When Shakyamuni Buddha revealed the eternal nature of his awakened life, he did not contradict his earlier teachings. Instead, he showed us how those teachings were fulfilled in terms of his own life and awakening. He also showed how those teachings would allow us to realize the purity, bliss, eternity, and true self of Nirvana in our own lives.

The Buddha’s eternal life should not be seen as a violation of the three marks of impermanence, suffering, and selflessness, which apply to all other forms of life. This is because the Buddha’s eternal life does not depend upon a body or mind characterized by the Three Marks. Rather, the Buddha’s eternal life is the true Nirvana of Buddhahood, which is characterized by purity, bliss, eternity, and true self as opposed to the impurity, suffering, impermanence, and false self that characterize the life of delusion.

The awakened life of the Eternal Shakyamuni Buddha is the awakened life of all beings throughout time and space. It is also actively present in our lives, a presence that enables us to live as buddhas when we open ourselves to the Buddha’s merits and virtues through our faith in the Lotus Sutra.

During the Ceremony in the Air, Shakyamuni Buddha revealed that he did not attain awakening for the first time beneath the Bodhi Tree. He told his startled disciples that his Buddhahood was attained in the infinite past. Ultimately, the Buddha’s awakened life transcends the distinctions between beginning and end, subject and object, or self and other. It defies all categories and cannot be thought of or imagined. It can, however, be experienced when we awaken to these same immeasurable qualities in our own lives by upholding the teachings of the Lotus Sutra.

During the Ceremony in the Air, Shakyamuni Buddha is shown to be the Original Buddha, whereas all other buddhas throughout the universe are merely reflections of him. He is not just one buddha among others. He is the one who perfectly expresses the ultimate truth, the Wonderful Dharma, which all buddhas teach. This truth is not many, it is one, and it is universal. The truth is the same for all beings, though it may he expressed and understood differently by different people. Ultimately, anyone who awakens to this truth and teaches it to others will be in harmony with Shakyamuui Buddha. Though other teachings may be distorted or partial reflections of the truth, when we uphold the Wonderful Dharma of lhe Elernal Shakyamuni Buddha, we are upholding the most perfect and complete expression of the true nature of reality.

The One Vehicle is the teaching that there are no permanent barriers to attaining Buddhahood. Even the worst evil-doers have the ability to awaken to the truth about themselves, repent of their wrong-doing, and begin to follow the way to Buddhahood if they take faith in the One Vehicle. Those who are looked down upon by others for any reason also have the ability to awaken to the incomparable dignity of Buddhahood if they take faith in the One Vehicle. There is no discrimination in the One Vehicle. People may be different based on race, class, ethnicity, culture, gender, sexual orientation, intelligence, personal habits, interests, spiritual maturity, and many other factors, but in the end all people have the same capacity to attain Buddhahood.

In the Lotus Sutra, the Buddha finally introduced the One Vehicle of Buddhahood, which unifies and ultimately transcends the previous three vehicles. The One Vehicle is the teaching that all beings can attain Buddhahood. Even those following the Two Vehicles of the voice-hearers and privately awakened ones, whom the Buddha declared unfit to attain Buddhahood, would be able to do so. In fact, the Lotus Sutra states that they had been on the One Vehicle all along, though they did not know it. This attainment of Buddhahood by those following the Two Vehicles is the main theme of the first half of the Lotus Sutra. In order to ensure that this teaching is understood, the Buddha taught it in many different ways. He used philosophical discourses, parables, similes, past-life experiences, and ultimately gave predictions of Buddhahood to all his many disciples.

More astonishing was the fact that the Buddha predicted that even his traitorous cousin, Devadatta, who had tried to kill him and take over the Sangha, would attain Buddhahood in the future. Shortly after this prediction, an eight-year-old dragon-girl transformed into a Buddha before the eyes of the whole assembly – despite the culturally perceived impediments of her sex, her age, and her birth as an animal. These examples extend the idea that even those previously believed unfit to attain Buddhahood would be able to do so in the end.

Though the Buddha taught a variety of concepts, such as the Four Noble Truths for the monastic voice-hearers, Dependent Origination for the privately awakened ones, and the Six Perfection for those who wished to become buddhas (the vehicle of the bodhisattvas), they are all different aspects of the One Vehicle of Buddhahood. When the Buddha taught the One Vehicle in the Lotus Sutra, he finally made it clear that all along his intention had been to lead all beings to Buddhahood.

The Buddha is not some god-like entity. The inner life of Shakyamuni Buddha is within ourselves. The actual qualities and accomplishments of Shakyamnni Buddha flow naturally from his realization of the ultimate truth. They serve as an inspiration and a guide to what we are capable of doing when we take faith in the Buddha Dharma.

In Shakyamuni Buddha we can see the unity of the universal, the ideal, and the historical in an otherwise ordinary person who is no different than any of us, except for his awakening. By affirming the unity of the Three Bodies in Shakyamuni Buddha, we are affirming our own ability to awaken to the ultimate truth and to base our lives upon it.