[501] (Mahākoṭṭhita:) "Friend, there are these five faculties, namely: the eye faculty, the ear faculty, the nose faculty, the tongue faculty, and the body faculty. In dependence on what do these five faculties stand?"
(Sāriputta:) "Friend, these five faculties — namely, the eye faculty, the ear faculty, the nose faculty, the tongue faculty, and the body faculty — these five faculties, friend, stand in dependence on vitality (āyu)."
(Ko.) "But vitality, friend — in dependence on what does it stand?"
(Sā.) "Vitality stands in dependence on warmth (usmā)."
(Ko.) "But warmth, friend — in dependence on what does it stand?"
(Sā.) "Warmth stands in dependence on vitality."
(Ko.) "Just now we understood the venerable Sāriputta's statement thus: 'Vitality stands in dependence on warmth'; and just now we understood the venerable Sāriputta's statement thus: 'Warmth stands in dependence on vitality.' How, then, friend, should the meaning of these statements be seen?"
(Sā.) "In that case, friend, I shall make a simile for you; for by means of a simile some wise persons here understand the meaning of what is said. Just as, friend, when an oil lamp is burning, the light is discerned in dependence on the flame, and the flame is discerned in dependence on the light — so too, vitality stands in dependence on warmth, and warmth stands in dependence on vitality."
(Ko.) "Friend, are the vital formations (āyusaṅkhārā) the very same as the phenomena that are felt (vedanīyā dhammā), or are the vital formations one thing and the phenomena that are felt another?"
(Sā.) "Friend, the vital formations are not the very same as the phenomena that are felt. If, friend, the vital formations were the very same as the phenomena that are felt, then the emergence of a bhikkhu who has attained the cessation of perception and feeling (saññāvedayitanirodha) would not be discerned. But because the vital formations are one thing and the phenomena that are felt another, therefore the emergence of a bhikkhu who has attained the cessation of perception and feeling is discerned."
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.