shravaka (Skt)
A hearer; a Hinayana practitioner who strives for liberation from cyclic existence on the basis of listening to teachings from a teacher. There are four divisions: stream-enterer, once-returner, non-returner and arhat. Each of these divisions has two stages, a developing level and a resultant level, thus there are eight levels in total. Cf. pratyekabuddha.