Every year on 4th day of 6th Lunar month we celebrate the first teaching of Lord Buddha and an auspicious beginning of Buddhism
in the world.
Sarnath, the
blissful place that Lord Buddha propagated his First Sermon,
The Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta.
The Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta.
The story of the
Buddha's first sermon begins with the story of the Buddha's enlightenment. This
happened at Bodh Gaya under the Bodhi tree.
Before his
realization the future Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, had been traveling with five
companions, all ascetics. Together they had sought enlightenment through
extreme deprivation and self-mortification, fasting, sleeping on stones, living
outdoors with little clothing in the belief that making themselves suffer would
cause a spiritual.
Siddhartha Gautama
eventually realized that enlightenment would be found through mental
cultivation, not through punishing his body, when he gave up ascetic practices
to prepare himself for meditation, his five companions left him in disgust.
After his
awakening, the Buddha remained at Bodh Gaya for a time and considered what to
do next. What he had realized was so far outside ordinary human experience or
understanding that he wondered how he could explain it. According to one
legend, the Buddha did describe his realization to a wandering holy man, but
the man laughed at him and walked away.
Yet as great as the
challenge was, the Buddha was too compassionate to keep what he had realized to
himself. He decided that there was a way he could teach people to realize for
themselves what he had realized.
The Buddha's first
sermon after his enlightenment is preserved in the Pali Sutta-pitaka (Samyutta
Nikaya 56.11) as the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta, which means "The Setting
in Motion of the Wheel of Dharma." In Sanskrit the title is Dharmacakra
Pravartana Sutra.
Lord Buddha after
attaining enlightenment at Bodh Gaya, went to Sarnath, Veranasi and it was here
that he preached his first discourse in the deer park to set in motion the
'Wheel of the Dharma'.
It is one of the
most holy sites for Buddhist as in this place the stream of the Buddha's
teaching first flowed.
At this place, the
Buddha encountered the five men who had been his companions of earlier
austerities. They deserted Buddha as he took rice meal offered by Sujita. When
they reminded him of his former vows, the Buddha replied,
"Austerities
only confuse the mind. In the exhaustion and mental stupor to which they lead,
one can no longer understand the ordinary things of life, still less the truth
that lies beyond the senses. I have given up extremes of either luxury or
asceticism. I have discovered the Middle Way".
Hearing this the
five ascetics became the Buddha's first disciples. This was said to be on a
full moon day of the eighth lunar month.
This sets the scene
for one of the most auspicious events in Buddhist history, the first turning of
the dharma wheel.
He explained the
middle way, which avoids extremes, the Four Noble Truths, and prescribed the
Eight-fold path.
The Four Noble
Truths are:
1. There is suffering;
2. Suffering has a cause;
3. The cause is removable, and
2. Suffering has a cause;
3. The cause is removable, and
4. There are ways
to remove the causes.
So as to remove the
causes the Buddha prescribed an Eight-fold Path:
1.
Right
speech,
2.
Right
action,
3.
Right
livelihood,
4.
Right
effort,
5.
Right
mindfulness,
6.
Right
concentration,
7.
Right
attitude and
8.
Right
view.
On the day before
his death Buddha included Sarnath along with Lumbini, Bodh Gaya and Kushinagar
as the four places he thought to be sacred to his followers.
The Emperor Ashoka,
who spread the Buddha’s message of love and compassion throughout his vast
empire, visited Sarnath around 234 BC, and erected a stupa here. Several Buddhist
structures were raised at Sarnath between the 3rd century BC and the 11th
century AD, and today it presents the most expansive ruins amongst places on
the Buddhist trail.
Thereafter,
Buddhism than flourished far and wide and Lord Buddha's teaching in total was
recorded over 84,000 pages.
May Buddha Dharma
flourishes in the world and bring peace that ultimately benefits all sentient
beings.
Happy
Drub Tshezhi.
