Grasping Fire

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 suffering and desire 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 colors! I love red and orange; theyre my favorite colors," 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 not something 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.


--Ajahn Sumedho, Teachings of a Buddhist Monk

James: It seems that a lot of us "Buddhists" forget the Buddha's teaching on the middle-way even though we know it on an intellectual level. What I mean is that we like to become martyrs and punish ourselves because we have passions and enjoyments. We do not have to be robots and statues to enjoy the fruits of the Buddha's teachings. The key, as Ajahn speaks of is to not attach to them one way or the other.

~Peace to all beings~