Hinayana | Wikipedia audio article
Channel: wikipedia tts
Date: 2018-12-15

This is an audio version of the Wikipedia Article:
Hinayana


00:02:31 1 Etymology
00:04:13 2 Origins
00:05:40 3 Mahāyāna members of the early Buddhist schools
00:07:49 4 Hīnayāna as Śrāvakayāna
00:08:39 5 Hīnayāna and Theravāda
00:08:49 5.1 Views of Chinese pilgrims
00:09:29 5.2 Philosophical differences
00:11:15 5.3 Opinions of scholars
00:11:51 6 Notes
00:11:59 7 Bibliography
00:13:27 8 External links



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"The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing."
- Socrates



SUMMARY
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"Hīnayāna" () is a Sanskrit term literally meaning the "inferior vehicle". Tibetan teachers translate it "smaller vehicle". The term was applied to the Śrāvakayāna, the Buddhist path followed by a śrāvaka who wished to become an arhat. This pejorative term appeared around the first or second century. Hīnayāna was often contrasted with Mahāyāna, which means the "great vehicle".
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.
In the past, the term was widely used by Western scholars to cover "the earliest system of Buddhist doctrine", as the Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary put it. Modern Buddhist scholarship has deprecated the pejorative term, and uses instead 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."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".
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:
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.