Chapter Five

This was said by the Buddha, the Perfected One: that is what I heard.

“Mendicants, there are these three fires.

What three?

The fires of greed, hate, and delusion.

These are the three fires.”

The Buddha spoke this matter.

On this it is said:

“The fire of greed burns a mortal,

lustful, infatuated by sensual pleasures;

while, fallen in the fire of hate,

a person kills living creatures;

and, bewildered by the fire of delusion,

they miss the teaching of the noble ones.

Not recognizing these three fires,

people are caught up in substantial reality.

They fill the ranks of hell,

of birth as an animal,

or of titans and ghosts,

not freed from Māra’s bonds.

But as to those committed day and night

to the teaching of the Buddha:

they extinguish the fire of greed,

always perceiving ugliness;

while those supreme men

extinguish the fire of hate with love;

and the fire of delusion with the wisdom

that leads to penetration.

Having extinguished these fires, alert,

tireless all day and night,

they become fully extinguished,

completely transcending suffering.

Seers of the noble truths, knowledge masters,

the astute, understanding rightly,

directly know the ending of rebirth,

they come not back to future lives.”

This too is a matter that was spoken by the Blessed One: that is what I heard.