The Āditta-pariyāya Sutta (The Fire Sermon) was introduced in a beginner’s Buddhism class to illustrate how the Buddha taught a vast audience of 1,000 new monks by tailoring his message to their mental inclinations. This approach is known as “skillful means” (upaya), where we frame our message according to the listener’s interests.

This lesson is highly practical for secular life as well. Young Buddhist adults are taught to communicate in a way that inspires and interests their listeners. Instead of commanding attention, the Buddhist message is rooted in love and compassion, patiently guiding people toward the Truth. Just like how Buddha lived together with the fire-worshippers to help them.

To appreciate the Fire Sermon, we can consider three aspects:

First, the mental conditioning of the fire-worshippers and how the Buddha’s message reached their innermost being—their core grasping of “I”—leading to their liberation.

Second, the core of the Buddha’s message remained unchanged, despite his use of skillful means. This clarifies that skillful preaching does not justify falsehood. It stands in contrast to misinterpretations where lies or misrepresentations are considered acceptable, or even encouraged, to “help” students.

Third, how does this benefit us in our daily lives?

The Fire-Worshippers’ Inclination

The mysticism of fire is a human experience shared across cultures. Unlike our modern experience with creating fire, the effort involved in making fire was considerable in ancient times. When the Buddha sought to subdue the pride of the fire-worshippers, he performed miracles that referenced the effort of gathering firewood, starting a fire, tending it, and finally extinguishing it. (see previous post)

Fire provides warmth and utility but becomes dangerous if unattended. It consumes and burns matter; solids are reduced to dust, and water vaporizes. It acts as a key to transformation, a portal through which matter ceases to exist. Some religions believe fire transforms worldly matter into spiritual substance—offerings are burned, and the rising smoke transmits their essence to another dimension. Others worship the essence of fire itself as divine, or celebrate its destructive power to eradicate evil.

Crucially, the Buddha approached a group of fire-worshippers, and his teaching led them to renounce their practices. Interestingly, fire-worship found its way into Buddhism as the Fire Puja in Vajrayana. Whether this was a later master’s skillful means or a corruption of the teachings depends on a single point: does such a ritual produce enlightenment or ignorance?

Returning to the topic, the fire-worshippers were familiar with how fire arises “magically.” When conditions are present, fire springs forth from nothingness. Similarly, our sense of existence comes into being when the right conditions result in the six sense spheres: sight, sound, smell, taste, touch, and thought. Like fire, the sense of “I” is not intrinsic; it arises only when its conditions are met.

The Buddha’s Message

By using metaphors of fire, burning, and being aflame, the Buddha connected directly with the 1,000 fire-worshippers, who would have intuitively understood these concepts. He then introduced the Truth of Dukkha, describing the senses and our very existence as suffering.

“Monks, the All is aflame. What All is aflame? The eye is aflame. Forms are aflame. Consciousness at the eye is aflame. Contact at the eye is aflame. And whatever there is that arises in dependence on contact at the eye — experienced as pleasure, pain or neither-pleasure-nor-pain — that too is aflame. Aflame with what? Aflame with the fire of passion, the fire of aversion, the fire of delusion. Aflame, I tell you, with birth, aging & death, with sorrows, lamentations, pains, distresses, & despairs.”

— Access to Insight

Upon hearing this, a receptive student lets go of grasping. This letting go creates an inner transformation in their experience of “I.” This transformation does not breed hatred or aversion to existence, nor does it lead one to end their life. It simply shifts one’s perspective.

“Seeing thus, the well-instructed disciple of the noble ones grows disenchanted with the eye… disenchanted with forms… disenchanted with consciousness at the eye… disenchanted with contact at the eye… He grows disenchanted with that too. Disenchanted, he becomes dispassionate. Through dispassion, he is fully released.”

When one is no longer enchanted by experience, grasping diminishes, and one experiences peace and ease. In short, it is a liberation from the formation of Dukkha.

The message of dukkha, its cause, and the liberation from it are all present. This remains the core message. No matter the tradition or school, if our practices do not circle back to these core truths, we must ask serious questions: “Is this the Buddhism the Buddha taught?” “How does this practice result in enlightenment?” “Are the practices merely religious worship?”

How This Sermon Can Help Us

Like the fire-worshippers, we can learn to objectively recognize how our experiences arise. For example, during a negative encounter, we can deconstruct the experience into its components: the sound of their words, the sight of their expression, the thoughts interpreting the situation (“He is insulting me”), and the tactile sensations (a racing heart, tense muscles).

Obviously, the experience is unpleasant and “aflame.” We want to extinguish it. To do so, we recall the Buddha’s message: craving, aversion, and ignorance are causing this dukkha. We remind ourselves that aversion is unskillful, a source of suffering, and that we should let go. By constantly training the mind in this way, we condition it to lessen aversion – that inner dukkha we experience. It is important to note that it does not lead to apathy or a tolerance of misdeeds. It simply transform our inner reactions to situations.

Conversely, during a pleasant encounter, we remind ourselves that craving also causes dukkha, as it leads to sadness when the pleasant experience ends.

Finally, through Vipassana mindfulness, we observe how our sense of “I” is generated the moment we grasp and identify with these experiences as personal.

May all be well and happy.