[425] Dwelling at Sāvatthī … There the Blessed One … "Bhikkhus, this round of rebirths (saṃsāra) is without discoverable beginning (anamatagga) … What do you think, bhikkhus: which is more — the tears you have streamed and shed as you have run on and wandered through this long course, crying and weeping at union with the disagreeable and separation from the agreeable, or the water in the four great oceans?"
"As we understand the Dhamma taught by the Blessed One, venerable sir, this alone is more: the tears we have streamed and shed as we have run on and wandered through this long course, crying and weeping at union with the disagreeable and separation from the agreeable — not the water in the four great oceans."
¹ M., Yu. read: mattikāguḷikaṃ. ² Yu. reads: kho.
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.