Note 113 — INDEX.

Cf. I Cor. XIII, II. “When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” This point of our ever-ascending spiritual progress is well illustrated in the Saddharma-pundarîka Sûtra. See Chapters II, III, IV, V, and XI. The following passage quoted from chap. II, p. 49 (Kern’s translation) will give a tolerably adequate view concerning diversity of means and unity of purpose as here expounded: “Those highest of men have, all of them, revealed most holy laws by means of illustrations, reasons and arguments, with many hundred proofs of skillfulness (upâyakauçalya). And all of them have manifested but one vehicle and introduced but one on earth; by one vehicle have they led to full ripeness inconceivably many thousands of kotis of beings.” As was elsewhere noted, this doctrine is sometimes known as the theory of Upâya. Upâya is very difficult term to translate into English; it literally means “way,” “method,” or “strategy.” For fuller interpretation see p. 298, footnote. (return)