The Lotus Sūtra is central to the T’ien-t’ai/Tendai tradition, which regards it as the culmination of the Buddha’s teachings, preached during the last eight years of his life. Some Mahāyāna sūtras deny the validity of the two “lesser vehicles” (Hinayāna)—the vehicle of the Śrāvaka or voicehearer, culminating in the state of the arhat and, at life’s end, in final nirväqa, and the vehicle of the Pratyeka-buddha or independently enlightened “private Buddha,” also culminating at death in final nirvāṇa—and supplant both with the bodhisattva vehicle, which leads to supreme Buddhahood. The Lotus, however, while maintaining the superiority of the bodhisattva vehicle, subsumes all three within the “one Buddha vehicle.” “Within the Buddha lands of the ten directions,” it says, “there is the Dharma of only One Vehicle. There are not two, nor are there yet three. ” The sūtra acknowledges that the Buddha did indeed teach three paths or vehicles, yet this threefold division of the Dharma was apparent, not real; it represents the Buddha’s skillful means (upāya, hōben) set forth in response to the varying capacities of his followers. His true intention was to lead all beings to the supreme enlightenment represented by the one Buddha vehicle. (Page 12)