Skilful Means

by Michael Pye

'Skilful Means' is the key principle of Mahayana, one of the great Buddhist traditions. First described in the Lotus Sutra, it originates in myths of the Buddha's compassionate plans for raising life from the ceaseless round of birth and death. His strategies or interventions are 'skilful means' - morally wholesome tricks devised for the purpose of enabling nirvana or enlightenment. Michael Pye's clear and engaging introductory guide investigates the meaning and context of skilful means in Mayahana Buddhist teachings, whilst tracing its early origins in ancient Japanese and Theravada thought. First published in 1978, and still the best explanation of the concept, it illuminates a core working philosophy essential for any complete understanding of Buddhism.

Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Michael Pye (b. 1946) is a writer who reported on business for The Sunday Times of London in the 1960s and 1970s. He has also authored many books, two of which are about the entertainment industry: The Movie Brats: How the Film Generation Took Over Hollywood (with Lynda Myles, 1979), and Moguls: Inside the Business of Show Business (1980).

Reviews

[Dennis Merimsky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Skilful means is a concept central to Mahayana Buddhism and figures prominently in the Lotus Sutra, the Vimalakarti Sutra and the Perfection of Wisdom Sutras. Skilful means are, in essence teaching expedients used by the Buddha to adapt his teachings to the capacity or level of understanding of his disciples. Michael Pye's book is the only book (to my knowledge) devoted exclusively to an examination of the concept, implications and importance of "skilful means" in Buddhist teaching. The words "skilful means" are a translation of the Sanskrit words "upaya" (means, method expedient or stratagem) and also "upaya-kausalya" (skill-in-means, expedient means).The famous translator , Kumarajiva translated both Sanskrit forms into the Chinese "fang-pien" , which was later translated into the Japanese word "hoben".
The Lotus Sutra explains at length and in numerous passages how and why Shakyamuni Buddha (and all other Buddhas), used the approach of "skilful means" to teach his disciples. After achieving enlightenment, Shkyamuni was at first, reluctant to teach other people because he didn’t know how to explain the "wisdom of the Buddhas".He said (chapter 2) that this wisdom was hard to understand and, in fact couldn't be understood unless you already were a Buddha. If he had taught the Buddha way (the path to Buddhahood), from the beginning, nobody would have believed it was possible because people were preoccupied with their own suffering. As he explains to his disciple, Shariputra "Up to now I have never told you that you were certain to attain the buddha way".
Simply put you can't teach people what they don't want to know or can't understand, without first capturing their attention, speaking in terms they can understand at present and most importantly giving them intermediate goals which will transform their outlook, enabling them to appreciate the importance of the final goal.
In chapter 1, Shakyamuni explains how long ago, the Buddha Sun Moon Bright, taught using skilful means. “For the sake of those seeking to become voice-hearers (disciples) he responded by expounding the doctrine of the four noble truths, so that they could transcend birth, aging, sickness, and death, and attain nirvana. For the sake of those seeking to become pratyekabuddhas (cause-awakened) he responded by expounding the doctrine of the twelve-linked chain of causation. For the sake of the bodhisattvas he responded by expounding the six paramitas, causing them to gain supreme perfect enlightenment and to acquire the wisdom that embraces all species."
Michael Pye tells us "The Lotus Sutra teaches that the notion of nirvana and the whole nine-fold teaching of the Buddha is not to be considered as other than a means or more than a means, while at the same time it teaches that actions such as slightly bending the head are also to be understood in terms of the same dialectic."

In the Lotus sutra Shakyamuni said that for the first time he was discarding skilful means, in order to preach the way of the Buddha (which all Buddhas vow to do) and he leads his disciple Shariputra to the realization expressed in Shariputra's own words. "I am certain I will become a Buddha".
Nevertheless, Shakyamuni still needs to really convince his disciples that the aim of his earlier provisional teachings was not to mislead people so he illustrates his ideas in chapters 3,4 and 5 with stories such as "the burning house", "the priceless jewel" and "the magic city", which illustrate the necessity to extricate people from difficult situations or immediate danger by telling them "white lies" or luring them to provisional goals (like "nirvana").
The ultimate skilful means is revealed in chapter 16, when Shakyamuni reveals that his life span is infinite and contrary to what he previously taught that he attained enlightenment in this lifetime (under the Bodhi tree), he has always been a Buddha and he only appears to die (enter nirvana) so that people will long to see the Buddha again and not take him for granted.
Michael Pye goes off the tracks with his claim that the Lotus Sutra is mainly about the teaching style of the Buddha and offers no new teaching. He ignores the profoundly new doctrines expounded in the Lotus Sutra. These doctrines were quite shocking to disciples trained to seek through many incarnations the extinction of desire and the end of suffering by achieving nirvana. Now the goal for everybody was Buddhahood achievable in this lifetime.
The fact that the dragon king's young daughter is able to achieve Buddhahood in a moment (chapter 12 of the sutra) is a brilliant demonstration of the revolutionary doctrine of universal enlightenment. Burton Watson explains in the introduction to his translation of the Lotus Sutra,
"The child is a dragon, a nonhuman being, she is of the female sex, and she has barely turned eight, yet she reaches the highest goal in the space of a moment. Once again the Lotus Sutra reveals that its revolutionary doctrines operate in a realm transcending all petty distinctions of sex or species, instant or eon."
On a more general note, Michael Pye notes that one of the great strengths of Buddhism has always been its doctrinal flexibility, because Buddhist teachings can be regarded as rafts (or skilful meanings) to help us cross the water and then replaced or discarded when they are no longer appropriate. I think this kind of relativism is in danger of going too far by emptying Buddhist teaching of all content, leaving us reliant on paradox-wielding gurus to become enlightened.
An important point that Michael Pye makes is that the Mahayana concept of skilful means has contributed to a relaxed tolerant approach towards cultural diversity enabling Buddhism to take root in many different environments and gradually convert non-buddhists by using concepts and terminology borrowed from their own culture. The earliest example of this was when two young Brahmans asked the Buddha’s opinion about the best method to attain union with Brahma.
All in all, this is an important book to read for students of Buddhism but it's not for everybody.

[Fabio · Rating 3 out of 5]

There aren’t many books about upaya kausalya, the skillful means of Mahayana Buddhism. The book of Micheal Pye was the first one to analyze this concept and still remains the starting point of the discussion about this topic. His choice to select only Kumarajiva translations means that an important Sutra the Upaya-Kausalya Sutra is left out. Such a pity, it would have been interesting to confront this Sutra and the other discussed in the book