The Buddha's FIRE SERMON: the speech that converted 1,000 wanderers
What is the "all" that is burning?
(Buddha's Wisdom) š WE’RE BURNING RIGHT NOW — THE BUDDHA’S FIRE SERMON There’s a constant inner heat -- craving, hatred, confusion -- that drives our decisions and drains our peace.
In this guided breakdown of the Buddha’s Fire Sermon (Adittapariyaya Sutta), see exactly what’s burning, why “ALL is burning” became one of Buddhism’s most powerful teachings, and a 5-step method to stop being consumed by it, today.
DISCOVER
How the Buddha converted 1,000 fire-worshippers with a single 20-minute speech
The three psychological fires burning in our chest right now (and why they always find new fuel and never stop)
The hidden follow-up teaching that challenges even clinging to the pursuit of “enlightenment”
The 5-step method that extinguished suffering for 1,000 people simultaneously
What the Buddha taught AFTER the Fire Sermon that made even enlightened beings question everything
Master Buddhist meditation and mindfulness with the Buddha's original Fire Sermon teaching
02:50 1,000 meditators, same burn — The Kassapa Setup (near Bodh Gaya)
04:11 All is burning — the Buddha’s Fire Sermon (SN 35.28)
07:27 Silence: 1,000 awaken — What liberation felt like
09:20 How to stop burning — the 5-Step Practice
11:01 Beyond the Fire
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Will the world end? How will the world end? When will the world end? Why will the world end? Questions, questions. Of course, the world will end. Not any time soon, but never mind about that. It's always ending, constantly hurtling towards destruction. "Change is the only constant," some wise person once said. That person was talking about what the Buddha called anicca. We translate this as "impermanence," but that's very limited and misleading. We prefer flux, dissolution, or radical impermanence, though "change" also works.
The idea is that, that something will change is no kind of message to the world. Of course, things are impermanent. We all know that. Only a child would think things are going to stay the same. (Guilty! And we're old enough to know better). It might be better to investigate how things are going to change because that sort of explains the why. The when is easy! Right now. Now. The eternal now. When is a mountainside not crumbling? Even as geological forces send it up, it is already disintegrating. When aren't human cells dying? They are always dispatching and falling off. That's what it means to have a body, though we don't much notice, know, or want to know.
How are things changing? Little by little until they give way to a noticeable amount. The more closely we investigate and notice, the more and more we become aware of when and how this is happening. It can become so upsetting that we stop clinging. Why, being ourselves impermanent, would we chase and cling to impermanent things?
Once upon a time, the Buddha was walking along the river and he came upon 1,000 fire worshippers with their matted locks or jatas, wandering ascetics in search of truth. They saw him and were moved by his gravitas, charisma, and appearance. He himself was a wandering ascetic but a Scythian (Shakyian) from the West, serene, and delightful to look upon. What could he possibly have to say about ultimate truth? See "The Fire Sermon."
"How terrible is wisdom when it brings no profit to the wise" is a beautiful saying. A few adjustments made it poetic but ruined its original meaning. What it really means, in plain English, is: "It feels horrible to know something when the person who finds out can't do anything about it."
Pasadena is part of Los Angeles, which is part of a giant mountainous forest called the Angeles National Forest, which is probably why it is full of coyotes (and bears, deer, rams, and man-eating lions). "Them coyot's is some wily varmints," the common wisdom goes around town. They'll pick a cat right off the street or out of a yard. It's like cats-and-dogs outside because, after all, these are felines and canines, wild or feral.
Skulking loners and organized packs of canines lope around the streets, particularly in the foothills of Altadena and other communities, coming down in search of water, bowls of dogfood in yards, and anything on four legs wandering around at night. Coyotes will grab a human baby as quickly as a dingo would if no one is watching.
Bad Kitties worse than Good Boys?
(Cat Dog Diary) Imagine a freaked-out rescued kitten meets a fluffy puppy
Can you help me find my kitty?
When my beautiful neighbor asked me what I thought happened to her Fitzgerald, I diverted: "It's not important what I think. What's important is how we're going to find him before it's too late."
"So you'll help me search by walking around the block for hours, calling out, 'Here, kitty-kitty"?
"No, I won't do that. It hasn't worked for you, and Fitz loves you. I was thinking we go divine."
"Go 'divine'? Kill ourselves and look for Fitzy in heaven?"
