upāya. Convenient to the place, or situation, suited to the condition, opportune, appropriate; but 方 is interpreted as 方法 method, mode, plan, and 便 as 便用 convenient for use, i. e. a convenient or expedient method; also 方 as 方正 and 便 as 巧妙, which implies strategically correct. It is also intp. as 權道智 partial, temporary, or relative (teaching of) knowledge of reality, in contrast with 般若智 prajñā, and 真實 absolute truth, or reality instead of the seeming. The term is a translation of 傴和 upāya, a mode of approach, an expedient, stratagem, device. The meaning is-- teaching according to the capacity of the hearer, by any suitable method, including that of device or stratagem, but expedience beneficial to the recipient is understood. Mahāyāna claims that the Buddha used this expedient or partial method in his teaching until near the end of his days, when he enlarged it to the revelation of reality, or the preaching of his final and complete truth; Hīnayāna with reason denies this, and it is evident that the Mahāyāna claim has no foundation, for the whole of its 方等 or 方廣 scriptures are of later invention. Tiantai speaks of the 三乘 q. v. or Three Vehicles as 方便 expedient or partial revelations, and of its 一乘 or One Vehicle as the complete revelation of universal Buddhahood. This is the teaching of the Lotus Sutra, which itself contains 方便 teaching to lead up to the full revelation; hence the terms 體內 (or 同體 ) 方便, i. e. expedient or partial truths within the full revelation, meaning the expedient part of the Lotus, and 體外方便 the expedient or partial truths of the teaching which preceded the Lotus; see the 方便品 of that work, also the second chapter of the 維摩經. 方便 is also the seventh of the ten pāramitās.
以上來源於:《漢英梵佛學辭典》