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The Lotus Sutra in Japanese Culture

Lotus Sutra in Japanese Culture bookcoverContinuing with my Office Lens houscleaning, I will be offering  quotes from The Lotus Sutra in Japanese Culture for the next 10 days. Published by the University of Hawaii Press in 1989, this selection of  essays was edited by George J. Tanabe Jr. and Willa Jane Tanabe. The Tanabes are famous – perhaps infamous – for the editors’ Introduction, in which they describe the Lotus Sutra as a text “about a discourse that is never delivered, a lengthy preface without a book.”

Having been introduced to the book as a footnote for that quote I was not surprised to find this infamous Introduction stumbles in summarizing the sutra.

In the opening scene of the Lotus Sutra, great sages, deities, and kings gather by the tens of thousands to hear the Buddha speak. After the multitude showers him with reverent offerings, the Buddha offers some preliminary words and then enters a state of deep concentration. The heavens rain flowers and the earth trembles while the crowd waits for the sermon. Then the Buddha emits a glowing light from the tuft of white hair between his brows and illuminates the thousands of worlds in all directions of the universe. The bodhisattva Maitreya, wanting to know the meaning of this sign, asks Mañjuśrī, who searches back into his memory and recalls a similar display of light:

You good men, once before, in the presence of past Buddhas, I saw this portent: when the Buddhas had emitted this light, straightway they preached the great Dharma. Thus it should be understood that the present Buddha’s display of light is also of this sort. It is because he wishes all the living beings to be able to hear and know the Dharma, difficult of belief for all the worlds, that he displays this portent.

Everything that is happening now, recalls Maitreya, happened in that distant past when the Buddha preached the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings and entered samādhi as the universe trembled and rained flowers.

Lotus Sutra in Japanese Culture, {author-numb}

Okay. It’s just a typo. It’s not like I haven’t made any typos here. I’m sure the editors know that it is Mañjuśrī who recalls his past life experience.

As for that infamous quote, here’s the context:

The status of the sutra is raised to that of an object of worship, for it is to be revered in and of itself because of the merits it asserts for itself. As praises for the Lotus Sutra mount with increasing elaboration, it is easy to fall in with the sutra’s protagonists and, like them, fail to notice that the preaching of the Lotus sermon promised in the first chapter never takes place. The text, so full of merit, is about a discourse which is never delivered; it is a lengthy preface without a book.

The Lotus Sutra is thus unique among texts. It is not merely subject to various interpretations, as all texts are, but is open or empty at its very center. It is a surrounding text, pure context, which invites not only interpretation of what is said but filling in of what is not said. It therefore lends itself more easily than do other scriptures to being shaped by users of the text.

The fact that the preaching remains an unfulfilled promise is never mentioned, mostly because that fact is hardly noticed, or because the paean about the sermon sounds like the sermon itself. The text is taken at face value: praise about the Lotus Sutra becomes the Lotus Sutra, and since the unpreached sermon leaves the text undefined in terms of a fixed doctrinal value (save, of course, the value of the paean) it can be exchanged at any number of rates. Exchange involves transformation, the turning of one thing into another, and the Lotus Sutra can thus be minted into other expressions of worth. That transformation process, beginning with the original text itself, did in fact take place, and the different ways in which the Lotus Sutra was transformed into aspects of Japanese culture are the subject of this collection of essays.

Lotus Sutra in Japanese Culture, {author-numb}

I will offer quotes from two of the 10 essays. Some of the essays are not quotable and some I find objectionable. Here’s an example of the latter from the essay “The Meaning of the Formation and Structure of the Lotus Sutra” by Shioiri Ryōdō:

