Hinayana

Hīnayāna is a Sanskrit term literally meaning the "smaller vehicle", applied to the Śrāvakayāna, the Buddhist path followed by a śrāvaka who wishes to become an arhat. The term appeared around the first or second century. Hīnayāna is often contrasted with Mahāyāna, which means the "great vehicle".

The term was widely used in the past by Western scholars to cover "the earliest system of Buddhist doctrine", as the Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary put it. However, Buddhist scholarship uses the term Nikaya Buddhism to refer to early Buddhist schools. Hinayana has also been used as a synonym for Theravada, which is the main tradition of Buddhism in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia; this is considered inaccurate and derogatory. 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." In 1950 the World Fellowship of Buddhists declared that the term Hīnayana should not be used when referring to any form of Buddhism existing today.

Within Mahayana Buddhism, there are a variety of interpretations as to who or what the term Hinayana refers. Kalu Rinpoche stated the "lesser" or "greater" designation "does not refer to economic or social status, but concerns the spiritual capacities of the practitioner".

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.

The Chinese monk Yijing, who visited India in the 7th century, distinguished Mahāyāna from Hīnayāna as follows:

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