Note 4 — Chapter II · ON TO SHEN-SHEN AND THENCE TO KHOTEN

(4) Meaning the “small vehicle, or conveyance.” There are in Buddhism the triyana, or “three different means of salvation, i.e. of conveyance across the samsara, or sea of transmigration, to the shores of nirvâna. Afterwards the term was used to designate the different phases of development through which the Buddhist dogma passed, known as the mahayana, hinayana, and madhyamayana.” “The hinayana is the simplest vehicle of salvation, corresponding to the first of the three degrees of saintship. Characteristics of it are the preponderance of active moral asceticism, and the absence of speculative mysticism and quietism.” E. H., pp. 151-2, 45, and 117.