འཕགས་པ་གང་པས་ཞས་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད 1.19

1.19

the monk Mahāśumata then asked the Dharma preacher Mahāsthāmaprāpta, ‘O sublime being, how many times have you heard questions and answers on such matters from the Thus-Gone One?’

“Mahāsthāmaprāpta replied, ‘That is something it would be extremely difficult to believe, so do not ask me about it! Furthermore, it is extremely difficult to believe for those who have not actualized extraordinary physical qualities.’

“But Mahāśumata repeated the same question a second and a third time: ‘O sublime being, how many times have you heard questions and answers on such matters from the Thus-Gone One? Mahāsthāmaprāpta simply answered, ‘Do not ask me about that!

“ ‘If you have not understood, I will now illustrate this for you through an analogy, for when something is illustrated with an analogy, intelligent people understand. Monk, the dispositions of sentient beings whom I heard about from the thus-gone one King of All Qualities’ Light Rays are far more numerous than the atoms in the earth. Monk, imagine that all the kinds of sentient beings present throughout the trichiliocosm—those that have a form, those that have no form, those that have perception, those that have no perception, and those that have neither perception nor nonperception—obtained a human body and possessed the power of insight.