The eternally enlightened Original Buddha, as taught in the sixteenth chapter of the Lotus Sutra, is the eternally unchanging dharma-kāya; Śākyamuni, who was enlightened at Gayā, was none other than the Buddha revealing himself as the nirmāṇa-kāya. Unenlightened understanding (“skillful means”) contrasts with the “truth” of the Buddha. These contrary modes of understanding do not, however, mean that there are two opposing existences (the One vehicle and the three vehicles; the Original Buddha and the manifested form) or two times (without beginning or end, having beginning and end); rather they are different ways of looking at the same existence, the same time. Ultimately, the Buddha’s absolute truth is one. The verse section of the same chapter can be considered the expression of the culmination of religious uniāty:

“[When] all creatures have believed and obeyed,
In [character] upright, in mind gentle,
Wholeheartedly wishing to see the Buddha,
Not caring for their own lives,
Then I with all the Saṃgha
Appear together on the Divine Vulture Peak.

“When all the living see, at the kalpa’s end,
The conflagration when it is burning,
Tranquil is this realm of mine,
Ever filled with heavenly beings, Parks, and many palaces
With every kind of gem adorned,
Precious trees full of blossoms and fruits,
Where all creatures take their pleasure;
All the gods strike the heavenly drums
And evermore make music,
Showering mandārava flowers
On the Buddha and his great assembly.

My Pure Land will never be destroyed,
Yet all view it as being burned up,
And grief and horror and distress
Fill them all like this.”