Once one sees the true nature of life and the futility of craving, the next step is to realize that if craving were given up then one would be free from suffering. This is the true meaning of nirvāṇa, the extinguishing of the flames of passionate greed or craving. Zhiyi spoke of this as the elimination of deluded views and attitudes that puts an end to transmigration within the six lower realms. From the perspective of the Hinayāna teachings, the arhats, pratyekabuddhas and even the buddhas who accomplish this are not reborn anywhere after death, not even in a pure land. They are simply gone, beyond the reach of conditioned existence and suffering. In life they attain nirvāṇa, the extinction of the greed, hatred, and delusion, and upon death they are said to attain parinirvāṇa or “final nirvana” whereby they are no longer even subject to physical pain and infirmity. While there may be śrāvakas, pratyekabuddhas, bodhisattvas, and buddhas as individuals, they have no lands or worlds of their own, but simply live in the human world (or some of the others in the case of bodhisattvas) until they attain final nirvāṇa. Then they are gone forever. This is why the attainment of final nirvāṇa is referred to as reducing the body to ashes and annihilating consciousness and also why the Hinayāna teachings are only said to expound the six lower realms and not the realms of the four noble states.

The second noble truth teaches that the true root of suffering is the craving for happiness itself. This craving is the result of the unrealistic expectation that life should be a source of unchangeable happiness as discussed under the first noble truth. Craving is what transforms the occasionally painful process of life into an ongoing cycle of agony and unbearable suffering at worst or a life of subtle agitation and anxiety at best. Thus, while external circumstances can indeed bring about uncomfortable or tragic experiences, it is the internal craving that turns mere pain into suffering. Indeed, craving can even spoil pleasant circumstances with its incessant demands and impoverished outlook on life. All of this is not to deny or denigrate the experiences of those who have or are experiencing affliction, exploitation, or tragedy. The point is that when one lets craving compound painful circumstances with emotional suffering or lets craving spoil even pleasant circumstances, then one has truly given up one’s power and is destined for a life determined by the forces of greed, anger and ignorance which are naturally generated in reaction to suffering.

The Middle Way as taught here by Śākyamuni Buddha is the Middle Way between self-indulgence and self-denial, both of which perpetuate the self-absorption that generates craving for worldly and otherworldly gain and is reinforced by deluded views. The Middle Way is in fact none other than the eightfold path that is the fourth of the four noble truths that the Buddha then proceeds to expound. Here is the first of the four:

“Now this, monks, is the noble truth of suffering: birth is suffering, aging is suffering, illness is suffering, death is suffering; union with what is displeasing is suffering; separation from what is pleasing is suffering; not to get what one wants is suffering; in brief, the five aggregates subject to clinging are suffering.”

The first noble truth of suffering means that conditioned phenomena are incapable of providing real lasting happiness. This does not mean that there is no happiness at all, but it does mean that even when we do get what we hoped for the happiness never lasts. In terms of the six lower realms, the worlds of the hell-dwellers, hungry ghosts, animals, and fighting demons are full of pain, ceaseless torment, and strife. Human life is naturally subject to old age, sickness, and death as well as the other sufferings enumerated. Even those who make wholesome causes and find themselves in heavenly circumstances will find that eventually the causes and conditions that put them there will change and they will find themselves forced to take birth into a new situation. In the six lower realms happiness is rare and fleeting whereas painful circumstances are abundant and insecurity is pervasive.

I would like to clarify here what is meant by the term “Hinayāna.” The term means “Small Vehicle” whereas Mahāyāna means “Great Vehicle.” The Mahāyānists referred to those Buddhists who rejected the Mahāyāna sūtras as Hinayāna Buddhists. The so-called Hinayāna Buddhists believed that the Buddha’s teachings could only be found in a closed canonical collection called the Three Baskets (S. tripiṭaka) composed of the sūtras that are the Buddha’s discourses, the monastic rules and procedures (S. vinaya), and the “Higher Dharma” (S. abhidharma) treatises that systematized the teachings in the discourses. The southern recension of these discourses is called the Pāli canon, since it was recorded in the Pāli language. It is composed of five Nikāyas or “Collections.” The northern recension of these discourses was in Sanskrit. They were called the Āgamas or “Sources” and exist now in Chinese translation. Today the Theravādin schools of Southeast Asia and Sri Lanka continue to uphold the Pāli canon as the only authoritative canonical collection of the Buddha’s teachings. The Sarvāstivādin and other northern schools that upheld the Āgama sūtras have long since disappeared in India. Because the term Hinayāna is a disparaging epithet and not the proper name of a school, it is best to use the term Theravāda and not Hinayāna when referring to the Buddhism of Southeast Asia. Calling the Āgama sūtras, their teachings, and the schools that rely upon them Hinayāna, as they are by East Asian Buddhists to this day, is problematic for a couple of reasons. The first is that, as Nichiren points out, those who study these teachings or who belong to these schools may have actually adopted Mahāyāna views. The second problem is that, according to Zhiyi, the teachings introduced in the Āgama sūtras can themselves express the perspective of the Mahāyāna if understood more deeply. Nevertheless, the term Hinayāna can be understood to refer to those teachings and schools that confine themselves to pre-Mahāyāna teachings, perspectives, and motivations, for that is how Nichiren uses the term in Kaimoku-shō.

