← Sutta collectionITI93So It Was Said 93SuttaCentral (Bhikkhu Sujato translation)Select any verse to keep it — saved passages go to your Dhamma Deck, the same one the app uses.So It Was Said 93The Book of the ThreesChapter FiveFireThis was said by the Buddha, the Perfected One: that is what I heard.“Mendicants, there are these three fires.What three?The fires of greed, hate, and delusion.These are the three fires.”The Buddha spoke this matter.On this it is said:“The fire of greed burns a mortal,lustful, infatuated by sensual pleasures;while, fallen in the fire of hate,a person kills living creatures;and, bewildered by the fire of delusion,they miss the teaching of the noble ones.Not recognizing these three fires,people are caught up in substantial reality.They fill the ranks of hell,of birth as an animal,or of titans and ghosts,not freed from Māra’s bonds.But as to those committed day and nightto the teaching of the Buddha:they extinguish the fire of greed,always perceiving ugliness;while those supreme personsextinguish the fire of hate with love;and the fire of delusion with the wisdomthat leads to penetration.Having extinguished these fires, alert,tireless all day and night,they become fully extinguished,completely transcending suffering.Seers of the noble truths, knowledge masters,the astute, understanding rightly,directly know the ending of rebirth,they come not back to future lives.”This too is a matter that was spoken by the Blessed One: that is what I heard.