Dighanikaya 19.298

19.298

Aṭṭhānametaṃ anavakāso yanti ettha ṭhānaṃ avakāsoti ubhayametaṃ kāraṇādhivacanameva. Kāraṇañhi tiṭṭhati ettha tadāyattavuttitāya phalanti ṭhānaṃ. Okāso viya cassa taṃ tena vinā aññattha abhāvatoti avakāso. Yanti karaṇatthe paccattaṃ. Idaṃ vuttaṃ hoti – ‘‘yena kāraṇena ekissā lokadhātuyā dve buddhā ekato uppajjeyyuṃ, taṃ kāraṇaṃ natthī’’ti.

In “that is impossible and cannot happen,” here both “possibility” and “opportunity” are merely designations for a cause. For a cause is a “possibility” in that the result stands dependent upon it. And it is an “opportunity” like an opening, because without it [the result] does not exist elsewhere. “That” is the nominative in an instrumental sense. This is what is said: “That cause by which two Buddhas could arise together in a single world system—that cause does not exist.”