Such-like nature.Such-like substance .Such-like power.Such-like activity.Such-like causes.Such-like conditions.Such-like effects.Such-like retributions.Such-like ultimate-identity-of-beginning-and-endEach of the 100 realms shares in the 10 such-likenesses, making 1000 realms. Each of these 1000 realms has three aspects: Living Beings, Space, and the aggregates(skandhas) which constitute the dharmas, so there are 3000 total realms. Each of the 3000realms is involved in every single moment, and necessarily so, because the reams are allmutually inclusive.Of far greater importance to religion in the Heian period was the Mahayana teaching aboutthe eternal and universal Buddha. It taught that the historical Buddha (Gautama) was atemporary and relatively unimportant manifestation of the cosmic (i.e. eternal and universal) Buddha. The relationship between the historical and cosmic Buddhas is rathersimilar to that in Christian thought between God the historical Jesus Christ and God theeverlasting and invisible father. It was this concentration on the Buddha as an abstractforce, above or behind all things and at the same time in all things, that allowed Mahayanato develop many of its special characteristics.Not only Gautama but also all other deities and sages could be consideredmanifestations of the cosmic Buddha, even if until then they had been associated withnon-Buddhist systems such as Shinto or Confucianism. This comprehensive point of viewobviously helped Buddhism to fuse with Shinto, and it its recorded that Saicho sought theblessing of the local Shinto god (or called the King of the Mountain) as well as of theBuddha, when he first took up residence on Hieizan. The idea behind the threefold truth lies in the desire to transcend the dichotomy oftradition Mahayana twofold truth (absolute and relative), thus the distinction betweenEmptiness, Conventional Existence (Temporary ness), and The Middle Path. The doctrineof the cosmic Buddha ...
