The Lotus Sutra makes a bold structural move: it declares that everything the Buddha taught before it was provisional, that the three vehicles were a device to get people moving, and that there was only ever one vehicle leading everyone to full buddhahood. It then goes further — the historical Buddha's death was itself skillful means, and he has in fact been teaching forever. This is the text that licensed Mahayana's claim to supersede the earlier canon, and the schools built on it are enormous: Tiantai in China, Tendai in Japan, and Nichiren, whose practice reduces to chanting the sutra's title as the whole of the teaching.