Since I became a Buddha, I [also] have been expounding various teachings with various stories of previous lives, with various parables, and with various similes. I have been leading all living beings with innumerable expedients in order to save them from various attachments, because I have the power to employ expedients and the power to perform the pāramitā of insight.
What has been stated so far is all about praising the Buddha’s wisdom. The present statement is the direct recounting of what Śākyamuni says he did himself. Entitling the [present] chapter (“Expedient Devices”) has yielded this phrase. The preceding words, accords with what is appropriate, may then be seen as bringing “encumbrances”; it is necessary thus to explain this again. [The Buddha] said “[what he preaches] accords with what is appropriate,” in the sense that “in accordance with” the kind of disease there should be “what is appropriate.” Diseases are myriad in kind. [By the same token] the teaching cannot be in a set pattern; but its fundamental purpose is to lead [beings] to cast aside their “encumbrances.” Otherwise [even] for a day, their “encumbrances” would not be loosened from (or “abandon”) li. Hence, he said, “since achieving Buddhahood.”

The gate to it is difficult to understand and difficult to enter.

[The value of] wisdom consists in preaching. Preaching is what the gateways refer to. Not only is wisdom incomprehensible but the “gateways” also are hard to fathom. Fathoming the “gateways” means realizing that there are no three [vehicles]. Is not this something that is “hard to understand?”

“The wisdom of the [present] Buddhas is profound and immeasurable.

Although [the Buddha’s] speeches are varied in myriad ways, yet the intent [of the words] lies in manifesting the One. When beings deviate from the import of the words, creating a “profound [chasm]” with respect to “wisdom,” it is not because the “wisdom” [as such] is “profound,” but merely because the beings themselves are far away (literally, “profound”) from “wisdom. ” This expression laments the failure [of beings in reaching the Buddha’s intent]. How can this be taken as a praise for “wisdom”?

Thereupon the World-Honored One emerged quietly from his samādhi, and said to Śāriputra:

As [the Buddha] has been to the profound realm [in his samādhi,] his recondite words are also [necessarily] deep. Because Mañjuśrī resolved Maitreya’s doubts about the rain flowers and earth trembling, as mentioned earlier [in the first chapter], should this not have shaken off their confusion and cleansed their minds? Their minds being emptied, they would be ready to accept the One Vehicle. Thereupon ‘the Sage set forth the track,’ acquiesced and ‘moved,’ and then rising from his concentration, started speaking. What he said must be profound and proper. It being profound and proper, those who receive it must naturally become earnest.

The reason why [the Buddha] proclaimed to Śāriputra [in particular] is because, although his trace seemed close in rank to the voice hearers, his actual illumination surpassed his peers, thus qualifying him to be ‘respondent in the dialogue’ [with the Buddha].

In the past [the Buddha] has hidden [his teaching proper] within the traces of the three vehicles, which his followers [mistakenly] regarded as the teaching proper. Now [the Buddha] wishes to reveal the One reality, showing what is true and right. Because he clarifies what is right by means of what is wrong, this chapter is titled “Expedient Devices.” As the previous three vehicles are indicated as expedient devices, the One reality is clearly postulated here and, though how it is so is not mentioned, it is self-evident. If it is titled “One Vehicle,” li will look like one. Hence, [the chapter] is referred to as Expedient Devices, and yet it is still expressive of ‘the realm [of the One reality] which only superlative description (or praise) may befit’ (or the ‘ineffable realm’).

The good omen I see now is like that of old.
This is an expedient employed by the Buddhas.
The present Buddha is also emitting a ray of light
In order to reveal the truth of the reality [of all things].

There is no more falsehood of the two vehicles. He preaches only the reality of the Greater Vehicle.

Thereupon Mañjuśrī, wishing to repeat what he had said, sang in gāthās in the midst of the great multitude:

As for the way the gāthās are composed, what was [mentioned] before [in prose] may sometimes be omitted and not chanted [in the gāthās]; what was not previously [in prose] may sometimes be included in the gāthās. It is also difficult to set a standard [on what is to be chanted]. It is possible only to determine provisionally at a specific point of time what should be [chanted].

“At that time there was a Bodhisattva called Virtue-Store. Sun-Moon-Light Buddha assured him of his future Buddhahood. The Buddha said to the bhikṣus, ‘This Virtue-Store Bodhisattva will become a Buddha immediately after me. He will be called Pure-Body, the Tathagata, the Arhat, the Samyak-sambuddha.’

“Having assured him of his future Buddhahood, the Buddha then entered into the Nirvāṇa-without-remainder at midnight. “

[Consequently] they sought for the Dharma earnestly with the utmost effort. The motive for [the Buddha’s] gift to Womb of Excellence (Śrīgarbha) of the prophecy that he would later become a Buddha is to attract those with [excessive] self-esteem. If they hear suddenly that the Buddha is about to [enter] nirvāṇa, which means that there will be no Sage [to guide them] from then on, they will then immediately stop their journey in the middle of the path they have trodden. Another reason [the Buddha] conferred the prophecy of his future Buddhahood on Womb of Excellence is because people of the world, seeking after fame and profit, tend to be very fond of holding on to what is near while rejecting that which is far off, and he wanted to admonish them from such proclivities.

“Sun-Moon-Light Buddha emerged from his samādhi, and expounded the sūtra of the Great Vehicle to Wonderful-Light Bodhisattva and others without rising from his seat for sixty small kalpas.”

What he preached at this particular time he was going to continue preaching for sixty kalpas. How can this be true? This time span is used [merely] to express the utmost respect for the Dharma.

“At that time there was a Bodhisattva called Wonderful-Light. He had eight hundred disciples.”

The eight hundred disciples are featured to indicate that it is not only now that Maitreya has sought advice from Mañjuśrī, but that in the past he also received instruction [from him] as his pupil. Now he has again become the one who inquires [about the portents]: he is bound to obtain enlightenment [this time].