Sanskrit diacritics:
Ś ś Ā ā ṇ ṅ Ī ī ṁ ṃ ñ ṛ Ṣ ṣ Ū ū Ḍ ḍ Ṭ ṭ ḥ
ō ö Ö ü Śākyamuni
nirvāṇa
saṃsāra
śrāvaka
Mañjuśrī
Prāsaṅgika
maṇḍala
Śāntideva
Bodhicaryāvatāra
Prajñāpāramitā
Mahāyāna
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.
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.