[284] "Māgaṇḍiya, suppose there were a leper, his limbs covered with sores, his limbs festering, being devoured by worms, scratching open the mouths of his wounds with his nails, scorching his body over a pit of glowing coals. His friends and companions, his relatives and kinsmen, would engage a physician-surgeon to treat him. That physician-surgeon would prepare medicine for him, and by means of that medicine he would be freed from the leprosy and would be without disease, happy, independent, his own master, able to go wherever he wished. Then two strong men, having seized him by both arms, would drag him toward the pit of glowing coals. What do you think, Māgaṇḍiya — would that man not twist his body this way and that?"
"So it would be, Master Gotama. For what reason? Because that fire, Master Gotama, is painful (dukkha) to the touch, of great heat and great scorching."
"What do you think, Māgaṇḍiya — is it only now that that fire is painful to the touch, of great heat and great scorching, or was that fire also formerly painful to the touch, of great heat and great scorching?"
"Master Gotama, that fire is painful to the touch, of great heat and great scorching both now, and formerly too that fire was painful to the touch, of great heat and great scorching. But that leper, his limbs covered with sores, his limbs festering, being devoured by worms, scratching open the mouths of his wounds with his nails, his faculties impaired, acquired instead a distorted perception (viparītasaññā) of pleasure in that very fire whose touch is painful."
"Even so, Māgaṇḍiya, in the past sensual pleasures (kāmā) were painful to the touch, of great heat and great scorching; in the future too sensual pleasures will be painful to the touch, of great heat and great scorching; and now in the present as well sensual pleasures are painful to the touch, of great heat and great scorching. And these beings, Māgaṇḍiya, not devoid of lust for sensual pleasures, being devoured by craving (taṇhā) for sensual pleasures, being burned by the fever of sensual pleasures, their faculties impaired, have acquired instead a distorted perception of pleasure in those very sensual pleasures whose touch is painful."
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.