A Hundred Spears
The Buddha asks the mendicants to imagine a man with a hundred years to live who is told he will be struck with three hundred spears every day of it, and that only at the end will he understand the four noble truths for the first time. For an earnest person, the Buddha says, this would be reason enough to agree, because this transmigration (the round of rebirth) has no known beginning and no first point can be found for blows by spears, swords, and arrows. But he adds that understanding the four noble truths does not in fact come with pain; it comes only with pleasure and happiness.
A note on this text. The opening simile is violent, and “transmigration has no known beginning” refers to rebirth over countless lives.
The full text
Linked Discourses 56.35 · 4. In a Rosewood Forest · A Hundred Spears · translated by Bhikkhu Sujato · public domain (CC0) · about 1 min · on SuttaCentral
“Mendicants, suppose there was a man with a lifespan of a hundred years. And someone might say to him: ‘Come now, my man, they’ll strike you with a hundred spears in the morning, at midday, and in the late afternoon. And you’ll live for a hundred years being struck with three hundred spears every day. But when a hundred years have passed, you will comprehend the four noble truths for the first time.’
For an earnest gentleman this is sufficient reason to submit. Why is that? This transmigration has no known beginning. No first point is found of blows by spears, swords, arrows, and axes. Now this may be so. But the comprehension of the four noble truths doesn’t come with pain or sadness, I say. Rather, the comprehension of the four noble truths comes only with pleasure and happiness, I say. What four? The noble truths of suffering, its origin, its cessation, and the path.
That’s why you should practice meditation …”