112 CHAPTER FIVEThe Buddha then tells Sariputra that only a Tathagata knows all the dhar-
mas as they really are. As the Dharma is exceedingly difficult to fathom, the
Buddhas employ their supreme skill in good means to accommodate the doc-
trine to the varying capacities of living beings. Sariputra pleads with the Bud-
dha to reveal the True Dharma. The Buddha consents and declares: "It is for a
single aim that the Tathagata appears in the world, namely to impart to living
beings the knowledge and vision of a Tathagata:' The Buddhas, furthermore,
preach the Dharma by means of only One Vehicle, the Buddha-yana (Buddha-
vehicle). But when a Buddha appears in a degenerate epoch, among beings
who are corrupt and lacking in merit, he uses the expedient device of the
Three Vehicles (arhant, private-buddha, and bodhisattva). Sariputra rejoices to
hear the Buddha say that the arhants are not condemned to an inferior nirval).a;
that they too will reach supreme, perfect Awakening. Sakyamuni then predicts
that Sariputra will become a Buddha in the distant future.
Sariputra asks the Buddha to dispel the perplexity that the idea of the One
Vehicle has occasioned among sincere Hinayanists in the assembly. Sakyamuni
responds with the parable of the burning house. A rich householder had a vast
and decrepit mansion inhabited by hundreds of living beings. A fire broke out,
and the man devised a stratagem to get his 20 young sons out of the house.
They did not come when he called them, because they were too engrossed in
their playing to notice the flames. So he told them that toy carts-bullock
carts, goat carts, and deer carts-awaited them outside. The boys came out
and found that there was only one kind of cart, a magnificent bullock cart.
Sariputra agrees that the father was not guilty of telling a falsehood as his
aim was to save his children. Sakyamuni says that the Buddha, being the father
of the world, is not guilty of falsehood either, because he was employing upaya
(skillful means) when he ~~nnounced that there are three vehicles. Just as the
rich man gave each of his sons the best of carts, so the Buddha leads all beings
to the same supreme Awakening (Strong EB, sec. 4.1).
Sakyamuni states, "Many trillions of aeons ago, I realized supreme perfect
Awakening." When a Tathagata who so long ago reached perfect Awakening
goes through a semblance of attainment, he does so in order to lead beings to
maturity. Without becoming extinguished, he makes a show of it so that weak
beings will not take his continuing presence for granted. When these people
are convinced that the apparition ofTathagatas is rare, they become more zeal-
ous. Sakyamuni declares that he resides forever on Mount G:rdhrakuta, preach-
ing the Dharma, and that when the unawakened imagine that this ordinary
world is engulfed in flames at the end of an aeon, it is really a paradise with
gardens, palaces, and aerial cars, teeming with gods and human beings.
The Lotus Sutra is obviously an attempt to provide Sakyamuni with a re-
splendent Buddha-land in no way inferior to that of the mythic Cosmic Bud-
dhas described in other Sutras. However, the "this world" portrayed in the
Lotus bears little if any resemblance to the human world; and as the Sutra re-
places the historical Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha with a mythic, supernatural
version of all three, it actually devalues the human condition and the potential
for Awakening here and now. The career of the historical Buddha is said to be