[167] "What do you think, Ambaṭṭha? Are you, together with your teacher, seen to possess this unsurpassed accomplishment in true knowledge and conduct (vijjācaraṇasampadā)?"
"Not so, worthy Gotama. Who am I, together with my teacher, and what is the unsurpassed accomplishment in true knowledge (vijjā) and conduct? I, together with my teacher, am far indeed from this unsurpassed accomplishment in true knowledge and conduct."
"What do you think, Ambaṭṭha? Not attaining this very unsurpassed accomplishment in true knowledge and conduct, do you, together with your teacher, take up the carrying-pole load and plunge into the depths of the forest wilderness, thinking, 'We shall live on fallen fruits'?"
"Not so, worthy Gotama."
"What do you think, Ambaṭṭha? Not attaining this unsurpassed accomplishment in true knowledge and conduct, and not attaining a livelihood of fallen fruits, do you, together with your teacher, take up spade and basket and plunge into the depths of the forest wilderness, thinking, 'We shall live on tubers, roots, and fruits'?"
"Not so, worthy Gotama."
"What do you think, Ambaṭṭha? Not attaining this unsurpassed accomplishment in true knowledge and conduct, not attaining a livelihood of fallen fruits, and not attaining a livelihood of tubers, roots, and fruits, do you, together with your teacher, build a fire-hut in the vicinity of a village or a town and dwell there tending the sacred fire?"
"Not so, worthy Gotama."
"What do you think, Ambaṭṭha? Not attaining this unsurpassed accomplishment in true knowledge and conduct, not attaining a livelihood of fallen fruits, not attaining a livelihood of tubers, roots, and fruits, and not attaining the tending of the sacred fire, do you, together with your teacher, build a four-doored house at the great crossroads and dwell there, thinking, 'Whatever ascetic or brahmin shall come from these four quarters, him I shall honor according to my ability and according to my strength'?"
"Not so, worthy Gotama."
"Thus, Ambaṭṭha, you, together with your teacher, have fallen away from this unsurpassed accomplishment in true knowledge and conduct; and whatever these four openings to loss (apāyamukha) of the unsurpassed accomplishment in true knowledge and conduct there are, from these too you, together with your teacher, have fallen away."
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.