6.
The Discourse on the Mustard Seed
129.
He was dwelling at Sāvatthī.
Then a certain monk approached the Blessed One, etc.
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, etc.
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 an iron city, a yojana in length, a yojana in breadth, a yojana in height, full of mustard seeds packed together. From that a man might remove one mustard seed at the end of every hundred years. More quickly, monk, would that great heap of mustard seeds come to utter elimination and exhaustion by this method, but not the cosmic cycle. Thus 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 etc. enough to become liberated." The sixth.