Even If Every Bodhisattva Disagreed
The thought experiment escalates by exact, deliberate stages: first bodhisattvas not yet upon the grounds, arhats, and pratyekabuddhas, filling the ten directions; then beings from the first ground all the way to the tenth, the very summit of the bodhisattva path, speaking with a single unanimous voice against this teaching. In each case, the resolve holds — and grows stronger for having been tested.
Filling the Ten Directions, and Still Unmoved
又行者更向說言：『仁者善聽，我今為汝更說決定信相。縱使地前菩薩、羅漢、辟支等，若一若多乃至遍滿十方，皆引經論證言不生者，我亦未起一念疑心，唯增長成就我清淨信心。
Further, the practitioner should further say to them: "Sir, listen carefully — I shall now explain to you further the mark of my own resolute faith. Even should bodhisattvas not yet upon the grounds, arhats, pratyekabuddhas, and the like, whether one alone or many, even filling the ten directions entirely, all cite sūtras and treatises to argue that rebirth cannot be attained, I still would not give rise to so much as a single thought of doubt — this would only increase and bring to completion my own pure faith all the more.
Even Every Being From the First to the Tenth Ground
何以故？由佛語決定成就了義，不為一切所破壞故。又行者善聽，縱使初地已上十地已來，若一若多乃至遍滿十方，異口同音皆云：「釋迦佛指讚彌陀，毀呰三界六道，勸勵眾生專心念佛及修餘善，畢此一身後必定生彼國者，此必虛妄，不可依信也。」我雖聞此等所說，亦不生一念疑心，唯增長成就我決定上上信心。
"Because the Buddha's own words resolutely accomplish the fully revealed meaning, and are not to be overturned by anything whatsoever. Further, sir, listen carefully still — even should beings from the first ground up through the tenth ground, whether one alone or many, even filling the ten directions entirely, speak with one and the same voice, saying: 'Śākyamuni Buddha, in pointing to and praising Amitābha, denouncing the three realms and the six destinies, exhorting sentient beings to single-mindedly recollect the Buddha and cultivate further goodness, declaring that, once this present life has ended, they shall certainly be reborn in that land — this must surely be false, and cannot be relied upon or believed' — though I should hear this very claim spoken, I still would not give rise to so much as a single thought of doubt; this would only increase and bring to completion my own resolute, supreme faith all the more."
The precision of this escalation deserves attention: not a vague appeal to "even great beings," but a specific hierarchy — first ordinary teachers, then bodhisattvas not yet upon the grounds, arhats, and pratyekabuddhas, then beings occupying every one of the ten grounds up through the very summit of the bodhisattva path, each stage more exalted and more numerous than the last. What Shandao is testing is not whether such a challenge is plausible, but whether the ground of this faith is genuinely independent of any created being's own authority, however advanced. His repeated refrain — that each escalation "would only increase and bring to completion" this faith rather than weaken it — reveals what actually anchors the resolve: not confidence that no one could ever object, but confidence located entirely in "the Buddha's own words," a source these thought-experiment challengers, however exalted, never actually claim to be.
Part 77 Complete
This closes Part 77. Part 78 completes the escalation with its own most famous and startling extreme — what if the challengers were not bodhisattvas at all, but multiple transformation-buddhas and reward-buddhas, filling the ten directions, each speaking with their own tongue that covers the entire cosmos, declaring this very teaching false?
Continue to Part 78 — Even If Every Buddha Disagreed →