[444] "What do you think, bhikkhus—is form permanent or impermanent?"
"Impermanent, venerable sir." … "subject to change—then without clinging to it, could such a view arise: 'The Tathāgata neither exists nor does not exist after death'?"
"No indeed, venerable sir."
"And whatever is seen, heard, sensed, cognized, attained, sought after, and ranged over by the mind—is that too permanent or impermanent?"
"Impermanent, venerable sir."
"And that which is impermanent—is it suffering (dukkha) or happiness?"
"Suffering, venerable sir."
"And that which is impermanent, suffering, subject to change—then without clinging to it, could such a view arise: 'The Tathāgata neither exists nor does not exist after death'?"
"No indeed, venerable sir."
"But, bhikkhus, when a noble disciple has abandoned doubt in these six cases, and has abandoned doubt also regarding suffering, abandoned doubt also regarding the origin of suffering … he is fixed in destiny, with awakening as his destination."
The Sotāpatti Chapter.
The Eighteen Expositions are concluded.
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[Footnote: in the Burmese and European editions:] Its summary (uddāna):
The wind; "this is mine"; "that self"; and "it might not be mine";
"there is not"; "for one who acts"; and "cause"; with the great view as the eighth;
"the world is eternal," and "non-eternal," and "finite,"
and "infinite"; "the soul and the body are the same," and "the soul is one thing, the body another";
"the Tathāgata exists after death"; "the Tathāgata does not exist after death";
"the Tathāgata neither exists nor does not exist after death."
In the Diṭṭhisaṃyutta, the second repetition series (peyyāla), the second.¹
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.