[288] Setting at Sāvatthī. Bhikkhus, suppose there were a seafaring ship, bound with rigging of rattan, that had been worn out in the water for six months and was hauled up onto dry land in the winter: its rigging, assailed by wind and sun and rained upon by a monsoon cloud, would with little difficulty collapse and become rotten. Even so, bhikkhus, for a bhikkhu developing the Noble Eightfold Path (ariya aṭṭhaṅgika magga), cultivating the Noble Eightfold Path, the fetters (saṃyojana) with little difficulty subside and become rotten.
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.