First Sermon of Buddha - The Middle Path

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Shankaram Siva ShankaramMany parallels exist between the legendary lives of the

Mahavira (the founder of the Indian philsophy of Jainism) and the Buddha, and several of

their teachings are strikingly similar. Each rejected the special sanctity of (the Old

Indian) Vedic literature, and each denied the meaningfulness of caste distinctions and

duties. Yet a close investigation of their doctrines reveal substantial differences.

Like the Mahavira, young Prince Siddhartha Gautama, shrinking in horror at the many

manifestations of misery in this world, fled his comfortable life and eventually became an

ascetic. Where, however, the Mahavira found victory over karma in severe self-denial and

total nonviolence, Prince Gautama found only severe disquiet. The ascetic life offered him

no enlightenment as to how one might escape the sorrows of mortal existence. After

abandoning extreme asceticism in favor of the Middle Path of self-restraint, Gautama

achieved Enlightenment in a flash while meditating under a sacred pipal tree. He was now

the Buddha.

Legend tells us he then proceeded to share the path to Eulightenment by preaching a

sermon in a deer park at Benares in northeastern India to five ascetics, who became his

first disciples. Buddhists refer to that initial sermon as "Setting in Motion the

Wheel of the Law," which means that the Buddha had embarked on a journey (turning the

wheel) on behalf of the law of Righteousness (dharma).

The following document is a reconstruction of that first sermon Although composed at

least several centuries after Siddhartha Gautama's death it probably contains the essence

of what the Buddha taught his earliest disciples

 

 

 

 

SETTING IN MOTION THE WHEEL OF THE LAW

And the Blessed one thus addressed the five Bhikkhus [monks]. ' "There are

two extremes, O Bhikkhus, which he who has given up the world, ought to avoid. What are

rhese two extremes'? A life given to pleasures, devoted to pleasures and lusts: this is

degrading, sensual, vulgar, ignoble, and profitless; and a life given to rnortifications:

this is painful, ignoble, and profitless. By avoiiding these two extremes, O Bhikkhus, the

Tathagata [a title of Buddha meaning perhaps "he who has arrived at the

truth"] has gained the knowledge of the Middle Path which leads to insight, which

leads to wisdom which conduces to calm, to knowledge, co the Sambodhi [total

enlightenment], to Nirvana [state of release from samsara, the cycle of existence

and rebirth].

The Eightfold Path

"Which, O Bhikkhus, is this Middle Path the knowledge of which the Tathagata has

gained, which leads to insight, which leads to wisdom, which conduces to calm, to

knowledge, to the Sambodhi, to Nirvana? It is the Holy Eightfold Path, namely,

Right Belief [understanding the truth about the universality of suffering and

knowing the path to its extinction],

Right Aspiration [a mind free of ill will, sensuous desire and cruelty],

Right Speech [abstaining from lying, harsh language and gossip],

Right Conduct [avoiding killing, stealing and unlawful sexual intercourse],

Right Means of Livelihood [avoiding any occupation taht brings harm directly or

indirectly to any other living being],

Right Endeavor [avoiding unwholsome and evil things],

Right Memory [awareness in contemplation],

Right Meditation. [concentration that ultimately reaches the level of a trance],

 

This, O Bhikkhus, is the Middle Path the knowledge of which the Tathagata has gained,

which leads to insight, which leads to wisdom, which conduces to calm, co knowledge, to

the Sambodhi, to Nirvana.

The Four Noble Truths

"This, O Bhikkhus, is the Noble Truth of Suffering: Birch is suffering; decay is

suffering; illness is suffering; death is suffering. Presence of objects we hate, is

suffering; Separation from objects wc love, is suffering; not to obtain what we desire, is

suffering. Briefly,... clinging to existence is suffering.

"This, O Bhikkhus, is the Noble Truth of the Cause of suffering Thirst, which

leads to rebirth, accompanied by pleasure and lust, finding its delight here and there.

This thirst is threefold, namely, thirst for pleasure, thirst for existence, thirst for

prosperity.

"This, O Bhikkhus, is the Noble Truth of the Cessation of suffering: it ceases

with the complete cessation of this thirst, -- a cessation which consists in the absence

of every passion with the abandoning of this thirst, with doing away with it, with the

deliverance from it, with the destruction of desire.

"This, O Bhikkhus, is the Noble Truth of the Path which leads to the cessation of

suffering: that Holy Eightfold Path, that is to say, Right Belief, Right Aspiration, Right

Speech, Right Conduct, Right Means of Livelihood, Right Endeavor, Right Memory, Right

Meditation....

"As long, O Bhikkhus, as I did not possess with perfect purity this true knowledge

and insight into these four Noble Truths... so long, O Bhikkhus, I knew that I had not yet

obtained the highest, absolute Sambodhi in the world of men and gods....

"But since I possessed, O Bhikkhus, with perfect purity this true knowledge and

insight into these four Noble Truths... then I knew, O Bhikkhus, that I had obtained the

highest, universal Sambodhi....

"And this knowledge and insight arose in my mind: "The emancipation of my

mind cannot be lost; this is my last birth; hence I shall not be born again!"

 

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