Skillful Means: The Buddha's Wisdom
方便品第二（上）
The Buddha rises from his samādhi and, before Śāriputra, praises a wisdom he calls "hard to understand and hard to enter" — then declines three times to explain it further. When Śāriputra's threefold plea finally succeeds, five thousand members of the assembly, too certain of what they believe they have already attained, rise and walk out. To those who remain, the Buddha makes the declaration this entire sūtra exists to unfold: every buddha appears in the world for one great cause, and the three vehicles taught for so long were always, secretly, one.
- This part covers
- The Buddha's praise of a wisdom he calls unfathomable, the ten suchnesses (十如是) by which all phenomena are said to be known, an extended verse insisting that no being — not Śāriputra, not the pratyekabuddhas, not even bodhisattvas at advanced stages — can measure that wisdom; the assembly's doubt and Śāriputra's threefold plea; the withdrawal of five thousand overconfident members of the assembly; and finally the Buddha's declaration of the one great cause for which buddhas appear in the world, and the one buddha vehicle underlying all three, set against the five turbidities of this present age.
- Why it matters
- This is the doctrinal center the rest of the sūtra pivots on. Every image still to come — the burning house, the destitute son, the phantom city — will retell this same claim to audiences of decreasing readiness. What is announced here in direct statement, later chapters will teach again through parable.
1. The Buddha's Wisdom, and the Ten Suchnesses
爾時，世尊從三昧安詳而起，告舍利弗：「諸佛智慧甚深無量，其智慧門難解難入，一切聲聞、辟支佛所不能知。所以者何？佛曾親近百千萬億無數諸佛，盡行諸佛無量道法，勇猛精進名稱普聞，成就甚深未曾有法，隨宜所說意趣難解。舍利弗！吾從成佛已來，種種因緣，種種譬喻，廣演言教無數方便，引導眾生令離諸著。所以者何？如來方便知見波羅蜜皆已具足。舍利弗！如來知見，廣大深遠，無量無礙，力、無所畏、禪定、解脫三昧，深入無際，成就一切未曾有法。舍利弗！如來能種種分別，巧說諸法，言辭柔軟，悅可眾心。舍利弗！取要言之，無量無邊未曾有法，佛悉成就。 「止，舍利弗！不須復說。所以者何？佛所成就第一希有難解之法。唯佛與佛乃能究盡諸法實相，所謂諸法如是相，如是性，如是體，如是力，如是作，如是因，如是緣，如是果，如是報，如是本末究竟等。」
At that time the World-Honored One arose serenely from his samādhi and said to Śāriputra: "The wisdom of the buddhas is exceedingly profound and immeasurable. The gate to that wisdom is hard to understand and hard to enter; none of the śrāvakas or pratyekabuddhas is able to know it. Why is this so? Because the Buddha has drawn near to hundreds of thousands of myriads of koṭis of countless buddhas, has fully practiced the immeasurable paths and teachings of those buddhas, has been brave and diligent, of far-reaching renown, and has accomplished a profound and unprecedented Dharma, teaching according to what is fitting in ways whose intent is hard to understand. Śāriputra! Since I attained buddhahood, through every kind of cause and condition and every kind of parable, I have broadly expounded my teaching by way of countless skillful means, guiding beings to free them from every attachment. Why is this so? Because the Tathāgata has fully perfected the pāramitā of skillful means and of knowledge and vision. Śāriputra! The Tathāgata's knowledge and vision are vast, profound, and far-reaching; his powers, his fearlessnesses, his meditative concentrations, his liberations and samādhis penetrate to a depth without boundary, accomplishing every unprecedented Dharma. Śāriputra! The Tathāgata is able to discern all things in every way, to explain them skillfully, his words gentle and pleasing to every mind. Śāriputra! To state the essential point: the Buddha has fully accomplished a Dharma immeasurable, boundless, and unprecedented in every way. "Stop, Śāriputra! There is no need to say more. Why is this so? Because the Dharma the Buddha has accomplished is foremost, rare, and hard to understand. Only a buddha, together with another buddha, can fathom the true mark of all phenomena to its very limit — namely, that all phenomena have such a mark, such a nature, such an embodiment, such a power, such an activity, such a cause, such a condition, such an effect, such a recompense, and such an ultimate equality of beginning and end."
