This is a story from the Dhammpada while Buddha residing at the Jetavana Monastery.
The story goes that this monk obtained from the Teacher a meditation topic leading to arahatship and retired to the forest. Although he strove and struggled with might and main, he was unable to attain arahatship. Thereupon he said to himself, I will ask the Buddha to give me a meditation topic better suited to my needs.” So he departed from his place of residence and set out to return to the Buddha.
On the way he saw a great forest fire raging. Accordingly he climbed up to the top of a bald mountain and sat down. As he watched the fire consume the forest, he concentrated his mind on the following thought, “Even as this fire advances, consuming all obstacles both great and small, so also ought I to advance, consuming all obstacles both great and small by the fire of knowledge of the noble path.”
The Buddha, even as he sat in his Perfumed Chamber, became aware of the course of his thoughts and spoke as follows, “Monk, this is precisely true. Even as fire consumes all obstacles both great and small, so also is it necessary with the fire of knowledge to consume and utterly destroy all attachments both small and great which arise within these living beings.” And sending forth a luminous image of himself, present, as it were, sitting face to face with that monk, he gave a stanza. At the conclusion of the stanza that monk, even as he sat there, consumed all the attachments and attained Arahatship, together with the Supernormal Faculties. And straightway, soaring through the air, he approached the Buddha, praising and glorifying the golden body of the Buddha. And when he had done him homage, he departed.