In the mid-Heian period the Pure Land belief centered on Amida became quite popular, and in Nihon ōjō gokuraku ki (An Account of Japanese Reborn in Paradise) by Yoshishige no Yasutane (934-997) there are many legends patterned after examples of the Chinese Buddhists considered to have been reborn in the Pure Land paradise. Eshin Sōzu (Genshin, 942-1017), a priest of Mt. Hiei, is famous for writing Ōjōyōshū (Essentials for Rebirth), in which he describes paradise and hell in detail and speaks of loathing the defilements of this world and desiring rebirth in paradise. In a certain sense it could be said that he perfected the Pure Land teaching on Mt. Hiei. Those who gathered around these two men heard lectures on the Lotus Sutra, wrote poems based on phrases from the sutra, and made the recitation of the nembutsu their central practice. Recitations of the Lotus Sutra and the name of Amida coexisted without the slightest contradiction. When I was asked by Professor Inoue Mitsusada to annotate the Ōjōden (Biographies of Rebirth) and the Hokke genki (Miraculous Tales of the Lotus Sutra) for the Iwanami series on Japanese thought, I spent nearly a year at this task and was keenly aware of the compatibility of the two practices as I became intimate with the biographies of those reborn. The Ōjōden is a collection of biographies of forty-five Buddhists, beginning with Shōtoku Taishi; of the thirty-five who are said to have gained rebirth in paradise, seven are explicitly described as believers in the Lotus Sutra. The number can be extended to ten if we include those who I think were believers or practitioners of the Lotus Sutra even though there is no explicit reference to this. In a text where only three people are said to have practiced esoteric Buddhism apart from their Pure Land belief and only two were adherents of other sutras, we can see the extent to which the Lotus Sutra was preferred.

Lotus Sutra in Japanese Culture, {author-numb}

Yes, in the Heian period the “recitations of the Lotus Sutra and the name of Amida coexisted without the slightest contradiction.” That’s exactly why Nichiren Shōnin was so adamant that things had gotten out of hand.

While I did not quote from Geroge Tanabe’s “Tanaka Chigaku: The Lotus Sutra and the Body Politic,” I recommend it as an introduction to Tanaka and his fervent nationalist Nichirenism.


Book Quotes

Book List

Service d’aurevoir à Ryusho Kansho Jeffus Shonin

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20200816_RyushoMemorialService-cover
PDF copy

Yesterday I posted about Ryusho Kansho Jeffus Shonin’s memorial services. I had wanted to include the program from the sangha memorial but had misplaced my copy. Davie Endo Byden-Oakes has sent me another copy and so I have an opportunity to include it now.

Davie opened with these prepared remarks:

Hello everyone and thank you for your presence on this special day.

To say goodbye to Ryusho Kansho Jeffus Shonin who accompanied many of us on the steep path of the Dharma so that a sweet rain of ambrosia soothes our respective karmas and helps us taste the flavour of the Sutra of the Lotus.

Because of his discretion many of us did not know that he was among the first non-Japanese practitioners of Nichiren Shu to be ordained Shami and then Priest. This is how Ryusho was, modest and following in the footsteps of our founder the great Bodhisattva Nichiren Shonin and the eternal Buddha Shakyamuni.

Thank you and goodbye Sesnei Ryusho Kansho Jeffus Shonin.

As with all of Ryusho’s recent services, it was held in both English and French, with Alice and sometimes Béatrice tasked with helping translate English to French for those attendees who cannot speak both.

Hocine offered a French translation of Davie’s introduction and then the service began using the Ryusho’s sangha Dharma book.

Invocation – English Alice
Invocation – French Hocine

Verses for Opening the Sutra – English John
Verses for Opening the Sutra – French Béatrice

Lotus Sutra Chapter 2 – Shindoku Neil
Lotus Sutra Chapter 16 – Shindoku John

Nichiren’s Words – English Neil
Letter to Niike
“How swiftly the days pass! It makes us realize how few are the
years we have left. Friends enjoy the cherry blossoms together
on spring mornings, and then they are gone, carried away like
the blossoms by the winds of impermanence, leaving nothing
but their names. Although the blossoms have scattered, the
cherry trees will bloom again with the coming of the spring, but
when will those people be reborn?”

Nichiren’s Words – French Alice
Lettre à Nikko
Avec quelle rapidité les jours s’enfuient-ils ! En les voyant ainsi
passer, nous comprenons la brièveté des années qu’il nous reste
à vivre. Les amis avec qui, par les matinées de printemps, nous
goûtions la joie d’admirer les cerisiers en fleur, ne sont plus. Les
vents de l’impermanence les ont emportés, comme des pétales,
ne laissant derrière eux que leurs noms. Même si les pétales des
fleurs se sont éparpillées, les cerisiers refleuriront au printemps
prochain, mais quand renaîtront ces êtres qui ne sont plus?

Odaimoku Chanting Davie
(Please offer incense while chanting)
Namu Myo Ho Ren Ge Kyo
南無妙法蓮華経

Difficulty of Retaining the Sutra – English Vittoria
Difficulty of Retaining the Sutra – French Juan

Prayer Davie
Four Great Vows – Shindoku Hocine
Final Words
Anyone present would like to say a few words?

