Hīnayāna

Meaning ‘inferior vehicle’, Hīnayāna is a derogatory term Mahāyāna Buddhists use for the pre-Mahāyāna schools of Buddhism. Although found in the earliest Mahāyāna sūtras (approximately 1st century BCE), the more common terms were the disciples vehicle   (arhatyāna or śravakayāna) and freed by inferior means (hīnādhimukita). Eventually Hīnayāna became the dominant term and it is still used today by Mahāyānists to describe Theravāda Buddhism.

The Mahāyāna claim that their ideal practitioner, the bodhisattva, strives to liberate all beings while the Hīnayāna ideal, the arahat, is intent on liberating himself or herself only. The Pāḷi Tipiṭaka contains no term, derogatory or otherwise, for Mahāyāna Buddhism because it predates the period when sects arose within Buddhism.