| Key Term |
triyāna |
| Hover Popup Choices |
Three Vehicles; three vehicles; theg gsum |
| In Tibetan Script |
ཐེག་པ་གསུམ་ |
| Wylie Tibetan Transliteration |
theg pa gsum |
| Devanagari Sanskrit Script |
त्रियान |
| Chinese Script |
三乗 |
| Chinese Pinyin |
sānchéng |
| Japanese Transliteration |
sanjō |
| Korean Transliteration |
samsŭng |
| English Standard |
three vehicles |
| Richard Barron's English Term |
three spiritual approaches |
| Jeffrey Hopkin's English Term |
three vehicles |
| Gyurme Dorje's English Term |
three vehicles |
| Alternate Spellings |
yānatraya |
| Term Type |
Noun |
| Source Language |
Sanskrit |
| Basic Meaning |
Commonly seen in a Mahāyāna context, the three vehicles are the Śrāvakayāna, Pratyekabuddhayāna, and Bodhisattvayāna, which reference the three different types of Buddhist practitioners. However, these three vehicles can also reference the three types of Buddhist teachings of the Hīnayāna, Mahāyāna (or Pāramitāyāna), and the Vajrayāna. |
| Has the Sense of |
Three ways of arriving at enlightenment or traversing the path. |
| Did you know? |
The ultimate goal of the Śrāvakayāna is the state of an arhat, while the ultimate goal of the Bodhisattvayāna is buddhahood. |
| Related Terms |
Ekayāna |
| Definitions |
| Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism |
See page 926: In Sanskrit, “three vehicles,” three different means taught in Buddhist soteriological literature of conveying sentient beings to liberation. |
| Tshig mdzod Chen mo |
nyan thos kyi theg pa/ rang rgyal gyi theg pa/ byang sems kyi theg pa ste gsum/ |