Zhiyi opens his commentary on this chapter by asking what "方便" (skillful means) itself is meant to say, and he gives three answers, in ascending order. Read as 方=法 ("method") and 便=用 ("application"), it names the provisional teachings the Buddha gives to guide beings according to their own capacity — teaching from outside the truth itself, so to speak. Read as 方=門 ("gate"), it names skillful means as the doorway through which the true reality is eventually reached. But the reading Zhiyi says is actually intended for this chapter's title is a third: 方=祕 ("secret") and 便=妙 ("wonderful") — skillful means as not different in substance from the reality it seems only to point toward. He illustrates this third sense with an image the sūtra itself has not yet told, from a parable several chapters ahead: a priceless pearl sewn secretly into the lining of a poor man's robe, and the single pearl atop a king's crown, are — in the end — no two different things. On this reading, "skillful means" was never something other than the truth, dressed down for weaker audiences; it was the truth all along, worn in a form its wearer could not yet recognize.
The ten suchnesses (十如是) are among the most heavily commented-on lines in the entire sūtra. Zhiyi surveys several earlier readings — one that maps the ten terms onto features shared by all three vehicles' teachings, another that reads them entirely from the standpoint of the Buddha's own ten powers — and finds each too narrow: the text says "all phenomena" (諸法), not "the three vehicles' teachings" only, and "true mark" (實相), not something confined to cause and effect alone. His own proposal is not a single reading but four simultaneous ones, laid over the same ten terms in turn: read across the ten realms of being, read from the standpoint of buddhahood alone, read by how the ten terms divide and combine, and read by stage of practice. None of this is written into the sūtra's own nine short phrases — it is Zhiyi's own interpretive scaffolding, offered as one systematic way among several to take a list the text itself simply states without elaboration.
A separate and more specific tradition attaches to how these ten phrases are even meant to be read aloud. Huisi, Zhiyi's own teacher, read every one of them uniformly as "X-thus" (相如, 性如, and so on), taking the repeated 如 to mark emptiness throughout. Zhiyi proposed instead that the same unchanged string of characters supports three legitimate parsings: "is-the-mark thus" (emptiness — nothing here is what it appears fixed to be), "thus-is-the-mark" (provisional existence — this is nonetheless the workable name assigned to it), and "the-mark-is-thus" (the middle — neither reading cancels the other). It is worth being exact about what is being claimed here: the sūtra's own text is a single unbroken phrase, 如是相如是性..., with no punctuation or marker distinguishing three readings. The "three transpositions" are entirely Tiantai's own interpretive layer, laid over one string of characters from the outside — not something the sūtra states in three different ways itself.
2. Verse: No One Can Measure the Buddha's Wisdom
爾時世尊欲重宣此義，而說偈言： 「世雄不可量， 諸天及世人， 一切眾生類， 無能知佛者。 佛力無所畏、 解脫諸三昧， 及佛諸餘法， 無能測量者。 本從無數佛， 具足行諸道， 甚深微妙法， 難見難可了。 於無量億劫， 行此諸道已， 道場得成果， 我已悉知見。 如是大果報， 種種性相義， 我及十方佛， 乃能知是事。 是法不可示， 言辭相寂滅， 諸餘眾生類， 無有能得解， 除諸菩薩眾、 信力堅固者。 諸佛弟子眾， 曾供養諸佛， 一切漏已盡， 住是最後身， 如是諸人等， 其力所不堪。 假使滿世間， 皆如舍利弗， 盡思共度量， 不能測佛智。 正使滿十方， 皆如舍利弗， 及餘諸弟子， 亦滿十方剎， 盡思共度量， 亦復不能知。 辟支佛利智， 無漏最後身， 亦滿十方界， 其數如竹林， 斯等共一心， 於億無量劫， 欲思佛實智， 莫能知少分。 新發意菩薩， 供養無數佛， 了達諸義趣， 又能善說法， 如稻麻竹葦， 充滿十方剎， 一心以妙智， 於恒河沙劫， 咸皆共思量， 不能知佛智。 不退諸菩薩， 其數如恒沙， 一心共思求， 亦復不能知。 又告舍利弗： 『無漏不思議， 甚深微妙法， 我今已具得， 唯我知是相， 十方佛亦然。 舍利弗當知， 諸佛語無異， 於佛所說法， 當生大信力， 世尊法久後， 要當說真實。』 告諸聲聞眾， 及求緣覺乘： 『我令脫苦縛， 逮得涅槃者。』 佛以方便力， 示以三乘教， 眾生處處著， 引之令得出。」
