And the venerable Ānanda addressed the Blessed One and said: "Vouchsafe, Lord, to remain with us, O Blessed One! for the good and the happiness of the great multitudes, out of pity for the world, for the good and the gain of mankind!"4
Said the Blessed One: "Enough now, Ānanda, beseech not the Tathāgata!"5
And again, a second time, the venerable Ānanda besought the Blessed One in the same words. And he received from the Blessed One the same reply. 6
And again, the third time, the venerable Ānanda besought the Blessed One to live longer; and the Blessed One said: "Hast thou faith, Ānanda?"7
Said Ānanda: "I have, my Lord!"8
And the Blessed One, seeing the quivering eyelids of Ānanda, read the deep grief in the heart of his beloved disciple, and he asked again: "Hast thou, indeed, faith, Ānanda?"9
And Ānanda said: "I have faith, my Lord."10
Than the Blessed One continued: "If thou hast faith, Ānanda, in the wisdom of the Tathāgata, why, then, Ānanda, dost thou trouble the Tathāgata even until the third time? Have I not formerly declared to you that it is in the very nature of all compound things that they must be dissolved again. We must separate ourselves from all things near and dear to us, and must leave them. How then, Ānanda, can it be possible for me to remain, since everything that is born, or brought into being, and organized, contains within itself the inherent necessity of dissolution? How, then, can it be possible that this body of mine should not be dissolved? No such condition can exist! And this mortal existence, O Ānanda, has been relinquished, cast away, renounced, rejected, and abandoned by the Tathāgata."11
And the Blessed One said to Ānanda: "Go now, Ānanda, and assemble in the Service Hall such of the brethren as reside in the neighborhood of Vesālī."12
Then the Blessed One proceeded to the Service Hall, and sat down there on the mat spread out for him. And when he was seated, the Blessed One addressed the brethren, and said:13