Saṃyuktāgama (291), Part Three

(Three) Original text: 若诸沙门婆罗门。于世间所念。谛正之色。作常想恒想。安稳想。无病想。我想我所想而见。则于此色爱增长。爱憎长已。亿波提增长。亿波提增长已。苦增长。苦增长已。则不解脱生老病死忧悲恼苦。我说彼不解脱苦。

Explanation: The Buddha said that if śramaṇas and brāhmaṇas, with regard to the refined and pure forms, sounds, smells, tastes, touches, and dharmas that worldly people recollect and attend to, entertain the notions of permanence, constancy, stability, freedom from illness, self, and self's possessions, then after these views arise, their craving for the aggregates of form, feeling, perception, volitional formations, and consciousness will grow. When craving grows, grasping grows; when grasping grows, suffering grows; when suffering grows, they cannot be liberated from birth, aging, sickness, death, sorrow, grief, suffering, and distress. I say they are not liberated from suffering.

"Constant" means forever unchanging and imperishable; "stable" means fixed and forever unchanging, forever being mine; "without illness" means without faults and defects. Sentient beings do not regard these six sense faculties, six sense objects, and six consciousnesses as having faults and defects; they take them as self and as belonging to self, and thus they pursue, crave, and grasp them, and in this way the cycle of birth and death never ceases. If they knew that these dharmas all have faults and defects, that they can give rise to birth, aging, sickness, death, sorrow, grief, suffering, and distress, they would no longer pursue these dharmas.

When these notions exist, craving for form will grow, and one will become increasingly greedy. The more craving grows, the more unceasing birth and death becomes, and the more suffering there is. Once this craving grows, grasping will grow, and existence in the three realms will certainly grow along with it; when existence in the three realms grows, life continues unbroken, and suffering grows without end. The heavier the craving, the more suffering there is; the more it grows, the less one can be liberated from birth, aging, sickness, death, sorrow, grief, suffering, and distress. Sentient beings all pursue pleasure, yet the result is that they all suffer, because sentient beings are constantly creating the causes of suffering. Where there is craving, there is suffering. An arhat has no craving and does not grasp, and therefore naturally there is no longer any suffering of birth, aging, sickness, and death.