Hinayana
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Hīnayāna (हीनयान) is a Sanskrit and Pāli term literally meaning: the "Deficient Vehicle", the "Abandoned Vehicle", or the "Defective Vehicle". The term appeared around the 1st or 2nd century CE.
Hīnayāna is contrasted with Mahāyāna, which means the "Great Vehicle." There are a variety of interpretations as to who or what the term "Hīnayāna" refers to. The Chinese monk Yijing who visited India in the 7th century CE, distinguishes Mahāyāna from Hīnayāna as follows:[1]
| “ | Both adopt one and the same Vinaya, and they have in common the prohibitions of the five offenses, and also the practice of the Four Noble Truths. Those who venerate the bodhisattvas and read the Mahāyāna sūtras are called the Mahāyānists, while those who do not perform these are called the Hīnayānists. | ” |
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Etymology
The word Hīnayāna is formed of hīna (हीन)[2]: "poor", "abandoned", "deficient", "defective;" and yāna (यान)[3]: "vehicle", where "vehicle" means "a way of going to enlightenment". The Pali Text Society's Pali-English Dictionary (1921-25) defines hīna in even stronger terms, with a semantic field that includes "poor, miserable; vile, base, abject, contemptible," and "despicable."
In the Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese and Japanese languages, the term was translated by Kumārajīva and others as "small vehicle" (小 meaning "small", 乘 meaning "vehicle"), although earlier and more accurate translations of the term also exist. The Tibetan (theg chung) and Mongolian (Baga Holgon) terms for Hinayana also mean "small" or "lesser" vehicle.[4].
Formation from early conflicts
According to Jan Nattier, it is most likely that the term Hīnayāna post-dates the term Mahāyāna, and was only added at a later date due to antagonism and conflict between bodhisattvas and śrāvakas. The sequence of terms then began with Bodhisattvayāna, which was given the epithet Mahāyāna ("Great Vehicle"). It was only later, after attitudes toward the bodhisattvas and their teachings had became more critical, that the term Hīnayāna was created as a back-formation, contrasting with the already-established term Mahāyāna.[5] The earliest Mahāyāna texts often use the term Mahāyāna as an epithet and synonym for Bodhisattvayāna, but the term Hīnayāna is comparatively rare in early texts, and is usually not found at all in the earliest translations. Therefore, the often-perceived symmetry between Mahāyāna and Hīnayāna can be deceptive, as the terms were not actually coined in relation to one another in the same era.[6]
Mahāyāna members of the early Buddhist schools
Although the 18-20 early schools of Buddhism are sometimes loosely classified as Hīnayāna in modern times, this is not necessarily accurate. There is no evidence that Mahāyāna ever referred to a separate formal school or sect of Buddhism, but rather that it existed as a certain set of ideals, and later doctrines, for bodhisattvas.[7] Paul Williams has also noted that the Mahāyāna never had nor ever attempted to have a separate Vinaya or ordination lineage from the early schools of Buddhism, and therefore each bhikṣu or bhikṣuṇī adhering to the Mahāyāna formally belonged to an early school. This continues today with the Dharmaguptaka ordination lineage in East Asia, and the Mūlasarvāstivāda ordination lineage in Tibetan Buddhism. Therefore Mahāyāna was never a separate rival sect of the early schools.[8] From Chinese monks visiting India, we now know that both Mahāyāna and non-Mahāyāna monks in India often lived in the same monasteries side by side.[9]
To identify entire schools as "Hīnayāna" that contained not only śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas, but also Mahāyāna bodhisattvas as well, would be attacking the schools of their fellow Mahāyānists as well as their own. Instead, what is demonstrated in the definition of Hīnayāna given by Yijing, is that the term referred to individuals based on doctrinal differences with the Mahāyāna tradition.[10]
