[4] "So it seems, friends, that you Nigaṇṭhas do not know: 'We indeed existed in the past; it is not that we did not exist'; you do not know: 'We indeed did evil kamma in the past; it is not that we did not do it'; you do not know: 'We did such-and-such evil kamma'; you do not know: 'So much suffering (dukkha) has been worn away, or so much suffering remains to be worn away, or when so much suffering has been worn away, all suffering will have been worn away'; you do not know the abandoning of unwholesome states and the undertaking of wholesome states in this very life. This being so, it is not fitting for the venerable Nigaṇṭhas to declare: 'Whatever this person experiences—whether pleasant, or painful, or neither-painful-nor-pleasant—all that is caused by what was done in the past. Thus, by the annihilation of old kammas through asceticism (tapa), and by the non-doing of new kammas, there is no flowing on into the future; with no flowing on into the future, there is the destruction of kamma; with the destruction of kamma, the destruction of suffering; with the destruction of suffering, the destruction of feeling (vedanā); with the destruction of feeling, all suffering will have been worn away.'
"But if, friends, you Nigaṇṭhas knew: 'We indeed existed in the past; it is not that we did not exist'; if you knew: 'We indeed did evil kamma in the past; it is not that we did not do it'; if you knew: 'We did such-and-such evil kamma'; if you knew: 'So much suffering has been worn away, or so much suffering remains to be worn away, or when so much suffering has been worn away, all suffering will have been worn away'; if you knew the abandoning of unwholesome states and the undertaking of wholesome states in this very life—this being so, it would be fitting for the venerable Nigaṇṭhas to declare: 'Whatever this person experiences—whether pleasant, or painful, or neither-painful-nor-pleasant—all that is caused by what was done in the past. Thus, by the annihilation of old kammas through asceticism, and by the non-doing of new kammas, there is no flowing on into the future; with no flowing on into the future, there is the destruction of kamma; with the destruction of kamma, the destruction of suffering; with the destruction of suffering, the destruction of feeling; with the destruction of feeling, all suffering will have been worn away.'"
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.