The Buddha's FIRE SERMON: the speech that converted 1,000 wanderers
What is the "all" that is burning?
(Buddha's Wisdom) π 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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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").
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
(NBC News) Trump and JD Vance threaten Iran over Israel-Hezbollah conflict as Israel keeps bombing neighbor Lebanon, under pretext of their nuisance bombings, to expand its Greater Israel Empire.
(JimmyDore.com) Will dead Bibi Netanyahu impersonator dare to derail the U.S.-Iran peace deal by exposing our child molester pedophile President Trump? He better not. That would be terrible. Then we would all know what Trump is. How would MAGA survive? Who would remain in the Republican Party? Would Israel get to go back and finish off the Gazans, Palestinians of the West Bank and Jordan, Egypt, and elsewhere in the vicinity?
Will Zionist Israel get to keep killing the Lebanese of neighboring Lebanon? Will the CIA's Israel project of American imperialism to build a "Greater Israel" empire stay as the main plan? Will the Zionists admit that the real ruler of the realm is racist and rabid right-wing maniac [Prime Minister] Itamar Ben-Gvir? Will hasbara (psyop) agents stop making phony AI slop videos of Bibi in coffee shops, and will CIA technology mask and body suits stop being used for Bibi appearances?
Death (marana) is death because it is immediately followed by rebirth; there is no space in between, as the Bardo is misunderstood to be, because it will not be another human rebirth next
At the instant of death, in that submoment, what was a human life is lost, the impersonal process of consciousness relinks and rearises according to karma in a new form. It is neither a new existence nor the same as the one before, and this is confusing. Identity clings. But just as it was impersonal before, it is impersonal still, and the process (patisandhi in samsara) rolls on. Samsara is the "continued wandering on" and its detailed process the Buddha made known in the Abhidhamma, how cittas (mind moments) and impuslions (javanas) produce their results (vipaka and phala), and a "being" (which is really always a becoming) is unaware and just carried on...
RIGHT SPEECH (sammΔ-vΔcΔ) in most Buddhist texts (such as the Pali canon) is presented as four abstentions [29, 68]: "What is right speech? Abstaining from lying (false speech), from divisive speech, from abusive speech, and from idle (beastly talk) speech: This is called right speech."
Instead of the usual "abstention and refraining from wrong" terminology, a few Buddhist texts, such as the "Fruits of Recluseship Discourse" (SamaΓ±Γ±aphala Sutta) and Kevata Sutta in the Long Discourses of the Buddha (Digha Nikaya) explain this virtue in an active sense, after stating it in the form of an abstention [69].
For example, Fruits of Recluseship Sutra states that a part of a Buddhist monastic's virtue is that of "abstaining from false speech. One speaks the truth, holds to the truth, is firm, reliable, not a deceiver of the world" [69].
Similarly, the virtue of abstaining from divisive speech is explained as delighting in creating concord [69] and peace and harmony between people.
I'm humiliated! I can never face the world!
The virtue of abstaining from abusive speech is explained in this sutra as including affectionate and polite speech that is pleasing to most people.
The virtue of abstaining from idle chit chat (animal talk or ticcharana-katha) is explained as speaking what is connected with the Dharma, the goal of of which is liberation from all ignorance and suffering [69, 40] by realizing the freedom of enlightenment and the bliss and peace of nirvana. More
Will Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Ka$h Patel, or lying (and exempted from further polygraphs) Dan Bongino be willing to go to prison for Trump?
Melania is completely loyal to her rich husband.
Long before she became the first lady, Melania Trump (nee Knauss) was "very involved" in convicted child sex predator Jeffrey Epstein's social circle. That is how she was introduced to Don Trump, a longtime biographer (Michael Wolff) of the 47th US president has claimed: "She's introduced by a model agent, both of whom Trump and Epstein are involved with. She's introduced to Trump that way. Epstein [knew] her well," Michael Wolff said in an interview with The Daily Beast podcast host Joanna Coles. Melania was part of the same modelling and social circles frequented by both Trump and Epstein, he added. More: ndtv.com
"If we eat just one billionaire, the rest will fall in line" (Russell Dobular, Due Dissidence)
One of the great problems of life is clinging (upΔdΔna). Among all the things we cling to(that clump and cling to themselves as we imagine we are them), we are inadvertently clinging to suffering (disappointment, dukkha). There is temporary release and bliss through the meditations, the jhanas, but really letting go results from "seeing things as they truly are," which is also called "clear seeing" (vipassana).
(The Eye of the Heart) July 22, 2025: How does God communicate with us? By silence or by ritual, by internal quiet or Lion’s Gate Portal and full moon breathwork? Here is a ritual (visualization) to activate our power on 8.8 (August 8th). Is it so much psychobabble from Holistic Transformational Coach Naomi Buff, or is there something to it?
§ 75. "It is just as if there were a pool of water in a mountain glen — clear, limpid, and unsullied — where a person with good eyesight standing on the bank could see shells, gravel, and pebbles as well as shoals of fish swimming about and resting.
"It might occur to that person, 'This pool of water is clear, limpid, and unsullied. Here are these shells, gravel, and pebbles as well as shoals of fish swimming about and resting.'
"In the same way — with mind stilled [calmed and concentrated], purified, and bright, unblemished, free of defects, pliant, malleable, steady, and attained to imperturbability — the meditator directs and inclines it to the knowledge of the ending of the mental defilements (asavas).
There is much to know and see with clarity
"One discerns as it is, 'This is suffering (dukkha)... This is the origination of suffering... This is the cessation of suffering... This is the way leading to the cessation of suffering...
"These are mental defilements... This is the origination of the defilements... This is the cessation of the defilements... This is the way leading to the cessation of the defilements.'
