The Long Āgama Sūtra 15.32

15.32

佛告梵志：「或有沙門、婆羅門言：『失意是眾生始。』我語彼言：『汝等實言：失意是眾生始耶？』彼不知報，還問我言：『瞿曇！此事云何？』我語彼言：『或有眾生展轉相看已，便失意，由是命終，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：如彼眾生以不展轉相看，不失意故，常住不變；我等於彼數數相看已，便失意，致此無常，為變易法。』如是，梵志！彼沙門、婆羅門以是緣故，言失意是眾生始，如此唯佛知之，過是亦知，知已不著苦、集、滅、味、過、出要，如實知之，知已平等觀無餘解脫，故名如來。」

The Buddha told the wanderer, “Some ascetics and priests say, ‘Losing mindfulness is the source of sentient beings.’

“I say to them, ‘Do you really say, ‘Losing mindfulness is the source of sentient beings?’

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

“I say to them, ‘Some sentient beings lose their mindfulness after watching each other, one after the other. As a result, they’re born here when their lives end. They slowly grow up, cut off their hair and beards, put on the three Dharma robes, and leave home to cultivate the path. They enter a samādhi of mind through which they became aware of their past births, and then they say, “Those sentient beings that don’t lose their mindfulness while watching each other, one after the other, always abide unchanging. We frequently watched each other and lost our mindfulness after doing so. As a result, we’ve come to this impermanence and are subject to change.”’

“Thus, wanderer, as a result of these events, those ascetics and priests say that losing mindfulness is the source of sentient beings. Only a Buddha thus knows it, and he knows what’s beyond it. He knows it, but he 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.”