In his first preaching, the Buddha said,”I teach one thing and something just: suffering and completion of suffering,” which is the ultimate objective of Buddhism.
The Buddha presented and discussed this really teaching in his significant discourses. The teachings have actually broadened and developed given that the Buddha’s time, thanks to his closest disciples. Yet the doctrine still underlies the core Buddhist teachings. In his first preaching at Deer Park, he taught the 4 Noble Truths: the presence of suffering, the cause of suffering, that the reason for suffering can end, and the course to the end of suffering.
The Buddha was once residing in the Deer Park at the Resort of Seers (Isipatana) near Baranasi Forest. And that is where he offered his first preaching to the group of 5 monks.
What He Stated
In the very first preaching, the Buddha alerts these monks over severe dedication to the extravagance of sense-pleasures in addition to self-mortification:
“Bhikkhus (monks), these 2 extremes ought not to be practiced by one who has gone forth from the home life. What are the two? There is dedication to the indulgence of sense-pleasures, which is low, common, the way of ordinary individuals, unworthy and unprofitable; and there is dedication to self-mortification, which hurts, unworthy and unprofitable.
“Avoiding both these extremes, the Tathagata (describing the Buddha himself) has realized the Middle Path: It provides vision, it provides knowledge, and it causes relax, to insight, to enlightenment, to Nirvana.
“And what is that Middle Path? It is just the Noble Eightfold Path, specifically, right view, right thought, ideal speech, ideal action, ideal livelihood, ideal effort, best mindfulness, best concentration. This is the Middle Path understood by the Tathagata, which offers vision, which provides knowledge, and which leads to calm, to insight, to enlightenment, to Nirvana.
The Noble Fact
“The Noble Truth of suffering (Dukkha) is this: Birth is suffering; aging is suffering; illness is suffering; death is suffering; sorrow and lamentation, pain, sorrow and anguish are suffering; association with the unpleasant is suffering; dissociation from the enjoyable is suffering; not to get what one desires is suffering– in brief, the 5 aggregates of attachment are suffering.
“The Noble Truth of the origin of suffering is this: It is this thirst which produces re-existence and re-becoming, bound up with enthusiastic greed. It discovers fresh pleasure now here and now there, namely, thirst for sense-pleasures; thirst for existence and becoming; and thirst for self-annihilation.
“The Noble Truth of the Cessation of suffering is this: It is the complete cessation of that extremely thirst, giving it up, renouncing it, emancipating oneself from it, separating oneself from it.
“The Noble Fact of the Path leading to the Cessation of suffering is this: It is merely the Noble Eightfold Course, particularly right view, right thought, ideal speech, ideal action, best income, ideal effort, right mindfulness, best concentration.”
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