Mahavagga, Khandaka 1, Chapter 21

1. And the Blessed One, after having dwelt at Uruvelā as long as he thought fit, went forth to Gayāsīsa^[1], accompanied by a great number of Bhikkhus, by one thousand Bhikkhus who all had been Jaṭilas before. There near Gayā, at Gayāsīsa, the Blessed One dwelt together with those thousand Bhikkhus.

2. There the Blessed One thus addressed the Bhikkhus: 'Everything, O Bhikkhus, is burning. And how, O Bhikkhus, is everything burning?

'The eye, O Bhikkhus, is burning; visible things are burning; the mental impressions based on the eye are burning; the contact of the eye (with visible things) is burning; the sensation produced by the contact of the eye (with visible things), be it pleasant, be it painful, be it neither pleasant nor painful, that also is burning. With what fire is it burning? I declare unto you that it is burning with the fire of lust, with the fire of anger, with the fire of ignorance; it is burning with (the anxieties of) birth, decay, death, grief, lamentation, suffering, dejection, and despair.

3. 'The ear is burning, sounds are burning, &c. . . . . The nose is burning, odours are burning, &c. . . . . The tongue is burning, tastes are burning, &c. . . . . The body is burning, objects of contact are burning, &c. . . . . The mind is burning, thoughts are burning, &c. . . . .^[2]

4. 'Considering this, O Bhikkhus, a disciple learned (in the scriptures), walking in the Noble Path, becomes weary of the eye, weary of visible things, weary of the mental impressions based on the eye, weary of the contact of the eye (with visible things), weary also of the sensation produced by the contact of the eye (with visible things), be it pleasant, be it painful, be it neither pleasant nor painful. He becomes weary of the ear (&c. . . . . , down to . . . . thoughts^[2]). Becoming weary of all that, he divests himself of passion; by absence of passion he is made free; when he is free, he becomes aware that he is free; and he realises that re-birth is exhausted; that holiness is completed; that duty is fulfilled; and that there is no further return to this world.'

When this exposition was propounded, the minds of those thousand Bhikkhus became free from attachment to the world, and were released from the Āsavas.

Here ends the sermon on 'The Burning.'

End of the third Bhāṇavāra concerning the Wonders done at Uruvelā.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

According to General Cunningham, Gayāsīsa (' the head of Gayā.') is the mountain of Brahmāyoni near Gayā. Arch. Rep. III, 107.

[2]:

Here the same exposition which has been given relating to the eye, its objects, the sensations produced by its contact with objects, &c., is repeated with reference to the ear and the other organs of sense.