The objects of our experience have a temporary reality. We do experience something. Nevertheless, the world which we experience is empty of an eternal, unchanging, svabhāba-like substance. Lest one lapse into a mistaken nihilism, one must realize the Middle Path. One must realize the emptiness of phenomenal reality simultaneously with the temporal, provisional reality of these empty objects. This Middle Path, however, must not be grasped as an eternal, transcendental Reality; it is, rather, manifested in and through and is identical with temporal phenomenal reality, which is again in turn empty of an unchanging substance. The circle is complete in itself, what Chih-i calls “a perfectly integrated threefold truth.”

This concept is summarized by Chih-i in his Fa hua hsüan I [ Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra ]:

The “perfect threefold truth” means that it is not only the Middle Path which completely includes the Buddha-Dharma, but also the real and the mundane [truths]. This threefold truth is perfectly integrated; one-in-three and three-in-one.

In other words, the real truth, the mundane truth, and the Middle Path are three ways of expressing the threefold aspects of a single integrated reality. This concept of the threefold truth plays a central role in Chih-i’s Tien-t’ai philosophy and provides the structure for his interpretation of the Buddha-dharma.