解脫道論 火一切入

The new meditator’s fire-kasiṇa procedure first cuts wood, piles fuel, and burns it at a prepared place. In acquiring the sign, the source does not treat everything visible as the fire sign; it distinguishes two things not attended to and one thing in which the perception of fire is directly formed.

Discarding Two and Taking One

The precision of the new meditator’s procedure lies in the list: do not attend to the grass or wood; do not attend to the smoke and fire arising above—the readings 火, “fire,” and 炎, “flame,” are both recorded without decision; only within the mass of flame directly form the perception of fire. Two are discarded and one is taken.

How to read this passage: this fire-kasiṇa procedure lists two instances of “does not attend” and then one of “directly forms the perception of fire.” Grass and wood, the smoke and fire arising above, and the mass of flame must therefore be read separately within this procedure. This order anchors only the present passage and is not extended into a rule for other accounts of acquiring a sign.

Even a House Fire Can Be a Beginning

The four fires seen by an experienced meditator are grass fire, wood fire, forest fire, and house fire, and these sights can be a beginning for observation. The syntax of the following statement, “Whether one personally delights or does not delight, one immediately sees the counterpart fire sign arise,” is unclear. What can be established is only that the counterpart fire sign arises; the sentence cannot decide that both pleasing and displeasing objects produce the sign, nor whether the object is selected as agreeable or disagreeable.

Shi Huijing · Waken · The Path of Freedom · The Fire Kasiṇa · Doorway · Summer 2026

Seven Questions Together

Question: What is the fire kasiṇa? How is it cultivated? What is its characteristic? What is its function? What is its basis? What are its benefits? How is the sign acquired?

Meaning, Cultivation, Characteristic, Function, and Basis

Answer: The mind is directed to the fire sign—this is called the fire kasiṇa. At that time the mind abides without disturbance—this is called cultivation.

Its characteristic is skillfully directing the mind to the fire sign. Its function is not removing the perception of fire. Its basis is that the mind forms no second intention when attending.

Five Distinctive Benefits

Concerning benefits, the source expressly announces five distinctive benefits, but does not explain them separately, and the internal relations within several short phrases are unclear. In their original order, they are: first, “managing the fire kasiṇa,” where what “managing” denotes is not stated; second, “producing smoke and flame, with the perception of light arising,” where the connections among smoke, flame, the perception of light, and “arising” are unclear, and the character 想, “perception,” has the variant 相, “sign,” in the Korean witness; third, extinguishing the light of other colors; fourth, “whatever is burned at will,” where neither who burns what nor the sentence’s referent is clear; and fifth, joining “producing light” with “understanding the fire element,” whose precise relation is not explained here. The passage then separately adds: the benefits stated for the earth kasiṇa.

Through cultivating the fire kasiṇa, one sees fire everywhere.

Acquiring the Sign: Experienced and New Meditators

As for how its sign is acquired: when acquiring the fire-kasiṇa sign in its presence, one acquires the sign from fire, either at a self-prepared place or at a naturally occurring place.

Here an experienced meditator acquires a naturally occurring sign. Such a person sees everywhere a grass fire, a wood fire, a forest fire, or a house fire, blazing with abundant flames, and begins observation from these sights. The source then says, “Whether one personally delights or does not delight, one immediately sees the counterpart fire sign arise.” The grammatical relation within this sentence is unclear. What can be established is that the person sees that counterpart fire sign arise; how “whether one personally delights or does not delight” connects to the following clause remains unresolved. This is unlike the case of a new meditator.

A new meditator acquires the sign only at a prepared place and cannot do so at an unprepared place.

The Means of Clearly Cultivating the Fire Kasiṇa

The means by which that person cultivates the fire kasiṇa are these. From the beginning, the new meditator makes preparations, cuts firewood, piles it in a clean place and burns it, either at sunrise or at sunset, igniting it from below.

The meditator does not attend to the grass or wood and does not attend to the smoke and fire arising above, but in the mass of flame directly forms the perception of fire.

The sign is acquired in three modes: through balanced observation, through skillful means, and through freedom from disturbance—as explained in full at the beginning.

(The fire kasiṇa is concluded.)

Shi Huijing · Waken · The Path of Freedom · The Fire Kasiṇa · Vernacular · Summer 2026

The third section begins. This passage first answers the questions about the fire kasiṇa’s meaning, cultivation, characteristic, function, basis, and benefits, then explains acquiring the sign through experienced and new meditators. The experienced can begin observing from grass fires, wood fires, forest fires, house fires, and other such sights. The new must cut wood, pile fuel, and burn it at a prepared place; the text expressly lists two things not attended to and one thing in which the perception of fire is directly formed. These are the fire-kasiṇa materials that can be checked directly within this unit 〔T32 422c12–423a01〕.

An Account of Differences: Meaning, Four Matters, and Five Benefits

“Question: What is the fire kasiṇa? How is it cultivated? What is its characteristic? What is its function? What is its basis? What are its benefits? How is the sign acquired? Answer: The mind is directed to the fire sign—this is called the fire kasiṇa” 〔T32 422c12–13〕. Seven questions are given in one sequence. Their wording differs slightly from the water section, which asks “What is its manifestation?” where this asks “What is its basis”; the difference is retained. The definition likewise differs slightly: the water section says “The mind takes the water sign as its object,” while this says “The mind is directed to the fire sign,” following the base text. “At that time the mind abides without disturbance—this is called cultivation” 〔T32 422c14〕 gives a separate answer for cultivation: the mind’s undisturbed abiding is cultivation. The remaining answer reads, “Skillfully directing the mind to the fire sign is its characteristic, not removing the perception of fire is its function, and attending without a second is its basis” 〔T32 422c14–15〕. This passage directly establishes “attending without a second” as the answer for “basis,” but does not further explain the exact meaning of “without a second”; no general rule is borrowed from another unit. It likewise leaves the word “skillfully” in the characteristic unexplained, so its wording is retained without supplementation.

