“Suppose that the feeling and the one who feels it are one and the same. Then for one who has existed since the beginning, pleasure and pain is made by oneself. I don’t say this. Suppose that the feeling is one thing and the one who feels it is another. Then for one stricken by feeling, pleasure and pain is made by another. I don’t say this. Avoiding these two extremes, the Realized One teaches by the middle way: ‘Ignorance is a requirement for choices. Choices are a requirement for consciousness. … That is how this entire mass of suffering originates. When ignorance fades away and ceases with no residue left behind, choices cease. When choices cease, consciousness ceases. … That is how this entire mass of suffering ceases.’”
When he said this, the wanderer Timbaruka said to the Buddha, “Excellent, worthy Gotama! Excellent! … I go for refuge to the worthy Gotama, to the teaching, and to the mendicant Saṅgha. From this day forth, may the worthy Gotama remember me as a lay follower who has gone for refuge for life.”
Linked Discourses 12.19 2. Fuel The Astute and the Foolish
At Sāvatthī. “Mendicants, for a fool shrouded by ignorance and coupled to craving, this body has been produced. So there is this duality: this body and external name and form. Contact depends on this duality. When contacted through one or other of the six sense fields, the fool experiences pleasure and pain.
For an astute person shrouded by ignorance and coupled to craving, this body has been produced. So there is this duality: this body and external name and form. Contact depends on this duality. When contacted through one or other of the six sense fields, the astute person experiences pleasure and pain.