法苑珠林 4.43

4.43

What ordinary people believe is only what meets their ears and eyes; beyond this, they harbor doubts about everything. When Confucians speak of heaven, they have several theories: either the Huntian (spherical heaven) or the Gaitian (canopy heaven), suddenly vaulted, suddenly set flat, calculating the ultimate reaches and the bounds of its framework. If there were direct seeing, no disagreement could be permitted; if it is mere speculation, how can it suffice as an authority? Why believe the arbitrary opinions of ordinary mortals, while doubting the subtle intent of the Great Sage, and insisting that worlds numerous as the sands of the Ganges and kalpas countless as dust motes must not exist? Zou Yan likewise had his discourse on the Nine Provinces. People living in the mountains do not believe there are fish as large as trees; people living by the sea do not believe there are trees as large as fish. Emperor Wu of the Han did not believe in lute-string glue; the men of Wei did not believe in fire-proof cloth; foreigners, upon seeing brocade, did not believe it was made by caterpillars eating tree leaves and spitting silk; people of Wu, dwelling south of the Yangzi, did not believe there were felt tents that could hold a thousand men; and until they came north of the Yellow River, they did not believe there were boats carrying twenty thousand piculs. All these are matters of actual experience. Just as the world has sorcerers and various illusionists who can tread on fire, step on blades, plant melons, and move wells in an instant with a thousand transformations—if human power can accomplish even this, what is to hinder the unfathomable workings of divine power and sympathetic resonance, transforming seats with jeweled banners a hundred yojanas high into a pure land, or causing a marvelous stūpa to spring up from the earth?