By identifying the Threefold Track with the Triple Course of Ignorance, what Chih-i endeavors to express is that True Reality is all-embracing and is typically embodied in the pattern of identifying opposite parties. Thus, he concludes, for example: “Affliction is identical to Bodhi-wisdom,” or “By treading on the heretic path, one arrives at the Buddha-path.” This is evidenced by Chih-i’s direct statement of identifying the Triple Course of Ignorance with the Three Virtues of Buddhahood:

“What is called the course of suffering refers to the consciousness, name-and-form, contact, and sensation. Naming this coursing of suffering as the Buddha-nature is the indication of naming life-death as dharmakāya, which is like referring ice to water. What is called the course of affliction refers to ignorance, desire, and attachment. Naming this course of affliction asprajiā is like referring firewood to fire. What is called the course of karman implies that the volitional activity, existence, and even the five kinds of grave offence that result in falling in uninterrupted hell are nothing else but the indication of liberation. This is to view binding in terms of unbinding.” (Vol. 2, Page