30 - The Integral Principle

Subhūti, if a good man or a good woman ground an infinite number of galaxies of worlds to dust, would the resulting minute particles be many?

Subhūti replied: Many indeed, World-Honored One! Wherefore? Because if such were really minute particles Buddha would not have spoken of them as minute particles. For as to this, Buddha has declared that they are not really such. "Minute particles" is just the name given to them. Also, World-Honored One, when the Tathāgata speaks of galaxies of worlds these are not worlds; for if reality could be predicated of a world it would be a self-existent cosmos, and the Tathāgata teaches that there is really no such thing. "Cosmos" is merely a figure of speech.

[Then Buddha said:] Subhūti, words cannot explain the real nature of a cosmos. Only common people fettered with desire make use of this arbitrary method.