[46] Then, when that night had passed, the Blessed One addressed the bhikkhus: "Bhikkhus, last night, when the night was far advanced, the young deva (devaputta) Rohitassa, of surpassing beauty, illuminating the entire Jetavana, approached me; having approached, he paid homage to me and stood to one side. Standing to one side, bhikkhus, the young deva Rohitassa said to me: 'Venerable sir, that place where one is not born, does not age, does not die, does not pass away, and is not reborn — is it possible, venerable sir, by traveling, to know, or to see, or to reach that end of the world?'
"When this was said, bhikkhus, I said to the young deva Rohitassa: 'Friend, that place where one is not born, does not age, does not die, does not pass away, and is not reborn — that end of the world, I say, cannot be known, seen, or reached by traveling.'
"When this was said, bhikkhus, the young deva Rohitassa said to me: 'It is marvelous, venerable sir! It is wonderful, venerable sir! How well this has been said by the Blessed One: "Friend, that place where one is not born, does not age, does not die, does not pass away, and is not reborn — that end of the world, I say, cannot be known, seen, or reached by traveling." Formerly, venerable sir, I was a seer named Rohitassa, son of Bhoja, possessed of psychic power (iddhi), able to travel through the sky. My speed, venerable sir, was such that, just as a firm-bowed archer — well trained, dexterous, practiced in display — might with a light arrow easily shoot across the shadow of a palm tree, even so was my speed; and my stride was such as the distance from the eastern ocean to the western ocean. To me, venerable sir, endowed with such speed and such a stride, there arose a wish of this kind: "I shall reach the end of the world by traveling." And so, venerable sir — apart from the time spent eating, drinking, chewing, and tasting, apart from defecating and urinating, apart from dispelling sleep and fatigue — having a lifespan of a hundred years, living for a hundred years, I traveled for a hundred years, and, without ever reaching the end of the world, I died along the way. It is marvelous, venerable sir! It is wonderful, venerable sir! How well this has been said by the Blessed One: "Friend, that place where one is not born, does not age, does not die, does not pass away, and is not reborn — that end of the world, I say, cannot be known, seen, or reached by traveling."'
"When this was said, bhikkhus, I said to the young deva Rohitassa: 'Friend, that place where one is not born, does not age, does not die, does not pass away, and is not reborn — that end of the world, I say, cannot be known, seen, or reached by traveling. And yet, friend, I do not say that without having reached the end of the world there is a making of an end of suffering (dukkha). Rather, friend, it is in this very fathom-long carcass, endowed with perception (saññā) and endowed with mind, that I declare the world, the origin of the world, the cessation of the world, and the way of practice leading to the cessation of the world.'
The end of the world can never
be reached by traveling;
yet without reaching the end of the world
there is no release from suffering.
Therefore, truly, the wise one, the knower of the world,
who has gone to the end of the world, the holy life fulfilled,
being at peace, having known the end of the world,
does not long for this world or for another."
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.