ABSTRACT
There are several allegorical stories in the Lotus Sutra which illustrate in various ways the principle of skilful means. Sometimes these are taken merely as attempts to justify the apparent emergence of the Mahayana as a schismatic school within Buddhism. Although there undoubtedly is an element of this, the main point of them seems to be rather the relationship between the articulated forms of Buddhist teaching, which are varied, and the ultimate intention of it, which lies beyond or behind those forms. The stories are not very systematically arranged and they may have been composed at various stages in the compilation of the sutra. For Sino-Japanese Buddhism however they are all of more or less equal status and for present purposes they may be treated together. The stories have been widely known in East Asia, partly no doubt because stories are easier to remember than philosophical dialogues, but partly also because they have often formed the subject of paintings.
