Tao-sheng: The Burning

“All of a sudden fires broke out at the same time from all sides of the house, and it began to burn.”

Various sufferings are compared to burning. There is no place where there is no suffering: it is “throughout the house.” It has come of [the path of] aberration; thus “quite suddenly.” The thing proper (or cause, shih) has arrived: it “breaks out.” It burns “the apartments” of the five aggregates (skandhas), [the constituents of ‘self’]

Tao-sheng Commentary on the Lotus Sutra, p207