Honoring Ryusho

Yesterday afternoon I attended the formal service for Ryusho Kansho Jeffus Shonin. I say “the formal service” because his sangha, the people who practiced with him via Zoom, held their own service today. I think Ryushho would have been impressed by the showing at the “formal service” but he would have been very happy with his sangha’s tribute.


My wife and I both attended the formal service, which was held at 4 pm our time. Whoever decided the time certainly didn’t take Ryusho’s sangha into consideration. The majority are in England and Europe, putting the service at midnight or 1 am.

It was nice to see the American Nichiren Shu priests take part – Ryuoh Faulkconer, Kanjin Cederman, Shinkyo Warner, Myokei Caine-Barrett, Ryuei McCormick and Shoda Kanai. Several shami attended along with at least one foreign priest, Ervinna Myoufu from Jakarta.

The number of attendees fluctuated between 46 and 50, including Ryusho’s brother, Tim, and his niece, Beth. We even had an unwanted Zoom-bomber interrupt the service.

2020-08-16_sangha

But the real people who missed Ryusho showed up Sunday morning to pay tribute to their sensei. Led by Davie Endo Byden-Oakes, the sangha members from the United States, England, Portugal, France and Czech Republic held a fitting memorial service. Each component of the service was divided among the attendess, just as Ryusho had divided the services he held.

See Service d’aurevoir à Ryusho Kansho Jeffus Shonin

Ryusho Kansho Jeffus Shonin

At 8:27 am today I received word that Rev. Ryusho Shonin had died this morning at the Syracuse VA Medical Center, where he had been hospitalized since July 24, 2020. Anyone who has followed this blog will understand just how important Ryusho Shonin has been in the development of my practice.

Here’s a chronological snapshot of his influence.

Sept. 6, 2015, Service at Myoshoji with Ryusho Jeffus Shonin
Sept. 6, 2015, Service at Myoshoji with Ryusho Jeffus Shonin from Charlotte, North Carolina. My first post with his photo.
Sunday Service with Ryusho Jeffus
Sept. 20, 2015 service from Charlotte, NC. With Ryusho is Bill Buck, a Charlotte musician who is still today a member of Ryusho’s sangha
Oct. 4, 2015, Dharma talk
An Oct. 4, 2015, Dharma talk. His most important lesson for me was the requirement that we put Buddhism into practice in our lives. His talks and books focused on how to do that.
Nov. 1, 2015, Myoshoji Service
A Nov. 1, 2015, service with seven attendees, five of whom are shown at left.
Ryusho Jeffus Shonin 20151115
Ryusho’s Dharma talk on faith and doubt on Sunday, Nov. 15, 2015. Happy Buddhism
Nov. 22, 2015, Myoshoji Service discussion
Nov. 22, 2015, Myoshoji Service. These were always intimate affairs.
Ryusho Jeffus leads discussion following online service Sunday, Jan. 10, 2016
Ryusho Jeffus leads discussion following online service Sunday, Jan. 10, 2016. While broadcasting from his home/temple in Charlotte he often had more people IRL than online
Online discussion following the Myoshoji service
The blog post where this photo first appeared explains: “Following the service, Rev. Ryusho Jeffus discussed how each of us can show the Lotus Sutra in our lives, challenging us to write our story in the context of the Lotus Sutra.”
Portion of crowd attending March 13, 2016, Sunday service at Myoshoji in Charlotte, NC


March 21, 2016, Monday night study is an example of Ryusho’s efforts to merge practice and study.


Introduction
I attended Ryusho’s 2015 and 2016 Urban Retreats.


As a former member of Soka Gakkai, Ryusho Jeffus was able to help others understand how Nichiren Shu differed from SGI.

