The Buddha characterized every aspect of your experience in daily life as “burning.” The Buddha wanted you to feel this burning in your life with all its difficulty, uncertainty, and stress and for you to realize that this burning is inherent and impersonal and that it applies to pleasant and unpleasant phenomena alike. Although all things in this world are burning, the Buddha taught that you have a choice to not add fuel to the fire, to not make the burning personal, and to not be identified with the burning. In each moment you have a choice to either add fuel in the form of wanting, aversion, and ignorance or not.

Dancing with Life, Chapter 15, pp. 177-178, 183-184

For your reflection: Observe as objectively as you can the phenomenon of your mind registering something. Are you able to notice that there is a degree of stress or friction just in making the effort? Also observe how often you add the “fuel” of wanting, aversion, and ignorance to your life experiences. Be particularly interested in how even in neutral and pleasant circumstances, you still add this fuel. This is “knowing” the truth of burning.