廣弘明集 3.15

3.15

What ordinary people believe is only what meets their ears and eyes; beyond this, they harbor doubts about everything. In explaining heaven, the Confucians have several theories: some speak of the Huntian (spherical heaven), some of the Gaitian (canopy heaven), some of the vaulted dome, and some of the flat expanse. Regarding the revolutions of the Dipper and the Pole, and the moorings of the net of heaven, if these were observed in person, they could not admit of discrepancies; if they were merely inferred by calculation, how could they suffice to be relied upon? Why believe the speculative claims of ordinary people and doubt the subtle purports of the Great Sage, dogmatically asserting that there cannot be worlds as numerous as the sands of the Ganges or kalpas as numerous as specks of dust? Even Zou Yan had his discourse on the Nine Provinces. People of the mountains do not believe there are fish as large as trees; people of the seacoast do not believe there are trees as large as fish. Emperor Wu of the Han did not believe in lute-string glue; Emperor Wen of the Wei did not believe in fireproof cloth. Barbarians seeing brocade do not believe it is produced by worms eating trees and spitting silk. In former days in Jiangnan, people did not believe there were felt tents that could hold a thousand men; upon coming to Hebei, they did not believe there were ships of twenty thousand shi. These are all empirical facts. In the world there are masters of incantations and various magical arts, who are yet able to walk on fire, tread on blades, plant melons, and move wells, producing a thousand changes and ten thousand transformations in an instant. If what is achieved by human power can still be like this, why should we doubt that inconceivable spiritual transformations and sympathetic responses can produce a jewel banner of a thousand li, a seat of a hundred yojanas, the transformation of a pure land, or the springing forth of a marvelous stūpa?