Summertime Heat – Burning House
Summer is definitely here. This past week was a scorcher and I struggled to not turn on the air-conditioner except at night in my bedroom. In an effort to save money I am content with sweating and showering in cold water. It isn’t so bad once you get used to it.
With all the heat it reminded me of the parable of the burning house. You know, the parable where the old man’s house is burning around his children who are playing inside oblivious to the danger they are in.
There are two things in this parable that I would like to spend some time talking about today. One is the aspect of fire in Buddhist symbolism. The other is the often glossed over account of the old man considering carrying out his children one by one in order to save them.
The symbolism of fire is usually assumed to be destruction. Often that is exactly what fire does. In the summer time we constantly hear on the news of forest fires and unimaginable acres of land burned up. But fire also represents something else, especially in Buddhism.
Fire also represents transformation, it represents change and it represents potential. It has been shown that forest-fires actually are a good thing, especially for overgrown old forests. There is a certain kind of pine tree that won’t release its seeds until the temperature reaches those attainable only during a fire. Fires actually produce very valuable chemicals in the ash that help to revitalize the soil.
Fire in Buddhism is also used to cremate the bodies of the deceased. One idea this represents it the rising of the non-material aspect of human life in the form of smoke to the greater universe. So fire has both positive and negative aspects in symbology.
In the parable of the burning house the house represents the saha world in which we live and its shabby condition represents the three poisons of greed, anger and ignorance, and the fire represents the suffering we experience by not being enlightened to the true nature of life. Fire represents our illusions of what the ultimate reality of life is. In this case fire represents the worst or the destructive nature it possesses. But the fire also can be considered a force of change. Without the fire and its destruction we would be content to continue in our existence of illusions by remaining in the run down house.
It is because the house is on fire that the old man wants to save his children. Thus the Buddha in his great compassion saw the miserable state of our lives led in ignorance and so he was motivated to teach the Lotus Sutra.
The next thing about this parable I would like to dwell upon is the actions of the old man to get his children out, specifically his consideration of carrying out the children one by one. This usually gets passed over in our rush to discuss the promise of the three carts and the success he has in luring his children out by this promise.
Today I would like to discuss this carrying out one by one. What this represents is the forced salvation. While some might consider it as a viable course of action when trying to teach religion or philosophy what the Buddha is saying that we cannot force or compel anyone to enlightenment. We can not carry people to happiness, we can not carry people to the elimination of suffering, we can not carry people their salvation. Forcing people is not an option. Hard selling or coercion is not an option. Those may lead to short term solutions but in the end each person, ourselves included has to of their own accord and motivation come to their own happiness, their own enlightenment.
Here at this temple I hope that each of us truly practices realizing that the fires in our lives can be turned into transformative events. They can if we are wise, be used as motivators and teachers to put us further on our paths to enlightenment. I also hope that as we share our faith with others we do so in the spirit of making an offering to the Buddha that is in the person we are speaking to or inviting or sharing with. We are offering to their Buddha the opportunity to awaken by giving them the experience of hearing the Dharma. It is our offering with joy to their Buddha.
