#Buddhist

A city filled with mustard seeds might be emptied before the end of an eon.At Sāvatthī. Then a mendicant went up to the Buddha … and asked him, “Sir, how long is an eon?” “Mendicant, an eon is long. It’s not easy to calculate how many years, how many hundreds or thousands or hundreds of thousands of years it lasts.” “But sir, is it possible to give a simile?” “It’s possible,” said the Buddha. [Read More]

A great mountain would erode before the end of the eon.At Sāvatthī. Then a mendicant went up to the Buddha, bowed, sat down to one side, and asked him, “Sir, how long is an eon?” “Mendicant, an eon is long. It’s not easy to calculate how many years, how many hundreds or thousands or hundreds of thousands of years it lasts.” “But sir, is it possible to give a simile?” “It’s possible,” said the Buddha. [Read More]

The mother’s milk you have drunk in transmigration is greater than the waters in the oceans.At Sāvatthī. “Mendicants, transmigration has no known beginning. No first point is found of sentient beings roaming and transmigrating, hindered by ignorance and fettered by craving. What do you think? Which is more: the mother’s milk you’ve drunk while roaming and transmigrating for such a very long time, or the water in the four oceans?” “As we understand the Buddha’s teaching, the mother’s milk we’ve drunk while roaming and transmigrating is more than the water in the four oceans. [Read More]

The tears you have shed in transmigration are greater than the waters in the oceans.At Sāvatthī. “Mendicants, transmigration has no known beginning. No first point is found of sentient beings roaming and transmigrating, hindered by ignorance and fettered by craving. What do you think? Which is more: the flow of tears you’ve shed while roaming and transmigrating for such a very long time—weeping and wailing from being united with the unloved and separated from the loved—or the water in the four oceans? [Read More]

Transmigration is endless, like the great earth.At Sāvatthī. “Mendicants, transmigration has no known beginning. No first point is found of sentient beings roaming and transmigrating, hindered by ignorance and fettered by craving. Suppose a person was to make the whole earth into clay balls the size of jujube seeds. They’d lay them down, saying: ‘This is my father, this is my grandfather.’ The whole earth would run out before that person’s fathers and grandfathers. [Read More]

Transmigration is endless, like the grass and twigs in India.So I have heard. At one time the Buddha was staying near Sāvatthī in Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍika’s monastery. There the Buddha addressed the mendicants, “Mendicants!” “Venerable sir,” they replied. The Buddha said this: “Mendicants, transmigration has no known beginning. No first point is found of sentient beings roaming and transmigrating, hindered by ignorance and fettered by craving. Suppose a person was to strip all the grass, sticks, branches, and leaves in India, gather them together into one pile, and chop them each into four inch pieces. [Read More]

One who does not understand the four material elements is no true ascetic.At Sāvatthī. “Mendicants, there are ascetics and brahmins who don’t understand the earth element, its origin, its cessation, and the practice that leads to its cessation. They don’t understand the water element … fire element … air element … Those venerables don’t realize the goal of life as an ascetic or brahmin, and don’t live having realized it with their own insight. [Read More]

One who does not understand the four material elements is no true ascetic.At Sāvatthī. “Mendicants, there are these four elements. What four? The elements of earth, water, fire, and air. There are ascetics and brahmins who don’t truly understand these four elements’ gratification, drawback, and escape for what they are. I don’t regard them as true ascetics and brahmins. Those venerables don’t realize the goal of life as an ascetic or brahmin, and don’t live having realized it with their own insight. [Read More]

The arising of the material elements is the arising of suffering.At Sāvatthī. “Mendicants, the arising, continuation, rebirth, and manifestation of the earth element is the arising of suffering, the continuation of diseases, and the manifestation of old age and death. The arising, continuation, rebirth, and manifestation of the water element … The arising, continuation, rebirth, and manifestation of the fire element … The arising, continuation, rebirth, and manifestation of the air element is the arising of suffering, the continuation of diseases, and the manifestation of old age and death. [Read More]