Buddha's first sermon
I was to write a detailed “thesis” on the first sermon of Buddha, instead I decided to write a summary.
Derived from the original text, is the essence of Buddha’s first sermon.
The First Sermon:
Life is suffering; Birth is suffering; decay is suffering; illness is suffering; death is suffering. Presence of objects we hate, is suffering; separation from objects we love, is suffering; not to obtain what we desire, is suffering. In short… clinging to existence is suffering.
The cause for all suffering is the craving for pleasure, prosperity and existence and the same may be caused to cease by giving up every passion and every desire.
The Truth of the Path which leads to the cessation of suffering is the eightfold Path: Right Belief, Right Aspiration, Right Speech, Right Conduct, Right Means of Livelihood, Right Endeavor, Right Memory and Right Meditation.
I was very tempted to replace the word “right” by “simple” from the above text which would have taken away the “judgment” part from the world “right”, but I leave it to my readers to do that, if they so please
posted by Unknown @ Thursday, September 28, 2006
5 Comments:
Thanks for the First sermon. I heard that most of Buddha's teachings are in Pali. Do you read Pali?
Dear Uma,
I wish I did.
Unfortunately I had to depend upon many versions of trnaslated texts in English to create my own interpretation.
That's also the reason that I suggested the replacement of "right" with "simple" 'cause I suspect Buddha must have meant "simple" in Pali.
I heard it recited by Goenkaji in Pali. In Pali "Samma" is used as in Samma-samadhi . I guess Samma is translated as 'Right'.
Dear uma,
Hon. Goenkaji is a very learned man. I am not.
I wish I could ask him.
some translate Samma or Samyak as perfect, complete, full, because the word right can have different interpretations, it can mean differently for different people.
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