[95] "This one time, venerable sir, I approached Makkhali Gosāla; having approached, I exchanged greetings with him, and when the courteous and memorable talk was concluded, I sat down to one side. Sitting to one side, venerable sir, I said to Makkhali Gosāla: 'Master Gosāla, just as these various professional fields … Is it possible, Master Gosāla, to point out likewise a fruit of the ascetic life (sāmaññaphala) apparent in this very life?'
When this was said, venerable sir, Makkhali Gosāla said to me: 'Great king, there is no cause, there is no condition, for the defilement of beings; without cause, without condition, beings are defiled. There is no cause, there is no condition, for the purification of beings; without cause, without condition, beings are purified. There is no self-doing, there is no other-doing, there is no personal doing; there is no strength, no energy (vīriya), no human vigor, no human exertion. All sentient beings, all breathing things, all creatures, all souls are without mastery, without strength, without energy; molded by destiny, circumstance, and nature, they experience pleasure and pain in the six classes of rebirth (abhijāti).
There are fourteen hundred thousand principal wombs, and sixty hundred, and six hundred; five hundred kinds of kamma, and five kammas, and three kammas; a kamma and a half-kamma; sixty-two paths of practice; sixty-two intermediate eons; six classes of rebirth; eight stages of a person; forty-nine hundred Ājīvakas; forty-nine hundred wanderers; forty-nine hundred nāga abodes; twenty hundred faculties (indriya); thirty hundred hells; thirty-six realms of dust; seven percipient wombs, seven non-percipient wombs, seven wombs of the knotless; seven gods, seven humans, seven goblins; seven lakes, seven pavuṭas; seven precipices and seven hundred precipices; seven dreams and seven hundred dreams; and eighty-four hundred thousand great eons—through which the foolish and the wise, having run on and wandered on, will make an end of suffering (dukkha).
Herein there is no such thing as: "By this virtue, or observance, or austerity, or the spiritual life, I shall bring unripened kamma to ripeness, or, by repeatedly experiencing it, I shall exhaust kamma already ripened"—that cannot be. Pleasure and pain are measured out as with a bushel; in the wandering-on (saṃsāra), whose limit is fixed, there is no decrease or increase, no rising higher or falling lower. Just as a ball of string, when thrown, rolls away unwinding to its very end, even so the foolish and the wise, having run on and wandered on, will make an end of suffering.'
Thus, venerable sir, when asked about a fruit of the ascetic life apparent in this very life, Makkhali Gosāla declared purification through wandering-on. Just as if, venerable sir, one asked about a mango were to answer about a breadfruit, or one asked about a breadfruit were to answer about a mango, even so, venerable sir, when asked about a fruit of the ascetic life apparent in this very life, Makkhali Gosāla declared purification through wandering-on. Then, venerable sir, it occurred to me: 'How indeed could one such as I think to disparage an ascetic or brahmin dwelling in my realm?' So I, venerable sir, neither delighted in nor rejected the statement of Makkhali Gosāla; neither delighting in it nor rejecting it, though displeased, I uttered no word of displeasure, and neither taking up that statement nor overturning it, I rose from my seat and departed."
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.