[307] "Even though the worthy Kassapa says this, still in this matter I think thus: there is no other world, no beings spontaneously reborn (opapātika), and no fruit or result of deeds well done or ill done."
"But is there, chieftain (rājañña), a method …?"
"There is, worthy Kassapa, a method …"
"How, exactly, chieftain?"
"Here, worthy Kassapa, I have friends and colleagues, relatives and kin who refrain from killing living creatures, refrain from taking what is not given, refrain from sexual misconduct, refrain from false speech, and refrain from wine, liquor, and intoxicants that are a basis for heedlessness. Some time later they become sick, suffering, gravely ill. When I know that they will not now recover from this illness, I go to them and say: 'Sirs, there are some ascetics and brahmins who hold this doctrine and this view: "Those who refrain from killing living creatures, refrain from taking what is not given, refrain from sexual misconduct, refrain from false speech, and refrain from wine, liquor, and intoxicants that are a basis for heedlessness—when the body breaks up, after death, are reborn in a good destination, a heavenly world, in the company of the Tāvatiṃsa gods." You, sirs, refrain from killing living creatures, refrain from taking what is not given, refrain from sexual misconduct, refrain from false speech, and refrain from wine, liquor, and intoxicants that are a basis for heedlessness. If the word of those ascetics and brahmins is true, then you, sirs, when the body breaks up, after death, will be reborn in a good destination, a heavenly world, in the company of the Tāvatiṃsa gods. If, sirs, when the body breaks up, after death, you should be reborn in a good destination, a heavenly world, in the company of the Tāvatiṃsa gods, then come to me and announce: "Thus indeed there is another world, there are beings spontaneously reborn, there is fruit and result of deeds well done and ill done." You, sirs, are trustworthy and reliable to me; whatever is seen by you will be just as if I had seen it myself.' Having agreed, saying 'Very well,' they neither come and tell me nor even send a messenger. This too, worthy Kassapa, is the method by which I hold thus: there is no other world, no beings spontaneously reborn, and no fruit or result of deeds well done or ill done."
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.