I will tell you a parable.
A rich man had a manor house.
It was old, rotten,
Broken and ruined.

The subtle triggering-mechanism [of beings] in the previous transformative teaching has actively stimulated the Sage, who then condescends to respond to them. [The process of] condescending to respond is represented in this [phrase], which means thus that “the decayed house belonged to” the Buddha.