On Nov. 27, 2016, Ryusho created this mandala omamori for me. This and a Kishimojin omamori I purchased from Ryusho became my traveling altar.
Screengrab from first service with Ryusho Shonin from Myosho-ji Temple since the move to Syracuse on Feb. 26, 2017.
Ryusho Shonin broadcasting April 19, 2017, from his new altar space in Syracuse, NY, during an online discussion of the Shutei Nichiren Shu Hoyo Shiki, the manual that priests and those studying to be priests use.
Sunday, March 3, 2019, online service with Rev. Ryusho Jeffus was attended by two couples in France, a young man in England as well as attendees in North Carolina, South Carolina, Iowa and Ohio.
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On Sept. 15, 2019, Ryusho announced his intention to retire. He outlined his retirement plans. His health, already troublesome, wouldn’t improve.
Lunch in Lewiston
My wife, Mary, and I had lunch with Ryusho Jeffus in Syracuse, NY, on Monday, Nov. 4, 2019
Ryusho Jeffus from hospital
A few days after my lunch with Ryusho, he suffered a collapsed lung during a flight from Syracuse to California on his way to visit his brother. The plane made an emergency landing in Arizona. On Nov. 17, 2019, Ryusho hosted an online service from his hospital room.
The last time I saw Ryusho in person (at right in this photo) was at Mark Herrick’s Feb. 16, 2020, Tokudo Jukai-shiki cermony in which he became a shami.
Zoom capture of service
Then the pandemic hit this year and the nation shut down in March and everyone was learning what Ryusho had demonstrated for years: Zoom keeps you connected.
Ryusho was given formal approval by Nichiren Shu headquarters to be the official priest for a group of practitioners in Europe. (Don’t recall exactly when that was. Perhaps in 2019.) He would have his bilingual members translate what he said into French for those who had difficulty with English. This is the crowd from the April 26, 2020, service. Attending are regulars from Portugal, Czech Republic, France, England and the United States.
20200726_Myoshoji_Service_Attendees
Attendees of the Myoshoji online service July 26, 2020, led by Davie Byden-Oakes in England. This was the day Ryusho’s online sangha learned he was in the hospital.
Just a small sample of the artwork Ryusho sent to my wife and me. While he was a strong believer in online technology, he was also old school, mailing his handcrafted cards.

I want to finish this with a quote from Ryusho’s Lecture on the Lotus Sutra:

Perhaps it is the reality of our modern advertisement saturated media that has led many to believe that only after buying and using every product known to man, after every single penny is spent that has ever been earned in the entire history of man- and womankind then and only then will somehow perfection and happiness be possible. Somehow by doing something so unlikely to produce indestructible happiness as buying a product is more realistic than the realization that each one of us is already all we need to be. We are as complete as we need to be in order to become indestructibly happy. All we need to do is simply wake up to this reality in our lives, and the Buddha is telling us that the Lotus Sutra is the most efficacious way of doing this.

Why I Chant

Yesterday, I summarized Rev. Kenjo Igarashi’s sermon in which he told the tale of an SGI member who sought to switch to Nichiren Shu in the hope of having better success chanting for a new girlfriend.

I could relate to the guy. I spent roughly 26 years believing that the purpose of chanting daimoku was to get stuff – a new job, a raise, even a child. But that all started to fall apart in the summer of 2008 when I was laid off the day after I learned my wife had breast cancer. I didn’t abandon my faith. Instead, I chanted more. I did more SGI activities. I attended more meetings. But, as I’ve explained before, the more I dug looking for water to slake my thirst, the more I realized I wasn’t digging in the right place. It did not take long after I began attending services at the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church in January 2015 that I discovered the wellspring of Buddhism.

So, why bring this up now?

In writing yesterday’s post I was unable to quickly produce a reasoned explanation of why I chant.  Instead I offered this milquetoast explanation:

The purpose of the Lotus Sutra is to save all livings beings. Chanting the Odaimoku puts oneself in alignment with the sutra. We practice for ourselves but we also practice for others. We don’t practice to get stuff.

My failure was underscored for me when I read the Day 10 quote from Nichiren found in the Raihai Seiten, which I use in my daily practice:

All the good deeds and virtues of the Buddha Sakyamuni are manifested in the title of the Lotus Sutra, that is, in the five characters: Myō Hō Ren Ge Kyō. However sinful we may be, we shall be naturally endowed with all the deeds and virtues of the Buddha if we adhere to these five characters.

Kanjin Honzon Sho

I really felt that I should have done better in describing why I chant. The purpose of this website is to make quotes I’ve read available to me in just such a situation, but I couldn’t be bothered to search this site.

