[287] "'The ocean, the ocean,' bhikkhus — so speaks the unlearned worldling. But that, bhikkhus, is not the ocean in the discipline of the Noble One. That, bhikkhus, is a great mass of water, a great expanse of water.
There are, bhikkhus, forms cognizable by the eye that are wished for, desirable, agreeable, pleasing, connected with sensuality, enticing to lust: this, bhikkhus, is called the ocean in the discipline of the Noble One. Here this world with its devas, with Māra, with Brahmā, this generation with its ascetics and brahmins, with its devas and human beings, is for the most part submerged, become entangled like a tangled skein of thread, become knotted like a ball of string, become like matted muñja grass and pabbaja reeds, and does not pass beyond the plane of misery (apāya), the bad destination, the lower realm, the round of rebirth (saṃsāra). …
There are, bhikkhus, tastes cognizable by the tongue … There are, bhikkhus, mental phenomena (dhammā) cognizable by the mind that are wished for, desirable, agreeable, pleasing, connected with sensuality, enticing to lust: this, bhikkhus, is called the ocean in the discipline of the Noble One. Here this world with its devas, with Māra, with Brahmā, this generation with its ascetics and brahmins, with its devas and human beings, is for the most part submerged, become entangled like a tangled skein of thread, become knotted like a ball of string, become like matted muñja grass and pabbaja reeds, and does not pass beyond the plane of misery, the bad destination, the lower realm, the round of rebirth."
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.