What is Theravada Buddhism?
(edited from an essay by John Bullitt)





The "Doctrine of the Elders"
Theravada (Pali: thera "elders" + vada "word, doctrine"), the "Doctrine of the Elders," is the name for the school of Buddhism that draws its scriptural inspiration from the Pali Canon, or Tipitaka, which scholars generally accept as the oldest record of the Buddha's teachings. For many centuries, Theravada has been the predominant religion of Sri Lanka, Burma, and Thailand; today Theravada Buddhists number over 100 million worldwide. In recent decades Theravada has begun to take root in the West -- primarily in Western Europe and North America.

What follows is a brief synopsis of some of the key teachings of Theravada Buddhism.

Shortly after his Awakening, the Buddha ("the Awakened One") delivered his first sermon, in which he laid out the essential framework upon which all his later teachings were based. This framework consists of the Four Noble Truths, four fundamental principles of nature (Dhamma) that emerged from the Buddha's honest and penetrating assessment of the human condition and that serve to define the entire scope of Buddhist practice. These truths are not statements of belief. Rather, they are categories by which we can frame our direct experience in a way that is conducive to Awakening: Life Contains Suffering, Suffering is Caused by desire ( Particularly selfish desire), there is an end to suffering, The end is the 8 fold Noble Path

To each of these Noble Truths the Buddha assigned a specific task which the practitioner is to carry out: the first Noble Truth is to be comprehended; the second is to be abandoned; the third is to be realized; the fourth is to be developed. The full realization of the third Noble Truth paves the way for the direct penetration of Nibbana (Sanskrit: Nirvana), the transcendent freedom that stands as the final goal of all the Buddha's teachings.

The last of the Noble Truths -- the Noble Eightfold Path -- contains a prescription for the relief of our unhappiness and for our eventual release, once and for all, from the painful and wearisome cycle of birth and death (samsara) to which -- through our own ignorance (avijja) of the Four Noble Truths -- we have been bound for countless aeons. The Noble Eightfold Path offers a comprehensive practical guide to the development of those wholesome qualities and skills in the human heart that must be cultivated in order to bring the practitioner to the final goal, the supreme freedom and happiness of Nibbana. In practice, the Buddha taught the Noble Eightfold Path to his followers according to a "gradual" system of training, beginning with the development of sila, or virtue (right speech, right action, and right livelihood, which are summarized in practical form by the five precepts), followed by the development of samadhi, or concentration and mental cultivation (right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration), culminating in the full development of pañña, or wisdom (right view and right resolve). The practice of dana (generosity) serves as a support at every step along the path, as it can help erode the heart's habitual tendencies towards craving and as it can teach valuable lessons about the causes and results of one's actions (kamma).

Progress along the path does not follow a simple linear trajectory. Rather, development of each aspect of the Noble Eightfold Path encourages the refinement and strengthening of the others, leading the practitioner ever forward in an upward spiral of spiritual maturity that culminates in Awakening.

Seen from another point of view, the long journey on the path to Awakening begins in earnest with the first tentative stirrings of right view, the first flickerings of wisdom by which one recognizes both the validity of the first Noble Truth and the inevitability of the law of kamma (Sanskrit: karma), the universal law of cause and effect. Once one begins to see that harmful actions inevitably bring about harmful results, and wholesome actions ultimately bring about wholesome results, the desire naturally grows to live a skillful, morally upright life, to take seriously the practice of sila. The confidence built from this preliminary understanding inclines the follower to place an even greater trust in the teachings. The follower becomes a "Buddhist" upon expressing an inner resolve to "take refuge" in the Triple Gem: the Buddha (both the historical Buddha and one's own innate potential for Awakening), the Dhamma (both the teachings of the historical Buddha and the ultimate Truth towards which they point), and the Sangha (both the monastic community that has protected the teachings and put them into practice since the Buddha's day, and all those who have achieved at least some degree of Awakening). With one's feet thus firmly planted on the ground by taking refuge, and with the help of an admirable friend (kalyanamitta) to help show the way, one can set out along the Path, confident that one is indeed following in the footsteps left by the Buddha himself.

