[312] "Even though the worthy Kassapa says this, still I think thus: 'There is no afterlife, no beings reborn spontaneously (opapātika), and no fruit or result of deeds well done or ill done.'"
"But is there, chieftain, a method …?"
"There is, worthy Kassapa, a method …"
"How, exactly, chieftain?"
"Here, worthy Kassapa, my men arrest a bandit, a criminal, and present him to me, saying, 'Sir, this is a bandit, a criminal. Declare whatever punishment you wish for him.' I say to them: 'Well then, sirs, weigh this man with scales while he is still alive; then kill him with a bowstring, stopping his breath, and weigh him again with the scales.' Replying, 'Very well,' they weigh that man with scales while he is still alive, kill him with a bowstring, stopping his breath, and then weigh him again with the scales. So long as he is alive, he is lighter, softer, and more workable; but when he has died, he is heavier, stiffer, and less workable. This too, worthy Kassapa, is the method by which I hold: thus there is no afterlife, no beings reborn spontaneously, 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English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.