Triyāna

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Key Term	triyāna
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
Term Type	Noun
Source Language	Sanskrit
Basic Meaning	In a Mahāyāna context the three vehicles are the śrāvakayāna, pratyekabuddhayāna, and bodhisattvayāna, which reference the three different types of Buddhist practitioners. However, in Tibetan Buddhism these three vehicles can also reference the three types of Buddhist teachings of the Hinayāna, Mahāyāna, 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 arhant, 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/

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.

Mahāyāna, or the Great Vehicle, refers to the system of Buddhist thought and practice which developed around the beginning of Common Era, focusing on the pursuit of the state of full enlightenment of the Buddha through the realization of the wisdom of emptiness and the cultivation of compassion.

The disciples of the Buddha who aspire to attain individual liberation or nirvāṇa. The final goal of the Hearers is to become an arhat, a state in which one has totally eliminated the inner problems of attachment, hatred and ignorance, the main causes for rebirth in this cycle of existence. There are four stages of a śrāvaka path including eight phases.