5.
The Discourse on the Mountain
128.
He was dwelling at Sāvatthī, etc.
in the park.
Then a certain monk approached the Blessed One;
having approached, he paid respect to the Blessed One and sat down to one side.
Seated to one side, that monk said this to the Blessed One -
"How long, venerable sir, is a cosmic cycle?"
"Long, monk, is a cosmic cycle.
It is not easy to reckon as so many years, or so many hundreds of years, or so many thousands of years, or so many hundreds of thousands of years."
"But is it possible, venerable sir, to make a simile?" "It is possible, monk" - the Blessed One said. "Just as, monk, there might be a great rocky mountain, a yojana in length, a yojana in breadth, a yojana in height, without cracks, without hollows, one solid mass. A man might wipe it once every hundred years with a Kāsian cloth. More quickly, monk, would that great rocky mountain come to utter elimination and exhaustion by this method, but not the cosmic cycle. So long, monk, is a cosmic cycle. Of such long cosmic cycles, monk, not just one cosmic cycle has been wandered through, not just a hundred cosmic cycles have been wandered through, not just a thousand cosmic cycles have been wandered through, not just a hundred thousand cosmic cycles have been wandered through. What is the reason for this? This wandering in the round of rebirths, monk, is without discernible beginning. A first point, etc. This is enough, monk, to become disenchanted with all activities, enough to become dispassionate, enough to become liberated." The fifth.