The Three Fires
Greed, hatred, and delusion are usually presented as a list of things to feel bad about. This course reads six suttas that treat them instead as a mechanism — something with a specific point of entry, specific methods for working with it, and, according to one of the shortest definitions in the entire Pali Canon, a specific and complete way of ending.
The course moves in a deliberate order: first the mechanism underneath all three (what makes any of them arise at all), then all three named together as a single burning, then each fire taken alone — greed, then hatred, then delusion — and finally the shortest possible definition of their ending, arrived at in one breath by one of the Buddha's chief disciples.
Not why these are bad. How they actually work — and what specifically ends them.
All six suttas are read in full on this site, in Bhikkhu Sujato's complete CC0 translation of the Pali Canon, each with its own structured reading guide, full text, and ten-question self-check quiz. Readers who have completed the Abhidhamma's chapter on mental factors will recognize greed, hatred, and delusion as the three unwholesome roots (akusala-hetu) analyzed there in full technical detail — this course reads the same three roots from the sutta side, in the Buddha's own working examples rather than the Abhidhamma's classification.
- Explain the attention mechanism (rational versus irrational attention) that determines whether greed, hatred, or delusion arise or fade — the single idea underneath every other session.
- Name a specific method for each of the three fires, drawn from the Buddha's own direct answers rather than general encouragement to "let go."
- Read four suttas from three different nikāyas closely enough to notice a single thread — the āsavas of Session 1 recurring, by name, inside Session 5's account of dependent origination.
- Hold the Abhidhamma's technical account of these three roots and the suttas' practical account of the same three roots side by side, as two views of one subject rather than two unrelated subjects.
- Arrive, by the final session, at the shortest definition of the goal in the whole course — and understand why five sessions of method were needed to make one sentence fully land.
Five steps, every session — read the sutta itself in full partway through, not as an afterthought.
All six sessions are live. The order builds from mechanism, to all three fires at once, to each one alone, to the shortest possible definition of their ending.
- Nothing to buy. Every sutta is on this site in full, in Bhikkhu Sujato's CC0 translation, with its own reading guide and quiz.
- No prior course required, though the Abhidhamma's chapter on mental factors is a natural companion if you want the technical classification alongside these practical examples.
- A willingness to look at your own mind, not just the text. Every assignment asks for a real, specific instance of greed, hatred, or delusion from your own recent experience — not a hypothetical one.
- Patience with the fourth session. MN 21's saw simile is one of the most demanding passages in the whole canon. It rewards a slow, careful reading rather than a quick one.