ལས་བརྒྱ་ཐམ་པ་པ 35.3

35.3

be it work in the fields, work as a merchant, or work on the boats—something always breaks and is incomplete. Is there anything in the world that doesn’t fall to ruin?”

Soon after, the ancestral deity of the householder Deluded’s friends, acquaintances, brothers, and elders came to the door of his house. When he arrived, the house was bathed in great rays of light, and the deity asked the householder Deluded, “Householder, do you not know which things in this world are subject to ruin, and which are not?”

“No, Deva,” said the householder, “I do not know which things in this world are subject to ruin and which are not. Deva, do you know which things in this world are subject to ruin and which are not?”

“No, householder,” replied the deity. “I also do not know which things in this world are subject to ruin and which are not.”

“Deva, who does know which things in this world are subject to ruin and which are not?” asked the householder.

“Householder, there is one who knows—the ascetic Gautama, the Śākyas’ heir, one of the Śākya clan, who shaved his head and face and donned the colorful religious robes, and with nothing short of perfect faith went forth from home to live as a mendicant, and fully and completely awakened unto unexcelled, total, and complete enlightenment. He, the Blessed One, knows which things in this world are subject to ruin and which are not,” answered the deity.

“Deva, where is the Blessed One staying now?” asked the householder.

“Householder,” the deity replied, “right now the Blessed One is in the east, in a place called Śrāvastī at the garden of Prince Jeta, in the grove of Anāthapiṇḍada.