Saṃyukta Āgama, Volume 12 (285), Part Five

(5) Original text: 诸比丘。于意云何。譬如油炷然灯。若不增油治炷。非彼灯明未来不生。尽磨灭耶。比丘白佛。如是世尊。如是诸比丘。于所取法观察无常生灭。离欲灭尽舍离。心不顾念。心不缚着。爱则灭。爱灭则取灭。乃至纯大苦聚灭。佛说此经已。诸比丘闻佛所说。欢喜奉行。

Explanation: The World-Honored One said: Bhikṣus, what do you think about this? Suppose an oil lamp is burning; if one does not add oil to it or tend its wick, would the lamp's light not cease to exist in the future and be entirely extinguished? The bhikṣus said to the Buddha: Yes, World-Honored One. Bhikṣus, it is so. If, with regard to the dharmas you grasp, you contemplate their impermanence and their nature of arising and ceasing, your mind will depart from craving, extinguish craving, and let go of craving; the mind will no longer dwell upon or be bound by these dharmas, and then craving ceases. When craving ceases, grasping ceases. When grasping ceases, existence in the three realms ceases. When existence in the three realms ceases, future rebirth ceases. When rebirth ceases, then old age, sickness, death, sorrow, grief, suffering, and distress (śoka-parideva-duḥkha-daurmanasyopāyāsa) cease—until the immense mass of pure suffering is extinguished.

Here the World-Honored One uses the lamp's light as a metaphor for the immense mass of suffering of birth, old age, sickness, and death, and the lamp oil as a metaphor for craving and afflictions. If we do not add oil to the wick, the oil lamp will be extinguished before long. Likewise, with regard to the great suffering of birth and death, if we no longer add craving and afflictions to it, the craving will gradually grow faint and disappear, and then the suffering will cease. If our craving keeps increasing, the great suffering of birth and death will accumulate more and more—when would we ever be able to end suffering? A person of awakening, amid the suffering of saṃsāra, should no longer add afflictions, but should instead increase wisdom, using the fire of wisdom to illuminate and burn through craving and afflictions, until craving is completely severed and liberation is attained.

The method of ending suffering that the World-Honored One teaches us is to constantly contemplate the impermanence and the arising-and-ceasing nature of the dharmas that our own mind grasps. When we realize that the five aggregates (pañcaskandha) of the worldly realm we cling to are indeed subject to arising and ceasing and impermanent, we will then continually let go of our craving for the five aggregates of the worldly realm, no longer dwelling upon them or being entangled by them, and finally completely extinguish craving, no longer being bound by it, and thereby attain liberation from the suffering of birth and death in the world. In cultivation, one should be adept at turning one's thoughts, changing direction, shifting one's mind, and transforming afflictions—then wisdom will arise. Once the great fire of wisdom blazes up, afflictions are annihilated; without wisdom, afflictions will keep growing. With wisdom, one has everything; without wisdom, there are afflictions and suffering.