In terms of “explaining retinues that are formed by karmic connection” (Ming Yeh-sheng Chüan-shu), what Chih-i assert is that, although all living beings are the children of the Buddha, some, after taking poison, have lost their minds, and some have not. The ones, who did not lose their mind, seek for help and take the given medicine. Chih-i argues that the Lotus Sūtra is analogous with medicine, through which the family-tie between the Buddha and living beings, as a father and son relationship is formed. For the ones who have lost their mind, the Buddha applies expedient means to form a karmic connection with them by expounding different doctrines of the Fourfold Teaching. When a karmic connection is formed, with the twenty-five kinds of samādhi, the Buddha expounds the Threefold Truth to sentient beings in the twenty-five kinds of existence, so that they can be matured. Chih-i emphasizes that, regardless of whether some of them may have been liberated and may not have yet, they are all retinues of the Buddha. (Vol. 2, Page 291)