Samyutta Nikaya XV.9
Danda Sutta
The Stick
At Savatthi. There the Blessed
One said: "From an inconstruable beginning comes transmigration. A
beginning point is not evident, though beings hindered by ignorance and
fettered by craving are transmigrating & wandering on. Just
as a stick thrown up in the air lands sometimes on its base, sometimes
on its side, sometimes on its tip; in the same way, beings hindered by
ignorance and fettered by craving, transmigrating & wandering on, sometimes
go from this world to another world, sometimes come from another world
to this.
"Why is that? From an inconstruable beginning
comes transmigration. A beginning point is not evident, though beings hindered
by ignorance and fettered by craving are transmigrating & wandering
on. Long have you thus experienced stress, experienced pain, experienced
loss, swelling the cemeteries -- enough to become disenchanted with all
fabricated things, enough to become dispassionate, enough to be released."