Buddhism is sometimes naïvely criticized as a "negative" or "pessimistic" religion and philosophy. After all (so the argument goes) life is not all misery and disappointment: it offers many kinds of joy and happiness. Why then this pessimistic Buddhist obsession with unsatisfactoriness and suffering? The Buddha based his teachings on a frank assessment of our plight as humans: there is unsatisfactoriness and suffering in the world. No one can argue this fact. Were the Buddha's teachings to stop there, we might indeed regard them as pessimistic and life as utterly hopeless. But, like a doctor who prescribes a remedy for an illness, the Buddha offers hope (the third Noble Truth) and a cure (the fourth). The Buddha's teachings thus give cause for an extraordinary degree of optimism in a complex, confusing, and difficult world. One modern teacher summed it up well: "Buddhism is the serious pursuit of happiness."

The Buddha claimed that the Awakening he re-discovered is accessible to anyone willing to put forth the effort and commitment required to pursue the Noble Eightfold Path to its end. It is up to each of us individually to put that claim to the test.

A Couple of Great Essays on the History of Theravada:

What is Theravada?
Maung Kyauk Seinn

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One of the Pali words gaining popularity in our country nowadays is
Theravada. You hear the word in Buddhist meetings and read it in Dhamma
magazines. The government and the people alike use it fondly wherever and
whenever occasion arises. What then is Theravada? The following is my humble
attempt to explain the word grammatically, historically and doctrinally.

1. Grammatically:

The word Theravada is a compound of two members: Thera and Vada; thera means
"elder", especially "an elderly Buddhist monk"; here it stands for the
inflected form Theranam, "of the Elders"; the second member vada coming from
the root vad, "to speak" signifies "speech", "talk", "word", "doctrine" or
even "ism". The word Theravada is frequently translated into English "the
Doctrine of the Elders"; sporadic translations are "the Way of the Elders"
and "the School of the Elders"; even "old Wisdom School" is met with.

Most probably the word first appears as the name of a Buddhist school in the
Dipavamsa, the earlier Chronicle of Sri Lanka, dating the 4th century AD.
The name is echoed in the Mahavamsa, the later but the better known and more
important Chronicle of the 5th century. But it is the Commentaries and the
Sub-commentaries on the Canonical texts that the name is defined and their
definitions may be summed up as follows: only the texts (paliyeva) that were
formulated at the first two Councils are to be known as Theravada, for they
were safeguarded and handed down by such Great Elders as Maha Kassapa and
others. They were so named in order to distinguish them from the views of
the dissident Mahasanghika school.

2. Historically:

The history of Theravada as a school of Buddhism should begin with a quick
survey of the life of Gotama Buddha himself. He was born as a Sakyan prince
at a place near the Himalayas about six hundred years BC. Grieved at the
ills of life such as old age, sickness and death, he renounced the world at
the age of 29 and started seeking the way to Nibbana, "Extinction" of all
forms of suffering. At 35 he achieved his goal and became Buddha. He then
carried out his teaching mission for 45 years. At 80 he attained
Parinibbana, "Total Extinction" (which is the Buddhist way of expressing his
demise). Just before that event he left a message to his cousin and
attendant monk, Ananda, part of which being:

When I am gone, the Dhamma (Doctrine) and Vinaya (Discipline) that I have
taught and laid down shall be your Teacher!

This implies that the Buddha did not want to appoint any person to succeed
him on his demise. The two Great Disciples Sariputta and Moggallana had
already passed away; but Maha Kassapa who enjoyed the good reputation of
being the Third Disciple was alive. But even a man of his stature would not
become the Buddha"s successor. By this injunction the Buddha made it clear
that only his Dhamma and Vinaya would adequately and effectively serve as
the sole guide to his followers. Dhamma-Vinaya therefore was the designation
given by the Master himself to his twofold teaching (pavacana) about the
time of his Parinibbana. There was no reason whatever to dub it Theravada.

