Tending the Fire

Text

Longya said to the assembly: "Those who study the Way must first learn to tend the fire. What fire? The fire of delusion that burns day and night. If you try to extinguish it, you only fan the flames. If you let it burn freely, it consumes itself. When the fuel is spent, what remains?"

license: public_domain

Attribution

• Attributed To
  Longya Judun

Lineage: Yunmen

By Longya Judun

• Longya Visits Two Mastersdialogue

From Traditional Zen Sayings

• A Special Transmission Outside the Scriptures
• Thirty Blows
• A Day Without Work Is a Day Without Eating
• Mountains Are Mountains
• Cease and Desist
• Die While Alive
• The Whole Universe Is the Eye
• The Directness of Realization
• The Barrier of Words
• The Great Doubt Block

Sources

• contentWikisource — English-language free library

  Jingde Chuandeng Lu, Longya Judun chapter

  Traditional Zen Sayings: Tending the Fire