SA 155 (SA155)

Related Discourses 35

43-45.

Thus have I heard:

One time, the Buddha stayed at Anāthapiṇḍada Park in Jeta Grove in Śrāvastī.

It was then that the Bhagavān addressed the monks,

“What is it that exists, that arises, that ties, that’s an attachment, and that’s viewed as self and causes sentient beings to create such views and such statements?

‘There’s no power, no effort, and no power and effort.

There are no men who are skillful, no men who are diligent, and no men who are skillful and diligent.

There’s nothing self-made, nothing made by others, and nothing made by self and others.

All people, all sentient beings, and all spirits lack skill, lack power, lack force, lack effort, and lack capability.

Their certain lot is continuity, change, and the experience of the six destinies of pleasure and pain.’”

The monks said to the Buddha,

“The Bhagavān is the Dharma root, the Dharma eye, and the Dharma refuge …”

It’s thus explained in detail and in the sequence of the three sutras (35.7-9) above.