The
Ādittapariyāya Sutta (
Pali, "Fire Sermon Discourse") or, more simply,
Āditta Sutta is a discourse from the
Pali Canon, popularly known as the
Fire Sermon. In this discourse, the
Buddha preaches about achieving liberation from
suffering through detachment from the five senses and mind.
In the Pali Canon, the Adittapariyaya Sutta is found in the Samyutta Nikaya ("Connected Collection," abbreviated as either "SN" or "S") and is designated by either "SN 35.28" or "S iv 1.3.6" or "S iv 19". This discourse is also found in the Buddhist monastic code (Vinaya) at Vin I 35.
English speakers might be familiar with the name of this discourse due to T. S. Eliot's entitling the third section of his celebrated poem, The Waste Land, as "The Fire Sermon." In a footnote, Eliot states that this Buddhist discourse "corresponds in importance to the Sermon on the Mount."
Background
In the
Vinaya, the Fire Sermon is the third discourse delivered by the Buddha (after the
Dhammacakkapavattana Sutta and the
Anattalakkhana Sutta), several months after his
enlightenment, on top of the
Gayasisa Hill, near
Gaya, India. He delivered it to a thousand newly converted
ascetics who formerly practiced a sacred fire ritual (Pali:
aggihutta;
Skt.:
agnihotra).
The 5th c. CE post-canonical Pali commentary, Sāratthappakāsini (Spk.), attributed to Buddhaghosa, draws a direct connection between the ascetics' prior practices and this discourse's main rhetorical device:
Having led the thousand bhikkhus monks to Gayā's Head, the Blessed One reflected, 'What kind of Dhamma talk would be suitable for them?' He then realized, 'In the past they worshipped the fire morning and evening. I will teach them that the twelve sense bases are burning and blazing. In this way they will be able to attain arahantship.
Text
In this discourse, the Buddha describes the sense bases and resultant mental phenomena as "burning" with passion, aversion, delusion and
suffering. Seeing such, a
noble disciple becomes disenchanted with, dispassionate toward and thus liberated from the senses bases, achieving arahantship. This is described in more detail below.
After a prefatory paragraph identifying this discourse's location of deliverance (Gaya) and audience (a thousand monks or bhikkhus), the Buddha proclaims (represented here in English and Pali):
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"Bhikkhus, all is burning."
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The ensuing text reveals that "all" (sabba) refers to:
the six internal sense bases (ayatana): eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and mind
the six external sense bases: visible forms, sound, smells, tastes, touches and mental objects
consciousness (
) contingent on these sense bases
the contact (samphassa) of a specific sense organ (such as the ear), its sense object (sound) and sense-specific consciousness.
what is subsequently felt (
vedayita): pleasure (
sukha), pain (
dukkha), or neither (
).
By "burning" (āditta) is meant:
the fire of passion (rāgagginā)
the fire of aversion (dosagginā)
the fire of delusion (mohagginā)
the manifestations of suffering: birth, aging and death, sorrows, lamentations, pains, distresses and despairs.
According to the Buddha, a well-instructed noble disciple (sutavā ariyasāvako) sees this burning and thus becomes disenchanted (nibbindati) with the sense bases and their mental sequelae. The text then uses a formula found in dozens of discourses to describe the manner in which such disenchantment leads to liberation from suffering:
"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.'"
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A closing paragraph reports that, during this discourse, the thousand monks in attendance became liberated.
Related canonical discourses
While the central metaphor of burning combined with "the all" (sense bases, etc.) make this discourse unique in the
Pali Canon, its core message can be found throughout, condensed and embellished in a number of instructive ways.
Andhabhūta/Addhabhūta Sutta (SN 35.29)
The very next discourse listed in the
Samyutta Nikaya (
SN 35.29) is nearly identical with the Fire Sermon with the significant exception that, instead of the central metaphor of the senses being "aflame" (
āditta), this next discourse uses a different metaphor. Bhikkhu Bodhi notes that different editions of the
Tipitaka vary as to what this subsequent discourse's central metaphor is:
Sinhala editions use the term
andhabhūta — meaning "figuratively blinded" or "ignorant" — while the
Burmese edition and commentary use
addhabhūta — meaning "weighed down." Regardless which edition is referenced, both the Fire Sermon and this subsequent discourse, with their seemingly diametric similes of burning and oppressiveness, underline that the senses, their objects and associated mental impressions are unto themselves beyond our complete control and are aversive; and, thus provide the escape of disenchantment, dispassion and release.
