The Anthropic Principle: Stephen Hawking and Master Xuansha

I've been lucky to encounter Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time. (It was in my parents' living room when I went back to visit last month, next to the sudokus). But have a look at this:

"...in a universe that is large or infinite in space and/or time, the conditions necessary for the development of intelligent life will be met only in certain regions that are limited in space and time. The intelligent beings in these regions should therefore not be surprised if they observe that their locality in the universe satisfies the conditions that are necessary for their existence. It is a bit like the rich person living in a wealthy neighborhood not seeing any poverty."

"The laws of science, as we know them at present, contain many fundamental numbers, like the size of the electric charge of the electron.... The remarkable fact is that the values of these numbers seem to have been very finely adjusted to make possible the development of life. For example, if the electric charge of the electron had been only slightly different, stars either would have been unable to burn hydrogen and helium, or else they would not have exploded.... Most sets of values would have given rise to universes that, although they might be very beautiful, would contain no one able to wonder at their beauty."

Let me get this right. We marvel at the universe (our own bodies and minds included) because it seems so unlikely that things could have arisen just this way. But if things had arisen any other way, we wouldn't be here to marvel. Whether we understand the whys and hows or not, our life does not arise separately from the structure of the universe. Welcome home!

Of course it has been a thousand years since Xuansha Shibei (835-908) said "The entire universe is one bright pearl -- what's the use of understanding?"

Have you heard it said another way? Or how you would say it?