Hīnayāna as Śrāvakayāna
Scholar Isabelle Onians asserts that although "the Mahāyāna ... very occasionally referred contemptuously to earlier Buddhism as the Hinayāna, the Inferior Way," "the preponderance of this name in the secondary literature is far out of proportion to occurrences in the Indian texts." She notes that the term Śrāvakayāna was "the more politically correct and much more usual" term used by Mahāyānists.[11] Jonathan Silk has argued that the term "Hinayana" was used to refer to whomever one wanted to criticize on any given occasion, and did not refer to any definite grouping of Buddhists.[12]
Hīnayāna and Theravāda
Philosophical differences
Mahayanists were primarily in philosophical dialectic with the Vaibhāśika-Sarvāstivāda, which had by far the most "comprehensive edifice of doctrinal systematics" of the nikaya schools.[13] With this in mind it is sometimes argued that the Theravada would not have been considered a "Hinayana" school by Mahayanists because unlike the now-extinct Sarvastivada school, the primary object of Mahayana criticism, the Theravada school does not claim the existence of independent dharmas; in this it maintains the attitude of early Buddhism.[14][15][16] Some contemporary Theravadin figures have thus indicated a sympathetic stance toward the Mahayana philosophy found in the Heart Sutra and the Fundamental Stanzas on the Middle Way.[17][18]
The Mahayanists were bothered by the substantialist thought of the Sarvastivadins and Sautrantikas, and in emphasizing the doctrine of emptiness, Kalupahana holds that they endeavored to preserve the early teaching.[19] The Theravadins too refuted the Sarvastivadins and Sautrantikas (and other schools) on the grounds that their theories were in conflict with the non-substantialism of the canon. The Theravada arguments are preserved in the Kathavatthu.[20]
Opinions of Scholars
Most western scholars regard the Theravada school to be one of the Hinayana schools referred to in Mahayana literature, or regard Hinayana as a synonym for Theravada.[21][22][23][24][25] These scholars understand the term to refer to schools of Buddhism that did not accept the teachings of the Mahayana Sutras as authentic teachings of the Buddha[22][24]. At the same time, scholars have objected to the prejorative connotation of the term Hinayana and some scholars do not use it for any school.[26]
Opinions of Theravadin Buddhists
Some Theravada Buddhists have opposed the identification of Theravada with Hinayana. As Walpola Rahula noted in his Gems of Buddhist Wisdom:
We must not confuse Hīnayāna with Theravāda because the terms are not synonymous. Theravāda Buddhism went to Sri Lanka during the 3rd Century B.C. when there was no Mahāyāna at all. Hīnayāna sects developed in India and had an existence independent from the form of Buddhism existing in Sri Lanka. Today there is no Hīnayāna sect in existence anywhere in the world. Therefore, in 1950 the World Fellowship of Buddhists inaugurated in Colombo unanimously decided that the term Hīnayana should be dropped when referring to Buddhism existing today in Sri Lanka, Thailand, Burma, Cambodia, Laos, etc. This is the brief history of Theravāda, Mahayāna and Hīnayāna.
The Theravada school remained a presence on the Indian mainland long after its establishment in Sri Lanka, however. In addition, since the time of Rahula's writing considerable evidence has emerged indicating that Theravadins and Mahayanists interacted extensively in Sri Lanka throughout the first millennium CE, so any suggestion that there was no contact between the two would be incorrect.[27]
See also
Notes
- ↑ Williams, Paul (2008) Mahāyāna Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations: p. 5
- ↑ "Sanskrit Dictionary for Spoken Sanskrit". http://www.spokensanskrit.de/index.php?tinput=hiina&direction=SE&script=DI&link=yes. Retrieved 2010-06-29.
- ↑ "Sanskrit Dictionary for Spoken Sanskrit". http://www.spokensanskrit.de/index.php?script=DI&tinput=yaana&country_ID=&trans=Translate&direction=AU. Retrieved 2009-04-15.
