The Buddha taught these three vehicles to respond to the different levels and capacities of beings, the different causes and conditions, and the different times and situations in which the teachings were given. The three-vehicles teaching is a skillful means in the historical dimension. In terms of the ultimate dimension, however, the Buddha always aims to reveal the deepest meaning, the absolute truth. The reason for all Tathagatas appearing in the world is to guide living beings to the ultimate truth of the One Vehicle, which is also called the Buddha vehicle – opening up, pointing out, awakening to, and entering the insight of the Buddha. So the philosophy of the One Vehicle revealed in the Lotus Sutra has been called “opening up the three to the one” or “gathering the three and returning them to the one.” The teaching of the three vehicles is but a skillful means; in fact, there is only One Vehicle. The Buddha says in a verse:

Within the Buddha Lands of the ten directions
There is the Dharma of only One Vehicle.
There are not two, nor are there yet three,
Save where the Buddha,
Preaching by resort to expedients,
And by merely borrowing provisional names and words,
Draws the beings to him.

This passage is considered the essence of the second chapter of the Lotus Sutra. With this insight, the Sutra achieves something that all previous Mahayana sutras had not yet been able to do. It reconciles and unifies the teachings of the three vehicles into the One Vehicle, the great vehicle that has the capacity to carry all beings to the shore of liberation. This is the heart of the wonderful Dharma, and it is for this reason that the Lotus Sutra is regarded as the king of sutras, not because it expresses more profound or mystical theories, but because it reunites all the disciples and paths of practice into the one great family of the Buddha.