The Teaching of Fire That Does Not Discriminate
Today's teaching begins with an image that came to mind while tending a wood fire at the temple on a winter morning. In the cold season, to warm a room, you place firewood inside and keep the fire alive. Whether the fire is small or large, it burns according to its own nature and gives warmth.
The monk said the nature of fire lies in not discriminating. Fire does not weigh expensive against cheap, good against bad, precious against common. Whatever meets the fire burns according to its conditions, and the fire carries out its role without discrimination.
The Buddha's teaching can be seen in the same way. The teaching does not open only according to status, knowledge, wealth, or conditions. Anyone who tends the mind and practices can receive the virtue of the teaching. The path of awakening is not a door closed to all but a special few.
Still, just as you must be near the fire to feel warmth, the teaching becomes alive when we open the mind and put it into practice ourselves. According to one's vessel, one's practice, and the degree to which one cultivates the mind, one experiences its virtue. It is equally open, but receiving it depends on each person's mind and practice.
Today, bring to mind a heart that does not divide self and others by conditions. Anyone can practice, and anyone can receive the warm teaching. Remembering that equal path, may we tend the mind today and live a warm day.
Fire does not choose its fuel; it burns according to its own nature and gives warmth. The Buddha's teaching is also open to everyone, without choosing status or conditions. Yet to receive that warmth, we must draw near ourselves, cultivate the mind, and put the teaching into practice.
