Let Go of Fire

　　Modern practical teachings from one of the oldest Buddhist traditions. Ajahn Sumedho”s wisdom and humour bring us right to the heart of Buddhist meditation.

　　Ajahn Sumedho was ordained as a Buddhist monk in Thailand in 1967 and trained under the guidance of the highly respected Thai teacher, Ajahn Chah. He is now the abbot of Amaravati Buddhist monastery in England.

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　　Let go of Fire

　　An extract from Teachings Buddhist Monk by Ajhan Sumedho

　　The Buddha”s teaching is all about understanding suffering - its origin, its cessation, and the path to its cessation. When we contemplate suffering, we find we are contemplating desire, because desire and suffering are the same thing.

　　Desire can be compared to fire. If we grasp fire, what happens

　　 Does it lead to happiness

　　 If we say: ”Oh, look at that beautiful fire! Look at the beautiful colours! I love red and orange; they”re my favourite colours,” and then grasp it, we would find a certain amount of suffering entering the body. And then if we were to contemplate the cause of that suffering we would discover it was the result of having grasped that fire. On that information, we would, hopefully, then let the fire go. Once we let fire go, then we know that it is something not to be attached to. This does not mean we have to hate it, or put it out. We can enjoy fire, can”t we

　　 It is nice having a fire, it keeps the room warm, but we do not have to burn ourselves in it.

　　 When we really contemplate suffering, we no longer incline towards grasping hold of desire, because it hurts, is painful, there is no point in doing it. So, from that time on, we understand, ”Oh! That”s why I”m suffering; that”s its origin. Ah! now I understand. It”s that grasping hold of desire that causes me all this misery and suffering, all this fear, worry, expectation, despair, hatred, greed, delusion. All the problems of life come from grasping and clinging to the fire of desire.

　　 The human habit of clinging to desire is ingrained. We in the West think of ourselves as sophisticated and educated, but when we really begin to see what is going on in our minds, it is rather frightening-most of us are horribly ignorant. We do not have an inkling of who we are, or what the cause of suffering is, or of how to live rightly-not an inkling. Many people want to take drugs, drink, and do all kinds of things to escape suffering-but their suffering increases. How conceited and arrogant we Western people can be, thinking of ourselves as civilised! We are educated, it is true, we can read and write, and we have wonderful machines and inventions. In comparison the tribal peoples in Africa, for example, seem primitive, superstitious, don”t they

　　 But we are all in exactly the same boat! It is just that our superstitions are different. We actually believe in all kinds of things.

　　 For instance, we try to explain our universe through concepts, thinking that concepts are reality. We believe in reason, in logic-which is to say we believe in things we do not know. We have not really understood how it all begins and ends. If we read a book and believe what it tells us, believe what the scientists say, we are just believing. We think: ”We”re sophisticated. We believe in what the scientists say. People have PhDs-we believe in what they say. We don”t believe in what witch-doctors say; they”re stupid and ignorant.” But it is all belief, isn”t it

　　 We still do not know-it just sounds good. The Buddha said we should find out for ourselves and then we do not have to believe others.

　　 We contemplate the universe as impermanent; we can see the impermanent nature of all conditions. From this contemplation, wisdom arises. There is nothing we can…

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