In an important respect, [Chapter 16] of the Sutra is a continuation and culmination of a story found in Chapters 11 and 15, and it needs to be understood in relation to them. In Chapter 11 Shakyamuni is portrayed as the Buddha of all worlds. In order that the whole body of Abundant Treasures Buddha may be seen, Shakyamunl assembles buddhas from all over the universe. As we have seen, these other buddhas are in some sense representatives of Shakyamuni Buddha. They can be called embodiments of Shakyamuni Buddha. Thus it is clear that Shakyamuni Buddha is represented or present in the vast expanse of space.

In Chapter 15 Shakyamuni is portrayed as having been a buddha for countless eons: Shakyamuni says that the many, many bodhisattvas who emerge from below the earth have been taught by him over countless eons. Here the Buddha is present in a vast expanse of time. “Thus, since I became Buddha a very long time has passed, a lifetime of innumerable countless eons of constantly living here and never entering extinction.” (LS 293)

That chapter ends with Maitreya Bodhisattva and others wondering how someone who has been living and teaching for only a few decades can be the teacher of countless bodhisattvas who lived ages and ages ago.

In Chapter 16, all of this is brought together in the teaching that Shakyamuni Buddha is the one Universal Buddha, the Buddha of all times and places, one whose life is extended indefinitely both spatially and temporally, from the extremely distant past into the distant future and in all the directions of the vast universe.