[379] "What do you think, Udāyī? Which of these two splendors (vaṇṇa) is the more excellent and the more sublime: the full moon at midnight, right at the middle of the night, in a clear sky free of clouds, on the fifteenth-day Uposatha; or the sun at midday, right at noon, in a clear sky free of clouds, in the autumn season, in the last month of the rains?"
"Venerable sir, of these two splendors, the sun at midday, right at noon, in a clear sky free of clouds, in the autumn season, in the last month of the rains, is the more excellent and the more sublime."
"More numerous than these, Udāyī — many, indeed exceedingly many — are the gods who do not experience the radiance of this moon and sun. I know those gods; and yet I do not say: 'There is no splendor higher or more sublime than that splendor.' But you, Udāyī, of a splendor that is inferior to and more sullied than a glow-worm, a firefly, say: 'That is the ultimate splendor' — and yet you do not point out that splendor."
"The Blessed One has cut off the discussion! The Sublime One (Sugata) has cut off the discussion!"
"But why, Udāyī, do you speak thus: 'The Blessed One has cut off the discussion! The Sugata has cut off the discussion!'?"
"Venerable sir, in our own teachers' doctrine it is held thus: 'This is the ultimate splendor; this is the ultimate splendor.' But we, venerable sir, being cross-questioned, pressed for reasons, and pressed in debate by the Blessed One concerning our own teachers' doctrine, have turned out to be empty, hollow, and mistaken."
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.