[627] On one occasion the Blessed One was dwelling among the Mallas, at a market town of the Mallas named Uruvelakappa. Then Gandhabhaka the headman approached the Blessed One; having approached and paid homage to the Blessed One, he sat down to one side. Sitting to one side, Gandhabhaka the headman said this to the Blessed One: "It would be good, venerable sir, if the Blessed One would teach me the origin and the passing away of suffering (dukkha)."
"If, headman, I were to teach you the origin and the passing away of suffering with reference to the past, saying, 'So it was in the past,' you might have doubt about that, you might have perplexity. And if, headman, I were to teach you the origin and the passing away of suffering with reference to the future, saying, 'So it will be in the future,' about that too you might have doubt, you might have perplexity. Rather, headman, sitting right here, I shall teach you, sitting right there, the origin and the passing away of suffering. Listen to that and attend well; I shall speak."
"Yes, venerable sir," Gandhabhaka the headman replied to the Blessed One. The Blessed One said this: "What do you think, headman? Are there people in Uruvelakappa on whose account sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair would arise in you if they were slain or imprisoned or fined or censured?"
"There are, venerable sir, people in Uruvelakappa on whose account sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair would arise in me if they were slain or imprisoned or fined or censured."
"But are there, headman, people in Uruvelakappa on whose account sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair would not arise in you if they were slain or imprisoned or fined or censured?"
"There are, venerable sir, people in Uruvelakappa on whose account sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair would not arise in me if they were slain or imprisoned or fined or censured."
"What, headman, is the cause, what is the condition, whereby sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair would arise in you if certain people of Uruvelakappa were slain or imprisoned or fined or censured? And what, headman, is the cause, what is the condition, whereby sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair would not arise in you if certain people of Uruvelakappa were slain or imprisoned or fined or censured?"
"Venerable sir, those people of Uruvelakappa on whose account sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair would arise in me if they were slain or imprisoned or fined or censured — for them I have desire and lust (chandarāga). But those people of Uruvelakappa on whose account sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair would not arise in me if they were slain or imprisoned or fined or censured — for them I have no desire and lust."
"By means of this principle, headman — seen, understood, immediately effective, attained, fathomed — apply the method to the past and the future: whatever suffering arose in the past, all that arose rooted in desire (chanda), with desire as its source; for desire is the root of suffering. And whatever suffering will arise in the future, all that will arise rooted in desire, with desire as its source; for desire is the root of suffering."
"It is wonderful, venerable sir! It is marvelous, venerable sir! How well this has been stated by the Blessed One: 'Whatever suffering arose in the past, all that arose rooted in desire, with desire as its source; for desire is the root of suffering. Whatever suffering will arise in the future, all that will arise rooted in desire, with desire as its source; for desire is the root of suffering.' Venerable sir, I have a boy named Ciravāsī, who stays at a lodging away from home. Venerable sir, having risen early in the morning, I dispatch a man, saying: 'Go, my man, and find out about the boy Ciravāsī.' And, venerable sir, so long as that man has not returned, I am in a state of anxiety: 'May nothing whatever afflict the boy Ciravāsī!'"
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.