Quite, amazingly, I could find no sutta where the Buddha spoke the words “everything that has a beginning has an end.”
Yet this key phrase appears 16 times out of 4000 suttas:
DN14:3.11.7: ‘Everything that has a beginning has an end.’ DN14:3.15.7: ‘Everything that has a beginning has an end.’ SN35.74:21.4: “Everything that has a beginning has an end.” SN56.11:11.2: “Everything that has a beginning has an end.” AN8.21:4.8: ‘Everything that has a beginning has an end.’ ud5.3:4.13: “Everything that has a beginning has an end.” AN8.22:4.9: ‘Everything that has a beginning has an end.’ SN35.245:4.3: “When a mendicant truly understands that everything that has a beginning has an end, at that point their vision is well purified.” SN35.121:53.5: “Everything that has a beginning has an end.” MN74:15.2: “Everything that has a beginning has an end.” MN147:9.13: “Everything that has a beginning has an end.” AN8.12:28.7: “Everything that has a beginning has an end.” DN5:29.8: “Everything that has a beginning has an end.” MN56:18.7: “Everything that has a beginning has an end.” MN91:36.8: “Everything that has a beginning has an end.” DN3:2.21.8: “Everything that has a beginning has an end.” DN21:2.10.10: “Everything that has a beginning has an end.”
In all of these 15 suttas, the insight is received from but never spoken by the Buddha. Which means that the Buddha, in all his teaching years may never have spoken those words. It is simply amazing to teach everybody the same thing…without ever speaking it!
It’s the reaction that happens when you truly understand …
I love that phrase! It’s the expression of understanding the Dhamma, the arising of the “stainless, immaculate vision of the Dhamma”. The first one to experience this is Venerable Kondañña in the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta, and that always has impressed me a lot!!
Yes, it wasn’t clear in the OP. These words are the thought that someone has when they attain some level of enlightenment while listening to the Buddha. e.g.
in that very seat the stainless, immaculate vision of the Dhamma arose in Upāli:
evameva upālissa gahapatissa tasmiṁyeva āsane virajaṁ vītamalaṁ dhammacakkhuṁ udapādi:
“Everything that has a beginning has an end.”
“yaṁ kiñci samudayadhammaṁ sabbaṁ taṁ nirodhadhamman”ti.
Snowbird is right, these are the words of someone achieving stream entry. The Buddha does however speak of the process of impermanence, there being a protocol in the suttas where the Buddha only speaks on certain subjects, and lesser disciples speak on the more mundane:
At Savatthi. "Monks, forms are inconstant, changeable, alterable. Sounds… Aromas… Flavors… Tactile sensations… Ideas are inconstant, changeable, alterable.
"One who has conviction & belief that these phenomena are this way is called a faith-follower: one who has entered the orderliness of rightness, entered the plane of people of integrity, transcended the plane of the run-of-the-mill. He is incapable of doing any deed by which he might be reborn in hell, in the animal womb, or in the realm of hungry shades. He is incapable of passing away until he has realized the fruit of stream-entry.
"One who, after pondering with a modicum of discernment, has accepted that these phenomena are this way is called a Dhamma-follower: one who has entered the orderliness of rightness, entered the plane of people of integrity, transcended the plane of the run-of-the-mill. He is incapable of doing any deed by which he might be reborn in hell, in the animal womb, or in the realm of hungry shades. He is incapable of passing away until he has realized the fruit of stream-entry.
“One who knows and sees that these phenomena are this way is called a stream-enterer, steadfast, never again destined for states of woe, headed for self-awakening.” —SN 25.2
Thank you for the sutta quotes. I see that Bhante Sujato has preferred “follower by faith” to “faith-follower”, so I have added “follower by faith” to the EBT-data examples for English. These examples are shown in Voice and EBT-Sites.
It’s the expression of understanding the Dhamma, the arising of the “stainless, immaculate vision of the Dhamma”. The first one to experience this is Venerable Kondañña in the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta, and that always has impressed me a lot!!