- ↑ It is also certain that Buddhist groups and individuals in China (including Tibet), Korea, Vietnam, and Japan have in the past, as in the very recent present, identified themselves as Mahayana Buddhists, even if the polemical or value claim embedded in that term was only dimly felt, if at all., Macmillan Encyclopedia of Buddhism, 2004, page 492
- ↑ Nattier, Jan (2003), A few good men: the Bodhisattva path according to the Inquiry of Ugra: p. 174
- ↑ Nattier, Jan (2003), A few good men: the Bodhisattva path according to the Inquiry of Ugra: p. 172
- ↑ Nattier, Jan (2003), A few good men: the Bodhisattva path according to the Inquiry of Ugra: p. 193-194
- ↑ Williams, Paul (2008) Mahayana Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations: p. 4-5
- ↑ Williams, Paul (2000) Buddhist Thought: A Complete Introduction to the Indian Tradition: p. 97
- ↑ Williams, Paul (2008) Mahāyāna Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations: p. 5
- ↑ Isabelle Onians, "Tantric Buddhist Apologetics, or Antinomianism as a Norm," D.Phil. dissertation, Oxford, Trinity Term 2001 pg 72
- ↑ Jonathan A Silk. What, if anything, is Mahayana Buddhism? Numen 49:4 (2002):335-405. Article reprinted in Williams, Buddhism, Vol III, Routledge, 2005
- ↑ ""one does not find anywhere else a body of doctrine as organized or as complete as theirs" . . ."Indeed, no other competing schools have ever come close to building up such a comprehensive edifice of doctrinal systematics as the Vaibhāśika." The Sautrantika theory of seeds (bija ) revisited: With special reference to the ideological continuity between Vasubandhu's theory of seeds and its Srilata/Darstantika precedents by Park, Changhwan, PhD, University of California, Berkeley, 2007 pg 2
- ↑ Frank J. Hoffman and Deegalle Mahinda, Pāli Buddhism. Routledge Press 1996, page 192.
- ↑ Richard King, Indian Philosophy: An Introduction to Hindu and Buddhist Thought. Edinburgh University Press, 1999, page 86.
- ↑ Nyanaponika, Nyaponika Thera, Nyanaponika, Bhikkhu Bodhi, Abhidhamma Studies: Buddhist Explorations of Consciousness and Time. Wisdom Publications, 1998, page 42.
- ↑ Donald S. Lopez and Dge-ʼdun-chos-ʼphel, The Madman's Middle Way: Reflections on Reality of the Tibetan Monk Gendun Chopel. University of Chicago Press 2006, page 24.
- ↑ Gil Fronsdal, in Tricycle, posted online on November 8, 2007. [1]
- ↑ David Kalupahana, Mulamadhyamakakarika of Nagarjuna. Motilal Banarsidass, 2006, page 6.
- ↑ David Kalupahana, Mulamadhyamakakarika of Nagarjuna. Motilal Banarsidass, 2006, page 24.
- ↑ [2]
- ↑ 22.0 22.1 Gombrich, Richard Francis. 1988. Theravāda Buddhism. P.83
- ↑ Collins, Steven. 1990. Selfless Persons: Imagery and Thought in Theravāda Buddhism. P.21
- ↑ 24.0 24.1 Gellner, David N. 2005. Rebuilding Buddhism. P.14
- ↑ Swearer, Donald. 2006. Theravada Buddhist Societies. In: Mark Juergensmeyer (ed.) The Oxford Handbook of Global Religions. P.83
- ↑ MacMillan Reference Library of Buddhism, 2004, page 328
- ↑ Buddha in the Crown Avalokiteśvara in the Buddhist Traditions of Sri Lanka by John Clifford Holt. Oxford University Press: 1991. ISBN 0-19-506418-6 pgs 62-67
Bibliography
- Romila Thapar, Early India from the Origins to AD 1300 Penguin, 2001
- Tsongkhapa, The great treatise on the stages of the path to enlightenment, Snowlion, 2000
- Paul Williams, Mahayana Buddhism, Routledge, 1989
- Andrew Skilton, Concise history of Buddhism. Windhorse, 1999
- Donald Lopez, "The H Word", Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, Fall 1995, pp84-85
- R. S. Cohen, "Discontented Categories: Hinayana and Mahayana in Indian History", Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 63(1):1-25, 1995
- Ryukan Kimura, A Historical Study of the Terms Hinayana and Mahayana and the Origin of Mahayana Buddhism, Indological Book Corp., 1978
External links
- "Theravada - Mahayana Buddhism" Dr. W. Rahula's article
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