In the opening passage of Chapter Two, Śākyamuni declares that only buddhas can “completely know the real aspects of all dharmas — that is to say, their character, nature, substance, potential, function, cause, condition, result, effect, and essential unity.”…

In the East Asian commentarial tradition, this passage is referred to as the “ten suchnesses” or “such-likes” (J. junyoze) because each of the “real aspects” is preceded in the Chinese text by the words “suchness” or more literally “like such” (nyoze). “Such” or “suchness” (tathatā in Sanskrit) is one of many terms for reality in Buddhism, denoting that a buddha perceives things just as they are, without imposing reifying concepts or descriptions. In their translation, Kubo and Yuyama call these ten the “real aspects” of the dharmas or phenomena, but one could also refer to them collectively in the singular as the “real aspect” shared by all phenomena. By punctuating this passage that enumerates the “ten suchnesses” in three different ways, Zhiyi derived the threefold truth … of emptiness, conventional existence, and the middle. To this day, the passage is often ritually recited three times, representing the threefold truth and its threefold discernment.