"No, of course not! Cats don't go to heaven. Everyone knows that. That's a place for dogs."
"Where do they go then?"
"Well, that's what I intend to find out through some urban shamanic divination procedures. They'll tell us were to look or reveal the whereabouts of all that remains of frisky Fitzy the coyote's Pemican."
"Coyote chow?"
"Possibly. Do you really want to know?"
"Yes, I must have closure!"
"Well, if that's all you need, Dr. Deborah King told me we can do it ourselves. We can cut the dysfunctional energetic ties that bind and give ourselves relief."
"Just find my cat...or else."
She wasn't having it -- skeptic, doubter, distruster, faithless -- so she pushed me to do the only thing I could, which was to go behind her back to meet with a pet detective, a psychic familiar with these sorts of cases.
I only asked the psychic as a favor. She offered her services, saying she had a knack for dealing with beloved pets. I showed her some photos then we took a walk around the block to see if Fitz would run out of wherever it was hiding and come to the psychic like a magnet. That's what she claimed happened before in the rescue of both a pet cat and a tortoise.
"How does anyone lose a tortoise?"
"It was stuck under the fence, which I moved in my search, and it ran to me," she explained.
Not exactly magic, but I would gladly take it in this case.
Closure came for me quickly, and I wasn't even looking. The psychic said pictures and walking were no longer even necessary. She already had a clear story to tell. Coyotes were not to blame, except to the extent that they may have scared, startled, panicked, chased, terrified, or injured Fitz, but not killed and consumed it. This 9-year-old fur baby was driving her human caretaker to distraction, and she was near insanity. But she wouldn't listen.
It was going to be a tough case because I put limits on the remote viewing protocol and told the psychic to stuff her preconceived telepathy and start answering a series of commonsense questions.
She said, "You're being too rigid."
And I said, "Yes, I am, and I want you to narrow your impressions, visions, and telepathic communications with the cat to just answering what I ask. Force yourself to only reveal a tiny slice of all that you know, none of which is being helpful. If you can find it in yourself to answer, just find it physically without answering or saying anything. Just go straight to it or, better yet, just get the cat to run out and throw itself at you like you claim the tortoise did."
She could not, so we started with a flood of potentially useable intel, which sent us across the boulevard to a cul de sac then a yard then a yard then a shack. Wouldn't you know? We poked around...and she wasn't there. She may have been there before, hiding out under the shed, but we didn't find her or any tangible proof she had been there. Now the messages began to come in more strongly. The psychic was saying the cat was alive.
Personally, I took it for a goner, a tuft of colorful hair in a lump of coyote scat. But we found no such lump. I had already asked 80 people at a nearby church meeting; not one of them had seen the cat.
But one church woman was sure she could imitate its voice, and this allowed me to ask the cat questions about why it left. It answered, vaguely: "I was being smothered." That made sense, but was it any reason to leave? My neighbor says their love was mutual. Seems the cat didn't think so.
The owner of the shed wasn't home, so we could only look around the yard and come back to go through the shed, empty it, just as soon as we could get permission. I returned alone (because the psychic claimed not to be feeling well) at 10:00 pm. The owner still wasn't home, and his sympathetic neighbor couldn't grant permission for a search of it. I wandered up and down the alley, calling out, "Here kitty-kitty" like a darn fool, ending up doing what I told her was pointless. I tried reasoning with the cat, sending out my own intuitive feelers for the slightest hint.
Meanwhile, my nagging neighbor was on the phone, who promised a big reward she never really intended to pay out. She was doubting and demanding answers. The psychic started texting, sending new messages, saying the injured, hungry, thirst, confused cat had moved on. Work needed me to drive to the other side of the county for an important assignment. Isn't it just like the universe to all coincide and bombard us with nonsense from all directions (i.e., Everything Everywhere All at Once)?
The three were unrelenting, pulling me in all direction. All I could do was lope and skulk very suspiciously in an alley and around the property for an hour like a cat burglar casing a joint and hoping to catch video of the cat alive to at least have a reason to hope and continue the search. It would have been better to meet with the Council of Coyotes and ask it if any member had made off with a pretty angora calico Afghan tabby furball.
The Buddhist cats of ancient Japan
"How terrible is human attachment, tenacious clinginess, and our utter inability to let go. Such is the plight of humans on this vast plane of existence, the Buddha realized and proclaimed. But how can we let go?
