The Three Vehicles of Buddhist Practice

When Buddhism came to Tibet, the great masters of meditation determined that for practitioners to develop properly, all three vehicles or levels of Buddhism had to be studied and practiced.

Here Rinpoche explains these levels:

Hinayana: the careful examination of the self, accumulation of merit, meditation on the four noble truths and the practice of shamatha and vipashyana.

Mahayana: the meaning of emptiness, understanding ultimate and conventional truth, generating great compassion and the six perfections.

Vajrayana: the preliminaries, yidam meditation and Mahamudra.