Lzh Sarv Bi Pm Pc 37Lighting a Fire
Pāli / Sanskrit:Jotika
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Jotika Scripture: A Warning About the Fire of Greed
Background
The Jotika scripture (Pāli: Jotika, provisionally translated “the one who lights a fire”) appears in the Vinaya Piṭaka of the Theravāda tradition, specifically in the Pātimokkha section recited periodically as the disciplinary code. Although it is called “Lighting a Fire,” the spirit of this scripture does not speak of material light, but of the spiritual fires that burn the mind, specifically the fires of desire, hatred, and delusion.
The context of its appearance is connected with an event in the Buddhist Sangha, when some monks violated the disciplinary rules through the act of “lighting a fire,” a symbol of inciting and causing disorder in the community of practice. Through this, the Buddha taught about the karmic consequences of harmful acts and the right way of settling the mind as the path to avoid these fires.
Main Content
The Jotika scripture emphasizes that there are three kinds of “fire” against which every practitioner must be vigilant. First is the fire of greed (lobha-joti), the endless thirst that leads people into greedy actions and keeps them from abandoning what should be abandoned. Second is the fire of hatred (dosa-joti), anger and hostility that burn up the peaceful mind and break harmony within the Sangha. Third is the fire of delusion (moha-joti), confusion about the nature of phenomena, failing to see the suffering, impermanence, and non-self of all things.
These fires do not burn only the practitioner but also spread to the Sangha community. When a bhikkhu or bhikkhunī lights these fires through violations of the disciplinary code, whether by lying, scheming, or creating discord, they are intentionally causing harm to the community.
The scripture points out that the act of “lighting a fire” has serious consequences: the actor will bear fault according to the Vinaya Piṭaka, but more importantly, they are accumulating unwholesome causes whose karmic effect will lead to suffering in the present and the future.
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