All is Burning

[Kokuu]

Dear sangha

After Jundo's talk at this week's Zazenkai, noting that in early Buddhism, nibbana/nirvana referred to the extinction of fires, I just wanted to point towards The Fire Sermon (Adittapariyaya Sutta) which I imagine many of you already know or are aware of.

Thus I heard. On one occasion the Blessed One was living at Gaya, at Gayasisa, together with a thousand bhikkhus. There he addressed the bhikkhus.

"Bhikkhus, all is burning. And what is the all that is burning?

"The eye is burning, forms are burning, eye-consciousness is burning, eye-contact is burning, also whatever is felt as pleasant or painful or neither-painful-nor-pleasant that arises with eye-contact for its indispensable condition, that too is burning. Burning with what? Burning with the fire of lust, with the fire of hate, with the fire of delusion. I say it is burning with birth, aging and death, with sorrows, with lamentations, with pains, with griefs, with despairs.

"The ear is burning, sounds are burning...

"The nose is burning, odors are burning...

"The tongue is burning, flavors are burning...

"The body is burning, tangibles are burning...

"The mind is burning, ideas are burning, mind-consciousness is burning, mind-contact is burning, also whatever is felt as pleasant or painful or neither-painful-nor-pleasant that arises with mind-contact for its indispensable condition, that too is burning. Burning with what? Burning with the fire of lust, with the fire of hate, with the fire of delusion. I say it is burning with birth, aging and death, with sorrows, with lamentations, with pains, with griefs, with despairs.

(translation by Bhikkhu Ñanamoli)

So, here the Buddha is directly pointing to which fires are extinguished - the fire of lust, the fire of hate, the fire of delusion (the three poisons - greed, anger and ignorance) and so on.

We can feel the heat of these fires as we are drawn to objects and people with desire or repel them with aversion and anger, and the coolness when these are not present.

It is very much an early Buddhist presentation of samsara and nirvana, and we would usually speak about it differently in Zen terms, but I think that how the Buddha talks about the fires of samsara is very direct and understandable.

(Sorry, ran longer than three lines)

Gassho
Kokuu
-sattoday-

[Seikan]

Dear sangha

After Jundo's talk at this week's Zazenkai, noting that in early Buddhism, nibbana/nirvana referred to the extinction of fires, I just wanted to point towards The Fire Sermon (Adittapariyaya Sutta) which I imagine many of you already know or are aware of.




So, here the Buddha is directly pointing to which fires are extinguished - the fire of lust, with the fire of hate, with the fire of delusion (the three poisons - greed, anger and ignorance) and so on.

We can feel the heat of these fires as we are drawn to objects and people with desire or repel them with aversion and anger, and the coolness when these are not present.

It is very much an early Buddhist presentation of samsara and nirvana, and we would usually speak about it differently in Zen terms, but I think that how the Buddha talks about the fires of samsara is very direct and understandable.

Gassho
Kokuu
-sattoday-

Thank you Kokuu. I haven't read that in ages, so this was a wonderful chance to revisit it.

Gassho,
Rob

-stlah-




Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

[Tai Shi]

Yes this In the Fire Sermon is understandable and direct. Ancient Chinese curse, “May you live in interesting n times.” I’m being tested for Covid 19. Physical with blood work last Tuesday the best in 9 years. If I b have to fight it off I’m in the Best shape I could be in. I’ve had flu like symptoms for 3 days b so hospital says be tested. Quarantine for 3 to 5 may you line in interesting days hours moments.
Gassho
sat
Ta Shi


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Jakuden]

Thank you brother! So "ancient" yet still so relevant. Our ancestors are always here with us.

Gassho,
Jakuden
SatToday

[Risho]

Thank you Kokuu.

