Buddha's First Sermon - The Middle Path (c. 6th Century BCE)

from T.W. Rhys Davids and Herman Oldenberg, trans, Vinyaya
Texts, in F. Max Mueller, ed., The Sacred Books of the
East, 50 vols., (Oxford: Clarendon, 1879-1910), Vol 13.
pp. 94-97, 100-102 repr. in Alfred J. Andrea and James H. Overfield,
The Human Record: Sources of Global History, Vol 1,
2d. ed., (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1994), pp. 72-74

[Andrea Introduction] Many 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 these 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 Mortifications: this is painful, ignoble, and profitless.

By avoiding 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 that 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!< 


[Andrea]  QUESTIONS FOR ANALYSIS 

What is the Middle Path? Why is it the proper path to Enlightenment?
What are the Four Noble Truths? 
How has the Buddha reached the point of escaping the cycle
of rebirth?
How does one free oneself from this world? 
Is it correct to call Buddhism <world denying>?