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Upaya is a word that means "skillfulness", "wise words" or "expedient means. It is translated into Japanese as "hoben." It is a word that is used a lot in Mahayana writings. One of the chapters of the Lotus Sutra is named the "Hoben Chapter" after this concept of "upaya", in it's Kumarajiva translation. But the term is used throughout the Lotus Sutra and in other Mahayana teachings. For many Japanese the term has come to mean "Lies," but that is not what it means at all.
The story of the Good Physician found in the Lifespan Chapter of the Lotus Sutra:
"Good men, the Buddhas and Thus Come Ones all preach a Law such as this. They act in order to save all living beings, so what they do is true and not false.
"Suppose, for example, that there is a skilled physician who is wise and understanding and knows how to compound medicines to effectively cure all kinds of diseases. He has many sons, perhaps ten, twenty, or even a hundred. He goes off to some other land far away to see about a certain affair. After he has gone, the children drink some kind of poison that make them distraught with pain and they fall writhing to the ground.
"At that time the father returns to his home and finds that his children have drunk poison. Some are completely out of their minds, while others are not. Seeing their father from far off, all are overjoyed and kneel down and entreat him, saying:
'How fine that you have returned safely. We were stupid and by mistake drank some poison. We beg you to cure us and let us live out our lives!'"The father, seeing his children suffering like this, follows various prescriptions. Gathering fine medicinal herbs that meet all the requirements of color, fragrance and flavor, he grinds, sifts and mixes them together. Giving a dose of these to his children, he tells them:
'This is a highly effective medicine, meeting all the requirements of color, fragrance and flavor. Take it and you will quickly be relieved of your sufferings and will be free of all illness.'"Those children who have not lost their senses can see that this is good medicine, outstanding in both color and fragrance, so they take it immediately and are completely cured of their sickness. Those who are out of their minds are equally delighted to see their father return and beg him to cure their sickness, but when they are given the medicine, they refuse to take it. Why? Because the poison has penetrated deeply and their minds no longer function as before. So although the medicine is of excellent color and fragrance, they do not perceive it as good.
"The father thinks to himself:
My poor children! Because of the poison in them, their minds are completely befuddled. Although they are happy to see me and ask me to cure them, they refuse to take this excellent medicine. I must now resort to some expedient means to induce them to take the medicine.So he says to them:
'You should know that I am now old and worn out, and the time of my death has come. I will leave this good medicine here. You should take it and not worry that it will not cure you.'Having given these instructions, he then goes off to another land where he sends a messenger home to announce,
'Your father is dead.'"At that time the children, hearing that their father has deserted them and died, are filled with great grief and consternation and think to themselves: If our father were alive he would have pity on us and see that we are protected. But now he has abandoned us and died in some other country far away. We are shelter-less orphans with no one to rely on!
"Constantly harboring such feelings of grief, they at last come to their senses and realize that the medicine is in fact excellent in color and fragrance and flavor, and so they take it and are healed of all the effects of the poison. The father, hearing that his children are all cured, immediately returns home and appears to them all once more.
"Good men, what is your opinion? Can anyone say that this skilled physician is guilty of lying?"
"No, World-Honored One."
Many theories have been advanced to explain the apparant paradox here. The Buddha tells the story of someone who is telling what appears to be an obvious lie, and then says that that person wasn't a liar. But when you really meditate on the subject, and also begin to understand the other issues involved in understanding Religious literature you start to see that this is a religious allegory, and it is referring to religious literature. You see it involves a "paradigm shift." What starts as a story about sick children and their father, becomes a meditation on the question of what truth means.
The "paradigm shift" also occurs within the children as they go from seeing their father as a physician whose words they can ignore, to grieving for the loss of their father. As long as they ignored the medicine (his words) they had their physical father, but it did them no good. He might as well be dead. Once they took the medicine they could perceive reality more clearly. This paradigm shift is a universal of religion. As discussed extensively (and perhaps confusingly) in the possibly Apocryphal Gosho "The teaching affirmed by all Buddhas of the Three Time Periods" religious literature uses the "language of dreams" which need the use of the tools of literary, allegorical, interpretative, and the use of meditational type insights in order to be understood correctly. (See pardes.html for more on this). No one expects that Herman Melville's Moby Dick, or Pinochio, really lived, and yet the power of the metaphors in those works is obvious to anyone who examines them. Religious literature is first and formost literature designed to transmit wisdom, and because the wisdom is the purpose, it is rarely designed to be interpreted literally, or to be a literalistic or historical account of the events it speaks of. Upaya is the Buddhist term for this use of "skillful means" to transmit religion.
Thus the story of the physician is a paradox because it is intended to induce a "paradigm shift" from a literalist approach to religious literature to a more universal and deep comprehension of the religious life and indeed of our life in this world altogether.
When people interpret religion too literally, they miss the meaning of that religion. The Buddhas "wise words" are meant to save people. That anyone could mistake "upaya" or hoben for lies, or a reason to lie, reflects how degenerated our understanding of religion has become in this age.
The Upaya Chapter:
- From Chapter II:
- Shariputra, listen carefully,
- for the Law which the Buddhas have attained,
- through the power of countless expedient means
- they preach for the benefit of living beings.
- The thoughts that are in the minds of living beings,
- the different types of paths they follow,
- their various desires and natures,
- the good and bad deeds they have done in previous existences--
- all these the Buddha takes cognizance of,
- and then he employs causes, similes and parables,
- words that embody the power of expedient means,
- in order to gladden and please them all.
- Sometimes he preaches sutras,
- verses, stories of the previous lives of disciples,
- stories of the previous lives of the Buddha, of unheard-of things.
- At other times he preaches regarding causes and conditions,
- uses similes, parables, passages of poetry
- or discourses.
- For those of dull capacities who delight in a little Law,
- who greedily cling to birth and death,
- who, despite the innumerable Buddhas,
- fail to practice the profound and wonderful way
- but are perplexed and confused by a host of troubles--
- for these I preach nirvana.
- I devise these expedient means
- and so cause them to enter into the Buddha wisdom.
- Up to now I have never told you
- that you were certain to attain the Buddha way.
- The reason I never preached in that manner
- was that the time to preach so had not yet come.
- But now is the very time
- when I must decisively preach the Great Vehicle....
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