At that time the World-Honored One, wishing to restate this same meaning once more, spoke in verse: "The hero of the world cannot be measured; among all the gods and people of the world, among every kind of being, none is able to know the Buddha. The Buddha's powers, his fearlessnesses, his liberations and samādhis, and all his other qualities besides — none is able to fathom them. Originally, under countless buddhas, he fully practiced every path; this profound and subtle Dharma is hard to see and hard to comprehend. Through immeasurable koṭis of kalpas, having practiced these paths to their end, I attained their fruit at the seat of enlightenment, and I have known and seen it all in full. Such a great fruit and recompense, and the meaning of its every nature and mark — only I, and the buddhas of the ten directions, are able to know this matter. This Dharma cannot be shown; the mark of words themselves is quiescent. No other kind of being is able to understand it, except the bodhisattvas whose power of faith is firm. Even the assembly of the Buddha's disciples, who have made offerings to buddhas, whose every defilement is exhausted, who dwell in their final body — even people such as these, this is beyond their power. Even if the whole world were filled with people like Śāriputra, and they exhausted their thought together to fathom it, they could not measure the Buddha's wisdom. Even if the ten directions were filled with people like Śāriputra, and his other disciples besides filled the lands of the ten directions, and they exhausted their thought together to fathom it, still they could not know it. Even if pratyekabuddhas of sharp wisdom, undefiled, in their final body, likewise filled the worlds of the ten directions, their numbers as dense as a bamboo grove, and these, with one mind together, for koṭis of immeasurable kalpas, wished to fathom the Buddha's true wisdom — they could not know the smallest fraction of it. Bodhisattvas newly resolved in their intent, who have made offerings to countless buddhas, who have penetrated every meaning and intent, and who are skilled in expounding the Dharma, as numerous as rice, hemp, bamboo, and reeds, filling the lands of the ten directions, with one mind, using their wondrous wisdom, for kalpas as many as the sands of the Ganges, thinking it over together — still they could not know the Buddha's wisdom. Bodhisattvas who have never turned back, their numbers like the sands of the Ganges, seeking it with one mind together — still they could not know it. And he said further to Śāriputra: 'This undefiled, inconceivable, profound and subtle Dharma I have now fully attained; only I know this mark, and the buddhas of the ten directions likewise. Śāriputra, you should know: the words of the buddhas are never different from one another. Toward the Dharma the buddhas teach, you should give rise to great power of faith. The World-Honored One's Dharma, after a long time, must in the end speak the truth.' He said to the assembly of śrāvakas, and to those who seek the vehicle of the pratyekabuddha: 'I have caused you to be freed from the bonds of suffering and to attain nirvāṇa.' By the power of skillful means, the Buddha showed the teaching of three vehicles, because beings, attached everywhere, needed to be led out of their attachments."
Zhiyi has an image for why the verse escalates the way it does — Śāriputra alone, then worlds full of Śāriputras, then worlds full of pratyekabuddhas, then bodhisattvas at higher and higher stages, none of them sufficient. Commenting elsewhere on why the phrase says "only a buddha with a buddha" can exhaust the true mark, he compares partial attainment, at any stage short of full buddhahood, to the moon on its fourteenth night: real light, genuinely useful, but not yet complete. Full buddhahood alone, he says, is the moon at the full — its whole body without gap, its light reaching everywhere without exception. The verse's escalating hypotheticals are one way of dramatizing that same distinction: no finite multiplication of even very advanced partial attainments adds up to the different kind of thing that a full moon is.