The Buddha answered that. "Cultivate mentally-purifying calm the develop insight. When we see the true nature of things, the heart/mind, seeing the true nature of existence, automatically lets go with no effort on our part to separate. Let me repeat, we do not need to make any extra effort to relinquish. Seeing reality as it is is enough to discard and abandon everything we are consciously and unconsciously clinging to that is bringing about our suffering (dukkha).
E. Hicks
Abraham-Hicks (a council of 12 entities as channeled by Esther Hicks with the help of her very supportive husband Jerry) says that everything we want is downstream. Let go to get it. Stop fighting the way upstream. We are not salmon.
She called and texted me, demanding to know if it was the coyotes who tore and devoured her precious kitty. I didn't have the heart to tell her that the truth was worse than that.
The psychic said the scared cat had been found, wandering and drained, by someone who took it in and loved it better, kept it safer, and gave it so much love that it didn't even want to return "home" now. "Home is where the heart is," everyone knows that. She pushed and pushed me, and all I could say was, "You say you don't want it, this reality we're in [where the cat is dead], but you don't, you don't really mean it. You say you won't stand for it, this circus we're in, but you don't, don't really mean it. What if the truth is worse than that?"
"No, that's what you already think happened. You want 'closure' to accept that. What if it's worse? What if Fitz doesn't want to come back?"
"Impossible! Fitzgerald needs me, can't live without me..."
"Well, I don't know about that. Wouldn't it be worse to find out that Fitz is fine but not coming back, alive and happy but not with you?"
"What the h*ll are you talking about?! I'll break Fitz out! Who has my cat?! Who's keeping him hostage and away from me?!"
"Why are you asking me? You don't believe in cat psychics, remember? Who cares what she said? You ask me for the 'truth,' but you don't, you don't really mean it."
If the divine Master Plan is perfection [by rebirth]
Maybe next I'll give Jewish a try
Trusting my Soul to the Ice Cream Assassin
Here, here, here
[CHORUS]
How many Fates turn around in the overtime?
Ballerinas have fins that you'll never find
You thought that you were the bomb
Yes, well so did I
[CHORUS]
She's addicted to nicotine patches
She's afraid of a light in the dark
6:58 are you sure where my Spark is?
Here, here, here
Eds., Wisdom Quarterly, July 4, 2026 (a true story with details changed to protect the guilty and innocent, a learning experience about human nature beset by clinging and ignorance)
Project Esther: [let's assassinate Charlie Kirk] and other things to promote Zionism
Turning Point USA: Dead Charlie Kirk's Christian Zionist organization
Romans 11 orders me to support and send money for a political "Israeli" state, and never mind John 8 and the Jewish leaders who rejected Jesus Christ the Christian lord and savior
NEMOPHILA takes over The Glass House in the Pomona Arts Colony (next to the Fox Theater Pomona), Los Angeles County, on Tuesday, July 14, 8:00 pm. The cost of attending the future Babymetal overlords in Los Angeles is $25 (DOS) or $39.87 (full price in advance, no surprises later).
WHAT HAPPENED?
Female fronted Mortalis opened, but they need a lot more practice. The drummer was struggling, the singer was nervous, and... what can be said that they don't already know? Next was Islander, which was a significant improvement with the metalcore growling for every song and real guitarwork, though between bands we left and worked our way into neighboring all-ages nightclub The Haven to see A November Morning (a kind of early Job for a Cowboy). The sign at the door clearly says "No Crowd Killing, Moshing, Slamming, Mosh Pit, Crowd Surfing, or expressions of aggression," the floor was cleared by berserkers doing the tornado with fists, feet, and cartwheels, practicing their karate high kicks. It was all well and good until the young girl with bone earrings in the striped suspenders got kicked in the face and had to be taken out crying, bleeding, and lamenting her choice to participate in the ultraviolence. But A November Morning and the other acts on the bill were good, so good it delayed us returning to the Glasshouse to continue the show. Eventually, we had to and, boy, was it worth it! Nemophila are fantastic. It's not a gimmick. There's very little "hard rock" about it, except that the singer has clearly listened to a lot of Iron Maiden. This is aggressive metal core in the vein of Hanabie. and the goddesses that are Babymetal. But every song was solid, as they were coming off of an 11-stop North American tour that started in Chicago, hit New York, and crawled its way to LA. These are future stars with tremendous drumming talent, no ego, young girls who dress more like Billie Eilish or Tokyo schoolgirls than the rockstars they already are. The rhythm section just kept chugging along non-stop. It was amazing. And how the singer, who must weigh all of 80 pounds, can keep that Chester Bennington yell going song after song, tour stop after tour stop, boggles the mind. The highlight was when each member got the mic to speak their love of LA in very broken English. The first few songs were marred by technical issues, no fault of the band, that the club couldn't seem to fix. So they had to delay the show and turn on the lights. In the meantime, the singer got on her phone, seeming to make a call to her mom in Japan about how it was going, but actually using a translation app to explain to the audience that these technical issues were no fault of theirs and please be patient. She later read a speech to the audience that must have taken her hours to compose on the tour bus with a thesaurus. The audience -- mostly white and Latino, older with lots of dads and grandpas, with an unusually high number of teenybopper Asians and their guardian chaperones for an extreme metal show, and not a single Black person -- loved it, chanted along, and after the fifth song broke into a continuous circle pit of appreciation. Watch out, Black Pink and Katseye, these gals are coming.
