The Long Āgama Sūtra 15.31

15.31

佛告梵志：「或有沙門、婆羅門作是言：『戱笑懈怠是眾生始。』我語彼言：『云何汝等實言，戱笑懈怠是眾生始耶？』彼不能報，逆問我言：『瞿曇！此事云何？』時我報言：『或有光音眾生喜戱笑懈怠，身壞命終，來生此間，漸漸長大，剃除鬚髮，服三法衣，出家修道，便入心定三昧，以三昧力識本所生，便作是言：彼餘眾生不喜戱笑，常在彼處，永住不變；由我等數喜戱笑，致此無常，為變易法。』如是，梵志！彼沙門、婆羅門以是緣故，言戱笑是眾生始，如是佛盡知之，過是亦知，知而不著，已不著苦、集、滅、味、過、出要，如實知之，已平等觀無餘解脫，名曰如來。」

The Buddha told the wanderer, “Some ascetics and priests make this claim, ‘Frivolity and laziness are the source of sentient beings.’

“I say to them, ‘Do you really say that frivolity and laziness are the source of sentient beings?’

“They aren’t able to answer, so they ask me a counter question, ‘Gautama, how is it, then?’

“I reply to them, ‘Sometimes, the sentient beings of the Ābhāsvara Heaven are frivolous and lazy. When their bodies break up and their lives end, they’re reborn here. They slowly grow up, cut off their hair and beard, put on the three Dharma robes, and leave home for the path. They enter a samādhi of mind through which they recall their past births, and then they make the claim, “Those other sentient beings didn’t delight in frivolity, so they always reside in that abode, abiding forever and unchanging. We’ve come to this impermanence and are subject to change because we often delighted in frivolity.”’”

“Thus, wanderer, as a result of these events, those ascetics and priests say that frivolity is the source of sentient beings. The Buddha thus entirely knows this, and he also knows about what’s beyond it. He knows it but isn’t attached to it. He truly knows suffering and its formation, cessation, enjoyment, danger, and escape. He’s called ‘Tathāgata’ because he was liberated without remainder by his equal observation.”