1“Mendicants, suppose a person was to throw a yoke with a single hole into the ocean. And there was a one-eyed turtle who popped up once every hundred years.

What do you think, mendicants? Would that one-eyed turtle, popping up once every hundred years, still poke its neck through the hole in that yoke?”

“Only after a very long time, sir, if ever.”

2“That one-eyed turtle would poke its neck through the hole in that yoke sooner than a fool who has fallen to the underworld would be reborn as a human being, I say.

3Why is that? Because there there’s no principled or moral conduct, and no doing what is good and skillful. There they just prey on each other, preying on the weak. Why is that? It’s because they haven’t seen the four noble truths. What four? The noble truths of suffering, its origin, its cessation, and the path.

4That’s why you should practice meditation …”

1"Seyyathāpi, bhikkhave, puriso mahāsamudde ekacchiggaḷaṁ yugaṁ pakkhipeyya. Tatrāpissa kāṇo kacchapo. So vassasatassa vassasatassa accayena sakiṁ sakiṁ ummujjeyya.

Taṁ kiṁ maññatha, bhikkhave, api nu kho kāṇo kacchapo vassasatassa vassasatassa accayena sakiṁ sakiṁ ummujjanto amusmiṁ ekacchiggaḷe yuge gīvaṁ paveseyyā"ti?

"Yadi nūna, bhante, kadāci karahaci dīghassa addhuno accayenā"ti.

2"Khippataraṁ kho so, bhikkhave, kāṇo kacchapo vassasatassa vassasatassa accayena sakiṁ sakiṁ ummujjanto amusmiṁ ekacchiggaḷe yuge gīvaṁ paveseyya, na tvevāhaṁ, bhikkhave, sakiṁ vinipātagatena bālena manussattaṁ vadāmi.

3Taṁ kissa hetu? Na hettha, bhikkhave, atthi dhammacariyā, samacariyā, kusalakiriyā, puññakiriyā. Aññamaññakhādikā ettha, bhikkhave, vattati dubbalakhādikā. Taṁ kissa hetu? Adiṭṭhattā, bhikkhave, catunnaṁ ariyasaccānaṁ. Katamesaṁ catunnaṁ? Dukkhassa ariyasaccassa … pe … dukkhanirodhagāminiyā paṭipadāya ariyasaccassa.

4Tasmātiha, bhikkhave, ‘idaṁ dukkhan’ti yogo karaṇīyo … pe … ‘Ayaṁ dukkhanirodhagāminī paṭipadā’ti yogo karaṇīyo"ti.

Sattamaṁ.