3. The Assembly's Doubt, and Śāriputra's Question
爾時大眾中，有諸聲聞漏盡阿羅漢，阿若憍陳如等千二百人，及發聲聞、辟支佛心比丘、比丘尼、優婆塞、優婆夷，各作是念：「今者、世尊何故慇懃稱歎方便而作是言：『佛所得法甚深難解，有所言說意趣難知，一切聲聞、辟支佛所不能及。』佛說一解脫義，我等亦得此法到於涅槃，而今不知是義所趣？」 爾時舍利弗知四眾心疑，自亦未了，而白佛言：「世尊！何因何緣慇懃稱歎諸佛第一方便、甚深微妙、難解之法？我自昔來，未曾從佛聞如是說；今者四眾咸皆有疑。唯願世尊敷演斯事。世尊何故慇懃稱歎甚深微妙難解之法？」 爾時舍利弗欲重宣此義，而說偈言： 「慧日大聖尊， 久乃說是法， 自說得如是， 力無畏三昧、 禪定解脫等， 不可思議法。 道場所得法， 無能發問者； 我意難可測， 亦無能問者。 無問而自說， 稱歎所行道， 智慧甚微妙， 諸佛之所得。 無漏諸羅漢， 及求涅槃者， 今皆墮疑網， 佛何故說是？ 其求緣覺者， 比丘比丘尼， 諸天龍鬼神， 及乾闥婆等， 相視懷猶豫， 瞻仰兩足尊， 是事為云何， 願佛為解說。 於諸聲聞眾， 佛說我第一。 我今自於智， 疑惑不能了， 為是究竟法？ 為是所行道？ 佛口所生子， 合掌瞻仰待， 願出微妙音， 時為如實說。 諸天龍神等， 其數如恒沙， 求佛諸菩薩， 大數有八萬， 又諸萬億國， 轉輪聖王至， 合掌以敬心， 欲聞具足道。」
At that time, within the great assembly, there were śrāvaka arhats whose defilements were exhausted — Ājñāta-Kauṇḍinya and the rest, twelve hundred in number — together with monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomen who had given rise to the intent of a śrāvaka or a pratyekabuddha. Each of them had this thought: "Why does the World-Honored One now so earnestly praise skillful means, and speak these words: 'The Dharma the Buddha has attained is profound and hard to understand; whatever he says, its intent is hard to know, and it is beyond the reach of any śrāvaka or pratyekabuddha'? The Buddha has taught the single meaning of liberation, and we too have attained this Dharma and reached nirvāṇa — yet now we do not know what this meaning points to." At that time Śāriputra, knowing that the fourfold assembly harbored this doubt in their minds, and himself not yet clear on the matter either, said to the Buddha: "World-Honored One! For what cause and condition do you so earnestly praise the buddhas' foremost skillful means, this profound, subtle, and hard-to-understand Dharma? Never before, from the time I first began to hear the Buddha teach, have I heard him speak in this way; and now the fourfold assembly is entirely filled with doubt. I beg the World-Honored One to expound this matter fully. Why does the World-Honored One so earnestly praise this profound, subtle, and hard-to-understand Dharma?" At that time Śāriputra, wishing to restate this same meaning once more, spoke in verse: "Sun of wisdom, great and holy World-Honored One, only after a long time have you now taught this Dharma. You say yourself that you have attained such powers, fearlessnesses, samādhis, meditative concentrations, and liberations — an inconceivable Dharma. The Dharma attained at the seat of enlightenment — no one is able to ask about it. My own intent is hard to fathom, and no one else is able to question it either. Unasked, you have spoken of it yourself, praising the path that you have practiced — a wisdom exceedingly subtle, attained by the buddhas. The undefiled arhats, and those who seek nirvāṇa, have now all fallen into a net of doubt: why does the Buddha speak in this way? Those who seek to be pratyekabuddhas, the monks and nuns, the gods, dragons, and spirits, and the gandharvas and the rest, look to one another in hesitation, gazing up at the one honored among the two-footed; what is the meaning of this? We beg the Buddha to explain it. Among the assembly of śrāvakas, the Buddha has said that I am foremost. Yet now, even in my own wisdom, I harbor doubt I cannot resolve: is this the ultimate Dharma? Or is this the path one is to practice? We, the children born of the Buddha's mouth, join our palms and wait, gazing up at you; we beg you to send forth your subtle and wondrous voice, and now, in this moment, to speak the truth as it is. The gods, dragons, and spirits, their numbers like the sands of the Ganges, and the bodhisattvas seeking buddhahood, eighty thousand in all, and the wheel-turning sage kings come from myriads of koṭis of lands — all join their palms with reverent hearts, wishing to hear the complete path."
