What this sūtra expounds can be divided into three sections in all. The [first] thirteen chapters from “Introduction” (1) to “Comfortable Conduct” (13) illustrate that the cause (yin/hetu) of the three [vehicles] becomes the cause of the One. The eight chapters from “Welling up out of Earth” (14¹) to “Entrustment” (21) distinguish the effect (kuo/phala) of the three [as identical with that of the one]. The six chapters from “Bhaiṣajyarāja” (22) to “Samantabhadra” (27) equate the men of the three [vehicles] with the men of the One [Vehicle]. These divisions are designed to brush off the feeling that [the vehicles] are blocking [each other] and are different, and to obliterate the impasses that helped divide the lines [of the Buddha’s teaching].

The Greater Vehicle refers to the universal and great wisdom, and it begins with one goodness and ends with the ultimate wisdom. By universal we mean that li has no different intentions but merges into the one ultimate. Great knowledge refers to just what one obtains at the end [of the process]. Speaking generally of what counts from beginning to end, all the tiny goods accumulated are included there. What does Vehicle (yāna) mean? Its li lies in ferrying all beings to the other shore; the implied idea (i) underlying it is to relieve them of suffering (duḥkha).

From [the time of his enlightenment] under the bodhi tree till [the time of] his nirvāṇa, [the Buddha] preached (or turned) altogether four kinds of Dharma [wheels].

First, the good and pure dharma wheel, which begins with the discourse on one goodness, and ends with that on the four immaterial heavens. [Its aim] is to remove the impurities of the three [evil] paths. Hence, we call it pure.

Second, the expedient dharma wheel. This means that one achieves the two kinds of nirvāṇa by means of the constituents of enlightenment with outflows. It [thus] is called expedient device (fang-p’ien).

Third, the true and real dharma wheel. It is meant to destroy the falsehood of the three [vehicles] and thus establish the good (“beauty”) of “the One” [Vehicle]. Hence it is called true and real.

Fourth, the residueless (wu-yū/aśeṣa or anupādiśeṣa) dharma wheel. This refers to the discourse on the [dialectical] merging and returning [of the three Vehicles to the One] and thus to preach the mysterious and eternally abiding meaning. [Hence] it is called without residue.

In my youth, I had the opportunity to attend some lectures sitting humbly in the end row of the hall. I happened to find myself interested in the profound [word missing here in text], which was rich and broad in both letter and meaning and recondite in both the fact involved [as explanatory medium] (shih) and [the underlying] principle (li ).

Because what is stored in one’s memory does not [endure] like mustard-seed kalpa and rock kalpa, one would find it impossible to keep it intact forever. Somehow on the days when there were lectures I just jotted down what I had heard during the day. To give an account of and record what I had heard earlier was like [re]producing a drum sound.

Then, during the third month in the spring of the ninth year of the Yūan-chia era (432 AD) while residing at the Tung-lin (“Eastern Grove”) Monastery (ching-she) on Lu-shan, again I put them in order and rearranged them. In addition, after collecting and consulting various versions, I edited them into one roll.

It is hoped that ‘men of virtue’ with discriminating enlightenment realize [my] follies [possibly committed here]. I hope they may be led to the outside (of) the eternal bondage [of transmigration] by not abandoning the path (Tao) due to human insignificance.

Why did the Buddha have to take the circuitous route of three vehicles in order to lead beings to the One Vehicle? Tao-sheng offers as answer the inequality of innate intellectual faculties in individuals. The idea is Tao-sheng’s elaboration of what is loosely suggested in the sūtra. It is further reinforced by his notion of an innate triggering mechanism for the enlightenment process. This in turn gives rise to the concept of “expediency in means” (upāya), which receives Tao-sheng’s special attention and articulation with the help of the Chinese term “exigency” (ch’ūan): The limited capacities of sentient beings forced the Buddha to invent a device that would tempt them on to the path to enlightenment; hence, the figurative nature of the multiple vehicles as opposed to the literality of the One Vehicle.

How the three vehicles are related to the One Vehicle, however, is a complicated matter. Although Tao-sheng relates essentially what is stated or suggested in the sūtra, he sounds somewhat ambivalent with respect to whether the vehicles have a negative or positive value. Three vehicles, being of exigent and temporary value, are identified as false, whereas the One is identified with what is real. Nonetheless, whereas the three or two are false, and thus antithetical to the One or Greater Vehicle, they are ultimately subsumed by the One and cannot properly be thought of apart from this synthesis with the One. One thus may call it a dialectical relationship. The process is best expressed in the word miao (“mysterious” or “wondrous”).

This interpretation has the mark of Tao-sheng’s own philosophical speculation. The sūtra has this to say: “the Buddhas, by resort to the power of expedient devices, divide the One Buddha Vehicle and speak of three.” It thus seems to view the three vehicles positively. This is, however, a liberal rendering by Kumārajīva of the original text, which has no word for three. The sūtra does not mention falsehood, as it only refers to the way the Buddha guides beings through the enlightenment process rather than to the device actually used. As the Buddha states in Chapter 3: “Śāriputra, just as that great man, first having enticed his children with three carriages and then having given them only one great carriage . . . is yet not guilty of falsehood, though he first preached the three vehicles in order to entice beings, then conveyed them to deliverance by resort to only the One Great Vehicle.”