Of the Four Higher Worlds – voice­ hearers, privately awakened ones, bodhisattvas, and buddhas – the highest is the world of buddhas. This is the world viewed from the perspective of perfect, unsurpassed awakening. From this perspective, one can see that the world of birth and death is itself the pure land. The world of the buddhas also represents the Buddha-nature, which is our own capacity for perfect and unsurpassed awakening. This world transcends all the other states because it is free of their limitations and suffering, but is also inherent within them as their true nature, infinite and free of suffering.