169. [Discourse on the View that the Self and the World are Eternal] (SA169)

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 self and the world are eternal, the self and the world are not eternal, the self and the world are eternal and not eternal, the self and the world are neither eternal nor not eternal; the self is eternally afflicted, the self is not eternally afflicted, the self is eternally and not eternally afflicted, the self is neither eternally nor not eternally afflicted; the self and the world are self-created, the self and the world are created by another, the self and the world are self-created and created by another, the self and the world are neither self-created and nor created by another, being created without a condition; the self and the world are afflicted and self-created, the self and the world are afflicted and created by another, the self and the world are afflicted, self-created and created by another, the self and the world are afflicted, being neither self-created and nor created by another, being created without a condition?'”

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.