When the First Council was held at Rajagaha three months after the Buddha"s
demise with the noble aim of consolidation the Dhamma-Vinaya "before
righteousness fades away and before unrighteousness shines forth". The
Council was presided over by Maha Kassapa whose questions on the Vinaya and
the Dhamma were answered by Upali and Ananda respectively. The answers were
confirmed by 500 monks who recited both in unison and passed on from teacher
to pupil orally. The name Theravada remained unheard of, at least publicly.
It that Buddhism as one whole body with its original designation of Dhamma
Vinaya stood in full bloom all over India.

A century later the Second Council was held at Vesali under the collective
leadership of Yasa, Revata and Sabbakami to discuss the "ten points" which
in fact were the Buddha's certain disciplinary ruler relaxed and practised
by imprudent Vajjian monks. The Council composed of 700 members decided the
points unlawful and condemned the Vajjians who seceded from that Council to
convene their own known as Maha sangha or Mahasangiti, the Great Council,
since their number 10,000 far exceeded that of the former. It was the open
and serious schism that took place in the Sangha, the Buddhist Order, for
the first time. And with the schism emerged two factions of Theravadins,
followers of Theravada, and Mahasanghikas or Mahasangitikas, those of the
secession.

The Third Council in the tradition of Theravada was held in the 3rd century,
according to the Chronicles and Commentaries, with Moggaliputta Tissa as its
president and Asoka to the Moriyan Dynasty as its supporter. The venue of
the Council was the imperial city Pataliputta. The purpose was to purify the
religion and to restore peace to the Order, for many heretics who had joined
the Sangha for convenient livelihood caused confusion and unfortunate
incidents in the Sangha. At the conclusion of the Council, missionaries were
despatched to nine countries including Sri Lanka and Suvannabhumi; to the
former went Asoka,s son, Mahinda, leading a group of monks and to the
latter, generally taken to be Myanmar, Sona and Uttara.

Scholars are of opinion that Theravada thrived in the country of Magadha in
the east and the city of Ujjeni in the west. In his rock and pillar
inscriptions, Asoka speaks of compassion, charity, truthfulness, purity and
other virtues to be developed witch might be common to all the religions
prevailing in the country: Buddhism, Brahmanism, Hinduism, Jainism, etc.
From the inscriptions, we also know of his tolerance and even gifts to
non-Buddhist sects. But that he was a devout Theravadin in his heart of
hearts is evidenced by his famous Bhabru inscription in which he recommends
for learning certain Buddhist texts which can be traced in the Pali Canon of
the Theravada, the only school which employs that language for recording its
scriptures. The inclusion of the Kathavatthu, a work of his time, in the
Abhidhamma Pitaka is another piece of evidence, not to speak of his sending
of his son Mahinda as a bhikkhu to propagate Theravada Buddhism in the
Island as asserted in Buddhist works. In these works, however, the name
Theravada is replaced by Vibhajjavada, the "Doctrine of Analysis" or the
"Religion of Reason" though the two terms are identical.

The reign of Asoka was however marked by the split of Buddhism into 18 sects
which according to one source were Theravada and Mahasanghika plus 10
branching out from the former and 6 from the latter. The misfortune caused
by the split was not so great as one might guess, for it was a result of the
rapid expansion of Buddhism. Just remember the Buddha"s instruction given to
his earliest 60 disciples when he sent them to spread the Dhamma for the
welfare and happiness of many: "No two persons shall go in the same
direction!" The differences between one sect and another were due to the
geographical factor rather than to doctrinal except in a few cases. And many
of the sects disappeared after existing for some time.

After its heyday during the time of Asoka, Theravada began to wane in
northern India. When the mighty Gupta dynasty arose in AD 428, there must be
a number of reasons for this sad turning point in the course of Theravada.
One theory says that the decline was brought about by the lack of
encouragement of the Gupta kings who as Hindu favored Sanskrit. In fact, it
was a time of the revival or even the efflorescence of Sanskrit literature.
Their devotion to Hinduism and love for Sanskrit did not help the existence
of Theravada let alone its growth, for it is the only school of Buddhism
that employs Pali as its language.

It was evident that some of the Guptas showed their interest in Buddhism by
making some donations to it, but the recipients were the forms other than
Theravada, such as Sarvastivada, an important offshoot of Theravada, and
Mahayana, the giant incarnation, as it were, of Mahasanghika, both of which
turned to Sanskrit as their sacred language. Pali Buddhism, Theravada, then
moved to the south and settled itself along the east coast form which hailed
later such Buddhist commentators as Dhammapala of Kancipura and Buddhadatta
of Uragapura.