Zhiyi reads what happens across this chapter and the two that follow it as a single teaching delivered three separate times, calibrated to three levels of readiness — his famous "three rounds" (三周說法). The direct doctrinal statement in this chapter, addressed to Śāriputra, is the "Dharma round" (法說一周), pitched at the sharpest faculties, who can grasp the claim stated plainly. The burning-house parable in the next chapter is the "parable round" (譬說一周), pitched at those who need an image before they can follow the same claim. And the ancient story of ten princes and a phantom city, several chapters ahead, is the "causal-condition round" (因緣說一周), pitched at those who need a narrative reaching back over countless lifetimes before they can accept it. In this scheme, when Zhiyi is asked why Śāriputra alone gets to plead directly with the Buddha in this chapter while the parable and the ancient story are addressed to different listeners, his answer is that the request itself was never private — Śāriputra asks on behalf of the whole assembly, and all three rounds teach the same one thing to the same whole assembly; they differ only in which listeners are actually able to understand which telling.
4. Three Requests, and the Five Thousand Who Withdraw
爾時佛告舍利弗：「止，止！不須復說。若說是事，一切世間諸天及人皆當驚疑。」 舍利弗重白佛言：「世尊，唯願說之，唯願說之！所以者何？是會無數百千萬億阿僧祇眾生，曾見諸佛，諸根猛利，智慧明了，聞佛所說，則能敬信。」 爾時舍利弗欲重宣此義，而說偈言： 「法王無上尊， 唯說願勿慮。 是會無量眾， 有能敬信者。」 佛復止舍利弗：「若說是事，一切世間天、人、阿修羅皆當驚疑，增上慢比丘將墜於大坑。」 爾時世尊重說偈言： 「止止不須說， 我法妙難思。 諸增上慢者， 聞必不敬信。」 爾時舍利弗重白佛言：「世尊！唯願說之，唯願說之！今此會中，如我等比百千萬億，世世已曾從佛受化。如此人等，必能敬信，長夜安隱，多所饒益。」 爾時舍利弗欲重宣此義，而說偈言： 「無上兩足尊， 願說第一法， 我為佛長子， 唯垂分別說。 是會無量眾， 能敬信此法， 佛已曾世世， 教化如是等， 皆一心合掌， 欲聽受佛語。 我等千二百， 及餘求佛者， 願為此眾故， 唯垂分別說。 是等聞此法， 則生大歡喜。」 爾時世尊告舍利弗：「汝已慇懃三請，豈得不說。汝今諦聽，善思念之，吾當為汝分別解說。」說此語時，會中有比丘、比丘尼、優婆塞、優婆夷五千人等，即從座起，禮佛而退。所以者何？此輩罪根深重及增上慢，未得謂得、未證謂證，有如此失，是以不住。世尊默然而不制止。 爾時佛告舍利弗：「我今此眾，無復枝葉，純有貞實。舍利弗！如是增上慢人，退亦佳矣。汝今善聽，當為汝說。」 舍利弗言：「唯然，世尊！願樂欲聞。」
At that time the Buddha said to Śāriputra: "Stop, stop! There is no need to say more. If I were to speak of this matter, all the gods and people in the whole world would be alarmed and doubtful." Śāriputra said to the Buddha once more: "World-Honored One, I beg you to speak of it, I beg you to speak of it! Why is this so? Because in this assembly there are countless hundreds of thousands of myriads of koṭis of asaṃkhyeyas of beings who have seen buddhas before, whose faculties are sharp and keen, and whose wisdom is clear — hearing what the Buddha teaches, they will be able to revere and believe it." At that time Śāriputra, wishing to restate this same meaning once more, spoke in verse: "King of the Dharma, unsurpassed and honored one, only speak — I beg you, have no concern. In this assembly there are immeasurable beings who are able to revere and believe." The Buddha again stopped Śāriputra: "If I were to speak of this matter, all the gods, people, and asuras in the whole world would be alarmed and doubtful, and arrogant monks would fall into a great pit." At that time the World-Honored One spoke again in verse: "Stop, stop, there is no need to speak — my Dharma is wondrous and hard to conceive. Those who are arrogant, on hearing it, will surely not revere or believe it." At that time Śāriputra said to the Buddha once more: "World-Honored One! I beg you to speak of it, I beg you to speak of it! In this present assembly there are hundreds of thousands of myriads of koṭis of people like myself, who life after life have already received the Buddha's transformative teaching. People such as these will surely be able to revere and believe it, and will find peace and benefit through the long night of birth and death." At that time Śāriputra, wishing to restate this same meaning once more, spoke in verse: "Unsurpassed one, honored among the two-footed, I beg you to teach the foremost Dharma. I am the Buddha's eldest son; I beg you alone to condescend to explain