{"collection":"Samyutta Nikaya","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/suttacentral_sn15.6/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/suttacentral_sn15.6","id":"suttacentral_sn15.6","license":"CC0","rights_basis":"suttacentral_bilara_data_cc0","source":"suttacentral","source_url":"https://suttacentral.net/sn15.6/en/sujato","summary":null,"tags":["Early Buddhist Texts","Samyutta Nikaya"],"text":"At S\u0101vatth\u012b. Then a mendicant went up to the Buddha \u2026 and asked him, \u201cSir, how long is an eon?\u201d \u201cMendicant, an eon is long. It\u2019s not easy to calculate how many years, how many hundreds or thousands or hundreds of thousands of years it lasts.\u201d \u201cBut sir, is it possible to give a simile?\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s possible,\u201d said the Buddha. \u201cSuppose there was an iron citadel, a league long, a league wide, and a league high, full of mustard seeds pressed into balls. And as each century passed someone would remove a single mustard seed. By this means the big heap of mustard seeds would be used up before the eon comes to an end. That\u2019s how long an eon is. And we\u2019ve transmigrated through many such eons, many hundreds, many thousands, many hundreds of thousands. Why is that? This transmigration has no known beginning. \u2026 This is quite enough for you to become disillusioned, dispassionate, and freed regarding all conditions.\u201d","title":"A Mustard Seed","tradition":"Samyutta Nikaya","translated_text":null,"word_count":161}