Even If Every Buddha Disagreed
The thought experiment reaches its own final, most startling extreme: not bodhisattvas now, but buddhas themselves, filling the ten directions, each extending a tongue vast enough to cover the entire cosmos, declaring this very teaching false. Shandao's answer no longer appeals to hierarchy at all — it appeals to identity: one buddha is every buddha, and no buddha could ever genuinely contradict another.
Buddhas Themselves, Filling the Ten Directions
何以故？乃由佛語真實決了義故。佛是實知、實解、實見、實證，非是疑惑心中語故。又不為一切菩薩異見異解之所破壞，若實是菩薩者，眾不違佛教也。又置此事，行者當知，縱使化佛、報佛，若一若多乃至遍滿十方，各各輝光吐舌遍覆十方，一一說言：「釋迦所說相讚勸發一切凡夫，專心念佛及修餘善，迴願得生彼淨土者，此是虛妄，定無此事也。」
Why is this so? Because the Buddha's own words are true and real, resolutely accomplishing the fully revealed meaning. The Buddha is one of true knowledge, true understanding, true vision, and true realization — his words are never spoken from within a mind of doubt or uncertainty. Nor is this resolve to be overturned by any bodhisattva's own differing view or differing understanding — for if they are truly bodhisattvas, the assembly of them would never contradict the Buddha's own teaching in the first place.
Further, setting this matter aside, let the practitioner know this as well: even should transformation-buddhas and reward-buddhas, whether one alone or many, even filling the ten directions entirely, each radiating their own light and extending their own tongue to cover the ten directions, each and every one declaring: "What Śākyamuni has spoken, in pointing to and praising Amitābha, exhorting all ordinary beings to single-mindedly recollect the Buddha and cultivate further goodness, dedicating this toward the vow to attain rebirth in that pure land — this is false, and there is certainly no such thing at all."
One Buddha Is Every Buddha
我雖聞此等諸佛所說，畢竟不起一念疑退之心，畏不得生彼佛國也。何以故？一佛一切佛，所有知見解行證悟果位大悲等同，無少差別，是故一佛所制即一切佛同制。如似前佛制斷殺生十惡等罪，畢竟不犯不行者即名十善十行、隨順六度之義。若有後佛出世，豈可改前十善令行十惡也。以此道理推驗，明知諸佛言行不相違失。縱令釋迦指勸一切凡夫，盡此一身專念專修，捨命已彼定生彼國者，即十方諸佛悉皆同讚同勸同證。何以故？同體大悲故。一佛所化即是一切佛化，一切佛化即是一佛所化。即《彌陀經》中說，釋迦讚歎極樂種種莊嚴。又勸一切凡夫，一日七日一心專念彌陀名號，定得往生。次下文云，
Though I should hear this very claim spoken by all these buddhas, I still would not, in the end, give rise to so much as a single thought of doubt or retreat, fearing that I could not attain rebirth in that Buddha's own land. Why is this so? One buddha is every buddha — whatever knowledge, vision, understanding, practice, realization, awakening, fruit, and great compassion any one buddha possesses, every buddha possesses identically, without the slightest difference between them. It is for this very reason that whatever one buddha establishes, every buddha establishes identically.
It is just as when an earlier buddha establishes the prohibition against killing and the other ten evils — whoever, without fail, neither commits nor practices these, is thereby called one who practices the ten good deeds, the ten good conducts, according with the meaning of the six perfections. Should some later buddha then appear in the world, how could he possibly alter these prior ten good deeds and cause beings to practice the ten evils instead? Reasoning through this very principle, it becomes clear that the buddhas' own words and deeds never once contradict one another.
Thus, even should Śākyamuni point to and exhort every ordinary being to single-mindedly recollect the Buddha and single-mindedly cultivate this practice for the whole of this present life, so that, once life is relinquished, they shall certainly be reborn in that land — then the buddhas of the ten directions, every one of them, alike praise this, alike exhort it, alike bear witness to it. Why is this so? Because they share this very same great compassion, identical in substance. What one buddha transforms is itself what every buddha transforms; what every buddha transforms is itself what one buddha transforms.
This is exactly what is said within the Amitābha Sūtra itself: Śākyamuni praises the manifold splendor and adornment of the Land of Ultimate Bliss, and further exhorts every ordinary being that, single-mindedly recollecting Amitābha's own name for a single day or for seven, they shall certainly attain rebirth. The text that follows this then says...
This closing move resolves the entire thought experiment in a way the preceding stages could not: bodhisattvas, however numerous, remain distinct individuals who could, in principle, disagree — which is precisely why the earlier stages required appeal to the Buddha's own superior authority to override them. But buddhas, in this doctrine, are not separate authorities that happen to agree; they are, in the deepest sense, a single reality manifesting identically. Shandao's own precept analogy makes the logic explicit: a later buddha could no more reverse an earlier buddha's own teaching against killing than reverse arithmetic itself, because both buddhas are expressing the very same realization rather than two independent opinions that happen to coincide. The scenario of buddhas filling the ten directions and declaring this teaching false is thus not merely improbable — Shandao's own argument makes it strictly impossible, since a "buddha" who genuinely contradicted Śākyamuni's own teaching here would, by definition, not be a real buddha speaking from full realization at all.
Part 78 Complete
This closes Part 78. Part 79 continues directly from where this part leaves off, into the Amitābha Sūtra's own famous passage — the buddhas of the ten directions, each extending their own tongue to cover an entire world system, testifying to the very same truth this entire thought experiment has just defended.
Continue to Part 79 — Testimony From Every Direction →