Ajahn Dhammasiha offers reflections on the Ādittapariyāya Sutta, the 'Discourse on Burning', known as the third formal teaching of the Buddha.

In this discourse, the Buddha challenges his audience with the shocking statement that the whole universe of our conscious experience is literally on fire. All six senses are burning with the fire of desire, hatred and delusion; they are burning with rebirth, decay, death; they are a conflagration of grief, lamentation, pain, frustration, depression and despair:

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Ajahn points out that saddhā (faith/confidence/conviction) in the final goal of Nibbāna is a necessary condition to use such a challenging teaching beneficially. If someone believes the world of the senses is all there is, they will find this teaching of the Buddha discouraging, even depressing. But if we are convinced that an escape out of the fire exists, the teaching will not discourage us, instead it will provide us with the determined motivation required to escape the conflagration by means of vipassanā, insight. 

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If we trust that we can get out of the fire, and follow the instruction to wisely reflect on the suffering our world of subjective conscious experience inevitably entails, we will experience disenchantment (nibbidā) to this whole world of impermanent, disappointing phenomena. Disenchanted, all desire fades away, and we feel dispassion. Dispassionate, the heart experiences release by letting go of all six senses and their objects. That relase experienced in the heart of the enlightened beings is the safe place outside the fire, the escape out of the conflagration.

Ajahn points out the danger of mistaking aversion for disenchantment. Any average person can easily experience aversion when reflecting on the evils of our world. But aversion is an unwholesome, unbeneficial mindstate based on defilements. Disenchantment (nibbidā) on the other hand is a result of seeing things as they truly are, based on wisdom and insight, and is extremely beneficial as it leads us to the experience of release, Nibbāna.

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