Chapter 30:

The Lord Buddha resumed:

"Subhuti, if any good person, either man or woman, were to take 3,000 galaxies and grind them into macroscopic powder and blow it into space, what do you think, would this powder have an individual existence?"

"Subhut replied, "Yes Lord, as a microscopic powder blown into space, it might be said to have a relative existence, bu as you use words, it has no existences. The words are used only as figure of speech. Otherwise the words would imply a belief in the existence of matter as an independent and self-existent thing, which it is not."

"Furthremore, when the Most Honored One refers to the '3,000 galaxies,' he could only do so as a figure of speech. Why? Because if the 3,000 galaxies really existed, their only reality would consist in their cosmic unity. Whether as microscopic powder or as galaxies, what does it matter? Only in the sense of the cosmic unity of ultimate being can the Buddha rightfully refer to it."

"Subhuti, although ordinary people have always grasped after an arbitrary conception of matter and galaxies, the concept has no true basis; it is an illusion of the mortal mind. Even when it is referred to as 'cosmic unity' it is unthinkable and unknowable."