Verses of the Senior Monks 2.32

The Book of the Twos

Chapter Four

Sivaka

Houses are impermanent—

on and on, life after life.

I’ve been searching for the house-builder—

painful is birth again and again.

I’ve seen you, house-builder!

You won’t build a house again.

Your rafters are all broken,

your ridgepole is shattered.

My mind is without boundaries:

in this very life it will dissipate.