it in full. The immeasurable assembly here is able to revere and believe this Dharma; the Buddha has already, life after life, taught and transformed people such as these. All of them, with one mind, join their palms, wishing to listen to and receive the Buddha's words. We twelve hundred, and the others who seek buddhahood besides, beg you, for the sake of this assembly, to condescend alone to explain it in full. Hearing this Dharma, they will give rise to great joy." At that time the World-Honored One said to Śāriputra: "Since you have now earnestly requested this three times, how could I not speak? Listen closely now, consider it well, and I shall explain it for you in full." As he spoke these words, five thousand monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomen in the assembly at once rose from their seats, bowed to the Buddha, and withdrew. Why was this? Because the root of these people's transgressions ran deep, and they were arrogant, claiming to have attained what they had not attained, and to have realized what they had not realized. Having such faults as these, they could not remain. The World-Honored One remained silent and did not stop them. At that time the Buddha said to Śāriputra: "This assembly of mine now has no more branches or leaves; it is entirely solid and true. Śāriputra, it is well enough that people so arrogant as these have withdrawn. Listen closely now, and I shall teach it for you." Śāriputra said: "So it shall be, World-Honored One! I delight in wishing to hear it."
Zhiyi parses the Buddha's consent into three distinct moves packed into the single phrase "since you have now earnestly requested this three times, how could I not speak" — a consent that follows the request (順許), a warning attached to the consent (誡許, in "listen closely, consider it well" — hearing, reflection, and practice, the three kinds of wisdom, compressed into one instruction), and a consent that first sorts the assembly (揀許) before the teaching can actually begin. It is this third move he dwells on longest. The five thousand who leave are not driven out by any external force — the text says plainly that the World-Honored One "remained silent and did not stop them" — but Zhiyi reads their exit as itself a form of the Buddha's skillful means, timed precisely: had this same declaration come earlier, with less already said, it might have passed without triggering the slander that a premature but still-incomplete opening of the three vehicles into one would risk; had it come later, after the full teaching, staying to hear it while still clinging to their claimed attainments would cause them real harm. He is asked directly why the Buddha does not simply hold them there by his own power, as feats of transformation elsewhere are said to do, and his answer turns the comparison around: compelling them to stay would be an act of severity dressed as compassion; letting them go, so that what they could not yet accept does no harm to them and what remains is what he calls "no more branches and leaves, only what is solid and true," is the compassion itself.
He does not treat their departure as a dead end for them, either. Citing an episode from this same sūtra's own more distant past — an assembly of countless beings who, at an ancient buddha's teaching, could not yet believe, and who are said to have taken immeasurably long to come around — he reads the five thousand's exit as a delay in benefit, not its loss: people not yet ready to receive a teaching in one lifetime are, on this reading, still being connected to it, and the connection itself is what eventually ripens into the readiness this present assembly already has. The sūtra does not tell us what becomes of them; Zhiyi's confidence that they are not gone for good is his own inference from the pattern the sūtra draws elsewhere, not something stated here.
