The Long Āgama Sūtra 15.33

15.33

佛告梵志：「或有沙門、婆羅門言：『我無因而出。』我語彼言：『汝等實言：本無因出耶？』彼不能報，逆來問我，我時報曰：『或有眾生無想無知，若彼眾生起想，則便命終來生此間，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：我本無有，今忽然有；此世間本無，今有，此實餘虛。』如是，梵志！沙門、婆羅門以此緣故，言無因出，唯佛知之，過是亦知，知已不著苦、集、滅、味、過、出要，如實知之，已平等觀無餘解脫，故名如來。」

The Buddha told the wanderer, “Some ascetics and priests say, ‘I arose without cause.’

“I say to them, ‘Do you really say, “I arose without cause”?’

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

“Then I reply, ‘Some sentient beings lack conception or perception. If those sentient beings give rise to concepts, then they’re reborn 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, “I didn’t exist in the past, but now I suddenly exist. This world didn’t exist in the past, but now it exists. This is true; the rest is false.”’

“Thus, wanderer, as a result of these events, ascetics and priests say that they arose without cause. Only the Buddha 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.”