[302] In that case, Sandaka, a sensible person reflects thus: 'This worthy teacher holds such a doctrine, such a view: "There are these seven bodies (kāyā) — not made, not of a kind that is made, not created, not caused to be created, barren, standing steady as a mountain peak, standing firm as a pillar. They do not move, they do not alter, they do not obstruct one another; they are incapable of causing one another pleasure, or pain, or both pleasure and pain. What are the seven? The body of earth, the body of water, the body of fire, the body of air, pleasure, pain, and the life-principle (jīva) as the seventh. These seven bodies are not made, not of a kind that is made, not created, not caused to be created, barren, standing steady as a mountain peak, standing firm as a pillar. They do not move, they do not alter, they do not obstruct one another; they are incapable of causing one another pleasure, or pain, or both pleasure and pain. Herein there is no slayer nor one who causes slaying, no hearer nor one who causes hearing, no cognizer nor one who causes cognizing. Even if someone cuts off a head with a sharp sword, no one thereby deprives anyone of life; the sword merely passes through the interval between the seven bodies.
There are these fourteen hundred thousand principal wombs, and sixty hundreds, and six hundreds; five hundred kinds of action (kamma), and five actions, and three actions; an action and a half-action; sixty-two paths of practice, sixty-two intermediate eons, six classes of birth, eight stages of a person; forty-nine hundred modes of livelihood (ājīva), forty-nine hundred wanderers, forty-nine hundred abodes of nāgas; two thousand faculties (indriya), three thousand hells, thirty-six realms of dust (rajodhātu); seven percipient wombs, seven non-percipient wombs, seven knotless wombs; seven gods, seven humans, seven goblins (pisāca); seven lakes, seven pavuṭas, seven rocks, seven precipices and seven hundred precipices, seven dreams and seven hundred dreams; and eighty-four hundred thousand great eons, through which the foolish and the wise, having run on and wandered in the round, will make an end of suffering (dukkha).
Herein there is no such thing as: 'By this virtue, or by this observance, or by this austerity, or by this spiritual life I shall ripen unripened action, or, experiencing ripened action again and again, I shall make an end of it' — such a thing cannot be. Pleasure and pain being measured out as with a bushel, and the round of wandering having its limit fixed, there is no decline or increase, no rising or falling. Just as a ball of thread, when thrown, rolls away unwinding to its very end, even so the foolish and the wise, having run on and wandered in the round, will make an end of suffering."
If the word of this worthy teacher is true, then herein what has not been done by me is as good as done; herein what has not been lived by me is as good as lived. Both of us here are exactly equal, having attained the same status — though I am not one who says, "Both of us, having run on and wandered in the round, will make an end of suffering." Superfluous, then, are this worthy teacher's going naked, 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 have exactly the same destiny hereafter as this worthy teacher. Knowing what, seeing what, should I live the spiritual life under this teacher? This is a way that negates the spiritual life.' Realizing this, he turns away disenchanted from that spiritual life and departs.
This, Sandaka, is the fourth way that negates the spiritual life (abrahmacariyavāsa), declared by that Blessed One who knows and sees, the Arahant, the Perfectly Self-Awakened One, wherein a sensible person would, so far as he is able, not live the spiritual life, and if he lived it, he would not accomplish the true method, the wholesome Dhamma.
These, Sandaka, are the four ways that negate the spiritual life, declared by that Blessed One who knows and sees, the Arahant, the Perfectly Self-Awakened One, wherein a sensible person would, so far as he is able, not live the spiritual life, and if he lived it, he would not accomplish the true method, the wholesome Dhamma.
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.