Sheepishly, I now belatedly offer quotes from a post I wrote on Nov. 1, 2015:

Rev. Shoryo Tarabini in his book, Odaimoku: The Significance of Chanting Namu Myoho Renge Kyo, writes:

I am often confronted with the question, “if I chant Namu Myoho Renge Kyo will I receive benefits?” There are some people who chant the Odaimoku solely for material benefit and personal gain. The protective and beneficial powers of Namu Myoho Renge Kyo are not only vast and profound, they are limitless. One can chant, when in need for material or even financial benefit and those prayers will be indeed answered.

However, to practice the chanting of the Buddha’s eternal enlightenment for mere material or economic gain is, to say the least, the smallest of the merit and the most insignificant benefit one will receive. And while not negating the necessity at times to chant and pray for certain things when confronted with problems in life, people who – only – chant for everyday material gain, are still at an infant level of their understanding of Buddhism and development. One who instead strives to practice and live in accordance with the teachings of the Buddha, will certainly obtain tranquility and immense satisfaction in all facets of life over time.

Rev. Ryusho Jeffus, in his book, Lecture on the Lotus Sutra, writes:

Buddhism … is not about prosperity practice. Our goal should be to eliminate suffering, and attachment to material gain is an attachment, and bound to eventually lead to more suffering. No thing is immune to decay, even wealth and if not the wealth then certainly the body. The goal of our practice is to become enlightened, to manifest our inherent Buddha potential, and thereby convert our lands into the Buddha’s pure land.

Rev. Ryuei Michael McCormick, in “Lotus World: An Illustrated Guide to the Gohonzon,” writes:

It should be clear that the Odaimoku is more than simply the title of the Lotus Sutra. Neither is chanting the Odaimoku viewed by Nichiren Buddhism as merely a concentration device or a mantra practiced for accruing benefits. It is an expression of the practitioner’s faith and joy in the Buddha’s teaching contained in the Lotus Sutra, the teaching that buddhahood is not only a potential within all our lives but an active presence leading us to awakening in this very moment. The Odaimoku is like a seed that we plant within our lives. Continuing to chant Namu Myoho Renge Kyo as our essential daily practice, we nurture that seed so that ultimately the wisdom and compassion of buddhahood can bloom within us and within all beings.

The Power of the Odaimoku

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Rev. Igarashi at his podium before the service Sunday
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Rev. Igarashi seated before the service at his folding table altar.

Attended the Matsubagayatsu Persecution Service at the Sacramento Nichiren Church on Sunday. By 11:30 am the temperature outside under the canopies was more than 90 degrees on its way to a forecast high for 101. Cloth masks made it seem even hotter and the fans set around the perimeter failed to cool.

August 27, 1260, just forty-one days after Nichiren Shonin submitted his “Rissho Ankoku-ron” to the Shogunate, a mob set fire to Nichiren’s hermitage in the Matsubagayatsu section of Kamakura. According to legend, a white monkey alerted Nichiren to the danger and led him to safety.

The topic of Rev. Kenjo Igarashi‘s sermon was the power of the Odaimoku and to illustrate this he told the story of man who started attending services in Long Beach where Rev. Igarashi officiates once a month. (Well, not since the pandemic hit, but once a month before then.)

This new guy explained to Rev. Igarashi that he had been chanting the daimoku with SGI for many years and had decided that he might have better luck with Nichiren Shu. Seems he was chanting for a new girlfriend.

The purpose of the Lotus Sutra is to save all livings beings. Chanting the Odaimoku puts oneself in alignment with the sutra. We practice for ourselves but we also practice for others. We don’t practice to get stuff.

The white monkey who saved Nichiren illustrates the power of the Odaimoku, Rev. Igarashi explained. Protective deities watch out for those who chant Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō.

Help in times of trouble: That’s what chanting brings.

New girlfriends: Not so much.

The Rivers that Fill the Ocean

Continuing with my Office Lens housecleaning, I will be publishing quotes I gathered from Eknath Easwaran’s translation of The Dhammapada through Aug. 17. Easwaran’s introduction to the Dhammapada provides an excellent overview of the Buddha’s teachings.

Why this book? While Nichiren Buddhists are often criticized for exclusivistic focus on the Lotus Sutra, I believe that by learning about the provisional teachings we gain a deeper appreciation of the Lotus Sutra. The Lotus Sutra is, after all, the ocean into which all of the separate rivers of Buddhism flow.

