Asalha Puja: Buddha's first sermon



(Bodhi Tree, circa 1810)

In many Western seminaries, students practice long and hard to get their sermons “just right.”  They study other people’s sermons, work on voice projection, stare at the clock on the wall so they don’t get nervous, and so on.

Buddha practiced long and hard also.  First he practiced what didn’t work (the two extremes of depravity and asceticism), then he practiced what did (meditation, through which he discovered the Middle Path of self-restraint).

Asalha Puja honors the Enlightenment that Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha) received while meditating under the Bodhi Tree in Bodh Gaya.  It also honors the generosity with which Buddha shared this wisdom.  This sharing began at Sarnath (the Deer Park) with five of his former monk companions approximately two months after Buddha's

Enlightenment.

Because there were no recording devices back then (other than the souls of these monks), an exact transcript

of this first Buddhist sermon does not exist.  Paul Halsall, a former Brooklyn College professor of Chinese Studies, therefore presented what seems to be a reasonable facsimile.  In his article titled Buddha:  First Sermon – The Middle Path (c. 6^th Century BCE), Halsall outlines the concepts with which Buddha set the wheel of Dharma in motion.

Halsall presents these opening words from Buddha:  There are two extremes, O Bhikkhus (monks), which he who has given up the world ought to avoid.  These are the aforementioned extremes of depravity and asceticism.  Giving up these two extremes leads to knowledge of the Middle Path, which in turn leads to wisdom, insight, calm, Enlightenment, and Nirvana (release from “the cycle of existence and rebirth”).

Outlines of the Holy Eightfold Path (Right Belief, Right Aspiration, Right Speech, Right Conduct, Right Means of Livelihood, Right Endeavor, Right Memory, and Right Meditation) and the Four Noble Truths (Presence of Suffering, Cause of Suffering, Cessation of Suffering, and Holy Eightfold Path) were then given.  This first sermon therefore provided a “roadmap” to Nirvana.

Resources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gautama_Buddha

http://acc6.its.brooklyn.cuny.edu/~phalsall/texts/bud-ser1.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodh_Gaya

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarnath

http://www.buddhamind.info/leftside/lifesty-2/asalha.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodhi_Tree

http://www.thebigview.com/buddhism/fourtruths.html

http://www.thebigview.com/buddhism/eightfoldpath.html

Copyright July 13, 2011 by Linda Van Slyke   All Rights Reserved