[250] "It is fitting, Vaccha, that you should not know; it is fitting that you should be confused. For this Dhamma (dhamma), Vaccha, is deep, hard to see, hard to understand, peaceful, sublime, not to be reached by mere reasoning, subtle, to be experienced by the wise. It is hard for you to know it — you who hold another view, accept another teaching, approve of another, are yoked to another path, and are in the school of another teacher. Well then, Vaccha, I shall question you in return on this very point; answer it as you see fit. What do you think, Vaccha? If a fire were burning before you, would you know: 'This fire is burning before me'?"
"If, Master Gotama, a fire were burning before me, I would know: 'This fire is burning before me.'"
"But if, Vaccha, someone were to ask you thus: 'This fire that is burning before you — in dependence on what does it burn?' — being asked thus, Vaccha, how would you answer?"
"If, Master Gotama, someone were to ask me thus: 'This fire that is burning before you — in dependence on what does it burn?' — being asked thus, Master Gotama, I would answer thus: 'This fire that is burning before me burns in dependence on its fuel of grass and wood.'"
"If, Vaccha, that fire before you were to go out, would you know: 'This fire before me has been extinguished'?"
"If, Master Gotama, that fire before me were to go out, I would know: 'This fire before me has been extinguished.'"
"But if, Vaccha, someone were to ask you thus: 'That fire before you which has been extinguished — to which direction has it gone from here: to the east, or the west, or the north, or the south?' — being asked thus, Vaccha, how would you answer?"
"That does not apply, Master Gotama. For, Master Gotama, that fire burned in dependence on its fuel of grass and wood; with the exhaustion of that, and with no other fuel being supplied, being without sustenance, it is reckoned simply as 'extinguished.'"
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.