The Lotus Sutra envelops and expands the Hinayana

The Buddha, in a Hinayana Sutra, states:

'Thus I remembered my various past lives - 
     the first life, the second life, the third life, 
     the fourth life, the tenth life, the twentieth 
     life, the thirtieth life, the fortieth life, the 
     fiftieth life, the hundredth life, the thousandth 
     life, the hundred thousandth life, the countless 
     formations of the universe, the countless destructions 
     of the universe, the formations and destructions of 
     the universe. I remembered what my given names had 
     been, what my surnames were, what my tribal names 
     were, what I ate, what pleasures and sorrows I experienced.' 

And in the culmination of the Buddhas lifetime teachings: 

THE TATHAGATA ANNOUNCES THAT HE HAS 
ENTERED NIRVANA 
('Saddharmapundarika,' XVI, 268-72) 

"The Lord said- As a result of my sustaining power this 
world, with its Gods, men and Asuras, forms the notion that 
recently the Lord Shakyamuni, after going forth from his 
home among the Shakyas, has awoken to full enlightenment, on 
the terrace of enlightenment, by the town of Gaya, 

But one should not see it thus, sons of good family.  In 
fact it is many hundreds of thousands of myriads of Kotis of 
aeons ago that I, have awoken to full enlightenment. . . . 
Ever since, during all that time I have demonstrated Dharma 
to beings in this Saha world system, and also in hundreds of 
thousands of Nayutas of Kotis of other world systems.  But 
when I have spoken of other Tathagatas, beginning with the 
Tathagata Dipinkara, and of the Nirvana of these Tathagatas, 
then that has just been conjured up by me as an emission of 
the skill in means by which I demonstrate Dharma. 

Moreover, the Tathagata surveys the diversity in the 
faculties and vigour of successive generations of beings. 
To each generation he announces his name, declares that he 
has entered Nirvana, and brings peace to beings by various 
discourses on Dharma.  To beings who are of low disposition, 
whose store of merit is small, and whose depravities are 
many, he says in that case: 'I am young in years, monks, I 
have left the home of my family, and but lately have I won 
full enlighten ment.' But when the Tathagata, although fully 
enlightened for s long, declares that he has been fully 
enlightened but recently, the such discourses on Dharma have 
been spoken for no other reason than to bring beings to 
maturity and to save them.  All these discourse on Dharma 
have been taught by the Tathagata in order to discipline 
beings. 

And whatever the Tathagata says to educate beings, and 
whatever the Tathagata utters,-whether he appears as himself 
or as another whether under his own authority or 
another,-all these discourses o Dharma are taught as 
factually true by the Tath-agata, and there I no false 
speech in them on the part of the Tathagata.  For the Tath-a 
gata has seen the triple world as it really is: It is not 
born, it dies not there is no decease or rebirth, no 
Samsara- or Nirvana; it is not real or unreal, not existent, 
or non-existent, not such, or otherwise, no false or 
not-false.  Not in such a way has the Tathagata seen the 
triple world as the foolish common people see it.  The 
Tathagata I face to face with the reality of dharmas; he can 
therefore be under no delusion about them. Whatever words 
the Tathagata may utter with regard to them, they are true, 
not false, not otherwise. 

He utters, however, different discourses on Dharma, which 
differ in their objective basis, to beings who differ in 
their mode of life an their intentions, and who wander 
amidst discriminations and percep tions, in order to 
generate the roots of good in them.  For a Tathagata 
performs a Tathagata's work.  Fully enlightened for ever so 
long, the Tathagata has an endless span of life, he lasts for
ever.  Although the Tathagata has not entered Nirvana, he
makes a show of entering Nirvana, for the sake of those who
have to be educated. And eve today my ancient course as a
Bodhisattva is still incomplete, and my life-span is not yet ended.
From today onwards still twice as man hundreds of thousands
of Nayutas of Kotis of aeons must elapse before my life-span is 

complete.  Although therefore I do not at present enter into 
Nirvana (or extinction), nevertheless I announce my Nirvana. 
For by this method I bring beings to maturity. Because it 
might be that, if I stayed here too long and could be seen 
too often, beings who have performed no meritorious actions, 
who are without merit, poorly lot, eager for sensuous 
pleasures, blind, and wrapped in net of false views, would, 
in the knowledge that the Tathagata stay (here all the 
time), get the notion that life is a mere sport, and would 
not conceive the notion that the (sight of the) Tathagata is 
hard to obtain.  In the conviction that the Tathagata is 
always at hand they would not exert their vigour for the 
purpose of escaping from the triple world, and they would 
not conceive of the Tathagata as hard to obtain." 

Translation by Edwin Conze, in Conze, et al., Buddhist Texts 
through the Ages (Oxford: Bruno Cassirer. 1954)