This polar notion is established to judge various teachings of the Buddha in terms of whether or not they contain expedient means. Chih-i demonstrates the coarseness or subtlety by comparing the Lotus Sūtra with other sūtras. The teaching of the Buddha that contains expedience in other sūtras is considered to be Relative Truth, for it complies with various capabilities and inclinations of audiences. Relative Truth is coarse, given that it is only the means to reach the final goal of the Ultimate Truth. In the ultimate teaching of the Lotus Sūtra, the Buddha directly reveals that all past teachings are expedient means in leading beings to open the Buddha’s knowledge and insight. The Lotus teaching that contains no expedient means is regarded by Chih-i to be the ultimate, and renders subtlety. However, the distinction of the coarseness and the subtlety are only Chih-i’s strategy of projecting the superiority of the Lotus teaching in his system of classification so that the ultimate goal of attaining Buddhahood as the spirit of Mahāyāna Buddhism can be asserted. In Chih-i’s view, with the Ultimate Truth as an absolute reality, there is no more distinction between these two. From the viewpoint of the coarse teaching as the preparatory means for listeners to be intellectually matured for the subtle teaching, and from the viewpoint of the Buddha’s real intention being always for the purpose of expounding the subtle teaching even when he was implementing the coarse teaching, the significance of the coarse teaching would never be overly emphasized. Hence, Chih-i insists that the coarseness contains the subtlety, and it is no longer coarse when the universal salvation for all beings is declared by the Buddha in the Lotus Sūtra. (Page 64)

Arising and abandoning are the two aspects of evaluating various levels of religious attainment as positions that belong to the Four Teachings respectively. According to Chih-i, the positions that belong to the three teachings (Tripiṭaka, Common, and Separate) are coarse, seeing that the doors of these teachings are expedient means or contain expediency. This proposes that truth expounded by the Buddha in these teachings is relative, which functions to guide beings to eventually reach the Ultimate Truth. The positions of the Perfect Teaching are considered to be subtle, for the door of the Perfect Teaching directly reveals the Ultimate Truth without having to employ expedient means as the Relative Truth. Therefore, “arising of positions” (Wei-hsing) is to confirm the legitimacy of various positions regardless of whether they are coarse or subtle, from the viewpoint that all of them are beneficial in terms of suiting different abilities of sentient beings. On the other hand, the abandonment of these tentative positions (Wei-fei) is necessary for the arising of new positions. Attainment arises according to conditions. Along with the arising of new conditions, new positions are produced, with which old positions must be abandoned. With regard to the Four Teachings, Chih-i argues that the positions of the Tripiṭaka, the Common, and the Separate Teachings must be abandoned. This is because, once they have fulfilled their roles as tentative positions, i.e., after one has progressed from these three teachings to the Perfect Teaching, and attained the ultimate position of the Perfect Teaching, these tentative positions are no longer needed. Moreover, at the moment when these tentative positions hinder one’s attainment of the ultimate position on the path of religious practice, they must be abolished too.

Chih-i’s further analysis of the relationship between the door of the Traces and the door of the Origin is also his endeavor to demonstrate the polar concept of the substance and the function. In Chih-i’s interpretation of the Lotus Sūtra that is divided by him into two major part, the Traces and the Origin, the Traces highlights the recent event of the Buddha’s self-practice and transformation of others, and the Origin the original enlightenment of the Buddha: the former denotes the function and the latter the substance. In a sense that function is derived from substance, Chih-i confirms that it is due to the original enlightenment of the Buddha in the Origin from which the Buddha’s activities in the Traces are derived. While emphasizing the key role of the Origin as the substance contrary to the Traces as the function, Chih-i does not hesitate to clarify the fact that the function is already contained in the substance as the enlightenment of the Buddha simultaneously arouses the function of saving sentient beings. (Page 63)

[T]he Three Tracks refer to the same aspects concerning objective reality, knowledge, and practice. These are the three major components in religious cultivation in Chih-i’s philosophy of Buddhism, equivalent to realization (Cheng), teaching (Chiao) and practice (Hsing) in traditional Buddhism respectively. Chih-i’s point is that, these three components are in fact imbedded in the nature of all sentient beings, by which Chih-i strongly argues that all beings are able to attain Buddhahood. The theory of the Three Tracks concludes the previous four categories of Subtlety that are concerned with religious cultivation and indicates that this religious cultivation can be accomplished by the power of self-practice. To further prove the significance of the Three Tracks in attaining Buddhahood, Chih-i correlates them with the ten categories of the triple dharma that are related to the attainment of Buddhahood, and by which the major concepts of Buddhahood are presented. With the fifth category of Subtlety, the process of attaining Buddhahood by the power of self-cultivation is completed. (Page 45)