The establishment of Theravada after its introduction there by Mahinda from
Pataliputra long before its journey to the south of India, one knows only
too well. Its stronghold was the Mahavihara, "the Great Monastery" at
Anuradhapura, to which Buddhaghosa, the greatest of commentators in
Theravada tradition belonged. It was also a seat of learning producing a
number of other writers in Pali. The existence of some antagonistic sects
was not unknown but the Mahavihara was powerful enough to prevail over the
opponents. In times of danger and adversity also Sri Lanka had good friends
in Myanmar and Thai Buddhists who went to their rescue. Today she stands out
as a land of missionary monks who are not only well versed in Buddhism but
also modern educated and efficient enough to spread the Dhamma, especially
in the west.

Nowadays Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand are the three stalwart Theravada
states with close religious ties. Though Laos and Cambodia have lost much of
their religious lustre both still deserve to be recognised as Theravada
countries. In Vietnam, formerly a land of pure Mahayana, Theravada is
somewhat developing. In the hill tracts of Bangladesh many of the Baruas,
the Chakmas and the Maghs and their fellow countrymen in the Chttagong area
still prove to be staunch Theravadins. So do the Shans in the frontier
regions of South China.

As for India, the land of the birth of Buddhism as well as of its death,
signs of the revival of the Theravada school have been noticed. Mass
conversions of Indians to Buddhism have recently taken place. At the most
recent conversion ceremony some Mahatheras from Myanmar played a leading
role reciting Pali formulas.

3. Doctrinally:

Now to explain Theravada doctrinally, only a few similarities and
differences between Theravada and the three other schools mentioned above --
Mahasanghika, Sarvastivada and Mahayana -- will be touched upon as giving
details is impossible here.

Theravada and Mahasanghika: In regard to Vinaya, the code of discipline
known as Patimokkha in Theravada contains 227 rules while its counterpart,
Pratimoksa, Mahasanghika 119. The former"s Bhikkhu-vibhanga and
Bhikkhuni-vibhanga probably correspond to the latter"s Bhiksu-vinaya and
Bhiksuni-vinaya, which are now extant soly in Chinese. The only surviving
work in its original language, Sanskrit, the Mahavastu of the Mahasanghika's
Vinaya, has passages that are found parallel to those in the Khuddakapatha,
the Vimanavatthu, Buddhavamsa and Dhammapada of the Pali Canon. An important
doctrinal difference the two schools is that the Theravadins speak of the
human nature of the Buddha where as the Mahasanghikas believe the
supramundane nature of Buddhas which is more pronounced in the sect called
Lokottaravada and in Mahayana.

Theravada and Sarvastivada: Though the Sarvastivada scriptures are in
Sanskrit, they teach the views that are closest to Theravada. Like its
patriarch school Theravada, Sarvastivada denies the transcendent powers
ascribed to Bodhisattvas. But unlike Theravada, it questions the perfection
of Arahats, whom Theravada hold in highest esteem as winners of Nibbana. Its
monks observed 155 Vinaya rules. The school has its own Abhidhamma Pitaka,
but the seven books are entirely different from the Theravada's. Two
commentaries on the Abhidhamma still exist: Vibhasha and Mahavibhasha, and
from this the Sarvastivadins are also known as Vabhashikas, "those belonging
to the Vibhashas". They believe that "all is" or "all things exist" (Sarvam
asti in Sanskrit and sabbam atthi in Pali). That is to say not only the
things in the present exist, but also the things in the past and future
which are in continuity with the present. Hence the name of their school
Sarvastivada.

Theravada and Mahayana: The name Mahayana along with the other name Hinayana
its first appearance between the its century BC and the 1st century AD.
Occurring in the Saddharma Pundarika Sutra, the "Discourse on the Lotus of
the Good Law", Mahayana -- the "Greater Vehicle" -- is understood today by
many as the name the school of Buddhism prevailing in Tibet, China, Korea,
Japan and Mongolia, as opposed to the Hinayana until recently represented by
Theravada.

