And moreover, sir, how the Buddha teaches eternalist doctrines is unsurpassable. There are these three eternalist doctrines. Firstly, some ascetic or brahmin—by dint of keen, resolute, committed, and diligent effort, and right application of mind—experiences an immersion of the heart of such a kind that they recollect many hundreds of thousands of past lives, with features and details. They say, ‘I know that in the past the cosmos expanded or contracted. I don’t know whether in the future the cosmos will expand or contract. The self and the cosmos are eternal, barren, steady as a mountain peak, standing firm like a pillar. They remain the same for all eternity, while these sentient beings wander and transmigrate and pass away and rearise.’ This is the first eternalist doctrine.