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Under the general rube adopted by the editor, the long introductory chapter, the "meat-eating" chapter, and the chapter on Dharani, were omitted entirely as being later accretions and in no direct sense relating to the theme of the Sutra. The long chapter of verses is also omitted as being obscure and repetitious; and as the essence of the verses; is given in the prose sections, they can be omitted without loss for the sake of easier reading. In addition, certain small sections are omitted because of their obscurity, or because they do not appear to add anything to the elucidation of the main thesis.

Under the second rule, the Sutra was cut up into more or less small sections and rearranged into something like an orderly sequence. Under the third rule, these small sections were interwoven and condensed by omitting repetitions, matter that was obscure or tiresomely argumentative. Under the fourth rule, a minimum amount of interpretation was introduced. This was absolutely necessary if the Sutra was to be easily or agreeably read, but the interpretations were confined to matter found within the text itself. Often the author of the Sutra would refer to an important doctrine by a single compound word which if translated would be meaningless to modern occidental ears; in such cases there was nothing else to be done, if the reading was to be easily understood, but to interpret it at more or less length, but I have been scrupulously careful not to do any more than was necessary to bring out the full meaning of the text.