Basic vehicle: Difference between revisions

From Rigpa Wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
No edit summary
Line 6: Line 6:
Even though the [[Theravada]] school is the only Basic Vehicle school extant today, by the time the [[Buddha]]'s discourses were written down in Pali in Sri Lanka, there were a total of 18 or 20 different ancient buddhist schools.<ref>[[Thich Nhat Hanh]], ''The Heart of Buddha's Teachings'' (Harmony, 1999), page 16.</ref>
Even though the [[Theravada]] school is the only Basic Vehicle school extant today, by the time the [[Buddha]]'s discourses were written down in Pali in Sri Lanka, there were a total of 18 or 20 different ancient buddhist schools.<ref>[[Thich Nhat Hanh]], ''The Heart of Buddha's Teachings'' (Harmony, 1999), page 16.</ref>


With the first division into schools appeared the:
Following the first division into schools, the two following schools appeared:
*Sthaviravadin (Skt. ''Sthāviravādin''; Tib. [[གནས་བརྟན་པ་]])
*Sthaviravadin (Skt. ''Sthāviravādin''; Tib. [[གནས་བརྟན་པ་]])
*Mahasanghika (Skt. ''Mahāsāṇghika''; Tib. [[ཕལ་ཆེན་པ་]])
*Mahasanghika (Skt. ''Mahāsāṇghika''; Tib. [[ཕལ་ཆེན་པ་]])

Revision as of 22:18, 22 February 2021

Basic Vehicle (Skt. Hīnayāna; Tib. ཐེག་དམན་, tek men, Wyl. theg dman) — literally the 'Lesser Vehicle', but perhaps more accurately understood as 'Vehicle of Lesser Result'. What principally distinguishes followers of the Basic Vehicle from those of the Great Vehicle (Skt. Mahayana) is their motivation. They aspire for the personal liberation of nirvana, and lack the courage to pursue the greater fruition of the Mahayana—this being the enlightenment of all sentient beings.

It comprises both the Shravakayana or vehicle of shravakas and the Pratyekabuddhayana or vehicle of pratyekabuddhas.

Subdivisions

Even though the Theravada school is the only Basic Vehicle school extant today, by the time the Buddha's discourses were written down in Pali in Sri Lanka, there were a total of 18 or 20 different ancient buddhist schools.[1]

Following the first division into schools, the two following schools appeared:

Alternative Translations

  • Fundamental Vehicle
  • Individual Vehicle

References

  1. Thich Nhat Hanh, The Heart of Buddha's Teachings (Harmony, 1999), page 16.

Further Reading

  • Chögyam Trungpa, The Profound Treasury of the Ocean of Dharma, Volume One: The Path of Individual Liberation (Shambhala, 2014)