Hīnayāna Buddhism

Hīnayāna Buddhism (theg dman)

• When the Buddhist teachings are classified according to their power, they are described as a vehicle (Skt. yāna) or a series of hierarchical vehicles, arranged in the manner of the rungs of a ladder. A basic distinction is made between the teachings of the Lesser Vehicle (Hīnayāna) and those of the Greater Vehicle (Mahāyāna). The adherents of the Lesser Vehicle mainain the monastic vows and ethics of the Vinaya, the didactic teachings of the sūtras representing the first turning of the wheel of the sacred doctrine, and the phenomenological analysis of the Abhidharma. Through the meditative practices of calm abiding and higher insight, they eventually attain the resultant status of an arhat, who has gone beyond rebirth within cyclic existence. Those who follow this tradition include both the pious attendants (Skt. śrāvaka) and the hermit buddhas (Skt. pratyekabuddha) who are similar in the sense that they are both naturally inclined to seek merely their own individual liberation from cyclic existence, unlike the bodhisattvas who are primarily motivated by concern for the welfare of others. There are, however, two important distinctions between pious attendants and hermit buddhas. Firstly, the pious attendant accumulates only a limited amount of merit (puṇyasambhāra) and places greater emphasis on destroying the mistaken belief in personal identity (pudgala) by overcoming the dissonant mental states, whereas the hermit buddha, additionally accumulates merit over a hundred aeons, obtains a similitude of the buddhas' major and minor marks (lakṣaṇavyañjana), and realises the emptiness (śūnyatā) of all external phenomena by means of reversing the twelve links of dependent origination (dvādaśāṅgapratītyasamutpāda). Secondly, the pious attendant depends heavily on verbal instruction both for the attainment of nirvāṇa and also when giving guidance to others on the path, whereas the hermit buddha does not depend on verbal communication. For a discussion on these traditions, from the rNying-ma point of view, see bDud-'joms Rin-po-che, NSTB, pp. 156-159, 223-231. GD (from the Glossary to Tibetan Elemental Divination Paintings)