Concept

Upaya

Overview

In Buddhism, upaya (Sanskrit: उपाय, upāya, expedient means, pedagogy) is an aspect of guidance along paths of moksha or liberation, where a conscious, voluntary action "is driven by an incomplete reasoning" about its direction. Upaya is often used with kaushalya (कौशल्य, "cleverness"), upaya-kaushalya meaning "skill in means". In the Shantiparva of the Mahabharata, Bhishma says that moksha is only through upaya (e.g., 12266001).

Upaya-kaushalya is a concept emphasizing that practitioners may use their own specific methods or techniques that fit the situation in order to gain enlightenment. The implication is that even if a technique, view, etc., is not ultimately "true" in the highest sense, it may still be an expedient practice to perform or view to hold; i.e., it may bring the practitioner closer to the true realization in a similar way. The exercise of skill to which it refers, the ability to adapt one's message to the audience, is of enormous importance in the Pali Canon.

The Digital Dictionary of Buddhism notes that rendering the Chinese term fāngbiàn into English as 'skillful' or as 'expedient' is often difficult, because the connotations shift according to the context as (1) the teaching being something to marvel at — the fact that the Buddha can present these difficult truths in everyday language (thus, skillful), yet that (2) they are teachings of a lower order as compared to the ultimate truth, and are far removed from reflecting reality, and are a kind of 'stopgap' measure (thus, expedient).

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

Possible passages

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Other methods of deliverance from evil are in the excessive acts of penance performed by the Indians, to which a retreat within themselves is added. Now when the Indian thus internally collects himself, and retreats within his own thoughts, the moment of such pure concentration is called Brahma, the one and the clearly supersensuous state, which the understanding calls the highest possible existence. When this is so…
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Hegel's Lectures on the History of Philosophy
States what Upaya is.
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So, when any impression comes on the _chitta_, or “mind stuff,” it vibrates a little. This state of the mind is called the _manas_. Then comes the reaction, the will. There is another thing behind this will which accompanies all the acts of the mind, which is called egoism, the _ahamkâra_, the self-consciousness, which says “I am,” and behind that is what is called _Buddhi_, the intellect, the highest form of…
Swami Vivekananda, Jnâna Yoga, Part II
States what Upaya is.
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Fear is, therefore, caution destitute of reason. But a wise man is not affected by any present evil; while the grief of a fool proceeds from being affected with an imaginary evil, by which his mind is contracted and sunk, since it is not under the dominion of reason. This, then, is the first definition, which makes grief to consist in a shrinking of the mind contrary to the dictates of reason. Thus, there are four…
Marcus Tullius Cicero, Cicero's Tusculan Disputations Also, Treatises On The Nature Of The Gods, And On The Commonwealth
States what Upaya is.
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Philosophers who discussed Upaya

Related ideas

Opposing perspectives

Tiantai

Place in the tradition

Part of Buddhist philosophy.

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