Hīnayāna

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Key Term	Hīnayāna
Hover Popup Choices	Hīnayāna; Lesser Vehicle
In Tibetan Script	ཐེག་དམན།
Wylie Tibetan Transliteration	theg dman
Devanagari Sanskrit Script	हीनयान
Romanized Sanskrit	hīnayāna
Tibetan Phonetic Rendering	thekmen
Chinese Script	小乘
Chinese Pinyin	xiǎo chéng
English Standard	Lesser Vehicle
Jeffrey Hopkin's English Term	Lesser Vehicle
Ives Waldo's English Term	lesser/individual vehicle
Alternate Spellings	theg pa dman pa
Term Type	Noun
Source Language	Sanskrit
Basic Meaning	The mainstream teachings and the early schools of Buddhism which primarily taught individual liberation through practice-focused renunciation and monasticism, considered lesser than the later movement of the Greater Vehicle (Mahāyāna), which professed enlightenment for all sentient beings and promoted compassion.
Has the Sense of	The term was used mainly by the proponents of the Greater Vehicle, who considered the goals, understanding, practices, methods, and results of this school as being lesser in scope.
Related Terms	nikāya;śravakayāna
Definitions
Wikipedia	wikipedia:Hinayana

The mainstream teachings and the early schools of Buddhism which primarily taught individual liberation through practice-focused renunciation and monasticism, considered lesser than the later movement of the Greater Vehicle (Mahāyāna), which professed enlightenment for all sentient beings and promoted compassion.

The mainstream teachings and the early schools of Buddhism which primarily taught individual liberation through practice-focused renunciation and monasticism, considered lesser than the later movement of the Greater Vehicle (Mahāyāna), which professed enlightenment for all sentient beings and promoted compassion.

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.