Mirage — Internal Reference¶
This version presents source texts from Guide Xuefeng's writings, translated faithfully for deep study.
I. Definition: A Manifestation of the Elysium World¶
Source: Chanyuan Corpus · The Creator Chapter · Mirage — A Manifestation of the Elysium World
When I say that a mirage is a manifestation of the Elysium World, scientists — especially meteorologists and optical physicists — will surely scoff, claiming I know nothing about basic light refraction and total internal reflection.
My knowledge of optics and meteorology is indeed superficial, and I dare not flaunt what little I know, lest I embarrass myself before the experts.
Yet since I have a clear understanding in my consciousness of the origin of the universe, the origin of life, the origin of humanity, and the thirty-six-dimensional space, I have my own explanation for mirages. I invite experts to analyze the matter from different angles as well.
What is a mirage?
A mirage is a revelation from celestials and Buddhas — a fragmentary display of the Elysium World within the thirty-six-dimensional space made visible in the human realm. In other words, a mirage is the actual scenery of the Elysium World.
People describe mirages as "ethereal," "ever-changing," "seeming real yet unreal," and "as if a celestial realm." These descriptions are all fitting — especially "as if a celestial realm," which captures the essential truth: a mirage is precisely a celestial realm. What Buddhism calls the "Western Pure Land" is exactly this kind of scene.
When those with the right spiritual affinity glimpse from the seashore, the desert, the Gobi, or a lakeside the sweeping mountain ranges, boundless seas, towering pavilions, half-visible ancient city walls, or serene landscapes suspended in the sky, they must feel a nameless stirring. What is that? Where does it come from? Is it heaven, or earth?
II. Questioning the Scientific Explanation¶
Source: Chanyuan Corpus · The Creator Chapter · Mirage — A Manifestation of the Elysium World
Scientists explain: it is an atmospheric optical phenomenon — the result of light refracting or totally reflecting in air layers of different densities. More precisely, natural objects on earth reflect light into the atmosphere; due to extreme temperature differentials over deserts or oceans, local air forms density gradients; when reflected light passes from lower-density to higher-density air, it bends, just as a chopstick appears bent in a bowl of water, projecting earthly landscapes into the sky. That is how a mirage appears.
This explanation sounds reasonable. Yet I raise the following points for consideration.
All explanations state that a mirage is a refracted image of "distant" landscapes. I ask: how distant is "distant"? Has any scientist found, on the ground, an actual landscape corresponding to any documented mirage?
After refraction, should the image be inverted or upright? If inverted, why do many mirages appear upright? If upright, why are some mirages inverted?
Is the reflected light going from less-dense to denser medium, or denser to less-dense? Light reflected from earth goes upward — how can a downward projection occur? One might argue multi-step refraction through the atmosphere, but if that worked reliably, we would see mirages every day.
Experts argue that intense desert sun heats the lower air, creating an inverted temperature gradient with less-dense hot air below and denser cool air above. When distant light passes from the denser upper layer into the lighter lower layer, total internal reflection occurs and a mirage forms.
But: if that theory holds, every desert on earth should frequently produce mirages during hot weather. Why do some deserts go decades without a single one?
On mirages over the sea: in summer, upper air is heated and becomes less dense while surface air stays cooler and denser. This creates conditions for refraction. But what about autumn? Or winter? On December 16, 2002, in Penglai, Shandong — well into winter — a mirage appeared. How does "summer temperature inversion" explain that?
In recent years Penglai has become known for frequent mirages. Some experts attribute this to improved air quality from environmental cleanup. I ask: before the Industrial Revolution, Penglai's air was even cleaner — why were mirages then rare, appearing only once every few years? Hawaii has excellent air quality. Why are mirages not frequent there?
If Penglai's unique natural conditions account for its mirages, then every mirage there should show essentially the same image. Why does the image change completely each time? Is Penglai's entire natural environment changing every year?
Light refraction theory is valid in principle. The problem is that applying it to mirages leads to contradictions. The atmosphere has multiple layers of different densities — troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, ionosphere, exosphere — and even within a single layer, densities vary. If that were sufficient for mirage formation, the sun's light passing through all these layers should create countless "phantom suns" in the sky, just as the moon appears reflected in water. We never see such phantoms. Why?
III. The True Nature: Transverse Space-Time and the Elysium World¶
Source: Chanyuan Corpus · The Creator Chapter · Mirage — A Manifestation of the Elysium World
My explanation is this: a mirage is not a refracted image of earthly objects. It is a transverse space-time twist of the Elysium World — deliberately arranged by the Creator to communicate: "Your sky is not empty nothingness. It is another space-time, another world. Humanity has a beautiful future."
