Overview

The Lotus Sutra is one of the most popular and influential Mahayana sutras, and the basis on which the Tiantai, Tendai, Cheontae, and Nichiren schools of Buddhism were established. For many East Asian Buddhists, the Lotus sutra contains the ultimate and complete teaching of the Buddha and the reciting of the text is believed to be very auspicious. This Lotus sutra is known for its extensive instruction on the concept and usage of skillful means - (Sanskrit: upaya, Japanese: hoben), the seventh paramita or perfection of a Bodhisattva - mostly in the form of parables. The many 'skillful' or 'expedient' means and the three vehicles are revealed to all be part of the One Vehicle (Ekayana), which is also the Bodhisattva path. This is also one of the first sutras to use the term Mahayana, or Great Vehicle . In the Lotus sutra, the One Vehicle encompasses so many different teachings because the Buddha's compassion and wish to save all beings led him to adapt the teaching to suit many different kinds of people. The sutra emphasizes that all these seemingly different teachings are actually just skillful applications of the one dharma and thus all constitute the One Buddha Vehicle and knowledge of all modes . The Lotus sutra sees all other teachings are subservient to, propagated by and in the service of the ultimate truth of the One Vehicle leading to Buddhahood. The Lotus Sutra also claims to be superior to other sutras and states that full Buddhahood is only arrived at by exposure to its teachings and skillful means. Chapter ten of the Burton Watson translation states: ...Medicine King, now I say to you, I have preached various sutras, and among those sutras the Lotus is foremost!

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