This image of the reality of one and many can also be seen in the image of Shakyamuni Buddha bringing together billions and billions of worlds to create a temporary unification of them into a single buddha land. Their reality as many lands does not disappear when they are brought together to function as one. Later in the Sutra they will return to being, as they were, many. In this way, Shakyamuni Buddha, as well as being the buddha of this world, is at the same time the Universal Buddha – the buddha who, by virtue of his embodiments, is represented or present everywhere throughout the universe.

One reason that this holding together of the reality of both the one and the many is important in the Dharma Flower Sutra is that it provides a general framework for understanding the One Vehicle of many skillful means. It provides, in other words, a way of understanding through images how the many ways of Buddhism can all have an importance and reality within one Buddhism.