Thus the philosophy of Tendai establishes a synthesis, called the Middle Way, between the two extremes of common-sense realism and transcendental idealism, in repudiating either the former position that a particular being is a reality in itself and by itself, and the latter conception of reality amounting to the denial of anything but the absolute and transcendental. The Middle Way is at the same time the all-embracing One Road (Eka-yāna), because it presupposes the basic unity of Buddha and all other beings, and emphasizes the possibility, nay necessity, of raising all beings to the dignity of Buddha himself. The historical Buddha was, according to this conception, a manifestation of the universal and primordial Buddha-nature for the sake of inducing all beings to the full realization of their own real nature or metaphysical entity identical with that of Buddha himself.