Five vehicles
five vehicles
[五乗] (Jpn go-jo )
Five kinds of teaching expounded in accordance with the people's capacity. Vehicle means a teaching that brings people to a particular stage of attainment.
The five vehicles are
the vehicles of ordinary people,
heavenly beings,
voice-hearers,
cause-awakened ones,
and bodhisattvas.
(1) The vehicle of ordinary people enables one to be reborn a human being through honoring the three treasures of Buddhism and upholding the five precepts.
(2) The vehicle of heavenly beings enables one to reach the heavenly realms through the observance of the ten good precepts and the practice of the four stages of meditation.
(3) The vehicle of voice-hearers enables one to attain the state of arhat through awakening to the four noble truths.
(4) The vehicle of cause-awakened ones leads one to the state of pratyekabuddha, or the insight of the cause-awakened one, through awakening to the doctrine of the twelve-linked chain of causation.
(5) The vehicle of bodhisattvas brings one to Buddhahood through the practice of the six paramitas.
There are several differing explanations of the five vehicles.
