Aspects of Mahayana Buddhism and its Relation to Hinayana c6.s10.4

c6.s10.4

The use of the appellation Hinayāna itself shows at a glance the low place to which the Hinayānism was relegated by the Mahāyānists. The names, of course, that are mostly in use in the Mahāyāna scriptures are Śrāvaka and Pratyekabuddha. These are colourless names, and the Hinayānists themselves used the term *sāvaka* or *śrāvaka*, e.g., in the expressions, *pakatisāvaka*, *aggasāvaka*, *sāvakasaṅgha*, sāvikā, and so forth. The Pratyeka-(Pacceka)-buddha is equally in frequent use among the Hīnayānists. The term, Hīnayāna, came into being to indicate that the Śrāvakas and Pratyekabuddhas were hīnādhimukta (of lower aims)¹. They were also called Prādeśikas because their mind (citta) takes only a partial (prādeśika) and not comprehensive view of the whole truth².