When each of the ten realms is multiplied by the ten realms again due to the mutual possession of the ten realms one arrives at a hundred realms. Since each of the hundred realms has ten suchnesses there are said to be one thousand realms. In addition to all this, Zhiyi taught that there are three categories of existence that must be taken into account. These categories are the five aggregates (form, feeling, perception, mental formations, and consciousness); the sentient beings of the ten realms; and the environments in which they live. These three categories show that the one thousand realms are present in and manifest themselves in terms of the components of each beings, the sentient beings themselves as a whole, and the environments inhabited by them. The one thousand realms multiplied by the three categories brings the final total up to three thousand realms that are operative in every single thought-moment.

The single thought-moment is nothing other than each singular moment of conscious awareness that comprises the here and now of our life. Each moment of awareness contains all three thousand realms. The single thought-moment and the three thousand realms arise simultaneously. There is never a single moment of awareness without all the realms present within and all the realms are always united in a single moment of awareness. In support of this

As for the ten wonders of the Original Gate they involve the causes and effects of buddhahood from the perspective of the Eternal Buddha and are as follows:

1. The Wonder of Original Cause: The Eternal Buddha’s practice of the bodhisattva path occurred in the incalculably remote past and thereby puts the previous wonders of knowledges, practices, and stages of the Trace Gate in a timeless perspective.
2. The Wonder of Original Effect: Likewise the Eternal Buddha’s attainment of buddhahood occurred in the remote past, and thus the wonder of the threefold Dharma is put into this timeless perspective.
3. The Wonder of the Original Land: Since the time of the Eternal Buddha’s attainment of buddhahood in the remote past he has remained in this world of Endurance (Skt. sahā) teaching sentient beings. This world is, therefore, the true Pure Land of Eternally Tranquil Light of the Eternal Buddha.
4. The Wonder of Original Receptivity and Response: The wonder of receptivity and response is now shown to have begun in the remote past.
5. The Wonder of Original Supernatural Powers: The wonder of the Eternal Buddha’s use of supernatural powers is now shown to have begun in the remote past.
6. The Wonder of the Original Expounding of the Dharma: The wonder of the Eternal Buddha’s expounding of the Dharma is now shown to have begun in the remote past.
7. The Wonder of Original Attendants: The wonder of the Eternal Buddha’s relationship with sentient beings and fostering of bodhisattvas is now shown to have begun in the remote past.
8. The Wonder of the Original Nirvāṇa: This is the wonder of the Eternal Buddha’s actual abiding in nirvāṇa since the remote past, though he repeatedly displays the attainment of nirvāṇa with remainder (the extinction of greed, hatred, and delusion in life) and final nirvāṇa or nirvāṇa without remainder (physical extinction) in order to inspire sentient beings.
9. The Wonder of the Original Lifespan: This is the wonder of the Eternal Buddha’s unborn and deathless lifespan, though he takes on various transient lives in the world in order to teach, guide, and inspire sentient beings.
10. The Wonder of Original Benefits: The wonder of the Eternal Buddha’s merit and beneficial influence on sentient beings is now shown to have begun in the remote past.

As for the ten wonders of the Trace Gate they involve the causes and effects of buddhahood understood from the perspective of the teaching of the historical Buddha and are as follows:

1. The Wonder of Objects: The wondrous objective realities that the Buddha taught such as the four noble truths, the twelve-fold chain of dependent origination, the ten suchnesses from chapter two of the Lotus Sūtra, the two truths (the conventional and the ultimate), the threefold truth (of the empty, the provisional and the Middle Way), and the one truth of ultimate reality itself are all wondrous because they lead to and express the subtle and perfect teaching of the Lotus Sūtra.
2. The Wonder of Knowledges: The deepening knowledge (or gnosis) of ordinary beings, śrāvakas, pratyekabuddhas, and bodhisattvas who awaken to the aforementioned objects are wondrous because they all ultimately lead to buddhahood.
3. The Wonder of Practices: All practices, including concentration and insight; the threefold training of morality, concentration, and wisdom; and the six perfections of the bodhisattva, are wondrous because they all lead ultimately to buddhahood.
4. The Wonder of Stages: All the stages of attainment that ultimately lead to buddhahood, from the stage of those who only strive for rebirth as a human being or in the heavens, to those stages of śrāvaka practice leading to arhatship, all the way up to the advanced stages of bodhisattva practice are wondrous.
5. The Wonder of the Threefold Dharma: All of the above leads to buddhahood, which is the wondrous fulfillment of the threefold Dharma or three tracks: the track of real nature, the track of contemplative illumination of wisdom, and the track of fulfilling potential as the accomplishment of meritorious deeds.
6. The Wonder of Receptivity and Response: The Buddha’s wholesome influence and assistance given in response to the needs of sentient beings in accord with their receptivity to his teachings is wondrous.
7. The Wonder of Supernatural Powers: The power of the Buddha to assist sentient beings with supernatural mastery over his own body, clairaudience, mind reading, past-life recall, clairvoyance, and knowledge of the destruction of the taints is wondrous.
8. The Wonder of Expounding the Dharma: The Buddha’s ability to expound the Dharma in the form of sūtras (prose discourses), verse restatements of the prose (S. gāthā), original verse teachings (S. geya), expansive discourses (S. vaipulya), prophecies to his disciples concerning their attainment of buddhahood, short sayings, tales of causality, parables, stories of his disciples past lives, stories of his own past lives, tales of auspicious occasions, and dialogues is wondrous.
9. The Wonder of Attendants: The variety of relationships that sentient beings have with the Buddha depending on either the universality of buddha-nature or specific causes or the vows they have made is wondrous.
10. The Wonder of Merits and Benefits: The final wonder of the Trace Gate is the boundless merit enjoyed by the Buddha and the great benefit he confers upon all sentient beings when they encounter the Buddha, hear the Dharma, and put it into practice so that they also may attain buddhahood.