There are some ascetics and brahmins who theorize about chance. They assert that the self and the cosmos arose by chance on two grounds. And what are the two grounds on which they rely?

There are gods named ‘non-percipient beings’. When perception arises they pass away from that host of gods. It’s possible that one of those beings passes away from that host and is reborn in this state of existence. Having done so, they go forth from the lay life to homelessness. By dint of keen, resolute, committed, and diligent effort, and right focus, they experience an immersion of the heart of such a kind that they recollect the arising of perception, but no further. They say: ‘The self and the cosmos arose by chance. Why is that? Because formerly I didn’t exist. Now, having not been, I’ve sprung into existence.’ This is the first ground on which some ascetics and brahmins rely to assert that the self and the cosmos arose by chance.

And what is the second ground on which they rely? It’s when some ascetic or brahmin relies on logic and inquiry. They speak of what they have worked out by logic, following a line of inquiry, expressing their own perspective: ‘The self and the cosmos arose by chance.’ This is the second ground on which some ascetics and brahmins rely to assert that the self and the cosmos arose by chance.

These are the two grounds on which those ascetics and brahmins who theorize about chance assert that the self and the cosmos arose by chance. Any ascetics and brahmins who theorize about chance do so on one or other of these two grounds. Outside of this there is none. The Realized One understands this … And those who genuinely praise the Realized One would rightly speak of these things.

These are the eighteen grounds on which those ascetics and brahmins who theorize about the past assert various hypotheses concerning the past. Any ascetics and brahmins who theorize about the past do so on one or other of these eighteen grounds. Outside of this there is none.

The Realized One understands this: ‘If you hold on to and attach to these grounds for views it leads to such and such a destiny in the next life.’ He understands this, and what goes beyond this. Yet since he does not misapprehend that understanding, he has realized extinguishment within himself. Having truly understood the origin, ending, gratification, drawback, and escape from feelings, the Realized One is freed through not grasping.

These are the principles—deep, hard to see, hard to understand, peaceful, sublime, beyond the scope of reason, subtle, comprehensible to the astute—which the Realized One makes known after realizing them with his own insight. And those who genuinely praise the Realized One would rightly speak of these things.