你眼里的世界，并非究竟实相

However, this explanation is not some expedient answer to the present-day question that the sutras do not conform to the view backed by modern science. The same explanation was already available more than a thousand years ago. It was just not necessary to explain to the people then, as they did not have the kind of knowledge on the universe like we do today. Nevertheless, to use skillful means to educate sentient beings also illustrates the incredible foresight and wisdom of the Buddha.

这种解释，并不是为了应付现代人所提出的“佛经内容与当代科学结论不一致”的质疑，才强词夺理用于搪塞的，而是在一千多年前就已经解释好了。因为当时的人并不具备现代人对宇宙所了解的知识，因此也没有必要作出什么解释。这就说明，佛陀利用这些权巧方法来调化众生，是具有远见卓识的表现。

The Buddha himself once said that there were quite a few inconsistencies in his teachings in order to suit the taste of different audience, but the one that would never change is the teaching on emptiness. For example, from the point of view of the relative truth, impermanence and suffering being the nature of all conditioned phenomena are deemed absolute truth, but not from the point of view of the ultimate truth. In the Three Dharma Seals, only no-self is deemed the absolute truth.

佛陀自己也曾说过，为了适合不同听众的口味，他传法时讲过许多相互不一致的论点，但唯一不变的真理，就是空性。例如，从世俗谛的角度来说，三法印中的诸行无常及有漏皆苦是真理；然而从胜义谛的角度来看，就谈不上是绝对的真理。唯有其中的诸法无我，才是绝对的真理。

In fact, the Buddhist view cannot be proved wrong just because its description of the macro-world is different from what people generally know nowadays. The world, as we know it today, is nothing but a world that humans living on the Earth can observe either with eyes or with instruments. No one can be absolutely sure that this is the sole truth of the universe.

其实，纵使佛教对宏观世界的描述与现代人的认知不同，也不能证明佛教的观点是错误的。因为，所谓现代人对世界的认知，也只能说是现在生活在地球上的人类，用肉眼或仪器所能观察到的世界罢了，谁也不能就此认定这是唯一的宇宙真理。

Buddhism holds that a glass of water seen by sentient beings of the six realms will manifest six different phenomena, respectively. By the same token, beings of the six realms will see six different worlds, somewhat like the idea of the multiverse.

佛教认为，六道众生看同样的一杯水，会有六种不同的显相；六道众生看世界，会看见六种不同的世界，这就是多种宇宙的概念。