For the section “Substance,” Chih-i compares various conceptions of the Ultimate Truth. The Ultimate Truth for beings in the realms of desire, form, and formlessness signifies that these three realms are different. The Two Vehicles perceive the Ultimate Truth as the suchness of emptiness. The bodhisattvas take both difference (provisional existence) and suchness (emptiness) as the Ultimate Truth. For the Buddha, the Ultimate Truth means neither suchness nor difference. The Ultimate Truth realized by the Buddha is thus taken as the correct substance. In Chih-i ‘s view, only the Lotus Sūtra enjoys the privilege of possessing the correct substance. Although the Ultimate Truth is also confirmed by Chih-i to be the substance of all other sūtras (seeing that the Ultimate Truth is the underlying principle), the substance they possess is not perfect. This is because other sūtras expound either the Relative Truth or the Ultimate Truth by means of expediency, and thus they cannot be regarded as fully possessing the correct substance, but only the one-sided substance (referring to emptiness as the Absolute Truth that is represented by the Tripitaka Teaching) or the correct substance with one-sidedness (referring to the Common Teaching that reveals the Ultimate Truth as the substance of dharmas, but its view concerns the one-sided emptiness). Only the substance of the Lotus Sūtra can function to embrace all entities, with which only the one Ultimate Truth is expounded without any expediency, viz. the Relative Truth and the Ultimate Truth are identified with each other in forming an integrated reality of all aspects. (Page 86)