And the Blessed One, seeing the anxiety of a truth-seeking mind, said: "O sāvaka, thou art a novice among the novices, and thou art swimming on the surface of samsāra. How long will it take thee to grasp the truth? Thou hast not understood the words of the Tathāgata. The law of karma is irrefragable, and supplications have no effect, for they are empty words."2
Said the disciple: "So sayest thou there are no miraculous and wonderful things?"3
And the Blessed One replied:4
"Is it not a wonderful thing, mysterious and miraculous to the worldling, that a man who commits wrong can become a saint, that he who attains to true enlightenment will find the path of truth and abandon the evil ways of selfishness?5
"The bhikkhu who renounces the transient pleasures of the world for the eternal bliss of holiness, performs the only miracle that can truly be called a miracle. 6
"A holy man changes the curses of karma into blessings. The desire to perform miracles arises either from covetousness or from vanity.7
"That mendicant does right who does not think: 'People should salute me'; who, though despised by the world, yet cherishes no ill-will towards it.8
"That mendicant does right to whom omens, meteors, dreams, and signs are things abolished; he is free from all their evils.9
"Amitābha, the unbounded light, is the source of wisdom, of virtue, of Buddhahood. The deeds of sorcerers and miracle-mongers are frauds, but what is more wondrous, more mysterious, more miraculous than Amitābha?"10
"But, Master," continued the sāvaka, "is the promise of the happy region vain talk and a myth?"11