"One's heart, thus knowing and seeing, is released from the defilement of sensuality, the defilement of becoming, the defilement of ignorance. With liberation, there is the knowledge, 'Liberated.' One discerns that, 'Rebirth is ended, the high life has been fulfilled, the task is done. There is nothing further for this world'" (DN 2).
What is there to know and see?
Enlightenment=awakening (bodhi)
§ 76. "Vision arose, clear-seeing arose, wisdom arose, knowledge arose, illumination (enlightenment) arose within me with regard to things never heard before:
"'This is the noble [enlightened] truth of suffering [understanding what is and is not disappointment]... This noble truth of suffering is to be comprehended... This noble truth of suffering has been comprehended...
"This is the noble truth of the origination of suffering... This noble truth of the origination of suffering is to be abandoned... This noble truth of the origination of suffering has been abandoned...
"This is the noble truth of the cessation of suffering... This noble truth of the cessation of suffering is to be realized... This noble truth of the cessation of suffering has been realized...
"This is the noble truth of the path of practice leading to the cessation of suffering... This noble truth of the path of practice leading to the cessation of suffering is to be developed... This noble truth of the path of practice leading to the cessation of suffering has been developed.'
"Meditators, as long as my knowing and seeing (knowledge and vision) — with its three rounds and 12 permutations concerning these Four Noble Truths as they actually are — was not pure, I did not claim to have directly awakened (become enlightened) to the unexcelled right awakening...
"But as soon as my knowing and seeing — with its three rounds and 12 permutations concerning these Four Noble Truths as they actually are — was truly pure, only then did I claim to have directly awakened to the unexcelled right awakening...
"Knowing and seeing arose in me: 'Unshakable is my liberation. This is my last rebirth. There is now no more further becoming'"
(SN 56.11).
What does one see when awakening?
§ 77. "What a Wayfarer [Tathagata, successful practitioner, arahant] sees is this: 'Such is form, such its origin, such its disappearance; such is feeling, such its origin, such its disappearance; such is perception...such are mental formations (fabrications)...such is consciousness, such its origin, such its disappearance.' [These are the Five Aggregates clung to as self.]
"Because of this, I say, a Wayfarer — with the ending, fading out, cessation, letting go, and relinquishment of all speculation and thinking, all I-making and mine-making and obsessions with conceit [the habit of seeing everything in terms of an I or self or soul] — is, through lack of clinging (that sustains it), liberated."
"But, Master Gotama [the Buddha Siddhartha Gautama], the meditator whose mind/heart is thus liberated, where does that person reappear [where is that being reborn]?"
"'The designation 'reappear,' Vaccha, does not apply."
"In that case, Master Gotama, that person does not reappear."
"The designation 'does not reappear,' Vaccha, does not apply."
"In that case, Master Gotama, that person both does and does not reappear."
"Vaccha... [that designation] does not apply."
"In that case, Master Gotama, that person 'neither does nor does not reappear."
"Vaccha... [that designation] does not apply."
"How is it, Master Gotama, when Master Gotama is asked if the meditator reappears [is reborn]... does not reappear... both does and does not reappear... neither does nor does not reappear [which exhausts the four logical possibilities], he says, 'that designation does not apply' in each case?
"At this point, Master Gotama, I am befuddled. At this point, I am confused. The small amount of clarity coming to me from your earlier conversation is now obscured."
"Of course you are befuddled, Vaccha, of course you are confused. Deep, Vaccha, is this dhamma [reality, teaching, ultimate truth], hard to see, hard to realize, tranquil, refined, beyond the scope of conjecture, subtle, to-be-experienced by the wise.
"For those holding other views [other doctrines or dhammas], other practices, other goals that would satisfy them, other aims, other teachers, it is difficult to know [and see]. That being the case, I will now put some questions to you. Answer as you see fit.
"What do you think, Vaccha, if a fire were burning in front of you, would you know, 'This fire is burning in front of me'?"
"Yes..."
"And, Vaccha, suppose someone were to ask you, 'This fire burning in front of you, dependent on what is it burning?' Thus asked, how would you reply?"
"...I would reply, 'This fire burning in front of me is burning dependent on grass and timber as its fuel (sustenance).'"
"If the fire burning in front of you were to go out, would you know, 'This fire burning in front of me has gone out'?"
"Yes..."
"And, Vaccha, suppose someone were to ask you, 'This fire that has gone out in front of you, in which direction has it gone? East? West? North? South?' Thus asked, how would you reply?"
"That does not apply, Master Gotama. Any fire burning dependent on fuel fed by grass and timber, being unnourished — from having consumed that fuel and not being offered any other — is classified simply as 'out' [extinguished, unbound, no longer clinging to fuel]."
"Just so, Vaccha, any physical form by which one describing the Wayfarer would describe him, that the Wayfarer has abandoned, its root destroyed, made like a palmyra stump [that does not grow back once it is cut down], deprived of the conditions of development, not destined for future rearising.
"Freed from the classification of form, Vaccha, the Wayfarer is deep, boundless (unbound), hard to fathom, like the sea. 'Reappears [is reborn]' does not apply. 'Does not reappear' does not apply. 'Both does and does not reappear' does not apply. 'Neither reappears nor does not reappear' does not apply.
"Any feeling... Any perception... Any mental formation (fabrication)...
"Any consciousness by which one describing the Wayfarer would describe him, that the Wayfarer has abandoned, its root destroyed, made like a palmyra stump, deprived of the conditions of development, not destined for future rearising.
"Freed from the classification of consciousness, Vaccha, the Tathagata is deep, boundless, hard to fathom, like the sea [of space]"
(MN 72).
Ven. Thanissaro (American Geoffrey DeGraff) Noble Conversation: A Study Guide altered (restored to customary rather than idiosyncratic translation of terms where possible) and edited by Wisdom Quarterly
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