NEMOPHILA’s music can be described as a mixture of various styles ranging from loud rock to grunge.
The band displays a sound heavier than heck, while presenting a soft [infantilized] and gentle-cute character at the same time. The band aims to exhibit an unpredictable mixture in their appearance and fashion along with a positive heavy metal sound bringing a smile to everyone around the world. Full lineup:
NEMOPHILA
Islander
Mortalis
This is an all-ages event presented by The Glass House Concert Hall. Doors open 7:00 pm. The Glasshouse APP: Discover the best nights out in this city, with tailored recommendations synced to any music library.
Keep track of what’s coming up by saving events, sharing them with friends, or even listening to new music in the app.
The Glasshouse has made it easy to swap a ticket with a friend or return it to the waitlist no stress (iOS
Android). MoreVENUE:
The Buddha's [distinction] about "desire" that Western Buddhism gets wrong
The rare beauty of Native American men
(The Midnight Library)
July 10, 2026: [Theravada] Buddhism is often described as a tradition that teaches us to eliminate "desire." This is one of the most persistent misreadings in the history of the Western encounter with Eastern philosophy.
The ancient Pali canon makes a precise distinction between two words that, in English, may both be rendered as "desire," but they are almost opposites.
Tanha is compulsive "craving" driven by a sense of lack — whereas chanda is "aspiration" driven by genuine vision.
The Buddha actively encouraged chanda ("desire," "aspiration," "will," "intention") while working to release tanha ("desire," "craving," lit. "thirst").
Overly simplistic understanding of term "desire"
Professor of Neuroscience Dr. Wolfram Schultz, MD, at Cambridge University, England, documented that the dopaminereward system produces more activation in anticipation (wanting) than in satisfaction (getting) — confirming the structural mechanism of tanha (craving) 2,600 years after the Buddha described it.
Neuroscientist and psychiatrist Dr. Judson Brewer, MD, who studies the default mode network at Brown University confirmed in The Craving Mind (2017) that mindful [dispassionate detached attention to what is happening in the present moment without moving towards the pleasant, away from the unpleasant, or being confused/bored by the neutral] observation of craving interrupts the compulsive cycle measurably.
Three Buddhist practices drawn directly from the Pali canon: The R.A.I.N. practice, the aspiration question, and the satiation experiment.
Recognize, name what is present
Allow, do not react (chase, act on, suppress, check out, do not crave, resist, or go dull in boredom/confusion), let it be present (radical acceptance)
Investigate, what does it feel like, where is it located in the body, what is its texture?
Nurture, bring kindness to the experience, not to the craving itself but to the part of you experiencing it
"This practice interrupts the automatic cycle of trigger to craving to behavior and creates a gap in which choice becomes possible."
"Prof. Brewer's research has confirmed that this gap created through mindful [dispassionate, equanimous, attentive, vigilant, wakeful, unbiased] observation of craving measurably reduces the compulsive quality of tanha [craving, addiction, obsession, compulsion] over time."
