Samyuktagama 300

Saṃyuktāgama 300 Empty of the eternalist and annihilationist views (The middle way)

Thus have I heard.

At one time, the Buddha was staying in the cow-herding community of the Kurus. At that time, a certain brahmin came to where the Buddha was, and exchanged greeting with the World-Honoured One. Having greeted him, he stepped back and sat down at one side.

He said to the Buddha: “What do you say, Gotama? Is the one who acts the one who experiences the result?”

The Buddha said to that brahmin: “I say that this is not to be declared. That the one who acts is the one who experiences the result is not to be declared.”

The brahmin asked: “What do you say, Gotama? Is it that one acts and another experiences the result?”

The Buddha said: “That one acts and another experiences the result, this too is not to be declared.”

The brahmin said to the Buddha: “What does this mean? When I ask, is the one who acts the one who experiences the result, you say that that is not to be declared; and when I ask is it that one acts and another experiences the result, you also say that that is not to be declared. What is the meaning of this?”

The Buddha said: “To declare that the one who acts is the one who experiences the result is to fall into the eternalist view. To declare that one acts and another experiences the result is to fall into the annihilationist view.

“Teaching the essence, teaching the dharma, I avoid these two extremes. Keeping to the Middle Way, I teach the dharma, namely: When this is, that is; this arising, that arises. Conditioned by ignorance, activities arise, and so on …, and thus is the origin of this whole mass of suffering. Ignorance ceasing, activities ceases, and so on …, and thus is the ceasing of this whole mass of suffering.”

When the Buddha had taught this discourse, the brahmin was delighted and, rising from his seat, he departed.