The Fire Sermon

No longer craving fantasy,
a steadfast desire for liberation,
attaining these two is the first breakthrough.
-- The Three Principles of the Path, Verse 2

Ooh, see the fire is sweepin'/Our very street today
Burns like a red coal carpet/Mad bull lost its way
-- The Rolling Stones, "Gimme Shelter", 1969

You were taught to put away your former way of life,
your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts,
and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds,
and to clothe yourselves with the new self,
created according to the likeness of God
in true righteousness and holiness.
-- Ephesians 3:22-24

The bhavachakra is sometimes represented as being engulfed in flame as shown here (click on the image for a larger version), to make the point that all of cyclic existence (samsara) is afire with the Three Poisons of ignorance, attachment and aversion. A similar metaphor is employed by the Buddha in his "Fire Sermon", where he tells us that we must free ourselves from the fiery enchantment exercised by the Three Poisons on the five "aggregates" (skandhas: form, sensation, perception, mental habits and consciousness — the five skulls in the crown of Yama, the Lord of Death) through which phenomena arise to consciousness.

Your samsara is the continuation of your contaminated aggregates.
-- Gelek Rimpoche

Do not be conformed to this world,
but be transformed by the renewing of your minds,
so that you may discern what is the will of God --
what is good and acceptable and perfect.
--Romans 12:2

I have heard that on one occasion the Blessed One was staying in Gaya, at Gaya Head, with 1,000 monks. There he addressed the monks:

"Monks, the All is aflame. What All is aflame? The eye is aflame. Forms are aflame. Consciousness at the eye is aflame. Contact at the eye is aflame. And whatever there is that arises in dependence on contact at the eye — experienced as pleasure, pain or neither-pleasure-nor-pain — that too is aflame. Aflame with what? Aflame with the fire of passion, the fire of aversion, the fire of delusion. Aflame, I tell you, with birth, aging & death, with sorrows, lamentations, pains, distresses, & despairs.

"The ear is aflame. Sounds are aflame...
"The nose is aflame. Aromas are aflame...
"The tongue is aflame. Flavors are aflame...
"The body is aflame. Tactile sensations are aflame...

"The intellect is aflame. Ideas are aflame. Consciousness at the intellect is aflame. Contact at the intellect is aflame. And whatever there is that arises in dependence on contact at the intellect — experienced as pleasure, pain or neither-pleasure-nor-pain — that too is aflame. Aflame with what? Aflame with the fire of passion, the fire of aversion, the fire of delusion. Aflame, I say, with birth, aging & death, with sorrows, lamentations, pains, distresses, & despairs.

"Seeing thus, the well-instructed disciple of the noble ones grows disenchanted with the eye, disenchanted with forms, disenchanted with consciousness at the eye, disenchanted with contact at the eye. And whatever there is that arises in dependence on contact at the eye, experienced as pleasure, pain or neither-pleasure-nor-pain: With that, too, he grows disenchanted.

"He grows disenchanted with the ear...
"He grows disenchanted with the nose...
"He grows disenchanted with the tongue...
"He grows disenchanted with the body...

"He grows disenchanted with the intellect, disenchanted with ideas, disenchanted with consciousness at the intellect, disenchanted with contact at the intellect. And whatever there is that arises in dependence on contact at the intellect, experienced as pleasure, pain or neither-pleasure-nor-pain: He grows disenchanted with that too. Disenchanted, he becomes dispassionate. Through dispassion, he is fully released. With full release, there is the knowledge, 'Fully released.' He discerns that 'Birth is ended, the holy life fulfilled, the task done. There is nothing further for this world.'"

That is what the Blessed One said. Gratified, the monks delighted at his words. And while this explanation was being given, the hearts of the 1,000 monks, through clinging no more, were fully released from contamination.

"Adittapariyaya Sutta: The Fire Sermon" (SN 35.28).
Translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.
Access to Insight, 30 November 2013.
Final sentence modified, based on a translation by Ñanamoli Thera.