On a day to be remembered, it so chanced that Assaji, a disciple, walked in the streets, collecting alms of food in his bowl, and he walked in the shade, in the yellow robe, one shoulder bare, composed and with majesty, musing as he went. And he was thus observed by a young Brahman of noble birth who was studying spiritual things in the city under a teacher, and when he saw him the dignity of his serene presence moved the heart of the Brahman Sariputta, and he thought:
“Surely this is one who has already attained the way of purity! I will go and ask him in whose name he has renounced the world and by what Law. Not yet, for he is collecting alms, but presently.”
Therefore he watched, and when the venerable Assaji had received food from the householders he turned back, and Sariputta approached him with a courteous salutation, which having concluded, he said:
“Friend, your eyes are shining, your colour pure and clear. Great is your composure. In whose name have you renounced the world and who is your honourable Master?”
“Friend, my master is the Son of the Sakya House, the descendant of Kings; I am but a novice. As yet I cannot tell the great heights of the Law, but in a few words I can give its spirit.”
“Be it so, friend. Instruct me.”
And musing a moment, Assaji said this:
“The Perfected One teaches how existences apparently separate are dependent upon One Cause, how they depend upon one another, their apparent separateness springing from ignorance and illusion as its cause, and how these existences can be ended and the Truth of Unity appear. This is the teaching of the Son of the Sakyas.”
And as he heard these words, suddenly their implications and how they affect all within and without us and the whole Universe, flashed into the clear vision of Sariputta, and he understood as a consequence:
“Whatever is subject to the law of beginning that also is subject to the law of decay, and how should the I be excepted? There is but one Unchanging, motionless and eternal.”