As Nichiren writes:

Once they enter the great ocean of the Lotus Sūtra, the teachings preached before the Lotus are no longer shunned as provisional. It is the mysterious virtue of the great ocean of the Lotus Sūtra that, once they are encompassed in the single flavor of Namu-myōhō-renge-kyō, there is no longer any reason to refer to the distinct names “nenbutsu, ” “precepts,” “shingon, ” or “Zen.” Thus the commentary states, “When the various rivers enter the sea, they assume the same unitary salty flavor. When the various kinds of wisdom [represented by the provisional teachings] enter the true teaching, they lose their original names.

At one time I considered taking the Dhammapada verses and creating a Daily Dharma on Instagram. My inspiration was this verse:

Our life is shaped by our mind; we become what we think. Suffering follows an evil thought as the wheels of a cart follow the oxen that draw it.

Unfortunately finding appropriate, public domain art proved too difficult. Still, I recommend reading the full Dhammapada.

The Power and Appeal of the Lotus Sutra

Following up on the quotes from Gene Reeves’ Translator’s Introduction to his 2008 translation of the The Lotus Sutra, I continue my Office Lens housecleaning with a quote from Burton Watson’s Translator’s Introduction to his 1993 translation of The Lotus Sutra.

The Lotus is not so much an integral work as a collection of religious texts, an anthology of sermons, stories and devotional manuals, some speaking with particular force to persons of one type or in one set of circumstances, some to those of another type or in other circumstances. This is no doubt one reason why it has had such broad and lasting appeal over the ages and has permeated so deeply into the cultures that have been exposed to it.

The present translation is offered in the hope that through it readers of English may come to appreciate something of the power and appeal of the Lotus Sutra, and that among its wealth of profound religious ideas and striking imagery they may find passages that speak compellingly to them as well. (Page xxii)

The Reality and Importance of One Buddha in Many Embodiments

Today I conclude the quotes I saved from Gene Reeves’ Translator’s Introduction to his 2008 translation of the The Lotus Sutra as I continue my Office Lens housecleaning.

The idea in this sutra that everyone has the ability to become a buddha gave rise to the association of the sutra with the notion of Buddha-nature as found in somewhat later Mahayana sutras. The term “Buddha-nature” is another powerful expression of the reality and importance of the one Buddha in many embodiments. One’s Buddha-nature is both the Buddha’s and one’s own. Consequently, anyone can develop an ability to see the Buddha in others, their Buddha-nature. Thus, to awaken is to see, to see the Buddha, or as the text often says, to see countless buddhas.

It would be a great mistake, I think, to reify this notion, turning it into some sort of substantial reality underlying ordinary realities, something that is easy to do and is often done. In the text itself, it seems to me, Buddha-nature has no such ontological status. It is mainly a skillful way of indicating a potential, a potential with real power, to move in the direction of being a buddha by taking up the bodhisattva way.

It is also a very clever way to answer the question of how it is possible for one to overcome obstacles, however conceived, along the path of becoming a buddha. If ordinary human beings are completely under the sway of passions and delusions, by what power can they break through such a net of limitations? Some say that it is only by one’s own strength; one can be saved only by oneself. Others say that it is only by the power of Amida Buddha or perhaps Guan-yin that one can be led to awakening. The Lotus Sutra says that it is by a power that is at once one’s own and Shakyamuni Buddha’s. The Buddha really is embodied in the lives of ordinary people. He himself is both a one and a many. (Reeves, p15-16)

A More Generous and Inclusive Lotus Sutra

Today I continue my Office Lens housecleaning with another quote from Gene Reeves’ Translator’s Introduction to his 2008 translation of the The Lotus Sutra.

As in the case of the carriages in the parable of the burning house, the great vehicle can be understood as replacing the other vehicles, or as making skillful means unnecessary. There are passages in the sutra that suggest this interpretation. We might call this the narrow interpretation of the Lotus Sutra, a perspective taken by some followers of Nichiren. They insist that in the Lotus Sutra they have found the one truth in light of which all other claims, and all other forms of religion including all other forms of Buddhism, are to be rejected as false and misleading. Most of those who study the Lotus Sutra, however, understand the teaching of the one vehicle in a much more generous, inclusive way.

The one vehicle itself can be understood as nothing but skillful means. That is, without a great variety of skillful means there can be no one vehicle, since it is through skillful means that living beings are led toward the goal of being a buddha. Without skillful means the one vehicle would be an empty, useless vehicle. Furthermore, the one vehicle itself is a teaching device, a skillful means of teaching that the many means have a common purpose. (Reeves, p13)