5. The One Great Cause, and the One Buddha Vehicle
佛告舍利弗：「如是妙法，諸佛如來時乃說之，如優曇鉢華，時一現耳。舍利弗！汝等當信佛之所說，言不虛妄。舍利弗！諸佛隨宜說法，意趣難解。所以者何？我以無數方便，種種因緣、譬喻言辭，演說諸法。是法非思量分別之所能解，唯有諸佛乃能知之。所以者何？諸佛世尊唯以一大事因緣故出現於世。舍利弗！云何名諸佛世尊唯以一大事因緣故出現於世？諸佛世尊，欲令眾生開佛知見，使得清淨故，出現於世；欲示眾生佛之知見故，出現於世；欲令眾生悟佛知見故，出現於世；欲令眾生入佛知見道故，出現於世。舍利弗！是為諸佛以一大事因緣故出現於世。」 佛告舍利弗：「諸佛如來但教化菩薩，諸有所作，常為一事，唯以佛之知見示悟眾生。舍利弗！如來但以一佛乘故，為眾生說法，無有餘乘，若二、若三。舍利弗！一切十方諸佛，法亦如是。 「舍利弗！過去諸佛，以無量無數方便，種種因緣、譬喻言辭，而為眾生演說諸法，是法皆為一佛乘故。是諸眾生從諸佛聞法，究竟皆得一切種智。 「舍利弗！未來諸佛當出於世，亦以無量無數方便，種種因緣、譬喻言辭，而為眾生演說諸法，是法皆為一佛乘故。是諸眾生從佛聞法，究竟皆得一切種智。 「舍利弗！現在十方無量百千萬億佛土中，諸佛世尊多所饒益安樂眾生，是諸佛亦以無量無數方便，種種因緣、譬喻言辭，而為眾生演說諸法，是法皆為一佛乘故。是諸眾生從佛聞法，究竟皆得一切種智。 「舍利弗！是諸佛但教化菩薩，欲以佛之知見示眾生故，欲以佛之知見悟眾生故，欲令眾生入佛之知見故。 「舍利弗！我今亦復如是，知諸眾生有種種欲，深心所著，隨其本性，以種種因緣、譬喻言辭，方便力而為說法。舍利弗！如此皆為得一佛乘、一切種智故。 「舍利弗！十方世界中，尚無二乘，何況有三。舍利弗！諸佛出於五濁惡世，所謂劫濁、煩惱濁、眾生濁、見濁、命濁。如是，舍利弗！劫濁亂時，眾生垢重，慳貪嫉妬，成就諸不善根故，諸佛以方便力，於一佛乘分別說三。舍利弗！若我弟子，自謂阿羅漢、辟支佛者，不聞不知諸佛如來但教化菩薩事，此非佛弟子，非阿羅漢，非辟支佛。 「又，舍利弗！是諸比丘、比丘尼，自謂已得阿羅漢，是最後身，究竟涅槃，便不復志求阿耨多羅三藐三菩提，當知此輩皆是增上慢人。所以者何。若有比丘實得阿羅漢，若不信此法，無有是處。除佛滅度後，現前無佛。所以者何？佛滅度後，如是等經受持讀誦解義者，是人難得。若遇餘佛，於此法中便得決了。舍利弗！汝等當一心信解受持佛語。諸佛如來言無虛妄，無有餘乘，唯一佛乘。」
The Buddha said to Śāriputra: "Such a wondrous Dharma as this, the buddha-tathāgatas teach only at rare times, as the udumbara flower appears but once in a great while. Śāriputra, you should believe what the Buddha teaches — his words are not empty or false. Śāriputra, the buddhas teach the Dharma according to what is fitting, and its intent is hard to understand. Why is this so? Because I expound all things through countless skillful means, through every kind of cause and condition, through parables and words. This Dharma is not something that thought and discrimination can understand; only the buddhas are able to know it. Why is this so? Because the buddhas, the world-honored ones, appear in the world only on account of the one great cause. Śāriputra, what does it mean to say that the buddhas, the world-honored ones, appear in the world only on account of the one great cause? The buddhas, the world-honored ones, wish to cause beings to open the buddha's knowledge and vision, so that they may attain purity, and for this they appear in the world; they wish to show beings the buddha's knowledge and vision, and for this they appear in the world; they wish to cause beings to awaken to the buddha's knowledge and vision, and for this they appear in the world; they wish to cause beings to enter the path of the buddha's knowledge and vision, and for this they appear in the world. Śāriputra, this is what it means to say that the buddhas appear in the world on account of the one great cause." The Buddha said to Śāriputra: "The buddha-tathāgatas teach and transform only bodhisattvas; whatever they do is always for this one purpose alone — to show and awaken beings by means of the buddha's knowledge and vision. Śāriputra, the Tathāgata teaches the Dharma to beings only by means of the one buddha vehicle; there is no other vehicle, whether a second or a third. Śāriputra, the Dharma of all the buddhas of the ten directions is likewise so. "Śāriputra, the buddhas of the past, through immeasurable, countless skillful means, through every kind of cause and condition, through parables and words, have expounded all things for the sake of beings — and all of this Dharma is for the sake of the one buddha vehicle. These beings, hearing the Dharma from the buddhas, in the end all attain the wisdom of all modes. "Śāriputra, the buddhas of the future who are to appear in the world will likewise, through immeasurable, countless skillful means, through every kind of cause and condition, through parables and words, expound all things for the sake of beings — and all of this Dharma is for the sake of the one buddha vehicle. These beings, hearing the Dharma from the buddha, in the end all attain the wisdom of all modes. "Śāriputra, in the present, in the immeasurable hundreds of thousands of myriads of koṭis of buddha-lands of the ten directions, the buddhas, the world-honored ones, greatly benefit and bring peace to beings; these buddhas, too, through immeasurable, countless skillful means, through every kind of cause and condition, through parables and words, expound all things for the sake of beings — and all of this Dharma is for the sake of the one buddha vehicle. These beings, hearing the Dharma from the buddha, in the end all attain the wisdom of all modes. "Śāriputra, these buddhas teach and transform only