Mahayana covers all forms Buddhism prevalent in those countries as it has
incorporated many of the view held by the sects that had branched off from
Mahasanghika and have disappeared now. The master who gave a clear
definition to this school known sometimes as Northern Buddhism was Nagarjuna
of the 2nd century A.D. In common with their brethren, the Theravadins, they
believe the Four Noble Truths, the Eightfold Noble Path, the Dependent
Origination, the Three Characteristics of Existence and a number of other
basic tenets. Above all, both the schools accept Gotama Buddha as their
Teacher. Mahayana built on Compassion and Wisdom has its own divergences, of
course, of which only the most important one may be stated here, which is
expressed by scholars as the Bodhisatva ideal. Every Mahayanist is a
Bodhisatva, "a being whose essence is Enlightenment" as one translation
goes. As such he sets his goal not only to attain Nirvana for himself but to
provide all sentient beings with the same liberation from the woes of
samsara or "life-cycle". Hence their school is greater compared with
Hinayana, the school of the "Lesser Vehicle" as its members strive only for
their attainment of nirvana as Arahats.

The World Fellowship of Buddhists decided unanimously in Colombo in 1950
that the term Hinayana should be eliminated when referring to the Theravada
School of Buddhism. The term Hinayana is now a thing of the past. If the
term be used today it should mean any or all of the sects now sunk into
oblivion. There exist at present only two schools of Buddhism: Theravada and
Mahayana. The two must be friendlier with each other and be more united in
contributing their shares to everlasting peace of the world.

The myth of Hinayana
Kare A. Lie

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In the centuries around the birth of Christ there was a radical development
going on in Buddhism. A new school was born, and its adherents called it
Mahayana. How this new school differed from the earlier schools, can be
found in any history of Buddhism. Here we will concentrate on one of the
results of this schism: the term Hinayana.

The adherents of the older schools criticized the Mahayanists, especially
for creating new sutras, forging the word of the Buddha. The Mahayanists on
the other side reacted to that critique by accusing their opponents of not
understanding the teaching of the Buddha at all and for being narrowminded
egoists. The debate got heated, and accusations flowed from both sides. Then
some brilliant person at the Mahayana side of the debate created the word
pair Mahayana/Hinayana, and it stuck. They called their opponents Hinayana,
and this word worked excellently as an insult - with a simplicity and a
parallellity to Mahayana that any fool could grasp.

Hinayana, or, more correctly, hiinayaana, is a highly derogatory term. It
does not simply mean "Lesser vehicle" as one often can see stated. The
second element of hiina-yaana - that is yaana - means vehicle. But hiina
very seldom has the simple meaning of "lesser" or "small". If that had been
the case, the Pali (or Sanskrit) texts would have used it in other
connections as an opposite of mahaa - big. But they don't. The opposite of
mahaa is cuu.la, so this is the normal word for "small".

The term Hinayana is an echo of a debate long dead - or rather a debate
where the one party is dead and the other one is shouting to the winds.

Who were the opponents who were labeled Hinayana? Theravada? Probably not.
At the time when Mahayana was born, Theravada had mainly "emigrated" to Sri
Lanka, and could hardly be counted among the dominating schools on the
Indian mainland - where the Mahayana/Hinayana debate took place. The most
influential of the old schools at that time, was Sarvastivada, so they were
the most probable - but hardly the only - targets for the
"Hinayana"-invectives.

Now the Sarvastivada and the other early schools of India at that time are
long dead, except Theravada, but the debate and the arguments found their
way into the Mahayana sutras, as for instance is apparent from the
anti-Hinayana propaganda in the Lotus sutra - and keep echoing in the
Mahayana and Vajrayana teaching.

Today there is confusion, for the Mahayanists/Vajrayanists use the term
Hinayana in three different ways:

1) In the historical sense: Pre-Mahayanist schools are called Hinayana.
2) Modern Theravada is confused with Hinayana.
3) The term Hinayana is used for an internal part of the Mahayana/Vajrayana
teaching.

Let's have a closer look on these three usages.

