‘Susīma, go to that place where you can achieve happiness without working for it or trying hard—and take me with you!’

‘That a lazy man who does no work, and doesn’t do his duty, should fulfill all his desires: Sakka, render me this boon!’

‘Susīma, go to that place where a lazy man who does no work prospers in unending happiness—and take me with you!’

‘O Sakka, first among gods, that we might find the happiness that’s sorrowless, unstressed: Sakka, render me this boon!’

‘If there exists anywhere a place where one can live happily without working, that surely would be extinguishment’s path! Susīma, go to that place and take me with you!’

Since, mendicants, even that Sakka, lord of gods—while living off of the fruit of his good deeds, and ruling as sovereign lord over these gods of the thirty-three—will speak in praise of initiative and energy, you can excel at this, for you who have gone forth in such a well explained teaching and training can try hard, strive, and make an effort to attain the unattained, achieve the unachieved, and realize the unrealized.”

Linked Discourses 11.3 Chapter One The Banner’s Crest