There was a mountain, some 10km away when we were kids. A mountain with a lush green forest, and steep slopes covered with high grass. During dry season, due to human activities and nature, it caught fires. Whatever the reason to begin with these wildfires went on burning everything down, slowly crawling towards the mountain peak. And from so far away, even without seeing the burning mountain, we could smell the fire. Tiny pieces of burned up ash from grass, flown by the wind landed in our garden. And we knew, it was the wildfire, although not noticeable to the busy adult eye, we children had eyes which could pick up tiny flying objects more easily, hence we knew, when it was a fire.
Have you seen a wildfire? Have you observed a one? Then this article is for you. Although science behind these wildfires is fascinating to learn, it is not the objective here. In par with the objective of the blog, as it claims, we try to help you observe the world in a mindful eye, by providing little intuitions into the phenomena of nature, so you can do it by yourself when you are taking your own journey, which is what you are doing currently.
A long time ago, someone argued, the life is like a fire. He used the fact to illustrate how 'the soul' carries on from one life to the other. Like a fire spreading from one stick to the other. It is not the same fire, and it is not a new one as well. When we observe the mind in silence, I noticed that this is also another good way to explain current affairs of life as well.
To do that I want you to imagine a wildfire.
Observing wildfires.
Let's do that. Let's imagine a wildfire. Due to some unknown reason, it started. Maybe nature, maybe God, maybe there is no traceable depth into it. Now the fire is spreading across the plain. It goes from one grass leaf to the other. One bush to the other. It is not the same fire, which is burning now, which began. The first fire is no longer there. But we cannot say it is not at the same time, as the fire keeps rapidly changing, we cannot pinpoint to any fire at all. We can never go back to the old fire. We cannot predict the future fire. As it depends on what comes next as food to the current fire. It may stop, it may keep going, but quite sure, it will not go beyond the earth. Let's not consider all the possibilities as unknown is always bigger. Now, let's look at the similarity with our lives to a wildfire.
Observing the mind.
We started, due to unknown reasons, at some point. And we developed a consciousness. In this dried-up grassland which is called the "Body". We continuously create the wildfire- or our consciousness upgrades each second passes by. Now it is fire number 23456 if we count by days, but we can count by hours seconds or milliseconds. It is not the same fire, just a second before, it is not the same fire. It is never predictable that what will happen to the fire in the future, in the next second as it will depend on what comes on its path. Which is not decided by the fire. Isn't it fascinating. That there is so much similarity of our brain function, to something so simple as a wildfire. So, where is the complexity comes from?
The complexity comes from, when the wildfire starts to believe that it is not a product of nature, but with a free will. When it doesn't see that what is there to burn is what nature presents, but believes it is capable of going beyond earth. Essentially, it is like someone cursed the wildfire to have a life.
What are your thoughts on wildfires? Have you seen one lately?
Every fire ends in Ash
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