168. [Discourse on the View that the World is Eternal] (SA168)

Thus have I heard. At one time the Buddha was staying at Sāvatthī in Jeta's Grove, Anāthapiṇḍika's Park.

At that time the Blessed One said to the monks: “The existence of what is the cause, by clinging to what, by being fettered and attached to what, by seeing what as the self, do living beings have a view like this and speak like this: “The world is eternal,42 the world is not eternal, the world is eternal and not eternal, the world is neither eternal nor not eternal; the world is limited, the world is unlimited, the world is limited and unlimited, the world is neither limited nor unlimited; the life principle is the same as the body, the life principle is different from the body; the Tathāgata exists after death, the Tathāgata does not exist after death, the Tathāgata exists and does not exist after death; the Tathāgata neither exists nor does not exist after death?'”

The monks said to the Buddha: “The Blessed One is the root of the Dharma, the eye of the Dharma, the foundation of the Dharma …” to be recited fully in the same way in the sequence of the above three discourses.

Translated by Bhikkhu Anālayo. Originally published in ‘On Views and Penetrative Knowledge – A Translation of Saṁyukta-āgama Discourses 139 to 187 (Fascicle 7)’, Dharma Drum Journal of Buddhist Studies, 2015, vol. 17 pp. 43–100.

Prepared for SuttaCentral by Seniya Ariyakumara and Ayya Vimala.