Reading guide
Attention as the actual variable, not the fuel itself
The things that fuel grasping don't change between the two halves of the teaching; what changes is whether attention dwells on their gratification or their drawbacks, locating the real lever in how something is attended to rather than in the object itself.
A fire sustained by ordinary, unremarkable fuel
The simile's fire isn't stoked by anything exotic — dry grass, cow dung, and wood, added from time to time — making the point that craving's continuation doesn't require dramatic input, only small, repeated feeding.
A concrete scale given to an otherwise abstract image
Specifying ten, twenty, thirty, or forty loads of wood gives the fire's initial size a concrete, almost mundane precision, grounding what could otherwise read as a purely poetic image.
Extinguishment through simple absence, not active suppression
The fire doesn't need to be put out by force; once no more fuel is added and the original supply is used up, it goes out on its own — a model for craving's cessation as the natural result of withdrawn feeding rather than a struggle against it.
The first of a chain of similes running through this chapter
This fire simile is the first of several images — an oil lamp, a great tree, a sapling — that recur through the rest of Dukkhavagga, each restating the same feeding-and-starving structure through a different concrete picture.
Key terms
The text
§1At Sāvatthī. “There are things that fuel grasping. When you concentrate on the gratification provided by these things, your craving grows. Craving is a requirement for grasping. Grasping is a requirement for continued existence. Continued existence is a requirement for rebirth. Rebirth is a requirement for old age and death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, sadness, and distress to come to be. That is how this entire mass of suffering originates.
§2Suppose a great mass of fire was burning with ten, twenty, thirty, or forty loads of wood. And from time to time someone would toss in dry grass, cow dung, or wood. Fed and fuelled by that, the great mass of fire would burn for a long time. In the same way, there are things that fuel grasping. When you concentrate on the gratification provided by these things, your craving grows. Craving is a requirement for grasping. … That is how this entire mass of suffering originates.
§3There are things that fuel grasping. When you concentrate on the drawbacks of these things, your craving ceases. When craving ceases, grasping ceases. When grasping ceases, continued existence ceases. When continued existence ceases, rebirth ceases. When rebirth ceases, old age and death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, sadness, and distress cease. That is how this entire mass of suffering ceases.
§4Suppose a great mass of fire was burning with ten, twenty, thirty, or forty loads of wood. And no-one would toss in dry grass, cow dung, or wood from time to time. As the original fuel is used up and no more is added, the great mass of fire would be extinguished due to not being fed. In the same way, there are things that fuel grasping. When you concentrate on the drawbacks of these things, your craving ceases. When craving ceases, grasping ceases. … That is how this entire mass of suffering ceases.”
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