[296] "In that case, Sandaka, a sensible person reflects thus: 'This worthy teacher holds such a doctrine, such a view: "There is nothing given, nothing offered in sacrifice, nothing offered in oblation; there is no fruit or result of deeds well done or ill done; there is no this world, no other world; there is no mother, no father; there are no beings spontaneously reborn (opapātika); there are in the world no ascetics and brahmins of right conduct and right practice who, having realized this world and the other world for themselves by direct knowledge, declare them. This person is composed of the four great elements (mahābhūta); when he dies, the earth returns and merges into the body of earth, the water returns and merges into the body of water, the fire returns and merges into the body of fire, the air returns and merges into the body of air; the faculties pass over into space. Four men, with the bier as fifth, carry the dead man away; the footprints are discernible only as far as the charnel ground; the bones turn pigeon-grey; oblations end in ashes. Giving is a doctrine devised by fools; when any assert the doctrine that there is [fruit], theirs is empty, false prattle. Fools and the wise alike, with the breakup of the body, are annihilated and perish, and do not exist after death." If this worthy teacher's word is true, then what I have not done here counts as done, what I have not lived here counts as lived; both of us are exactly equal here, having attained the same ascetic state — though I do not say that both of us, with the breakup of the body, will be annihilated and perish, and will not exist after death. But superfluous for this worthy teacher are his nakedness, his shaven head, his exertion in squatting, and his plucking out of hair and beard, since I — dwelling at home in a bed crowded with children, enjoying sandalwood of Kāsi, wearing garlands, scents, and unguents, and accepting gold and silver — shall fare to exactly the same destination hereafter as this worthy teacher. Knowing what, seeing what, should I live the spiritual life (brahmacariya) under this teacher?' Having understood, 'This is a negation of the spiritual life,' he becomes disenchanted with that spiritual life and departs.
This, Sandaka, is the first negation of the spiritual life declared by that Blessed One who knows and sees, the Arahant, the Perfectly Enlightened One, wherein a sensible person would, so far as he is able, not live the spiritual life; and, living it, he could not accomplish the true way, the wholesome Dhamma."
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.