Āditta Sutta (SN 22.61)
In this discourse, instead of describing the sense bases (
ayatana) as being aflame, the Buddha describes the five aggregates (
khandha) in this manner:
:"Bhikkhus, form is burning, feeling is burning, perception is burning, volitional formations are burning, consciousness is burning. Seeing thus, bhikkhus, the instructed noble disciple experiences revulsion towards form ... feeling ... perception ... volitional formations ... consciousness .... Through dispassion [this mind] is liberated...."
(SN 22.136)
Like the Fire Sermon, this discourse has a central metaphor related to fire — likening our physical and mental apparatus to hot embers (Pali:
kukkuḷa) — and concludes with the well-instructed noble disciple becoming disenchanted with, dispassionate about and liberated from these burning constituents. Unlike the Fire Sermon, instead of using the sense bases and their mental sequelae as the basis for this burning and disenchantment, this discourse uses the five aggregates (
khandha) for the underlying physical-mental framework.
Ādittapariyāya Sutta (SN 35.235)
Also entitled "Fire Sermon," this discourse cautions that it is better for an internal sense base (eye, ear, etc.) to be lacerated by a burning implement than for one to "grasp the sign" (
nimittaggāho) of an external sense base (visible form, sound, etc.); for such grasping might lead to rebirth in a lower realm. Instead of grasping, the well-instructed noble disciple discriminates (
paisañcikkhati) the impermance of the internal sense base, external sense base, related consciousness and contact, and the resultant feeling. Such discrimination leads to liberation.
See also
Ayatana - includes description of "the All"
Dukkha ("suffering")
Agnihotra - type of fire worship previously performed by this discourse's monks according to the Vinaya
Gaya, India#Holy Sites in Gaya - includes location where this discourse was reputedly delivered
Notes
Sources
Allison, Alexander W., Herbert Barrows, Caesar R. Blake, Arthur J. Carr, Arthur M. Eastman and Hubert M. English, Jr. (1975, rev.). The Norton Anthology of Poetry. NY: W.W. Norton Co. ISBN 0-393-09245-3.
* Bodhi, Bhikkhu (tr.) (2000). The Connected Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Nikāya. Boston: Wisdom Publications. ISBN 0-86171-331-1.
* Bodhi, Bhikkhu (2005). In the Buddha's Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon. Boston: Wisdom Publications. ISBN 0-86171-491-1.
* Gombrich, Richard (1990). "Recovering the Buddha's message," in David Seyfort Ruegg & Lambert Schmithausen (eds.), Earliest Buddhism and Madhyamaka (1990). Leiden: E.J.Brill. ISBN 90-04-09246-3. Retrieved 26 Sep 2007 from "Google Book Search" at http://books.google.com/books?id=-mjH2kRdYQoC&pg;=PA16&lpg;=PA16&dq;=agnihotra+pali&source;=web&ots;=Stq-_qi0OF&sig;=B8xJIzesbg4YEvGpaPqMCRYCx3E#PPA5,M1.
* La Trobe University (n.d.), "Pali Canon Online Database," online search engine of Sri Lanka Tripitaka Project's (SLTP) Pali Canon. Retrieved 26 Sep 2007 at http://www.chaf.lib.latrobe.edu.au/dcd/pali.htm.
* Ñanamoli Thera (1981). Three Cardinal Discourses of the Buddha (The Wheel No. 17). Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society. Retrieved 26 Sep 2007 from "Access to Insight" (1995) at http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/nanamoli/wheel017.html.
* Rhys Davids, T.W. & Hermann Oldenberg (tr.) (1881). Vinaya Texts. Oxford: Claredon Press. Retrieved 26 Sep 2007 from "Internet Sacred Texts Archive" at http://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/sbe13/index.htm.
* Rhys Davids, T.W. & William Stede (eds.) (1921-5). The Pali Text Society’s Pali–English Dictionary. Chipstead: Pali Text Society. A general on-line search engine for the PED is available at http://dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/pali/.
* Thanissaro Bhikkhu (tr.) (1993). Adittapariyaya Sutta: The Fire Sermon (SN 35.28). Retrieved 25 Sep 2007 from "Access to Insight" at http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn35/sn35.028.than.html.
* Vipassana Research Institute (n.d.), "The - Roman," online hierarchical organization of the Tipitaka. Retrieved 28 Sept 2007 from ""The " at http://www.tipitaka.org/romn/.
External links
Fire Sermon read aloud by Ven. Henepola Gunaratana
Category:Samyutta Nikaya
