Everything,” declaraed Gotama at the opening of the Fire Sermon in the 5th century BCE, “is burning.” On reading these words today I cannot but think of the steady warming
of the delicate atmosphere that envelops this planet. Disquietingly
prophetic, Gotama understood how the forces that drive most human
endeavor are like consuming fires. “Burning with what?” he asked. “With
the fire of greed, the fire of dislike, the fire of stupidity.” And he
understood a world ablaze with these fires to be barren, arid, a
wasteland where nothing grows or flourishes.
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