[399] "Suppose, Aggivessana, a man in need of heartwood, seeking heartwood, wandering in search of heartwood, were to take a sharp axe and enter a forest. There he would see a great banana trunk, straight, young, grown without crookedness. He would cut it down at the root; having cut it at the root, he would cut off the top; having cut off the top, he would unroll the coiled leaf-sheaths. Unrolling the coiled leaf-sheaths there, he would not find even sapwood—how then heartwood? Even so, Aggivessana, when you are pressed, questioned, and cross-examined by me concerning your own doctrine, you turn out empty, hollow, and in the wrong. Yet these words were spoken by you, Aggivessana, before the assembly in Vesālī: 'I do not see any ascetic or brahmin—a leader of an order, a leader of a group, a teacher of a group, even one claiming to be an Arahant, a Perfectly Enlightened One—who, engaged by me in debate, would not shake, would not quake, would not tremble, and from whose armpits sweat would not pour. Even if I were to engage an insentient post in debate, that post too, engaged by me in debate, would shake, quake, and tremble—what need be said, then, of a human being?' But as for you, Aggivessana, some drops of sweat, released from your forehead, have pierced through your upper robe and settled upon the ground; whereas, Aggivessana, there is now no sweat on my body." So saying, the Blessed One uncovered his golden-hued body before that assembly. When this was said, Saccaka the Nigaṇṭha's son sat silent, dismayed, with drooping shoulders and downcast face, brooding, at a loss for a reply.
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.