In my account of the Elysium World within the thirty-six-dimensional space, I have explained that the Thousand-Year World and Ten-Thousand-Year World are far away, but the Elysium World is right here. The entire earth, solar system, Milky Way, and beyond all belong to the Elysium World. Everything we see is a kind of illusory image — the mirage is illusory, the ephemeral flower is illusory, plants and trees are illusory, insects and animals are illusory, rivers and seas are illusory, the cosmos is illusory, human life is illusory. What, then, is not illusory? The Elysium World itself is not illusory. "Emptiness is not emptiness; form is not form." The greater the energy, the less the form — "The Great Image has no form."
Why can't we see the Elysium World? Because our eyes lack the structure. Can we see ultraviolet or infrared light? Can we see electromagnetic or biological waves? Can we see gamma or beta rays? We live in a wondrous world (the Elysium World), yet perceive less than 3% of it. Why are we not granted fuller vision? Because our "merit" has not yet reached the threshold — just as one might ask, "Why can't I live in the White House or the Kremlin?" You know the answer.
IV. Entering the Mirage: Transverse Space-Time Cases¶
Source: Chanyuan Corpus · The Creator Chapter · Mirage — A Manifestation of the Elysium World
Here is a historical record that illuminates the nature of space-time.
On January 28, 1915, a Turkish battalion was advancing toward Position 60 in the Gallipoli region. As they crested a hill, several clouds descended vertically and silently covered the hill. Metallic light seemed to radiate from the mist. Then, one by one, the soldiers stepped into the cloud and vanished. A straggler named Reichardt watched in horror and called out to stop his comrades, but they seemed not to hear, entering the mist as if spellbound. Moments later, the clouds rose slowly and drifted away. The hill stood as before — but the entire battalion had disappeared without a trace.
Where did they go?
They entered a mirage.
In 1994, an Italian passenger aircraft disappeared from radar screens over the African coast, then reappeared and landed safely. Ground crew asked the pilots what had happened during the gap. The crew had no idea — their flight had been completely normal. But someone noticed their watch was running 20 minutes slow. It turned out that every crew member's and every one of the 315 passengers' watches were all 20 minutes behind.
What happened? Time in the longitudinal (material) dimension and time in the transverse (anti-material) dimension flow independently. When a person or object exits longitudinal time, they enter a transverse space-time region. Upon returning, they are at the same point in their own time — but in the material world, 20 minutes, 20 years, or 20 centuries may have passed.
The aircraft had entered a transverse space-time region. To the passengers, no time passed. To those on the ground, 20 minutes elapsed.
What is the transverse space-time region? A mirage is the transverse space-time region.
There is an old folk story my grandmother told me: a woodcutter got lost in familiar mountains. He came across two old men playing chess on a beautiful hillside and quietly watched. The only strange thing was that the leaves on nearby trees kept cycling from green to yellow and back. When he finally looked away and turned back, the old men had vanished. He shivered — and suddenly recognized the place. He was home.
Back in the village, nothing was recognizable. People stared at him as a stranger. He asked after the people he knew; they were long dead. When he asked about himself, someone said, "That was my great-grandfather — he went to chop wood one day and never came back."
Why did the woodcutter get lost in his familiar mountains? Because he had entered a mirage — the landscape was no longer the same. Why did a shiver bring him back? Because the mirage had dissolved, restoring the original landscape. Why didn't he disappear into the Elysium World permanently? Because his spiritual essence had not yet reached the standard for full residence there. Why was he given this vision at all? Because he had the affinity — and those two old men were certainly his companions from a past life, coming to guide him, to let him witness that the Elysium World exists and to plant a seed for his eventual return.
When he re-entered longitudinal time, he was still himself — but a century had passed in the material world.
V. Cultivation Significance¶
Source: Chanyuan Corpus · The Creator Chapter · Mirage — A Manifestation of the Elysium World
Those who witness a mirage are fortunate. If we can understand from this that different space-times hold different realities, we can expand our thinking and grasp that the human world is only one material dimension among countless more beautiful ones. Why not set our course for those more splendid realms?
The Creator does not regard us merely as animals. He has given those of high spiritual awareness a hint of a quiet and glorious path. Jesus and Shakyamuni were not deceiving us. A deceiver always acts from personal interest — but they gave up everything worldly. What would they gain by deceiving us who have nothing?
VI. Supporting Passages¶
Source: Chanyuan Corpus · The Creator Chapter · Mirage — A Manifestation of the Elysium World; Dream — What Is It Revealing?
A mirage is a phenomenon. Behind every phenomenon lies a hidden essence that gives rise to it. The essence behind the mirage is the Elysium World — just as the essence behind all movement is instinct and gravity, and the essence behind the phenomenon of human existence is the cycle of reincarnation.
Source: New Era 800 Ideals (4th Edition), Ideal 431
The universe contains transverse space-time, within which ordinary time does not exist. One who enters transverse space-time feels no passage of time. Yet from the perspective of earth-time, a few seconds in transverse space-time may equal decades or even millennia.
Compiled by: Lingzhou Cao
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