Sūtrayāna () is the Indo-Tibetan three-fold classification of yanas. A

yana Yana may refer to: Locations *Yana, Burma, a village in Hkamti Township in Hkamti District in the Sagaing Region of northwestern Burma * Yana, India, a village in the Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka, India * Yana, Nigeria, an administrative c ...

is a

Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

mode of practice that leads to the realization of

emptiness Emptiness as a human condition is a sense of generalized boredom, social alienation, nihilism, and apathy. Feelings of emptiness often accompany dysthymia, depression (mood), depression, loneliness, anhedonia, wiktionary:despair, despair, or o ...

. The three yanas of the Sutrayana are Sravakayana or Pratyekabuddhayana,

Mahayana Mahāyāna ( ; , , ; ) is a term for a broad group of Buddhist traditions, Buddhist texts#Mahāyāna texts, texts, Buddhist philosophy, philosophies, and practices developed in ancient India ( onwards). It is considered one of the three main ex ...

, and

Vajrayana ''Vajrayāna'' (; 'vajra vehicle'), also known as Mantrayāna ('mantra vehicle'), Guhyamantrayāna ('secret mantra vehicle'), Tantrayāna ('tantra vehicle'), Tantric Buddhism, and Esoteric Buddhism, is a Mahāyāna Buddhism, Mahāyāna Buddhis ...

. The third yana,

, comprises Tantrayana and

Dzogchen Dzogchen ( 'Great Completion' or 'Great Perfection'), also known as ''atiyoga'' ( utmost yoga), is a tradition of teachings in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism and Bön aimed at discovering and continuing in the ultimate ground of existence. The goal ...

. Most often, Sūtrayāna is a classification used in the

Vajrayāna ''Vajrayāna'' (; 'vajra vehicle'), also known as Mantrayāna ('mantra vehicle'), Guhyamantrayāna ('secret mantra vehicle'), Tantrayāna ('tantra vehicle'), Tantric Buddhism, and Esoteric Buddhism, is a Mahāyāna Buddhist tradition that emp ...

to refer to the vehicles of

Śrāvakayāna ''Śrāvakayāna'' (; ; ) is one of the three '' yānas'' known to Indian Buddhism. It translates literally as the "vehicle of listeners .e. disciples. Historically it was the most common term used by Mahāyāna Buddhist texts to describe one ...

na and

Mahāyāna Mahāyāna ( ; , , ; ) is a term for a broad group of Buddhist traditions, Buddhist texts#Mahāyāna texts, texts, Buddhist philosophy, philosophies, and practices developed in ancient India ( onwards). It is considered one of the three main ex ...

, based on the sutras, as a whole. In this context, Sūtrayāna is also known as the causal vehicle, as the six Paramita, thirty-seven factors of enlightenment, ethical and intellectual disciplines and a variety of methods are practiced as causes for achieving the final result. Buddhahood emerges as the result when all such causes are complete.

, vehicle based on

, and on the sutras as well as on the tantras, is also known as the resultant vehicle because the path is not based only on establishing the cause, but identifying directly with the fruition — the fundamentally pure essence of mind, or

Buddha-nature In Buddhist philosophy and soteriology, Buddha-nature ( Chinese: , Japanese: , , Sanskrit: ) is the innate potential for all sentient beings to become a Buddha or the fact that all sentient beings already have a pure Buddha-essence within ...

References

* {{Buddhism-stub Schools of Buddhism