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The First Sermon - The Dhammacakkapavattana-sutta

The First Sermon of the Buddha was delivered to a groupf of five, panca-vaggiya. Members of the groupf of five were counsellors of King Suddhodhana, the father of the Buddha; they became ascetics even before Siddhattha Gotama, the Buddha, himself. They looked after him for six years when he was practising various types of practices well known in India at that time, including severely self-torturing oneself. The groupf of five deserted the would-be Buddha when he abandoned the practice of self-mortification. Soon after his enlightenment, the Buddha walked some distance from Buddhagaya to Saranath, Baranasi to help his former friends free themselves from suffering. This historic place is just a few miles outside the present city, Baranasi. The Deer Park is still there. A very big ancient pagoda, Dhammekha Cetiya, is next to the Deer Park.

The First Sermon threfore primarily focusses on how to liberate oneself from problem in life, the chief of it is termed as "dukkha", suffering. (Please read the sutta how suffering is defined.)

To reduce and then free oneself permanently from problem/suffering, the Buddha said that it was vital that we avoid two extreme positions in our thinking and practice. They are self-indulgence and self-torture. (Please see the Sutta how the two positions are described.)

Only once one has avoided "both extremes", can one find a way to end problems in life. That path is called a middle path (majjhima-patipada). Let us repeat ourselves here that in order to find a middle path, one needs to abandon both mutually-excluding extremes, not by compromising between them. (Please see the Sutta how a middle path can be constructed by oneself.) It is by acquiring and developing the eight factors, called noble eight factors, a middle way is constructed by individuals.

The heart of the First Sermon is the formula that logically explains suffering and its cause. This formula is called the Four Noble Truths: suffering; its cause (attachment); the end of suffering; and the way to the end of suffering. (Please read the sutta how the Four Truths are discussed in details.)

The formula is famously described as being similar to a physician treating his patient. The physician has to acknowledge that the patient is suffering. He also has to help his patient to psychologically accept that fact: he has a problem.

Based on that acceptance, both physician and patient continue to discuss the symptoms. The need to understand symptoms is similar to the need to understanding "dukkha", the first of the Four Truths.

Next, the physician has to find out the causes of those symptoms. This is like finding out the causes of dukkha in one's own mind. The first and the second truths are related to each other as effect and cause respectively: the first being effect, and the second being cause.

Third, once the causes are discovered, there is the beginning of the end to "dukkha". There is hope, or even expectation, that the patient can be cured.

To achieve the ends, a treatment is to be applied. That treament is the Noble Eightfold Path. Please read carefully the fight factors.

The first of the eight factors, i.e. Right Understanding & Right Thought, are intellectual. We see how important it is to get one's thinking and understanding right.

Nos. 3, 4,and 5 factors, i.e. Right Speech, Right Action & Right Livelihood, are ethical. They deal with moral behaviours in daily life.

The last three factors, i.e. Right Effort, Right Mindfulness & Right Concentration, are made to help us develop psychologically.

Now read the sutta carefully, especailly regarding parts dealing with the Four Truths. You will see that each of the Four Truths has three aspects: a statement of what it is; how to deal with it; and the verification of how each truth has been dealt with. Read it and think about it again and again until you understand the three aspects. They are the most important part of this sutta.

The Buddha said the understanding of all the three aspects of these Four Truths (3x4=12) determines if one has achieved enlightenment (samma-sambodhi).

The Four Truths are always there; but their realisation can only be first achieved by the Buddha. Never before has it been heard.

You will see in the passages the reputation of this realisation by the Buddha spreading in both human and celestial worlds.

The sutta helped one of the five in the audience clear his view and mind. A realisation was internalised by Kondannya, the youngest of the five, at the end of this Frist Sermon. He achieved the the first step of ariya, a living sainthood in the Buddhist tradition.

Having explained 1. the danger of the two extreme positions; 2. the benefit of the middle path; 3. and the three aspects of each of the Four Truths, the Buddha declared that he had taught everything needed to end problems in life.

Please read the sutta in translation at least five times. Please take some intervals in between. And then post your questions on this forum. I will try my best to discuss them.

Do not forget to do chanting of this holy sutta in Pali either individually or as a group.