This chapter also provides the hermeneutical schema of the Three Turnings of the Wheel of Dharma. This is intended to clarify confusing or contradictory elements of earlier teachings by presenting a new teaching that resolves earlier inconsistencies by uniting all previous doctrines. The Sūtra affirms that the earlier "turnings of the wheel of Dharma"—the teachings of the Śrāvaka Vehicle ("Śrāvakayāna") and the emptiness (Śūnyatā) doctrine found in the Prajñaparamita sutras—are authentic, but require interpretation if they are not to contradict each other.