Hinayana

Hīnayāna (Sanskrit: , हीनयान), literally meaning "Small Vehicle" or "Lesser Vehicle", is an umbrella term used by the Mahāyāna school to refer to the pre-Mahāyāna Buddhist paths to liberation. Specifically, it encompasses the Śrāvakayāna ("Listeners Vehicle") and Pratyekabuddhayāna ("Solitary-Realizers Vehicle") paths. Some Mahāyāna Buddhists consider the Hīnayāna as preliminary, individual-focused (hīna) pathways or "vehicles" (yāna) towards liberation offered by the Buddha's teachings, in contrast to the "greater" (mahā) vehicle (yāna) or second path, esteemed more highly as devoted to helping all beings seek enlightenment (bodhicitta), and not just oneself. Some early Western scholars adopted the term Hīnayāna to describe the early teachings of Buddhism, as the Mahāyāna teachings were generally given later. Modern Buddhist scholarship has deprecated the term Hinayana as derogatory and polemical, and instead uses the term Nikāya referring to the early Buddhist schools. Hīnayāna has also been inappropriately used as a synonym for the Theravāda Buddhist school, which is the main tradition of Buddhism in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia.