Dighanikaya 8.398

8.398

Dukkaraṃ, bho gotamāti idaṃ kassapo ‘‘mayaṃ pubbe ettakamattaṃ sāmaññañca brahmaññañcāti vicarāma, tumhe pana aññaṃyeva sāmaññañca brahmaññañca vadathā’’ti dīpento āha. Pakati kho esāti pakatikathā esā. Imāya ca, kassapa, mattāyāti ‘‘kassapa yadi iminā pamāṇena evaṃ parittakena paṭipattikkamena sāmaññaṃ vā brahmaññaṃ vā dukkaraṃ sudukkaraṃ nāma abhavissa, tato netaṃ abhavissa kallaṃ vacanāya dukkaraṃ sāmañña’’nti ayamettha padasambandhena saddhiṃ attho. Etena nayena sabbattha padasambandho veditabbo.

"It is hard to do, venerable Gotama": Kassapa said this to indicate, "Previously we went about considering merely this to be the state of an ascetic and the state of a brahmin; but you speak of the state of an ascetic and the state of a brahmin as something entirely different." "Such is the common saying" (pakati kho esā) means this is ordinary talk. "By this measure, Kassapa" (imāya ca, kassapa, mattāya): "Kassapa, if by this measure, by such a trifling course of practice, the state of an ascetic or the state of a brahmin were called hard to do, very hard to do, then it would not be fit to say, 'The state of an ascetic is hard to do'"—this is the meaning here together with the connection of words. In this manner, the connection of words should be understood everywhere.