SuttaCentral AN
“Seyyathāpi, bhikkhave, appamattakopi gūtho duggandho hoti;"
“Mendicants, just as even a tiny bit of fecal matter stinks,"
"evamevaṃ kho ahaṃ, bhikkhave, appamattakampi bhavaṃ na vaṇṇemi, antamaso accharāsaṅghātamattampi”
“so too I do not assert on slightest existence, not even for a split second.”
The problem with the existing translations is that authors start with assumption that they exist so they think Buddha is talking about not standing for future birth / existence while i think he is talking about existence as a thing on itself and my translation comes out more naturally without adding anything to it to sell the idea that he is talking about ‘future existences’.
It is also in line with the whole collection of suttas. Buddha does not state “Having existed i will not exist after death.” or alike, quite the opposite, he denies all sorts of statements similar to that everywhere.
The deeper problem here is that the three lives model of paticca samuppada coming from much later commentaries is influencing how the suttas are now interpreted and translated.