The Buddha explains the five lower fetters and the way of practice for abandoning them.

The Buddha explains to a brahmin that the cycle of existence is without a discoverable beginning, and that it is not easy to calculate the number of aeons that have passed by and gone.

Just as it is impossible to make the river Ganges flow against its natural course, so too is it impossible for a bhikkhu whose mind has long been inclined toward seclusion to abandon the Noble Eightfold Path and return to lay life.