Only the Buddha's Own Words Are Final
Before turning to how a practitioner might withstand direct challenges to this faith, Shandao first establishes why the Buddha's own word carries an authority no other teacher, however advanced, can match — not because bodhisattvas lack wisdom, but because even they remain, in his own phrase, "within the stage of learning."
Why the Buddha's Confirmation Alone Settles the Matter
又一切行者但能依此經，深信行者，必不誤眾生也。何以故？佛是滿足大悲人故，實語故。除佛已還，智行未滿，在其學地，由有正習二障未除，果願未圓。此等凡聖，縱使測量諸佛教意，未能決了，雖有平章，要須請佛證為定也。若稱佛意，即印可言如是如是，若不可佛意者，即言汝等所說是義不如是。不印者，即同無記無利無益之語。佛印可者，即隨順佛之正教。若佛所有言說即是正教、正義、正行、正解、正業、正智，若多若少，眾不問菩薩人天等定其是非也。若佛所說即是了教，菩薩等說盡名不了教也。應知。是故今時仰勸一切有緣往生人等，唯可深信佛語專注奉行，不可信用菩薩等不相應教以為疑礙，抱惑自迷廢失往生之大益也。
Further, any practitioner who is simply able to rely upon this sūtra, holding deep faith and practicing accordingly, will certainly never be misled. Why is this so? Because the Buddha is himself one whose great compassion is complete and perfect, and because his own words are true and real. Below the Buddha himself, wisdom and practice remain incomplete, still within the stage of learning — since the two obstructions, of the defilements themselves and their residual habits, are not yet removed, and one's own fruit and vow are not yet perfected. Such beings, ordinary or sage alike, even should they attempt to measure the intent of the buddhas' own teachings, cannot arrive at any final, decisive understanding — and though they may deliberate together, this must in the end be submitted to the Buddha himself, so that he might bear witness and settle the matter.
Should it accord with the Buddha's own intent, he confirms it, saying: "so it is, so it is." Should it not accord with the Buddha's own intent, he says: "what you have spoken is not the correct meaning." Whatever he does not confirm is equivalent to speech that is indeterminate, without benefit and without value. Whatever the Buddha does confirm accords with the Buddha's own correct teaching. Whatever the Buddha himself has spoken is itself the correct teaching, the correct meaning, the correct practice, the correct understanding, the correct karma, and the correct wisdom — however much or little it may be, the assembly need not question whether bodhisattvas, humans, or gods have settled what is right or wrong in it. Whatever the Buddha himself has spoken is itself the fully revealed teaching; whatever bodhisattvas and the rest have spoken is entirely called the not-yet-fully-revealed teaching. This should be understood.
It is for this very reason that, at this present time, I earnestly exhort all those who share this same karmic affinity toward rebirth: hold only deep faith in the Buddha's own words, and devote yourselves single-mindedly to carrying them out — you must not place your trust in teachings from bodhisattvas and others that do not accord with this, taking them as grounds for doubt and obstruction, thereby embracing confusion, losing your own way, and forfeiting the great benefit of rebirth.
Shandao's own reasoning here is structural rather than a claim about intelligence: bodhisattvas remain "within the stage of learning" not because their wisdom is deficient in any ordinary sense, but because "the two obstructions... are not yet removed, and one's own fruit and vow are not yet perfected" — a technical, precise claim about their position on the path, distinct from the Buddha's own completed state. His image of even bodhisattvas' own teachings requiring the Buddha's own confirmation before being settled — "so it is, so it is," or its rejection — establishes a clear hierarchy of authority that becomes the load-bearing premise for the extraordinary passage that follows in the next several parts, where this very hierarchy is tested against challenges from increasingly exalted sources.
An Unshakeable Foundation
又深心深信者，決定建立自心，順教修行，永除疑錯，不為一切別解別行、異學異見異執之所退失傾動也。
Further, as for deep faith held within the deep mind: this means resolutely establishing one's own mind, according with this teaching and cultivating practice accordingly, forever removing doubt and error, and never being made to retreat or waver by any divergent understanding, divergent practice, different school, different view, or different attachment whatsoever.
This single sentence functions as a hinge, closing the foundational argument for why the Buddha's own word carries final authority and opening directly into what follows: a sustained, escalating thought experiment testing exactly this resolve against challenges from ever more exalted sources — first ordinary teachers citing other sūtras, then bodhisattvas and arhats, then bodhisattvas of the tenth ground, and finally, in the passage's own most famous escalation, multiple buddhas filling the ten directions.
Part 75 Complete
This closes Part 75. Part 76 opens the question that sets this entire thought experiment in motion — how should an ordinary practitioner, whose own wisdom is shallow and whose own obstructions run deep, withstand a challenger who cites scripture itself against this very teaching?
Continue to Part 76 — A Question of Withstanding Challenge →