Yana (Buddhism)

The tradition of Mahayana texts employing the image of different types of vehicles and conveyances as salient metaphor for the journey of novice to the awakening of adept may have begun with the Lotus Sūtra. The Lotus Sūtra holds a parable of a devoted father with three small children entranced in childhood play within the family home, oblivious that tongues of flame are ravenously engulfing the house. The father entices the children from the burning home with the half-truth gilded promise of special carts for each of them. The carts though are only an expedient means for luring the children from the house.[12]

Katō et al. render thus into English a tract of the Saddharma Puṇḍarīka pertaining to the cart of expedient means and the parable of the burning house:

"Śāriputra! Even as that elder, though with power in body and arms, yet does not use it but only by diligent tact resoutely saves [his] children from the calamity of the burning house and then gives each of them great carts made of precious things, so it is with the Tathāgata; though he has power and fearlessness, he does not use them, but only by his wise tact does he remove and save all living creatures from the burning house of the triple world, preaching the three vehicles: the śrāvaka, pratyekabuddha, and Buddha vehicle.[13]

In the parable, the carts are explicitly identified as corresponding to the three types of Buddha: the goat-cart represents the practices leading to the attainment of Arhatship; the deer-cart, Pratyekabuddhahood; and the bullock-cart, Samyaksambuddhahood. The sutra goes on to say these that the teachings of the three vehicles are merely expedient means (upāya). Their purpose is to direct people toward ekayāna, the one vehicle, depicted in the parable as a jeweled cart driven by a white ox.

Tamura et al. render a section of the Innumerable Meanings Sutra (Wu-liang-i ching) that relates the relationship of the Law (Dharma) and various teachings as fundamentally determined by the audience and context:

      "Good sons! The Law is like water that washes off dirt. As a well, a pond, a stream, a river, a valley stream, a ditch, or a great sea, each alike effectively washes off all kinds of dirt, so the Law-water effectively washes off the dirt of all delusions of living beings.
      "Good sons! The nature of water is one, but a stream, a river, a well, a pond, a valley stream, a ditch, and a great sea are different from one another. The nature of the Law is like this. There is equality and no differentiation in washing off the dirt of delusions, but the three laws, the four merits, and the two ways^§ are not one and the same.

      "Good sons! Though each washes equally as water, a well is not a pond, a pond is not a stream or a river, nor is a valley stream or a ditch a sea. As the Tathāgata, the world's hero, is free in the Law, all the laws preached by him are also like this. Though preaching at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end all alike effectively wash off the delusions of living beings, the beginning is not the middle, and the middle is not the end. Preaching at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end are the same in expression but different from one another in meaning.[14]

§ The three laws are the Four Noble Truths, the Twelve Causes, and the Six Pāramitās...; the four merits are srota-āpanna, sakṛdāgāmin, anāgāmin, and arhat...; and the two ways the Great-vehicle, or Mahayana, and the lesser vehicle, or Hinayana.

Mahayana texts such as the Lotus Sutra and the Avatamsaka Sutra sought to unite all the different teachings into a single great way. These texts serve as the inspiration for using the term Ekayāna in the sense of "one vehicle". This "one vehicle" became a key aspect of the doctrines and practices of Tiantai and Tendai Buddhist sects, which subsequently influenced Chán and Zen doctrines and practices. In Japan, the one-vehicle teaching of the Lotus Sutra also inspired the formation of the Nichiren sect.

Traditionally, the two vehicles in Mahāyāna Buddhism consist of Śrāvakayāna and Pratyekabuddhayāna. Mahāyāna Buddhists take a vow to become the third type, namely bodhisattvas. Therefore, Mahayana Buddhist texts sometimes use terms like "followers of the two vehicles" to refer to Buddhists who do not accept the Mahayana sutras.

Some Mahāyāna sutras consider that the two vehicles together comprise the Hīnayāna – literally, inferior vehicle; sometimes, small vehicle. Modern texts sometimes refer to Mahāyāna and Hīnayāna as "two vehicles". But referring to an "inferior vehicle" is often felt to be disrespectful to those Buddhists who do not consider the Mahāyāna sutras to be buddhavacana.

