buddhism (with Mahāyāna following later). Modern Buddhist scholarship has deprecated the pejorative term, and instead uses the term Nikaya Buddhism to refer to early Buddhist schools. Hinayana has also been inappropriately used as a synonym for Theravada, which is the main tradition of Buddhism in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia. In Sanskrit, "Hīnayāna" (ˌhiːnəˈjɑːnə, हीनयान) is a term literally meaning the "small/deficient vehicle" or "small path." Adherents of non-Mahayana traditions were said to be obliged to adhere to only the Five precepts. The word hīnayāna is formed of hīna: "little", "poor", "inferior", "abandoned", "deficient", "defective"; and yāna (यान): "vehicle", where "vehicle" or "path" what means "a way of going 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 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 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's Distinguishing Dharma from Dharmata, he writes, "all three traditions of hinayana, mahayana, and vajrayana were practiced in Tibet and that the hinayana which literally means "lesser vehicle" is in no way inferior to the mahayana.