Reflections on the aftermath of a forest fire.
“On one occasion the Buddha and his band of monks were for the time staying on Gaya Head, a mountain near the city of Gaya. From their elevated position they watched one of the great fires that from time to time ravaged the countryside. This inspired what is known as ‘The Fire Sermon,’ which is the third recorded discourse delivered by the Buddha subsequent to his Enlightenment, and at the beginning of his long ministry. To the Buddha, the world of Samsara was like the flaming plains below, ‘Everything is burning,’ said the Buddha, ‘burning with the fire of passion, with the fire of hatred, with the fire of ignorance [delusion].’—C.F. Knight
On July 22, 2024, three wildfires near the town of Jasper in Jasper National Park merged into one gigantic conflagration that would eventually destroy a third of the town and raze surrounding campgrounds and forests. Flames reached as high as a fifteen-storey building and the heat was so intense that it generated convective winds, uprooting healthy, mature trees. At least 3,000 hectares were consumed.
Two years later, in June of 2026, I passed through Jasper, where construction crews were hard at work rebuilding the residential area. I camped at nearby Wapiti campground, which, as expected, was mostly barren of living trees. It was also eerily silent, despite the presence of hundreds of RVs, tents, people, and dogs. It was as if the passing inferno had stilled the land. Peopel spoke in low voices, perhaps conscious in some way of a sacred presence.
A charred tree trunk shines like polished ebony.
With the midsummer sun slowly setting and the wind absolutely still, I walked down a trail that passed through a charred forest along the Athabasca River. Here I was unexpectedly confronted with awesome scenes of stark beauty, prompting me to snap photo after photo on my cell phone.
Whether by magic, divine intervention, and/or the efforts of firefighters, this memorial bench, and the trees immediately surrounding it, were saved. However it happened, it must have seemed like a miracle to those who placed the bench here for their loved one.
Upon returning to my campsite, I realized that it was blessed with the only mature living spruce tree in the immediate area. A family of crows had made a home there.
It’s been two years and the ashes from the Jasper wildfire have cooled, allowing new life to make its slow, gradual, inevitable return. What emerges is bright and fresh with promise.
Nibbana, the Pali word for Nirvana, literally means the cooling down that happens after a fire. In Buddhism, it means the fires of greed, hatred, and delusion have been extinguished. Things are “chill’.
What’s left after the fires that rage through the heart-mind have been extinguished?
Perhaps what is left is space for peace, beauty, hope and all manner of goodness to emerge.
For magic to happen.
Nibbana.
—Nelle Oosterom