Three Vehicles of Dharma Teachings

by Lama Dudjom Dorjee

Buddha Shakyamuni turned the wheel of dharma three times, leaving us with the three vehicles of teachings, in order to benefit beings of three different levels of development and maturity. All eighty-four thousand of Lord Buddha’s teachings fall within one of these three vehicles, which are categorised as Hinayana, Mahayana, and Vajrayana.

The Hinayana, or Lesser Vehicle, is focused on self-liberation through living a wholesome life in accordance with the Buddha’s first teaching on the Four Noble Truths. These deal primarily with the truth of suffering and the cessation of suffering.

The Mahayana, or Greater Vehicle, is focused on the fact that self-liberation can only be attained through working for the enlightenment of all sentient beings, without exception, through the practice of the six paramitas, or six perfections. It is only by attaining and maintaining this indiscriminate altruistic outlook, known as bodhichitta, that we can attain the means to achieve enlightenment.

The Vajrayana, or Indestructible Vehicle, is characterised by the view of the inseparability of the practitioner and his or her buddhanature. The Vajrayana allows for the achievement of Buddhahood within a single lifetime through practices which focus on the inseparability of the lama and yidam. This intense path is entirely dependent upon the cultivation of a sacred outlook, in which the practitioner comes to view the ordinary body as the body of the enlightened meditational deity, all ordinary speech as the mantra speech of the deity, and the ordinary mind as the enlightened mind of the deity.

You can think of the three yanas, or three vehicles, as the stages of a new moon that waxes night after night until it has reached the brilliance of the full moon that lights the night. In that sense, the practitioner should value and respect all three vehicles equally in order to obtain Buddhahood.