Sravakayana (Nyingma school)

For the general usage of this term, see Sravakayana.

In the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism, the sravakayana is the first of the nine yanas.

Alak Zenkar Rinpoche explains sravakayana from the Nyingma point of view as follows:

Generally speaking, the Sanskrit word ‘shravaka’ has both the meaning of listening and of hearing, so [the Tibetan translation nyenthö literally means] ‘listener-hearer.’ Alternatively, the term can be understood to mean ‘listening and proclaiming,’ in the sense that the shravakas rely on masters and then proclaim to others all the words their teachers have spoken.

The initial entry point, the view, the meditation, the conduct and the results of the śrāvaka vehicle will now be explained below.

i. Entry Point

The śrāvakas are motivated by a feeling of renunciation, the wish to escape from all the realms of samsara by themselves alone. With this motivation, they receive one of the seven sets of pratimokṣa vows, those of a male or female lay practitioner, novice monk or nun, probationary nun, or fully ordained monk or nun, and having received these vows, they practise moral restraint, keeping their vows unimpaired, repairing any impairments that do occur, and so on.

ii. View

As the basis of their path, they determine their view by focusing upon all phenomena included within the five aggregates and realizing that they are devoid of any personal self. They do not understand that all material and conscious phenomena are devoid of true reality, and, asserting a truly real partless particle in perceived objects and an indivisible moment of consciousness, they fail to realize the absence of phenomenal identity.

iii. Meditation

In terms of the path, they practise both śamatha and vipaśyanā meditation. They realize the state of śamatha by abandoning obstacles and cultivating factors conducive to samādhi, according to the nine stages of resting the mind and so on, and generate the wisdom of vipaśyanā by meditating on the sixteen aspects of the four truths.

iv. Conduct

They keep to the twelve ascetic practices[4] that avoid the two extreme forms of lifestyle, over-indulgence in sense pleasures[5] and excessive self-punishment.

v. Results

They attain any one of eight levels of fruition, corresponding to the degree to which they have abandoned the kleshas of the three realms. There are eight levels because the four results of stream-enterer, once-returner, non-returner and arhat are each divided into the two stages known as the emerging and the established.

External links

• Sravaka yana, Rigpa Shedra Wiki