Hinayana

Hīnayāna is a Sanskrit term literally meaning: the "Smaller Vehicle", applied to the Śrāvakayāna, the Buddhist path followed by a śrāvaka who wishes to become an arhat. The term appeared around the first or second century. Hīnayāna is often contrasted with Mahāyāna, which means the "Great Vehicle."

There are a variety of interpretations as to who or what the term Hīnayāna refers. Kalu Rinpoche stated the "lesser" or "greater" designation "does not refer to economic or social status, but concerns the spiritual capacities of the practitioner".

Renunciation and perseverance allow us to attain our goal."

The Chinese monk Yijing, who visited India in the 7th century, distinguished Mahāyāna from Hīnayāna as follows:

The term was widely used in the past by Western scholars to cover "the earliest system of Buddhist doctrine", as the Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary put it. It has been used as a synonym for the Theravada tradition, which continues as the main form of Buddhism in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia, but some scholars deny that the term included Theravada Buddhism. In 1950 the World Fellowship of Buddhists declared that the term Hīnayana should not be used when referring to any form of Buddhism existing today.