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Ekayāna

A Dictionary of Buddhism | 2004 | 700+ words | Copyright

Ekayāna (Skt.). The One Way or Vehicle; a concept found in certain Mahāyāna texts such as the Lotus Sūtra which teaches that the three Ways (triyāna)—the Śrāvakayāna, the Pratyekabuddhayāna, and the Bodhisattvayāna—taught by the Buddha all converge in the single Buddhayāna. This view also teaches that the first two Ways were merely taught as skilful means (upāya-kauśalya) and that the Bodhisattvayāna is actually identical to the single Buddhayāna. This concept is taught in the Lotus Sūtra in the famous parable of the children trapped in a burning house whose father rescues them with promises of various kinds of pleasing carts but then rewards them all with the same magnificant cart once they are safe.

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