[354] Nine inopportune moments, wrong occasions, for living the spiritual life:
Here, friends, a Tathāgata has arisen in the world, an Arahant, a Perfectly Enlightened One, and the Dhamma is taught — leading to peace, leading to final Nibbāna, conducing to full awakening, proclaimed by the Sugata — but this person has been reborn in hell. This is the first inopportune moment, the wrong occasion, for living the spiritual life.
Again, friends, a Tathāgata has arisen in the world, an Arahant, a Perfectly Enlightened One, and the Dhamma is taught — leading to peace, leading to final Nibbāna, conducing to full awakening, proclaimed by the Sugata — but this person has been reborn in the animal womb … has been reborn in the realm of ghosts … has been reborn in the host of asuras … has been reborn in a certain long-lived order of gods … or he has been reborn in the border regions, among uncomprehending barbarians (milakkha), where there is no resort for bhikkhus, bhikkhunīs, laymen, or laywomen. Or he has been reborn in the middle country, but he is of wrong view, of distorted vision: "There is nothing given, nothing offered, nothing sacrificed; there is no fruit or result of good and bad actions; there is no this world, no other world; there is no mother, no father; there are no beings spontaneously reborn; there are in the world no ascetics and brahmins of right attainment and right practice who, having realized this world and the other world for themselves by direct knowledge, make them known." Or he has been reborn in the middle country, but he is unwise, dull, an idiot unable to speak (eḷamūga), incapable of understanding the meaning of what is well spoken and badly spoken. This is the eighth inopportune moment, the wrong occasion, for living the spiritual life.
Again, friends, a Tathāgata has not arisen in the world, an Arahant, a Perfectly Enlightened One, and the Dhamma is not taught — leading to peace, leading to final Nibbāna, conducing to full awakening, proclaimed by the Sugata — and this person has been reborn in the middle country, and he is wise, not dull, not an idiot unable to speak, capable of understanding the meaning of what is well spoken and badly spoken. This is the ninth inopportune moment, the wrong occasion, for living the spiritual life.
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.