Thagavals strange discovery
Just in time, Thagaval managed to retreat into his cave as he was spotted by a saber-toothed tiger near the river. He happened to be holding a juicy fish, a rare catch for this time of year. Thagaval had to leave the fish behind, using it to distract the saber-toothed tiger while he made his escape. “Is there no end to human suffering?”1 Now, he sat in his earthen cave, waiting until he could venture out again in search of the food, he craved so badly. Impatiently, he carved at a stone when something strange happened: brightly glowing particles flew from the stone into his bedding of hay and got trapped there. With a gentle breeze, the small particles multiplied, and something magical, shining red, emerged from the hay where only sparks had been before. Thagaval marveled and reached out his hand. He quickly withdrew it as the searing heat nearly burnt his skin. His hay bedding slowly vanished into the fire that Thagaval had unknowingly discovered, becoming the world's first man to do so. His bedding grew smaller, and the fire grew larger, because “In such cases rapid fire is the best.”2. This made Thagaval anxious and angry, and he waved his hands to drive the fire away. However, it seemed to have the opposite effect, as the fire raged beneath his movements, growing even hotter and larger, “violence is like a raging fire that feeds on the very objects intended to smother its flames”3. Bewildered and somewhat desperate, Thagaval gazed into the flames. The flames... so interessting. He had never seen anything like it. A creature that breathed the air in his cave, responding to every stimulus, causing its flames to flicker and sway. It grew and propagated by transforming one piece of hay after another into flames, “first, according to the same species; as man is generated by man, and fire by fire.”4 “Fire is a living being.”5, much like Thagaval himself. So, he sat before the fire, watching the entity. What was once anger transformed into tranquility as he got lost in the gently moving flames.
"In silence, we find our true self and the wisdom that rests within us."6
Thagaval's cave provided him with security, stability, and silence. All of which he needed in his daily life filled with stress and dangers. It was made of compacted earth and situated on a hill near a river, a river whose flow he regularly heard, just as he heard the wind rustling, at times seeming to get caught in his cave before eventually seeking the outside world. He had never perceived all these sensations as intensely as he did in this moment with the fire. “Air not only passes into fire, but it is never without fire.”7 He listened to the crackling and rustling, smelled the burnt hay, sensed the warm earth on which the fire burned. He felt the solid ground beneath him, with which he seemed to merge, “which is the translation of remaining tranquil.”8 His breath became serene and rhythmic, mirroring the very breath of the fire. "The secret of breathing lies in that it opens the door to a space we have never left and from which we have never been separated."9
1 Carter, Shaking A Leg
2 Frederick the Great, On the Art of War
3 Girard, Violence and the Sacred
4 Aquinas, Summa Theologica
5 Grimm, Teutonic Mythology The Complete Work
6 Buddha
7 Seneca, Complete Works
8 Hugo, Les Miserables
9 Buddha
Whan Tajo was born
The blazing fire in its physical form was so captivating that Thagaval couldn't tear his eyes away. Instead, he became more engrossed in the dancing movements that appeared to respond to his breath. But not just to him; the fire also responded to the cave's stillness, the gentle breeze flowing through it, and the sounds of the river's flowing water outside the cave. “All things are in exchange with fire; fire is their cosmic legal tender, as it were”10. The fire disrupted the cave's silence and stability, but then again “clay is hardened by the action of the selfsame fire that softens wax”11. So it also completed its surroundings, offering what Thagaval needed to realize that he already possessed everything. “For the natural man happiness is as simple as his life; it consists in the absence of pain”12.
Thus, the fire became Tajo, no longer a fire of suffering but a transformative and purifying fire. “Fire expresses an intense transformation process.”13 It originated with Thagaval as fuel, with Thagaval's breath providing oxygen for Tajo to thrive, and finally with Thagaval's motivation as the ignition source. “All things, Heaven, Earth, the elements, our bodies and our souls are in one accord: we simply have to find how to use them.”14
Becoming one with the elements
Thagaval sat motionless before the fire. Had he become one with Tajo? “He is full of fire.”15 “and (…) is it fire, or even brighter than fire”16? Together, they have created a new space within the cave, Akasa, vast and limitless, away from the physical world from which they originated. To create this space, they required Pattavi, the earth, they also needed Apo, the water and Vayo, the air. All of these elements taught Thagaval different lessons to help him on his ongoing journey in life. Finally they needed Tajo, the fire, that helped Thagaval transform and purify himself from all the negativity and desires; from Dukka, which “is to consume, and especially as fire consumes”17. It would have been hard for Thavagal to explain it all, “thus it is not earth, air, fire, or water; rather, it is invisible and characterless, all receiving, partaking in some very puzzling way of the intelligible and very hard to apprehend”18.
The "Cave" in Gomde - “My inner fire is here, not anywhere else.”19
Thagaval became what one can describe as "enlightened." He lived only in the present. All moments were present, and the past and future were illusions. Yet, anyone who wishes to encounter Tajo can still find the cave. It is located in a tranquil place, close to the water, with its walls made of solid earth. Inside the cave, you too hear the rushing and splashing of water and the wind while losing yourself in
10 Krell, The Sea A Philosophical Encounter
11 Grotius, Commentary on the Law of Prize and Booty
12 Rousseau, Collected Works of Jean-Jacques Rousseau
13 Jung, Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious
14 de Montaigne, The Complete Essays
15 Hugo, Les Miserables
16 Seneca, Complete Works
17 Calvin, Harmony of the Law Vol 2
18 Hays, Architecture Theory since 1968
19 Hofstadter, I Am a Strange Loop
the flickering flames and sparks of the fire. You smell wood and warm earth, you hear the crackling and rustling in the flames. "Fire is thermal, visceral and auditory.”20 So, as you sit before the fire, you release all stress, fear, and desires. “Moments are the elements of profit.”21 You replace Dukka with Tajo. You replace the abused fire, which is nowadays seen only for its destructive, energetic power: “Technology is always based on fire”22 and “in war, fire is an arm as legitimate as any.”23 You will bring back the meaning of fire, which is the deep connection all humans have had with it ever since it first appeared in our world. Finally you create a new space, Akasa, within the cave. You become the architect of your boundless freedom. And you can share this experience. “He who feels his heart inflamed with this celestial fire strives to diffuse it, and wishes to show what he internally is.”24
20 Koolhaas, Elements of Architecture
21 Marx, Collected Works
22 Asimov, Complete Robot Anthology
23 Marx, Collected Works
24 Rousseau, Collected Works of Jean-Jacques Rousseau