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[Footnote 1:  Quotations and references to many of these sutras are found in Candrakirtti’s commentary on the Madhyamika karikas of Nagarjuna; some of these are the following:  A@s@tasahasrikaprajnaparamita (translated into Chinese 164 A.D.-167 A.D.), S’atasahasrikaprajnaparamita, Gaganaganja, Samadhisutra, Tathagataguhyasutra, D@r@dhadhyas’ayasancodanasutra, Dhyayitamu@s@tisutra, Pitaputrasamagamasutra, Mahayanasutra, Maradamanasutra, Ratnaku@tasutra, Ratnacu@daparip@rcchasutra, Ratnameghasutra, Ratnaras`isutra, Ratnakarasutra, Ra@s@trapalaparip@rcchasutra, La@nkavatarasutra, Lalitavistarasutra, Vajracchedikasutra, Vimalakirttinirdes’asutra, S’alistambhasutra, Samadhirajasutra, Sukhavativyuha, Suvar@naprabhasasutra, Saddharmapu@n@darika (translated into Chinese A.D. 255), Amitayurdhyanasutra, Hastikakhyasutra, etc.]

[Footnote 2:  The word Yana is generally translated as vehicle, but a consideration of numerous contexts in which the word occurs seems to suggest that it means career or course or way, rather than vehicle (Lalitavistara, pp. 25, 38; Prajnaparamita, pp. 24, 319; Samadhirajasutra, p. 1; Karu@napu@ndarika, p. 67; La@nkavatarasutra, pp. 68, 108, 132).  The word Yana is as old as the Upani@sads where we read of Devayana and Pit@ryana.  There is no reason why this word should be taken in a different sense.  We hear in La@nkavatara of S’ravakayana (career of the S’ravakas or the Theravadin Buddhists), Pratyekabuddhayana (the career of saints before the coming of the Buddha), Buddha yana (career of the Buddhas), Ekayana (one career), Devayana (career of the gods), Brahmayana (career of becoming a Brahma), Tathagatayana (career of a Tathagata).  In one place Lankavatara says that ordinarily distinction is made between the three careers and one career and no career, but these distinctions are only for the ignorant (Lankavatara, p. 68).]

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us the reason why one school was called Hinayana whereas the other, which he professed, was called Mahayana.  He says that, considered from the point of view of the ultimate goal of religion, the instructions, attempts, realization, and time, the Hinayana occupies a lower and smaller place than the other called Maha (great) Yana, and hence it is branded as Hina (small, or low).  This brings us to one of the fundamental points of distinction between Hinayana and Mahayana.  The ultimate good of an adherent of the Hinayana is to attain his own nirva@na or salvation, whereas the ultimate goal of those who professed the Mahayana creed was not to seek their own salvation but to seek the salvation of all beings.  So the Hinayana goal was lower, and in consequence of that the instructions that its followers received, the attempts they undertook, and the results they achieved were narrower than that of the Mahayana adherents.  A Hinayana man had only a short business in attaining his own salvation, and this could be done in three lives, whereas a Mahayana adherent was prepared to work for infinite time in helping all beings to attain salvation.  So the Hinayana adherents required only a short period of work and may from that point of view also be called hina, or lower.