According to Sakyamuni’s idea, all mountains, rivers, and lands, as well as all kinds of flora and fauna, are identical with his own person. Therefore the three worlds [ – the mortal, the material, and the spiritual – ] are said to be his own possession, and all inhabitants his own children. This last phrase means that living creatures of whatever kind are merely the images and metamorphoses of his own body. But this was not known to Sakyamuni until he was thirty years old. It is for this reason that in the above sentence he says, “Now, the three worlds,” and so on. The word “now” implies that Sakyamuni had been ignorant of his original enlightenment, or Buddhahood, until that moment, and that he recognized it for the first time then. Therefore the [Lotus Sutra] says, “The Buddha begins to perceive and to know the intrinsicality of the three worlds, the mortal, the material, and the spiritual.”