The second chapter of the Lotus Sutra is called “Expedient Devices.” The Sanskrit term upaya is often translated in English as “skillful means.” Skillful means are the various skillful ways we can use to fulfill our intentions and manifest our practice. This chapter is the real beginning of the Lotus Sutra in that it serves as the foundation for the entire Sutra. If we can understand the foundational teaching of skillful means we will be able to grasp the whole of the Sutra.

The intention of [the Lotus Sutra’s] introductory chapter is to prepare the audience psychologically and spiritually to receive a very important teaching, the Scripture of the Lotus Blossom of the Wonderful Dharma. In order to understand the great import of this teaching, the assembly that has gathered in this historical dimension must be introduced to the ultimate dimension. In the past, in another cosmic realm, Buddha Sun and Moon Glow had also given the teaching of the Lotus Sutra. So the miraculous events that are happening today are only a repetition of something that has already occurred in another dimension of reality, the ultimate dimension that is unbounded by our ordinary perceptions of time and space.

As far as the historical dimension is concerned, Shakyamuni is the Buddha who is giving the Dharma talk today in this saha world. From this perspective, the historical Buddha gave teachings for forty years, and then only at the end of his life did he give the teaching of the Lotus Sutra. But in terms of the ultimate dimension, Buddha Shakyamuni and Buddha Sun and Moon Glow are one and the same. In the ultimate dimension, never for a moment has the Buddha ceased to deliver the Lotus Sutra.

So this introductory chapter opens two doors. The first door is that of history, the events we experience and what we can see and know in our own lifetimes. The second door is that of ultimate reality, which goes beyond time and space. Everything, all phenomena, participate in these two dimensions. When we look at a wave on the surface of the ocean, we can see the form of the wave and we locate the wave in space and time. Space and time are not two separate entities; space is made of time and time is made of space. Looking at a wave from the perspective of the historical dimension, it seems to have a beginning and an end, a birth and a death. A wave can be high or low, a wave can be long or short – many qualities can be ascribed to the wave. The notions of “birth” and “death,” “high” or “low,” “beginning” and “ending,” “coming” and “going,” “being” or “nonbeing” – all of these can be applied to a wave in the historical dimension.

We, too, are subject to these notions. When we look in terms of the historical dimension we see that we are subject to being and nonbeing. We are born, but later on we will die. We have a beginning and an end. We have come from somewhere, and we will go somewhere. That is the historical dimension. All of us belong to this dimension. Shakyamuni Buddha also has a historical dimension – he was a human being who was born in Kapilavastu and died in Kushinagara, and during his lifetime of eighty years he taught the Dharma.

At the same time, all beings and things also belong to the ultimate dimension, the dimension of reality that is not subject to notions of space and time, birth and death, coming and going. A wave is a wave, but at the same time it is water. The wave does not have to die in order to become water; it is already water right in the present moment. We don’t speak of water in terms of being or nonbeing, coming and going – water is always water. To talk about a wave, we need these notions: the wave arises and passes away; it comes from somewhere or has gone somewhere; the wave has a beginning and an end; it is high or low, more or less beautiful than other waves; the wave is subject to birth and death. None of these distinctions can be applied to the wave in its ultimate dimension as water. In fact, you cannot separate the wave from its ultimate dimension.

Even though we are used to seeing everything in terms of the historical dimension, we can touch the ultimate dimension. So our practice is to become like a wave – while living the life of a wave in the historical dimension, we realize that we are also water and live the life of water. That is the essence of the practice. Because if you know your true nature of no coming, no going; no being, no nonbeing; no birth, no death, then you will have no fear and can dwell in the ultimate dimension, nirvana, right here and now. You don’t have to die in order to reach nirvana. When you dwell in your true nature, you are already dwelling in nirvana. We have our historical dimension, but we also have our ultimate dimension, just as the Buddha does.

In this introductory chapter, the Lotus Sutra reveals to us these two dimensions. The Buddha Shakyamuni is none other than the Buddha Sun and Moon Glow – and all the other cosmic Buddhas that have appeared in various forms to teach the Dharma from beginningless time.