1At Sāvatthī. Then a certain bhikkhu approached the Blessed One, paid homage to him, sat down to one side, and said to him: "Venerable sir, how long is an aeon?"

"An aeon is long, bhikkhu. It is not easy to count it and say it is so many years, or so many hundreds of years, or so many thousands of years, or so many hundreds of thousands of years."

2"Then is it possible to give a simile, venerable sir?"

"It is possible, bhikkhu," the Blessed One said. "Suppose, bhikkhu, there was a city with iron walls a yojana long, a yojana wide, and a yojana high, filled with mustard seeds as dense as a topknot. At the end of every hundred years a man would remove one mustard seed from there. The great heap of mustard seeds might by this effort be depleted and eliminated but the aeon would still not have come to an end. So long is an aeon, bhikkhu. And of aeons of such length, we have wandered through so many aeons, so many hundreds of aeons, so many thousands of aeons, so many hundreds of thousands of aeons. For what reason? Because, bhikkhu, this saṁsara is without discoverable beginning … . It is enough to be liberated from them."

1Sāvatthiyaṁ vihārati. Atha kho aññataro bhikkhu yena bhagavā … pe … ekamantaṁ nisinno kho so bhikkhu bhagavantaṁ etadavoca:

"kīvadīgho nu kho, bhante, kappo"ti?

"Dīgho kho, bhikkhu, kappo. So na sukaro saṅkhātuṁ ettakāni vassāni iti vā … pe … ettakāni vassasatasahassāni iti vā"ti.

2"Sakkā pana, bhante, upamaṁ kātun"ti?

"Sakkā, bhikkhū"ti bhagavā avoca. "Seyyathāpi, bhikkhu, āyasaṁ nagaraṁ yojanaṁ āyāmena yojanaṁ vitthārena yojanaṁ ubbedhena, puṇṇaṁ sāsapānaṁ guḷikābaddhaṁ. Tato puriso vassasatassa vassasatassa accayena ekamekaṁ sāsapaṁ uddhareyya. Khippataraṁ kho so, bhikkhu, mahāsāsaparāsi iminā upakkamena parikkhayaṁ pariyādānaṁ gaccheyya, na tveva kappo. Evaṁ dīgho kho, bhikkhu, kappo. Evaṁ dīghānaṁ kho, bhikkhu, kappānaṁ neko kappo saṁsito, nekaṁ kappasataṁ saṁsitaṁ, nekaṁ kappasahassaṁ saṁsitaṁ, nekaṁ kappasatasahassaṁ saṁsitaṁ. Taṁ kissa hetu? Anamataggoyaṁ, bhikkhu, saṁsāro … pe … alaṁ vimuccitun"ti.

Chaṭṭhaṁ.