The three aspects of “subtle” are completely possessed by the Lotus Sūtra. In contradistinction to the views of Kuang-chai, who only assigns “fine” to the “present”, Chih-i argues that the Buddhist scriptures of the “past” contain both “fine” and “coarse” in terms of the cause and effect of Buddhahood. He goes through the teaching of the Buddha in the five periods that correspond with the five dairy flavors, and classifies the causes and effects that are contained in the teaching of the five periods into coarse or subtle. For Chih-i, the uniqueness of the present Lotus Sūtra as the ghee flavor (T’i-hu-ching) that is expounded in the fifth period is that it contains no coarse elements. The Lotus Sūtra presents only one kind of cause and effect of Buddhahood, which is the representation of a single unified entity. This one cause and effect of Buddhahood as the essential teaching of the Buddha is defined by Chih-i as “all-embracing in substance” (T’ikuang), “superior in position” (Wei-kao), and “eternal in function” (Yung-ch’ang). The substance of this essential teaching is all embracing, because it refers to the Ultimate Truth that permeates everywhere. The position of this essential teaching is superior because it refers to the Buddhahood that occurred in an incalculable past in the Origin. The function of this essential teaching is long because it refers to the Buddha’s activities in the Traces that can benefit sentient beings in the three periods of time, due to the fact that the Traces are derived from the Origin in an incalculable past. (Vol. 2, Page 66)