The most distinctive of [Tiantai Zhiyi’s views] is the theory of the “threefold truth” of emptiness, conventional existence, and the middle way. The theory of “threefold contemplation” is related to these three: “Entering emptiness from conventional existence; entering conventional existence from emptiness. This is the supreme meaning of the middle way.” He concludes the three with the integration of calming and contemplation—that is, the idea of the three contemplations in a single instant, in which emptiness, conventional existence, and the middle way are the same, identical, and simultaneous. This theory of the threefold contemplation is derived from verse 18 of the twenty-fourth chapter of Nagarjuna’s Mūlamadhyamakakārika:

Dependent origination we declare to be emptiness. It [emptiness] is a dependent concept; just that is the middle path.

This theory of the threefold contemplation is an application of what had been taught in the Sutra of the Main Business of the Bodhisattva’s Jeweled Necklace, a Chinese sutra believed to be from the fifth or sixth century.

Emptiness involves the negation of fixed contrapositions, such as human versus divine, ordinary people versus Buddha, evil versus good, or A versus B generally. Wherever one transcends such dichotomizing, one finds the ultimate reality of existence and of the truth—the Dharma—that supports existence. Tiantai Zhiyi’s view of absoluteness began from this idea. The truly absolute God, Buddha, or Good is found where such dichotomies as those involving human beings, ordinary people, or evil are broken through or transcended. This he calls “the absolutely wonderful.”