1At one time the Buddha was staying near Rājagaha, on the Vulture’s Peak Mountain. There the Buddha addressed the mendicants: “Mendicants!”

“Venerable sir,” they replied. The Buddha said this:

2“Mendicants, transmigration has no known beginning. … One person roaming and transmigrating for an eon would amass a heap of bones the size of this Mount Vepulla, if they were gathered together and not lost.

2Why is that? Transmigration has no known beginning. … This is quite enough for you to become disillusioned, dispassionate, and freed regarding all conditions.”

3That is what the Buddha said. Then the Holy One, the Teacher, went on to say:

4“If the bones of a single person
for a single eon were gathered up,
they’d make a pile the size of a mountain:
so said the great hermit.

5And this is declared to be
as huge as Mount Vepulla,
higher than the Vulture’s Peak
in the Magadhan mountain raṅge.

6But then, with right understanding,
a person sees the noble truths—
suffering, suffering’s origin,
suffering’s transcendence,
and the noble eightfold path
that leads to the stilling of suffering.

7After roaming on seven times at most,
that person
makes an end of suffering,
with the ending of all fetters.”

1Ekaṁ samayaṁ bhagavā rājagahe vihārati gijjhakūṭe pabbate. Tatra kho bhagavā bhikkhū āmantesi: "bhikkhavo"ti.

"Bhadante"ti te bhikkhū bhagavato paccassosuṁ. Bhagavā etadavoca: 

2"Anamataggoyaṁ, bhikkhave, saṁsāro … pe … ekapuggalassa, bhikkhave, kappaṁ sandhāvato saṁsarato siyā evaṁ mahā aṭṭhikaṅkalo aṭṭhipuñjo aṭṭhirāsi yathāyaṁ vepullo pabbato, sace saṁhārako assa, sambhatañca na vinasseyya. Taṁ kissa hetu? Anamataggoyaṁ, bhikkhave, saṁsāro … pe … alaṁ vimuccitun"ti.

3Idamavoca bhagavā. Idaṁ vatvāna sugato athāparaṁ etadavoca satthā: 

4"Ekassekena kappena,
puggalassaṭṭhisañcayo;
Siyā pabbatasamo rāsi,
iti vuttaṁ mahesinā.

5So kho panāyaṁ akkhāto,
vepullo pabbato mahā;
Uttaro gijjhakūṭassa,
magadhānaṁ giribbaje.

6Yato ca ariyasaccāni,
sammappaññāya passati;
Dukkhaṁ dukkhasamup pādaṁ,
dukkhassa ca atikkamaṁ;
Ariyaṁ caṭṭhaṅgikaṁ maggaṁ,
dukkhūpasamagāminaṁ.

7Sa sattakkhattuṁparamaṁ,
sandhāvitvāna puggalo;
Dukkhassantakaro hoti,
sabbasaṁyojanakkhayā"ti.

Dasamaṁ.
Paṭhamo vaggo.

8Tiṇakaṭṭhañca pathavī,
assu khīrañca pabbataṁ;
Sāsapā sāvakā gaṅgā,
daṇḍo ca puggalena cāti.