bodhisattvas: they wish to show beings the buddha's knowledge and vision, they wish to cause beings to awaken to the buddha's knowledge and vision, and they wish to cause beings to enter the buddha's knowledge and vision. "Śāriputra, I too am now likewise so: knowing that beings have every kind of desire, deeply attached in their hearts, I teach the Dharma according to their own natures, through every kind of cause and condition, through parables and words, and by the power of skillful means. Śāriputra, all of this is for the sake of attaining the one buddha vehicle, the wisdom of all modes. "Śāriputra, in the worlds of the ten directions there is not even a second vehicle — how much less a third. Śāriputra, the buddhas appear in an evil world of the five turbidities — namely, the turbidity of the kalpa, the turbidity of afflictions, the turbidity of beings, the turbidity of views, and the turbidity of lifespan. Thus, Śāriputra, in the chaos of the turbidity of the kalpa, beings are heavy with defilement, stingy, greedy, envious, and jealous, and accomplish every unwholesome root — and for this reason the buddhas, by the power of skillful means, within the one buddha vehicle, distinguish and teach three. Śāriputra, if any of my disciples claims to be an arhat or a pratyekabuddha, yet does not hear and does not know that the buddha-tathāgatas teach and transform only bodhisattvas, then this person is not a disciple of the Buddha, is not an arhat, and is not a pratyekabuddha. "And again, Śāriputra, if any of these monks or nuns claim that they have already attained arhatship, that this is their final body, the ultimate nirvāṇa, and no longer aspire to seek unsurpassed, perfect and complete awakening, you should know that all such people are arrogant. Why is this so? Because if there is a monk who has truly attained arhatship, it is not possible that he would fail to believe this Dharma — except after the Buddha's parinirvāṇa, when no buddha is present before him. Why is this so? Because after the Buddha's parinirvāṇa, people able to uphold, read, recite, and understand the meaning of sūtras such as this one are hard to find; but if such a person encounters another buddha, he will then attain certainty within this Dharma. Śāriputra, you should all, with one mind, believe, understand, uphold, and keep the Buddha's words. The buddha-tathāgatas' words are never empty or false — there is no other vehicle, only the one buddha vehicle."
Zhiyi finds this passage organized around six distinct moves, cycled through for buddhas of the past, present, and future and then again for Śākyamuni himself: praising the Dharma as rare (the udumbara flower, blooming, by legend, only once in three thousand years), affirming that the buddhas' words are never empty, opening the provisional teaching of skillful means, revealing what that provisional teaching was always pointing toward, invoking the five turbidities of this present age to explain why the three vehicles had to be taught as three at all, and finally distinguishing genuine attainment from counterfeit. Reading the passage this way is less about finding hidden structure than about noticing that the "one great cause" and the "five turbidities" are not two separate topics loosely stitched together — the second directly answers a question the first raises. If there is truly only one buddha vehicle, why did the Buddha spend decades teaching three? The turbidities of this age are the sūtra's own answer: beings heavy with defilement needed the three vehicles divided out as three, provisionally, before they could be ready to hear that they were always one.
The phrase naming the "one great cause" — that buddhas appear in the world only so that beings might open, be shown, awaken to, and enter the buddha's own knowledge and vision — is stated here without qualification or parable, addressed to an assembly Zhiyi calls, elsewhere, already "solid and true." It is worth sitting with the plainness of the claim before the next several chapters begin dressing it in image after image: a burning house, a destitute son, medicinal herbs under a single rain, a phantom city conjured to rest tired travelers. Each of those, on the reading this chapter sets up, will be retelling exactly this — not a different teaching, but the same one great cause, offered again to listeners who could not yet take it starting here.