The five distinctive benefits are: “managing the fire kasiṇa; producing smoke and flame, with the perception of light arising; extinguishing the light of other colors; whatever is burned at will; and producing light so as to understand the fire element” 〔T32 422c16–18〕. This is the fire section’s five-item account of extraordinary benefits. The term “managing” appears both here and in “making preparations from the beginning” in the later directions, but the treatise does not distinguish its meanings; the uses are preserved according to their respective sentences. None of the five is separately explained, and the wording is retained. The Korean witness reads 相, “sign,” for 想, “perception,” and the reading remains unresolved. The shared account refers back as usual: “the benefits stated for the earth kasiṇa” 〔T32 422c18〕. In the source’s order, the first item is managing the fire kasiṇa; the second joins smoke and flame with the arising of the perception of light; the third extinguishes other colored light; the fourth is whatever is burned at will; and the fifth produces light and understands the fire element. The source lists only these five without explaining a sequence or operation among them. How “producing smoke and flame, with the perception of light arising” is divided syntactically remains unresolved. Because “managing” recurs in the new meditator’s preparations, each occurrence is retained within its own governing sentence.

Two more statements follow the five items and may not be merged. “The benefits stated for the earth kasiṇa” first refers one set of benefits back to the earlier section; “Through cultivating the fire kasiṇa, one sees fire everywhere” then states what is seen in this section 〔T32 422c18–19〕. One is a reference back, the other a direct assertion here. The treatise adds no condition or derivation between them, so each remains within its own sentence.

The Experienced Meditator’s Four Fires and the Point Where Inquiry Stops

“Here an experienced meditator acquires a naturally occurring sign. Such a person sees everywhere a grass fire, a wood fire, a forest fire, or a house fire, blazing with abundant flames. Beginning from this, the person makes it the observation. Whether one personally delights or does not delight, one immediately sees the counterpart fire sign arise” 〔T32 422c21–24〕. Four fires are seen by the experienced meditator: grass, wood, forest, and house fire. Inquiry pauses here: a burning house is a scene of disaster, yet it too can be a beginning for observation.

The next statement is “Whether one personally delights or does not delight, one immediately sees the counterpart fire sign arise.” How “whether one personally delights or does not delight” connects syntactically with what follows is unclear in the base text. The only point that can be established is that the experienced meditator sees “the counterpart fire sign” arise. It cannot therefore be asserted that a sign arises equally from pleasing and displeasing objects, nor can the sentence be made to decide whether an agreeable or disagreeable object is selected. The new meditator, by contrast, is expressly restricted to “acquires the sign only at a prepared place” 〔T32 422c24–25〕. Compared with the water section, the word “only” is additional and must be retained.

What Is Seen: Discarding Two and Taking One

The directions for the new meditator are the finest-grained part of this unit: “From the beginning, the new meditator makes preparations, cuts firewood, piles it in a clean place and burns it, either at sunrise or at sunset, ignites it from below, does not attend to the grass or wood, does not attend to the smoke and fire arising above, and in the mass of flame directly forms the perception of fire” 〔T32 422c25–29〕. The person cuts wood, piles fuel, chooses one of two times—sunrise or sunset, for reasons the treatise does not give—and ignites it from below. Three acts then follow: does not attend to the grass or wood; does not attend to the smoke and fire; and only within the mass of flame directly forms the perception of fire.

Discarding two and taking one. Two things are discarded: no attention is given to the grass and wood, and no attention is given to the smoke and fire arising above. Four witnesses read 炎, “flame,” for 火, “fire,” so what is not attended to differs with the reading; both are recorded without decision. One thing is taken: the perception of fire is directly formed within the mass of flame. The sequence is clear: two refusals to attend are listed before a single place where the perception of fire is formed. Grass and wood, the smoke and fire arising above, and the mass of flame are not collapsed into one item. The 火／炎 variant also remains unresolved. This reading belongs only to the new meditator’s procedure for the fire kasiṇa: it distinguishes what the text says is not attended to from that in which the perception of fire is formed, without omitting or combining either category.

The ending follows the pattern: “The sign is acquired in three modes: through balanced observation, through skillful means, and through freedom from disturbance, as explained in full at the beginning. (The fire kasiṇa is concluded)” 〔T32 422c29–423a01〕. The three modes remain the same, while the wording that refers back differs from the fuller phrase in the water section. The difference is retained, and the parenthetical note closes the section.

Concluding Focus

Return to what is seen: two are discarded and one is taken. No attention is given to the grass and wood or to the smoke and fire arising above; only within the mass of flame is the perception of fire directly formed. The sign is then acquired through balanced observation, skillful means, and freedom from disturbance. Three matters remain with the reader: a sequence—cutting wood, piling fuel, igniting it from below, two instances of not attending, and one formation of the perception of fire; a variant—the discarded 火, “fire,” is read 炎, “flame,” by four witnesses, without adjudication; and an unresolved question—a house fire stands among the experienced meditator’s four fires, while the grammar of “whether one personally delights or does not delight” remains unclear and does not determine whether the object is agreeable or disagreeable. The third section is complete.

Shi Huijing · Waken · The Path of Freedom · The Fire Kasiṇa · Exposition · Summer 2026