Nine Yanas
Nine yānas (Tib. ཐེག་པ་དགུ་, Wyl. theg pa dgu) or nine successive vehicles (Tib. ཐེག་པ་རིམ་པ་དགུ་, Wyl. theg pa rim pa dgu) — within the Nyingma tradition, the full spectrum of spiritual paths is divided into nine yanas, a system of practice bringing together all the approaches of the Buddha’s teaching into a single comprehensive path to enlightenment.
When the Buddhist teachings are classified according to their power, they are described as a vehicle (Skt. yana) or a series of hierarchical vehicles, arranged in the manner of the rungs of a ladder. Among these, the specific enumeration of nine vehicles or nine sequences of the vehicle (Skt. navayāna) accords with the standpoint of the rnying ma school, which systematises the Buddhist teachings according to the hierarchy of the three outer or causal vehicles (those of the pious attendants, hermit buddhas and bodhisattvas), those of the three outer classes of tantra (Kriyatantra, Ubhayatantra and Yogatantra), and those of the three inner classes of tantra (Mahayoga, Anuyoga and Atiyoga). GD (from the Glossary to Tibetan Elemental Divination Paintings)
Origin
The nine yanas are referred to in the Kulayaraja Tantra (Kunje Gyalpo) and in the General Sutra of the Gathering of All Intentions (Düpa Do), which is the central scripture of Anuyoga.
Subdivision According to the Three Kayas
- Dharmakaya teachings refer to the teachings of Atiyoga
- Sambhogakaya teachings refer to the teachings of the three outer yanas, as well as Mahayoga and Anuyoga
- Nirmanakaya teachings refer to the teachings of the three causal vehicles
The Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism has nine yanas, a list made by combining the first type of three yanas, and adding the six classes of tantras.
- Hīnayāna
- 1. Śrāvakayāna
- 2. Pratyekayāna
- Mahāyāna consisting of:
- Vajrayāna, consisting of:
- Outer Tantras
- 4. Kriyatantra
- 5. Upatantra (Tibetan spyod rgyud) ‘practice tantra’ and the Ubhayatantra (gnyis ka’i rgyud), ‘dual tantra’, because it practices the view of the next vehicle, Yogatantra, together with the action of the former.
- 6. Yogatantra
- Inner Tantras
- Outer Tantras
It is important to note that there are numerous untranslated portions of the Vima Nyingthig, Gongpa Sangtal, etc. that place the most secret unsurpassed cycle of Menngagde as a totally independent Buddhist vehicle outside the nine yanas.
| The Nine Yanas | ||||||||
| sutrayana | tantrayana | |||||||
| the three outer yanas leading from the origin, i.e. the three yanas related to the outer vehicle of leading from the origin [of suffering) and the three pitakas of characteristics |
the three yanas of vedic asceticism, i.e. the three yanas related to the inner vehicle of Vedic asceticism and the three outer classes of tantra |
the three yanas of powerful transformative methods, i.e. the three yanas related to the secret vehicle of powerful transformative methods and the three inner classes of tantra | ||||||
| basic vehicle | mahayana | vajrayana | ||||||
| path of renunciation | path of purification | path of transformation | path of self-liberation | |||||
| 1. the shravaka yana ཉན་ཐོས་ཀྱི་ཐེག་པ་ |
2. the pratyekabuddha yana རང་རྒྱལ་གྱི་ཐེག་པ་ |
3. the bodhisattva yana བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་ཐེག་པ་ |
4. the yana of kriya tantra བྱ་རྒྱུད་ཀྱི་ཐེག་པ་ |
5. the yana of charya tantra སྤྱོད་རྒྱུད་ཀྱི་ཐེག་པ་ |
6. the yana of yoga tantra རྣལ་འབྱོར་རྒྱུད་ཀྱི་ཐེག་པ་ |
7. the yana of mahayoga རྣལ་འབྱོར་ཆེན་པོའི་ཐེག་པ་ |
8. the yana of anuyoga རྗེས་སུ་རྣལ་འབྱོར་གྱི་ཐེག་པ་ |
9. the yana of atiyoga ཤིན་ཏུ་རྣལ་འབྱོར་གྱི་ཐེག་པ་ |
