Saratthappakasini 12.6.2
English (machine translation) 12.6.2
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12.6.2.52
In the second [sutta]: 'In things that are prone to clinging' means in things of the three planes that are conditions for the four clingings. 'Contemplating gratification' means of one who is contemplating gratification. 'There' means in that mass of fire. 'Its fuel' means conditioned by that. 'Its clinging' is a synonym for the very same thing. 'Even so'—here the three realms of existence are like the mass of fire; the round of existence across the three planes is also just this; the foolish worldling dependent on the round of existence is like the man tending the fire; the worldling contemplating gratification performing wholesome and unwholesome kamma through the six doors by way of craving and so forth is like the throwing in of dry grass, cow dung, and so forth. And the producing of the suffering of the round again and again by the foolish worldling through rousing himself and accumulating the aforesaid kamma is like the growing of the mass of fire by the repeated throwing in of grass, cow dung, and so forth when they are consumed.
12.6.2.52_2
“Would not add dry grass from time to time”: for someone who desires his welfare might say to him thus: “Sir, why do you repeatedly get up, bind bundles of dry grass and wood, fill a basket, throw in dry cow dung, and kindle this fire? Do you have any benefit whatsoever resulting from this?” “This is an ancestral custom of ours, sir. But for me, only detriment results from this, whence any benefit? For while tending this fire, I do not get to bathe, eat, or lie down.” “If so, sir, what is the use of this pointless fire-kindling of yours? Come, put down here these grasses and so forth that you have brought; they will burn away by themselves. But in such-and-such a place there is a pond of cool water; having bathed there, adorned yourself with garlands, scents, and unguents, properly clothed, properly cloaked, and wearing sandals, enter the city, ascend an excellent mansion, open the window, and, resplendent upon the great street, sit down, unified in mind and endowed with happiness. While you sit there, as the grasses and so forth are depleted, this fire will spontaneously go out.” He would do so. And likewise, as he sits there, with the exhaustion of the fuel, that fire would go out. It is with reference to this that it is said: “would not [add] from time to time,” and so on.
12.6.2.52_3
“Even so indeed”: here, this is the application of the simile: the great mass of fire burning forty cartloads of timber should be regarded as the cycle of existence in the three realms; the person tending the fire as the practitioner clinging to the cycle; the well-wishing person as the Fully Enlightened One; the advice given to that person by him as the time when the meditation subject concerning the phenomena of the three realms was stated to him by the Tathāgata saying, “Come, monk, become disenchanted with the phenomena of the three realms; in this way you will be freed from the suffering of the cycle.” The time when that person, having practiced in accordance with the instruction, sat in the mansion is like the time when the practitioner, having received the Well-Farer’s advice, entered an empty dwelling, established insight into the phenomena of the three realms, gradually obtained suitable food and so forth, and, seated on a single seat, became established in the highest fruit. The time when he sat there endowed with unified happiness because his body was well-washed and adorned with baths, unguents, and so on, is like the time when the practitioner—his defilement-stains well-washed and cleansed with the water of path knowledge in the pond of the noble path, dressed in the garments of moral shame and dread, anointed with the unguent of virtue, having adorned his person with the ornamentation of arahantship, wearing a garland of the flowers of liberation, mounting the sandals of the bases of psychic power, entering the city of Nibbāna, ascending the mansion of the Dhamma, and resplendent on the great street of the establishments of mindfulness—sat having attained the fruition attainment taking Nibbāna as its object. Furthermore, just like the time when the mass of fire went out through the exhaustion of the grasses and so forth as that person sat there, one should regard the great cycle's cessation of one whose taints are destroyed, who, having lived out the span of his life, attains final extinguishment through the element of Nibbāna with no residue remaining with the breakup of the clung-to aggregates. The second.