Prior to the Lotus Sutra, the Buddha taught many different teachings for a variety of people, teachings well suited to the capacities and natures of those he taught. With the teaching of the Lotus Sutra, though, we have the advent of the unification of all those individual teachings into one specific complete teaching that goes beyond the ending point of the parts of the whole. Our challenge, as contemporary practitioners of Buddhism, is to learn from the prior teachings, but do so from the point of the unity presented in the Lotus Sutra.