In his essay „Of Past & Future“ Thanissaro Bhikkhu writes:
Which sutta is he referencing here?
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Maybe he was referring to Anusotasutta in AN4.5
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Oh, that‘s almost verbatim, thank you! And what a beautiful sutta, too.
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You can also find a very similar thing here: MN 45
And what is the way of taking up practices that is painful now but results in future pleasure? It’s when someone is ordinarily full of acute greed, hate, and delusion. They often feel the pain and sadness that greed, hate, and delusion bring. They lead the full and pure spiritual life in pain and sadness, weeping, with tearful faces. When their body breaks up, after death, they’re reborn in a good place, a heavenly realm. This is called the way of taking up practices that is painful now but results in future pleasure.
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