Mahāyāna Buddhists often express two different schemata of three yanas. First, here are three paths to liberation that culminate as one of the three types of Buddha:

• Śrāvakayāna: The Hearer vehicle: A path that meets the goals of an arhat who achieves liberation after listening to the teachings of a samyaksambuddha (fully enlightened buddha).
• Pratyekabuddhayāna: The Pratyekabuddha achieves liberation, but does not teach other beings. Pratyekabuddhas do not depend on a teacher and can discover the Dharma even if they do not encounter a buddha. They are sometimes said to remain silent and solitary.
• Bodhisattvayāna: The bodhisattva attains liberation and wishes to benefit as many beings as possible. A bodhisattva who has accomplished this goal is called a samyaksambuddha. A samyaksambuddha can establish the Dharma and lead disciples to enlightenment.

A second classification came into use with the rise of the Vajrayāna, which created a hierarchy of the teachings with the Vajrayāna being the highest path.[15] The Vajrayāna itself became multilayered especially in Tibetan Buddhism.

• Hīnayāna
• Mahāyāna
• Vajrayāna

Mahayana Buddhists sometimes refer to four yanas that subsume the two different schemes of the three yanas:

• Śrāvakayāna
• Pratyekabuddhayāna
• Mahāyāna
• Vajrayāna

This is a Mahāyāna list which is found in East Asian Buddhism.

• Puruṣayāna - the human vehicle. This is the very beginning of the spiritual path
• Devayāna - the practice of ethics and meditation
• Śrāvakayāna - the practice of renunciation and the Four Noble Truths
• Pratyekabuddhayāna - practice concerned with dependent arising (pratitya-samutpada)
• Bodhisattvayāna - practice of the Six Perfections

The five yānas plus the Vajrayāna. This schema is associated with Shingon Buddhism in Japan. It was invented by Kūkai in order to help to differentiate the Vajrayāna teachings that he imported from China in the early 9th century. Kūkai wanted to show that the new teachings were entirely new.[16]

The Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism has nine yanas, a list made by combining the first type of three yanas, and adding the six classes of tantras.

• Hīnayāna
  • 1. Śrāvakayāna
  • 2. Pratyekabuddhayāna
• Mahāyāna consisting of:
  • 3. Bodhisattvayāna
  • Vajrayāna, consisting of:
    • Outer Tantras
      • 4. Kriyatantra
      • 5. Upatantra (Tibetan spyod rgyud) ‘practice tantra’ and the Ubhayatantra (gnyis ka’i rgyud), ‘dual tantra’, because it practices the view of the next vehicle, Yogatantra, together with the action of the former.
      • 6. Yogatantra
    • Inner Tantras
      • 7. Mahāyoga
      • 8. Anuyoga
      • 9. Atiyoga (also Dzogchen)

The head of the Nyingma school, Dudjom Rinpoche emphasizes the eight lower vehicles are intellectually fabricated and contrived:

"The eight lower levels have intellectually fabricated and contrived that which is changeless solely due to fleeting thoughts that never experience what truly is. They apply antidotes to and reject that which is not to be rejected. They refer to as flawed that in which there is nothing to be purified, with a mind that desires purification. They have created division with respect to that which cannot be obtained by their hopes and fears that it can be obtained elsewhere. And they have obscured wisdom, which is naturally present, by their efforts in respect to that which is free from effort and free from needing to be accomplished. Therefore, they have had no chance to make contact with genuine, ultimate reality as it is (rnal ma'i de kho na nyid)."[17]

Another schema associated with Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna sources:

1. Śrāvakayāna
2. Pratyekabuddhayāna
3. Bodhisattvayāna
4. Kriyayoga
5. Charyayoga (or Upayoga)
6. Yogatantra
7. Mahayoga
8. Anuyoga
9. Atiyoga[18]
   1. Semde
   2. Longde
   3. Mengagde[19]