dn23:11.0 2.4. The Simile of the gods of the thirty-three
BAGIAN 11
dn23:11.1 “Well then, chieftain, I’ll ask you about this in return, and you can answer as you like.
dn23:11.2 A hundred human years are equivalent to one day and night for the gods of the thirty-three. Thirty such days make a month, and twelve months make a year. The gods of the thirty-three have a lifespan of a thousand such years.
dn23:11.3 Now, as to your friends who are reborn in the company of the gods of the thirty-three after doing good things.
dn23:11.4 If they think,
dn23:11.5 ‘First I’ll amuse myself for two or three days, supplied and provided with the five kinds of heavenly sensual stimulation. Then I’ll go back to Pāyāsi and tell him that
dn23:11.6 there is an afterlife.’
dn23:11.7 Would they come back to tell you that
dn23:11.8 there is an afterlife?”
dn23:11.9 “No, worthy Kassapa.
dn23:11.10 For I would be long dead by then.
dn23:11.11 But worthy Kassapa, who has told you
dn23:11.12 that the gods of the thirty-three exist, or that they have such a long lifespan?
dn23:11.13 I don’t believe you.”
dn23:11.15.0 2.5. Blind From Birth
dn23:11.16 “Chieftain, suppose there was a person blind from birth. They couldn’t see sights that are dark or bright, or blue, yellow, red, or magenta. They couldn’t see even and uneven ground, or the stars, or the moon and sun.
dn23:11.17 They’d say,
dn23:11.18 ‘There’s no such thing as dark and bright sights, and no one who sees them.
dn23:11.19 There’s no such thing as blue,
dn23:11.20 yellow,
dn23:11.21 red,
dn23:11.22 magenta,
dn23:11.23 even and uneven ground,
dn23:11.24 stars,
dn23:11.25 moon and sun, and no one who sees these things.
dn23:11.26 I don’t know it or see it, therefore it doesn’t exist.’
dn23:11.27 Would they be speaking rightly?”
dn23:11.28 “No, worthy Kassapa.
dn23:11.29 There are such things as dark and bright sights, and one who sees them.
dn23:11.30 And those other things are real, too, as is the one who sees them.
dn23:11.33 So it’s not right to say this:
dn23:11.34 ‘I don’t know it or see it, therefore it doesn’t exist.’”
dn23:11.36 “In the same way, chieftain, when you tell me you don’t believe me you seem like the blind man in the simile.
dn23:11.41 You can’t see the other world the way you think, with the eye of the flesh.
dn23:11.42 There are ascetics and brahmins who live in the wilderness, frequenting remote lodgings in the wilderness and the forest. Meditating diligent, keen, and resolute, they purify the heavenly eye, the power of clairvoyance.
dn23:11.43 With clairvoyance that is purified and superhuman, they see this world and the other world, and sentient beings who are spontaneously reborn.
dn23:11.44 That’s how to see the other world,
dn23:11.45 not how you think, with the eye of the flesh.
dn23:11.46 By this method, too, it ought to be proven that
dn23:11.47 there is an afterlife.”