1) Some assert that the word Hinayana as a term for the earlier schools is a
usage that belongs to the distant past only. This is not correct. It can be
found in several modern reference works, and in more specialist literature
it can for instance be found in H.V. Guenther, Buddhist Philosophy In Theory
and Practice, citing Tibetan works from the 18th and the 20th century.

2) As an example of confusing Hinayana with Theravada, I will quote from the
Bibliography of Jane Hope (Jane Hope studied with Chogyam Trungpa
Rinpoche.), Buddha for beginners, printed in 1995 (I only have the Norwegian
version available, so I hope my retranslation back into English will not be
too inaccurate): "Hinayana Buddhism. A good introduction to the traditional
Hinayana Buddhism is What the Buddha Taught, Walpola Rahula ... From a
present point of view and written by two Westerners trained in the Theravada
tradition, is ... Seeking the Heart of Wisdom, by Joseph Goldstein & Jack
Kornfield ..."

3) Now for a persistent confusion that has its basis in Tibetan Buddhism.
Some say that Hinayana and Mahayana from very early on are two terms used to
describe two different spiritual attitudes, and quote from the 7th chapter
("Loving Kindness and Compassion") of the Tibetan classic The Jewel Ornament
of Liberation written in the 10th century, where the author, J Gampopa
refers to Hinayana as "lower capacity" ("theg pa dman pa"). The paragraph
reads as follows: "'Clinging to the well-being of mere peace (1)' signifies
the lower capacity attitude (2) wherein the longing to transcend suffering
is focused on oneself alone. This precludes the cherishing of others and
hence there is little development of altruism. [...] When loving kindness
and compassion become part of one, there is so much care for other conscious
beings that one could not bear to liberate oneself alone. [...] Master
Manjushriikiirti has said: 'A Mahaayaana follower should not be without
loving kindness and compassion for even a single moment', and 'It is not
anger and hatred but loving kindness and compassion that vouchsafe the
welfare of others'."

The footnotes to this passage read as follows: (1) The Tibetan zhi.ba means
"peace". It is translated as "mere peace" in this section of the book, since
it is used by Gampopa to denote the relatively compassionless peace that
results from developing only concentration meditation. (2) Hinayana: "lesser
capacity" often translated as "lesser vehicle". The term implies the ability
to carry a burden. In this case the burden is oneself since one's commitment
is to bring oneself to liberation, not everyone (as is the case in the
Mahayana, the "greater capacity").

The problem and confusion here is of course that this analysis does not
refer directly to the Pali/Sanskrit word hiinayaana, but to its Tibetan
translation "theg pa dman pa". This is a key issue, as will be shown below.

The word Hinayana is not Tibetan, it is not Chinese, English or Bantu. It is
Pali and Sanskrit. Therefore, the only sensible approach for finding the
meaning of the word, is to study how the word hiinayaana is used in the Pali
and Sanskrit texts.

The second element, -yaana, means vehicle. There is no dissent about this.

How then is "hiina" used in the canonical Pali texts?

Every Buddhist knows the first recorded sermon of the Buddha, the
Dhammacakkappavattanasutta spoken to the five ascetics who became the first
five bhikkhus. There the Buddha says: "These two extremes, monks, are not to
be practiced by one who has gone forth from the world. What are the two?
That conjoined with the passions and luxury, low (hiina), coarse, vulgar,
ignoble and harmful ..."

Knowing that the sutta style often use strings of synonyms this way, so that
they strengthen and define each other, one can regard "coarse, vulgar,
ignoble and harmful" as auxiliary definitions of "hiina" in this case.

Here the Buddha clearly denotes the path not to be practised, as hiina.

In other Pali texts and commentaries hiina often occurs in the combination
hiina-majjhima-pa.niita, that is: bad - medium - good. In the context of
hiina - majjhima - pa.niita (or sometimes only hiina - pa.niita) the word
hiina is always used as a term for undesirable qualities, like for instance
hatred, greed and ignorance. It obviously means "low, undesirable,
despicable" - and not "small" or "lesser".

