dn2:23.1 He said:
dn2:23.2 ‘Great king, there is no meaning in giving, sacrifice, or offerings. There’s no fruit or result of good and bad deeds. There’s no afterlife. There’s no such thing as mother and father, or beings that are reborn spontaneously. And there’s no ascetic or brahmin who is rightly comported and rightly practiced, and who describes the afterlife after realizing it with their own insight.
dn2:23.3 This person is made up of the four principal states. When they die, the earth in their body merges and coalesces with the substance of earth. The water in their body merges and coalesces with the substance of water. The fire in their body merges and coalesces with the substance of fire. The air in their body merges and coalesces with the substance of air. The faculties are transferred to space.
dn2:23.4 Four men with a bier carry away the corpse.
dn2:23.5 Their footprints show the way to the cremation ground.
dn2:23.6 The bones become bleached. Offerings dedicated to the gods end in ashes.
dn2:23.7 Giving is a doctrine of morons.
dn2:23.8 When anyone affirms a positive teaching it’s just hollow, false nonsense.
dn2:23.9 Both the foolish and the astute are annihilated and destroyed when their body breaks up, and don’t exist after death.’



