Having mentioned yesterday the idea that merits vary according to own’s karma, I want to show how this plays into what the Buddha chose to teach.

“O you of good intent! By virtue of sitting upright and properly for six years at the place of the Way beneath the bodhi tree, I realized and achieved the full dynamic of ultimate enlightenment. With the insight of a buddha I perceived that not everything should be explained. What is the reason for this? It is that the conditioned desires of all living beings are not the same. Since conditioned desires differ, ways of expounding the Dharma are many and various. For more than forty years I have expounded the Dharma in all manner of ways through adeptness in skillful means, but the core truth has still not been revealed. That is why living beings differ regarding realization of the Way, and do not realize and quickly achieve ultimate enlightenment.

“O you of good intent! The Dharma is like water that can wash away dirt and grime. Whether coming from a well or a pond, a stream or a river, a valley or a ditch, or an ocean, the water contained in all of these can effectively wash all kinds of dirt and grime away. So it is also with the water of the Dharma: it can cleanse living beings of the dirt of all delusive worldly passions. O you of good intent! The character of the water is the same even though streams, rivers, wells, ponds, valleys, ditches, and oceans are each different and distinct. So it is also with the character of the Dharma: it removes and washes away the dirt of delusive passions equally and without discrimination; the three teachings,14 the four fruits, and the two ways, however, are not one and the same.

“O you of good intent! Although the water from all of these places is cleansing, a well is not a pond, a pond is neither a stream nor a river, and valleys and ditches are not oceans. The Tathāgata—Hero of the World, in total command of the Dharma—has expounded various teachings that are also like this. The initial-period discourses, the middle-period discourses, and the latter-period discourses are all able to remove and wash away delusive worldly passions of living beings. But the initial-period discourses are not the middle ones, and the middle-period discourses are not the latter ones. The initial-, middle-, and latter-period discourses express the same thing, yet they differ from each other in meaning.

The sutra goes on to explain the differences of the various teachings and then concludes:

“And so, you of good intent, starting from when I established the Way and first began to expound the Dharma, until this moment in which I am discoursing on the all-ferrying Infinite Meanings Sutra, there has never been a time when I have not expounded suffering, emptiness, ever changingness, nonexistence of self, non-reality, non-unreality, non- greatness, non-smallness, intrinsic non-origination, continuing non-cessation, the formlessness of all things, that aspects and natures of phenomena neither come nor go, and that the four modes are the dynamic of living beings.

“O you of good intent! What all this means is that the buddhas have but one message: they are able to conform universally to all voices by means of a single sound. From a single body they are able to manifest embodiments as countless and immeasurable as millions upon millions of myriads of Ganges Rivers’ sands; then, in each embodiment, manifest various shapes as countless as millions upon millions of myriads of Ganges Rivers’ sands; then, in each shape, display appearances as countless as some millions upon millions of myriads of Ganges Rivers’ sands. O you of good intent! This, in fact, is the profound and unimaginable realm of all of the buddhas! It is neither knowable by those of the two vehicles nor reachable by bodhisattvas in the tenth development stage! Only a buddha together with a buddha can fathom it completely! O you of good intent! Thus do I expound the transcendent, profound, incomparable, all-ferrying Infinite Meanings Sutra! Its content and principles are true and correct, and its value is supreme and unsurpassed. It is embraced by the buddhas of the past, present, and future together. It is impervious to the influence of disruptive forces and the influence of differing views, and is neither corrupted nor destroyed by any deluded perception or the cycle of births and deaths. If great-being bodhisattvas wish to achieve ultimate enlightenment quickly, they should achieve mastery in the practice of this deeply profound, unsurpassed, all-ferrying Infinite Meanings Sutra.”

Underscore: the buddhas have but one message.