BIO: Dr. Judson Brewer, MD, PhD (aka "Dr. Jud"), is a New York Times best-selling author and pioneering psychiatrist blending cutting-edge neuroscience with 20+ years of Buddhist mindfulness training. A leader in the science of habit change, he is director of research at Brown University’s Mindfulness Center and has held positions at MIT, Yale U., and UMass. Dr. Jud developed app-based programs like Mindshift Recovery, Unwinding Anxiety, Eat Right Now, and Craving to Quit, clinically proven to treat anxiety, addiction, and emotional eating. He’s the author of The Craving Mind, Unwinding Anxiety, and The Hunger Habit, and co-founder of the nonprofit Mindshift Recovery. He is also a collaborator with Clear Mountaineers and medical researchers Dori Rosenberg and Dave Arterburn. More
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The Midnight Library @TheRealMidnight...) July 10, 2026; Dr. Wolfram Schultz; Dr. Judson Brewer; Dr. Tara Brach; Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation) (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
Don't look at my bikini butt, okay, you perverts? It's just flesh for sitting on toilet seats.*
.
Good (beneficial) "desire"
I want to meditate now to make progress.
Chanda: "intention," "desire," "will." 1. As an ethically neutral psychological term, in the sense of "intention," it is one of those general mental concomitants or factors (cetasika, Table II) taught in the Abhidhamma (the "Dhamma in Ultimate Terms"), the moral quality of which is determined by the character of the volition (cetanÄ) associated with it.
The Commentary explains it as "a wish to do" (kattu-kamyatÄ-chanda). If intensified, it acts also as a "predominance condition" (see paccaya 3).
First things first, a definition of terms: What is "good" (wholesome, skillful, profitable), and what is "bad" (unwholesome, unskillful, leading to an increase in suffering when eventually the karma ripens and fruits into karmic-results even though an act may seem to serve to bring about an increase in pleasantfeeling now)?
2. As an evil quality it has the meaning of "desire," and is frequently coupled with terms for "sensuality," "greed," and so on, for instance: kÄma-cchanda, "sensuous desire," one of the Five Hindrances (nÄ«varana); chanda-rÄga, "lustful desire" (kÄma). It is one of the Four Wrong Paths (agati, motivated by greed/chanda, hate/dosa, delusion/moha, or fear/bhaya).
3. As a good quality, it is a wholesome (kusala) will, motive, or zeal (dhamma-chanda) and occurs, for example, in the formula of the Four Right Efforts (padhÄna): "The meditator rouses will (chandam janeti)..." If intensified, it becomes one of the Four Roads to Power (iddhipÄda).
Bad (harmful) "desire"
Oh, hells yeah, look at that butt!
TanhÄ (lit. "thirst"): "craving," the chief root of suffering [behind ignorance], and of the ever-continuing cycle of rebirths [known as samsara].
"What, O meditators, is the origin of suffering (disappointment, unsatisfactoriness, off-kilter woe)? It is this craving that gives rise to ever-fresh rebirths and, bound up with [sensual] pleasure and lust, now here, now there, [continues wandering on, trying] to find ever fresh delight.
"It is [threefold:] sensual craving (kÄma-tanhÄ), craving for [eternal] existence (bhava-tanhÄ), and craving for non-existence (vibhava-tanhÄ)'' (D.22).
TanhÄ is the eighth link in the formula of the Dependent Origination (paticcasamuppÄda). Compare also at the kinds of "truth" (sacca).
Corresponding to the six sense-objects, there are six kinds of craving, craving for:
There are 18 "thought-channels of craving" (tanhÄ-vicarita) induced internally, and 18 induced externally; and as occurring in past, present, and future, which total 108. (See A. IV, 199; Vibh., Ch. 17 Khuddakavatthu-Vibhanga).
According to Dependent Origination, craving is conditioned by feeling; on this see DN 22 (section on the Second Ennobling Truth).
As for "craving for [continued or eternal] existence" (bhava-tanhÄ), it is said (A.X.62):
"No first beginning of the craving for [continued] existence can be perceived, O, meditators, before which it was not and after which it came to be. But it can he perceived that craving for existence has its specific [cause and] condition. I say, O, meditators, that craving for existence also has its condition that feeds it (sÄharam) and is not [subsisting] without it. And what is that condition? It is 'ignorance,' one must reply."
The most frequent synonyms of tanhÄ are rÄga ("lust," "greed," "passion") and lobha ("greed"). See the "roots" of good and evil, the skillful and the unskillful, at mÅ«la).
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