[288] "Māgaṇḍiya, suppose there were a man blind from birth. He could not see dark and light forms, could not see blue forms, could not see yellow forms, could not see red forms, could not see crimson forms, could not see what is even and uneven, could not see the stars, could not see the moon and sun. He might hear a person with eyes saying: 'Excellent indeed, sir, is a white cloth—beautiful, spotless, and clean!' He would go about in search of a white cloth. Then a certain man might deceive him with a coarse garment smeared with oil and soot, saying: 'Good man, here is a white cloth for you—beautiful, spotless, and clean.' He would accept it; having accepted it, he would put it on; having put it on, being pleased, he would utter words of satisfaction: 'Excellent indeed, sir, is a white cloth—beautiful, spotless, and clean!' What do you think, Māgaṇḍiya? Would that man blind from birth accept that coarse garment smeared with oil and soot knowing and seeing, and having accepted it put it on, and having put it on, being pleased, utter words of satisfaction: 'Excellent indeed, sir, is a white cloth—beautiful, spotless, and clean!'—or out of faith in the person with eyes?"
"Not knowing, worthy Gotama, and not seeing, that man blind from birth would accept that coarse garment smeared with oil and soot, and having accepted it would put it on, and having put it on, being pleased, would utter words of satisfaction: 'Excellent indeed, sir, is a white cloth—beautiful, spotless, and clean!'—out of faith in the person with eyes."
"Even so, Māgaṇḍiya, the wanderers of other sects, blind and sightless, not knowing health, not seeing Nibbāna, nevertheless speak this verse: 'Health is the highest gain; Nibbāna is the highest happiness.' Māgaṇḍiya, this verse was spoken by the Arahants, the Perfectly Enlightened Ones of the past:
Health is the highest gain;
Nibbāna is the highest happiness;
And of paths, the eightfold is the safe one,
leading to the Deathless.
Now, by gradual course, it has become a verse of ordinary people (puthujjana). Māgaṇḍiya, this body is a disease, a boil, a dart, a misery, an affliction; yet of this body—a disease, a boil, a dart, a misery, an affliction—you say: 'Worthy Gotama, this is that health; this is that Nibbāna.' Indeed, Māgaṇḍiya, you do not have that noble vision (ariya cakkhu) by which, with noble vision, you might know health and see Nibbāna."
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.