Kihwa, like Tsung-mi and Chinul before him, perceived the value of the SPE as an instructional tool for practitioners of Buddhism who needed a guide for meditation, a guide that included a concise discussion of the tradition's most seminal metaphysical and soteriological issues, such as the relationship of sudden/gradual and enlightenment/ignorance. It was also a text, as Kihwa pointed out, which contained the essentials of Hua-yen's profound interpenetration metaphysics, but in a much more concise form than was found in the Hua-yen ching.

Since the issues of doctrinal classification and Ch'an sectarian categorization (extensively pursued in Tsung-mi's exegesis) are no longer of concern to Chosôn period Sôn practitioners who are viewing the SPE primarily as a meditation guide, such long, doctrine-related essays as those written by Tsung-mi in connection with his explication of the SPE are absent in Kihwa's work, as are the extensive scholarly references made by Tsung-mi that connect the themes of the SPE with their appropriate sources in other scriptures. When Kihwa needs to explain the meaning of a difficult passage or concept, he will do so most often not by referring to another Buddhist scripture, but by creating his own new metaphor, or by drawing an image from the Tao Te Ching, Chuang Tzu, Analects, or I Ching. The notable exception to this rule is Kihwa's tendency to locate the themes of the SPE within the framework of the essence-aspects-function scheme of the AMF, or the four dharmadh?tu of the Hua-yen school, but nonetheless, never with textual references. Alluding references to any text, whether it be Confucian, Taoist or Buddhist, are never identified with a citation. Thus, compared with someone like Tsung-mi, or even Chinul, Kihwa is not much of a philologist. He is possessed by a strong poetic streak, valuing the literary balance and flow of the passage more than the identification of its classical sources.

Most instructive for observing Kihwa's poetic literary style, as well as his metaphysical and soteriological perceptions of Buddhist practice as contained in the SPE is his rather substantial introduction, which takes the form of an examination of the words of the title and the implications of their various combinations. He seeks to show the degree to which the SPE is a text reflective of the original enlightenment thought found in the AMF, as he starts off directly with an explanation of the implications of the SPE in terms of the AMF's triple scheme of essence-aspects-function. He proceeds to praise the balance of the SPE as evinced in its skillful simultaneous handling and blending of the absolute (empty, sudden, immanent) aspects of the path with its relative (concrete, corrective, practical) aspects. The SPE is a text that has put the Hwaôm ideals of ri-sa mu-ae (�������G mutual non-obstruction between principle and phenomena) and sa-sa mu-ae (�������G mutual non-obstruction between individual phenomena) into actualization within its passages. Like Tsung-mi before him, Kihwa extols the merits of the SPE by comparing it with the Hwaômgyông (Hua-yen ching):

Kihwa's blending and re-blending of the elements of the title, most importantly the concepts of "practice-awakening-realization and transformation" produce a concise summary of the entire course of Buddhist practice and enlightenment. Kihwa's commentary on the SPE, which is studied down to the present-day in the Korean monastic educational system, provided a further impetus to the already-influential position of the SPE in Korean Buddhism. And it is due mainly to this commentary that Kihwa emerges as an important link in the process of the development of Korean Sôn from the time of Chinul up to the present.