Burns like a red coal carpet/Mad bull lost its way
-- The Rolling Stones, Gimme Shelter, 1969
Your samsara is the continuation of your contaminated aggregates.
-- Gelek Rimpoche
As shown above, the bhavachakra is sometimes represented as being engulfed in flame to make the point that all of cyclic existence (samsara) is afire with the Three Poisons of ignorance, attachment and aversion.
This metaphor is employed by the Buddha in his "Fire Sermon", where he tells us that we must free ourselves from the fiery enchantment exercised by the Three Poisons on the five "aggregates" (skandhas: form, sensation, perception, mental habits and consciousness -- the five skulls in the crown of Yama, the Lord of Death) through which phenomena arise to consciousness.
with 1,000 monks.There he addressed the monks:
"Monks, the All is aflame.
What All is aflame?
The eye is aflame. Forms are aflame.
Consciousness at the eye is aflame. Contact at the eye is aflame.
And whatever there is that arises in dependence on contact at the eye
-- experienced as pleasure, pain or neither-pleasure-nor-pain -- that too is aflame.
Aflame with what?
Aflame with the fire of passion, the fire of aversion, the fire of delusion.
Aflame, I tell you, with birth, aging & death, with sorrows, lamentations, pains, distresses, & despairs.
The ear is aflame. Sounds are aflame...
The nose is aflame. Aromas are aflame...
The tongue is aflame. Flavors are aflame...
The body is aflame. Tactile sensations are aflame...
The intellect is aflame. Ideas are aflame.
Consciousness at the intellect is aflame. Contact at the intellect is aflame.
And whatever there is that arises in dependence on contact at the intellect
-- experienced as pleasure, pain or neither-pleasure-nor-pain -- that too is aflame.
Aflame with what?
Aflame with the fire of passion, the fire of aversion, the fire of delusion.
Aflame, I say, with birth, aging & death, with sorrows, lamentations, pains, distresses, & despairs."
"Adittapariyaya Sutta: The Fire Sermon" (SN 35.28).
Translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.
Access to Insight, 30 November 2013.