THE FIRE SERMON

The title is suppose to be a reference to Buddha.

There are a lot of links in this section to previous sections. See if you can find them.

Allusions:

To His Coy Mistress (we read yesterday - find)

TIRESIAS - appears in both Oedipus Rex and The Odyssey. He can see the future. Relate him to the fortune teller in section 1.

Tempest - remember there is a ship wreck in the Tempest.

St. Augustine.

WWI

There are also songs in this section and the nightingale chirps with the reinforcement of rape (which is one way of looking at the relationship seen by Tiresias)


NOTES:

Mrs. Porter ran a brothel in Cairo and was well known to Aussie troops (important because Gallipoli was where Eliot lost a good friend).

Smyrna = Izmir (an ancient town in Turkey)


Elizabeth I and Earl of Leicester were thought to have an affair (even through Elizabeth had to deny it because she was suppose to be a virgin and reserve herself for royalty of other nations)

The City (LONDON) in this section is a dump - made so in part by a coal plant.



The Fire Sermon
(Aditta-pariyaya-sutta)

Thus I heard. On one occasion the Blessed One was living at Gaya, at Gayasisa, together with a thousand bhikkhus. There he addressed the bhikkhus.

"Bhikkhus, all is burning. And what is the all that is burning?

"The eye is burning, forms are burning, eye-consciousness is burning, eye-contact is burning, also whatever is felt as pleasant or painful or neither-painful-nor-pleasant that arises with eye-contact for its indispensable condition, that too is burning. Burning with what? Burning with the fire of lust, with the fire of hate, with the fire of delusion. I say it is burning with birth, aging and death, with sorrows, with lamentations, with pains, with griefs, with despairs.

"The ear is burning, sounds are burning...

"The nose is burning, odors are burning...

"The tongue is burning, flavors are burning...

"The body is burning, tangibles are burning...

"The mind is burning, ideas are burning, mind-consciousness is burning, mind-contact is burning, also whatever is felt as pleasant or painful or neither-painful-nor-pleasant that arises with mind-contact for its indispensable condition, that too is burning. Burning with what? Burning with the fire of lust, with the fire of hate, with the fire of delusion. I say it is burning with birth, aging and death, with sorrows, with lamentations, with pains, with griefs, with despairs.

"Bhikkhus, when a noble follower who has heard (the truth) sees thus, he finds estrangement in the eye, finds estrangement in forms, finds estrangement in eye-consciousness, finds estrangement in eye-contact, and whatever is felt as pleasant or painful or neither-painful- nor-pleasant that arises with eye-contact for its indispensable condition, in that too he finds estrangement.

"He finds estrangement in the ear... in sounds...

"He finds estrangement in the nose... in odors...

"He finds estrangement in the tongue... in flavors...

"He finds estrangement in the body... in tangibles...

"He finds estrangement in the mind, finds estrangement in ideas, finds estrangement in mind-consciousness, finds estrangement in mind-contact, and whatever is felt as pleasant or painful or neither-painful-nor-pleasant that arises with mind-contact for its indispensable condition, in that too he finds estrangement.

"When he finds estrangement, passion fades out. With the fading of passion, he is liberated. When liberated, there is knowledge that he is liberated. He understands: 'Birth is exhausted, the holy life has been lived out, what can be done is done, of this there is no more beyond.'"

That is what the Blessed One said. The bhikkhus were glad, and they approved his words.

Now during his utterance, the hearts of those thousand bhikkhus were liberated from taints through clinging no more.