“Let the World-Honoured be our teacher. We are his disciples.”
And perceiving them eager to hear, he addressed them on the false self the lying, that is nothing but claims all within and without as fuel for its greed.
Hear and be wise.
“The mind, the thought and all the senses are subject to the law of life and death, and, understanding the self and the transient things of which it is compounded and how the thought and senses act, there is no room left for this individual I nor any ground for this I, for it is this belief in I which gives rise to all sorrows binding us as with cords to the world of illusion. But when a wise man knows there is no such I and that it does not exist, the bonds are severed.
“Of those who believe in this false I, some say it endures beyond death some say it perishes. Grievous is the error of both. For if they say this I is perishable, then all the fruit of their striving perishes and there is no hereafter, and who can call this deliverance?
“And if they say this greedy I is immortal, then in the midst of all life and death in this world of illusion there is but one identity that is not born and does not die—even this greedy I. And if the one immortal thing is this greedy I which arrogates all to itself then is it the one thing in the whole Universe that is self-perfect, and there is no need of high and noble deeds,—this greedy self is lord and master of all, and what need to strive for what is already done? For if this greedy I is lasting and imperishable then can it never be changed.
“But when a man has learned there is no greedy I, that it does not exist, that it can do nothing, is but an illusion, then, freed, he passes on to the wider outlook, the nobler knowledge, and he passes on also in other lives the same yet not the same, as the shoot springs from the seed, and the seed is not the shoot, not one and yet not different. Such is the birth of all that lives. Learn therefore that this I does not exist, and the illusion of it conceals That which Is.”
So the World-Honoured, the Happy One, great and glad, addressed the King and people, and very joyfully they heard, understanding that in the egoism of the I lives all curse, all ignorance.
And the King became a lay follower and throughout his life was faithful and many of the noble young men about him believed also, and many of the people.
It was here too, in happy Rajagriha, that the Perfect One, gained the two greatest of his Arhats, his perfected saints, and thus it befell.