Pathavi Sutta

Translation by Bhikkhuni Uppalavanna

I heard thus. At one time the Blessed One was living in the monastery offered by Anàthapiõóika in Jeta's grove in Sàvatthi.

The Blessed One addressed the monks from there, saying "Monks" Those monks replied: "Yes, venerable sir."

"And the Blessed One said: "Monks, without an end is the train of existence, a beginning cannot be pointed out of beings enveloped in ignorance and bound by craving, running from one existence to another.

"A man who would turn all the earth in the peninsula of India into balls of mud, the size of the kernel of the jujube to represent his train of fathers, one for his father, another for his father's father and so on. Very soon the great earth would diminish and finish but not the representation of the fathers.

"What is the reason? Monks, without an end is the train of existence, a beginning cannot be pointed out of beings enveloped in ignorance and bound by craving, running from one existence to another.

"Thus monks, you have suffered sharp unpleasantness, severe destruction and filled up cemeteries.

"Monks, it is suitable that you should turn away from all determinations, fade and be released from them."