nyan thos

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ཉན་ཐོས
shravaka/ hearer of the teachings [RB]

proclaimer [RY]

Listener [thd]

Shravaka, "listener," a Hinayana follower of the Buddha 372, 549 [RY]

shravaka, hearer, pious attendants. disciples, hearer of the teachings listener, disciple [of the Buddha]; hearer of the teachings. Expl.: sgra don ni/ gzhan brten thos sgrog nyan thos/ /zhes pa ste/ de'ang legs sbyar skad du/ shra ba ka zhes pa nyan pa dang thos pa gnyis ka la 'jug pas nyan thos zhes bya ba yin te/ bu ddha sangs pa dang rgyas pa gnyis ka la 'jug pas sangs rgyas zhes brjod pa ltar ro/ /rnam pa gcig tu na/ gzhan brten thos sgrog ces pas/ slob dpon gzhan la brten zhing de las thos pa dang yul gzhan la sgrog pas thos sgrog gam nyan thos zhes bya'o [RY]

shravaka. 'Hearer' or 'listener.' Hinayana practitioner of the First Turning of the Wheel of the Dharma on the four noble truths who realizes the suffering inherent in samsara, and focuses on understanding that there is no independent self. By conquering disturbing emotions, he liberates himself, attaining first the stage of Stream Enterer at the Path of Seeing, followed by the stage of Once-Returner who will be reborn only one more time, and the stage of Non-returner who will no longer be reborn into samsara. The final goal is to become an Arhat. These four stages are also known as the 'four results of spiritual practice.' [RY]

shravaka [IW]

sravaka, hinayana disciple, listener, hearer, those who are content with listening and preaching, proclaimer, Shravakas [JV]

Skt. śrāvaka. Śrāvaka (Sanskrit) or Sāvaka (Pali) means "hearer" or, more generally, "disciple". This term is used in Buddhism and Jainism. In Mahayana Buddhism, śrāvakas or arhats are sometimes contrasted negatively with bodhisattvas. In the 4th century abhidharma work Abhidharmasamuccaya, Asaṅga describes those who follow the Śrāvaka-yāna (nyan thos kyi theg pa). These people are described as having weak faculties, following the Śrāvaka Dharma, utilizing the Śrāvaka Piṭaka, being set on their own liberation, and cultivating detachment in order to attain liberation. Those in the Pratyekabuddha-yāna (rang sangs rgyas kyi theg pa) are portrayed as also utilizing the Śrāvaka Piṭaka, are said to have medium faculties, to follow the Pratyekabuddha Dharma, and to be set on their own personal enlightenment. Finally, those in the Mahāyāna or 'Great Vehicle' are portrayed as utilizing the Bodhisattva Piṭaka, as having sharp faculties, following the Bodhisattva Dharma, and set on the perfection and liberation of all beings, and the attainment of complete enlightenment. According to Vasubandhu's Yogacara teachings, there are four types of śrāvakas: 1) the fixed, 2) the arrogant, 3) the transformed, and 4) the converted (to Buddhism). The transformed and the converted (Buddhist) are assured of eventual Nirvana in the Lotus Sutra. According to Je Tsongkhapa, founder of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism: "The Sutra on the Ten Levels (Daśabhūmika Sūtra) says that those who have cultivated these ten [virtuous practices, i.e. not killing, not stealing, not lying etc.] through fear of cyclic existence and without [great] compassion, but following the words of others, will achieve the fruit of a Śrāvaka." Generally speaking, the Sanskrit word ‘shravaka’ has both the meaning of listening and of hearing, so [the Tibetan translation nyenthö literally means] ‘listener-hearer.’ Alternatively, the term can be understood to mean ‘listening and proclaiming,’ in the sense that the shravakas rely on masters and then proclaim to others all the words their teachers have spoken. The shravakas are motivated by a feeling of renunciation, the wish to escape from all the realms of samsara by themselves alone. With this motivation, they receive one of the seven sets of pratimoksha vows, those of a male or female lay practitioner, novice monk or nun, probationary nun, or fully ordained monk or nun, and having received these vows, they practise moral restraint, keeping their vows unimpaired, repairing any impairments that do occur, and so on. As the basis of their path, they determine their view by focusing upon all phenomena included within the five aggregates and realizing that they are devoid of any personal self. They do not understand that all material and conscious phenomena are devoid of true reality, and, asserting a truly real partless particle in perceived objects and an indivisible moment of consciousness, they fail to realize the absence of phenomenal identity. In terms of the path, they practise both shamatha and vipashyana meditation. They realize the state of shamatha by abandoning obstacles and cultivating factors conducive to samadhi, according to the nine stages of resting the mind and so on, and generate the wisdom of vipashyana by meditating on the sixteen aspects of the four noble truths. They keep to the twelve ascetic practices that avoid the two extreme forms of lifestyle, over-indulgence in sense pleasures and excessive self-punishment. They attain any one of eight levels of fruition, corresponding to the degree to which they have abandoned the kleshas of the three realms. There are eight levels because the four results of stream-enterer, once-returner, non-returner and arhat are each divided into the two stages known as the emerging and the established. Isabelle Onians asserts that although "the Mahāyāna ... very occasionally referred contemptuously 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. "Hīnayāna" (the "lesser vehicle"), however, was used to include both Śrāvakayāna and Pratyekabuddhayāna in contrast to the Mahāyāna. [Erick Tsiknopoulos]