Hīnayāna and mahāyāna characterize groups of Buddhist paths in relation to two kinds of liberation: “a liberation which is the simple extinction of suffering and its sources, and the supreme liberation which is none other than Buddhahood. The former is an extinction of all obstacles that are sources of afflictions […] The latter liberation is the supreme stage, the absolute extinction of both afflictions and obstacles to universal knowledge”.1
More specifically:
Hīnayāna (“Lesser Vehicle”) and Mahāyāna (“Greater Vehicle”) refer to two major orientations of Buddhism, distinguished by the scope and depth of liberation (mokṣa, nirvāṇa).
According to the Dalai Lama, these correspond respectively to “a liberation that is the simple extinction of suffering and its causes, and the supreme liberation which is none other than Buddhahood. The first is an extinction of all the obstacles that are sources of afflictions […]; the latter liberation is the supreme stage, the absolute extinction of both afflictions and the obstacles to universal knowledge”.
The Hīnayāna, literally the “Lesser Vehicle” (a term that the schools concerned, especially the Theravāda, consider pejorative), seeks individual liberation: to reach nirvāṇa through the eradication of the causes of suffering—ignorance (avidyā), craving, and attachment. The goal is the state of Arhat, “one who is liberated,” who has transcended the wheel of rebirth (saṃsāra). It is a path of renunciation and lucidity, where the extinction of passion opens to peace beyond remainder.
The Mahāyāna, or “Greater Vehicle,” broadens the horizon: ultimate liberation is not only the cessation of suffering but the attainment of universal Buddhahood. The practitioner, animated by bodhicitta—the “mind of awakening”—vows to remain within the world to assist all beings toward enlightenment, like the bodhisattva, who renounces individual nirvāṇa until every being is freed from pain. This perspective rests on the metaphysics of emptiness (śūnyatā), understood not as nothingness but as absolute plenitude beyond duality.
Within the Vajrayāna (“Diamond Vehicle”), often viewed as an extension of the Mahāyāna, enlightenment is realized as the immediate recognition of the mind’s true nature—identical to the Buddha’s own nature, the luminous emptiness in which being and knowing coincide.
These paths are not mutually exclusive but represent complementary stages of realization: from personal liberation to universal compassion, from extinction to transfiguration. Together, they express the manifold ways of awakening leading beyond illusion to the ultimate Reality.
Further reading:
– The Dalai Lama, Kindness, Clarity, and Insight (Eng. tr. of Comme la lumière avec la flamme).
– Nāgārjuna, Mūlamadhyamakakārikā – on the doctrine of emptiness (śūnyatā).
– Asaṅga and Vasubandhu, Abhidharmakośa and Mahāyāna-saṃgraha.
– Pāli Canon (Tipiṭaka) – on the Arhat and the individual path to liberation.
– Śāntideva, Bodhicaryāvatāra.
– D.T. Suzuki, Essays in Zen Buddhism.
– Bruno Bérard, Metaphysics for Everyone (Paris, L’Harmattan, 2021); Fr. Métaphysique pour tous; It. Sui sentieri della metafisica; Sp. ¿Qué es la metafísica?; Ger. Was ist Metaphysik? – on the metaphysical distinction between extinction, emptiness, and the Absolute beyond being and non-being.
Footnotes
- This formulation is that of the Dalai Lama, Comme la lumière avec la flamme, éditions du Rocher, 1997, p. 29. in English: Kindness, Clarity, and Insight, ed./trans. Jeffrey Hopkins — Snow Lion (1984/1985), more recently published by Shambhala.[↩]