Tai that is good news about your health; stay well

gassho

risho
-stlah

[Naiko]

Thank you, Kokuu. I hope all will be well with you, Tai Shi.
Gassho,
Krista
st

[Seikan]

Yes this In the Fire Sermon is understandable and direct. Ancient Chinese curse, “May you live in interesting n times.” I’m being tested for Covid 19. Physical with blood work last Tuesday the best in 9 years. If I b have to fight it off I’m in the Best shape I could be in. I’ve had flu like symptoms for 3 days b so hospital says be tested. Quarantine for 3 to 5 may you line in interesting days hours moments.
Gassho
sat
Ta Shi


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Tai Shi,

Metta to you and hoping that your test comes back negative. Glad to hear that all else is good!

Gassho2

Gassho,
Rob

-stlah-


Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

[Tai Shi]

All is Burning

Thanks Rob! I encourage you in your way and being. Sounds like you are an okay guy! I want to buy a lay robe. All is Always burning. Seems worse now.
Gassho
sat
Tai Shi
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Meitou]

I've never heard this Sutta before and it couldn't be more relevant than this present time when it feels like half the world is literally on fire.
Powerful stuff, thank you Kokuu

Gassho
Meitou
sattoday lah

[aprapti]

thanks, kokuu.



aprapti

std/lah

[Jundo]

Lovely.

Perhaps one difference in the Mahayana and Zen from the traditional meaning of The Fire Sermon in South Asian Buddhism is summed up in something I read recently, by a scholar commenting on the change in focus by the great Mahayana Ancestor Nāgārjuna (in his great writing known as the MMK, or Mūlamadhyamakakārikā). Early Asian interpretations of Buddhism emphasized more that we need to completely cool and put out the fires of passion and desire within in order to realize nirvana as an escape from "samsara" (this ugly world):

Nāgārjuna’s most vivid [shift] is found in his radical non-dual equation of saṃsāra and nirvāṇa in MMK XXV:19: ‘Saṃsāra [this ordinary world and our ordinary mind] is nothing essentially different from nirvāṇa. Nirvāṇa is nothing essentially different from saṃsāra.’ Saṃsāra and nirvāṇa have the same essential nature – no nature – like all things they share the same empty natures. ... Between the two, also, there is not the slightest difference whatsoever’ (MMK XXV:20). Hence, liberation is not overcoming the bondage of saṃsāra and achieving freedom in nirvāṇa; such a view is a dualistic reification of both the path and the goal of Buddhist practice. Saṃsāra and nirvāṇa are not-two. Nirvāṇa is not a separate realm for the practitioner to aspire to; it is right here in the midst of saṃsāra. The conventional is the only means to the ultimate, moreover, properly understood, there is no difference between them. This is a pivotal non-dual insight that, as we shall see, is mobilized in Zen thought and practice.

AND YET, this realization of samsara (this messy and sometimes beautiful and sometimes ugly world) as nirvana (a wholeness beyond all small human views and passions of beautiful and ugly, thus its own Big Beauty) ... CHANGES EVERYTHING!

So, we have fires burning within ... the fires of excess desire in lust by the eye, gluttony by the tongue, the fire of of anger in the heart ... and we seek in our practice to keep such fires small and constructive: A fire which is small is useful for cooking and heat, but if too large and unguided burns down the house! Desire for sex or eating keep us alive and the species going, but if in excess becomes addiction.

At the same time, the world is burning ... both literally in our forests, and with the anger and conflict, poverty and disease in society. Nagarjuna and the Zen masters teach us to burn along with it, accept the burning ...

... even as we grab a bucket of water to cool what we can ... and combat the troubles of society, the conflict, poverty and disease as we can ...

... even as we simultaneously cool our own hearts, and keep them balanced, while combating the fires in the world without.

That was the topic of this week's talk in Zazenkai that Kokuu mentions (about 56:30)

https://youtu.be/5nll8r5KY5A

(Sorry for burning long with words)

Gassho, J

STLah

[Washin]

Gassho,
Washin
stlah

[Onka]

I've not heard of this before Kokuu. Thank you.
Gassho
Onka
Sat

[Meian]

Gassho2, meian st lh

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

[Ryumon]

Ancient Chinese curse, “May you live in interesting n times.”

Narrator: It's not Chinese.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_you_live_in_interesting_times

:-)

Gassho,

Kirk

sat