In finding enlightenment in ordinary life, we do not need to live many lives of gradual enlightenment.
All that matters in Southern school Zen is the present moment, because in our realization in this very moment, we can already be enlightened.
Hui-neng’s Southern school Zen is thus a lot like Tiantai school, in that entering nirvana does not need to involve achieving a higher purity of mind through successive lifetimes.