The commentary Mahaniddesa-atthakatha, one of the texts where this triad
occurs, defines the word thus: hiinattike hiinaati laamakaa (In the
hiina-triad "hiina" is "laamakaa"). Now laamaka is defined by the PTS
Dictionary in this way: "insignificant, poor, inferior, bad, sinful. The
usual synonym is paapa". And paapa means "bad, evil". So it seems the
definitions go from bad to worse here. The commentary then gives examples,
and explains that desires that cause rebirth in niraya (hell, purgatory) are
hiina.

Now for Sanskrit texts. In Lalitavistara we find a version of the
Dhammacakkappavattanasutta, where the word "hiina" is used exactly as in the
above citation from the Pali-version of that sutta.

In Mahayanasutralankara by Asanga, which is a very representativ Mahayana
text, we find something of interest for our quest. Asanga says: "There are
three groups of people: hiina-madhyama-vishishta ...(bad - medium -
excellent)." This expression is parallel to the Pali:
hiina-majjhima-pa.niita, and goes to show that the Mahayanists who coined
the therm "hiinayaana", regarded "hiina" as a derogatory term, with the same
meaning as in the Pali texts.

A very interesting text is an edition of the Catushparishatsutra where the
text is presented in four parallel columns: Sanskrit, Pali (Mahavagga),
Tibetan and a German translation from a Chinese version. Here, again, we
find the Dhammacakkappavattanasutta. We have already looked into the
Sanskrit and Pali. The German version from the Chinese says: "Erstens:
Gefallen zu finden an und anzunehmen die niedrigen und blen Sitten der
gewhnliche Personen ..." It is a little unclear whether it here is
"niedrigen" (despicable) or "blen" (evil, bad) that corresponds to "hiina".
But it at least is clear that the strongly negative connotation of "hiina"
was carried over into the Chinese translation. So far nothing had changed
from the Pali and Sanskrit meanings.

In the the Tibetan column, we find that the Tibetan word "dman-pa" takes the
place corresponding to the Sanskrit "hiina", matching the above quote from
J Gampopa. And here we have the cause of later confusions and
misunderstandings of the term hiinayaana. Let us see what Tibetan-English
dictionaries say about "dman-pa": Sarat Chandra Das' Dictionary says:
"dman-pa: low, in reference to quantity or quality, little". Jschke's
Dictionary is even more enlightening: "dman-pa: 1. low, in reference to
quantity, little. 2. in reference to quality: indifferent, inferior (Ssk:
hiina)."

It thus seems that the Sanskrit word hiina, which without any reasonable
doubt means "of low quality", came to be translated by the Tibetan word
dman-pa, which has the double meaning "low quality" and "low quantity". And
the above quote from J Gampopa seems to indicate that many Tibetans
henceforth read only the latter of those two meanings into it, as "lesser
capacity", "lower capacity", so that the meaning was distorted from "low
quality" to "low quantity".

Thus we see that the confusion arose from the fact that dman-pa has two
meanings in Tibetan. Hinayana - originally meaning "vehicle of despicable
quality" - thus acquired the new meaning "vehicle of lower capacity". But
this is a result of a wrong method. It is of course wrong to project the new
Tibetan meaning back onto the Sanskrit/Pali word, and say that "this is the
meaning of Hinayana, because this is how the Tibetan masters explain it."
What the Tibetan masters explain, is the Tibetan word dman-pa, not the
Sanskrit word hiina.

Therefore it is clear that one can not assert that Hinayana has the "mild"
meaning that the Tibetan tradition has given it, via the Tibetan word
dman-pa. Hinayana is not Tibetan, it is Sanskrit/Pali, and its harsh,
derogatory meaning is unchanged by any attempts of mitigation.

What then, is Hinayana? Is it Theravada Buddhism? No, that is both insulting
and historically wrong. Is it a spiritual attitude inside the Mahayana and
Vajrayana system? No, that is the Tibetan "theg pa dman pa", the lower
capacity attitude, and not the Sanskrit Hinayana, "the inferior vehicle".
Therefore, there is no Hinayana. Hinayana is nothing but a myth, although a
confused and disruptive one, and wise Buddhists ought to lay that word at
rest on the shelves of the Museum of Schisms, where it rightly belongs, and
find other words to denote those spiritual attitudes that they wish to
define.