Page 7 - Suffering

* * * * *

Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta

The core teachings of Gautama Buddha is in the first sermon,
the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta
The Setting in Motion of the Wheel of the Dhamma or
Promulgation of the Law Sutta.

The Buddha after he attained enlightenment, remained silent for
forty-nine days after which he journeyed to the Deer Park at Isipatana
[modern day Sarnath, India] to visit his five former companions, the
ascetics with whom he had shared six years of hardship. His former
companions were at first suspicious of the Buddha, thinking he had
given up his search for the truth when he renounced their ascetic ways.
But upon seeing the radiance of the Buddha, they requested him to
teach what he had learned.
Thereupon the Buddha delivered his first sermon.

The main topic of this sutta is the Four Noble Truths,
which refer to and express the basic orientation of Buddhism
in a formulaic expression.
This sutta also refers to the Buddhist concepts of the Middle Way,
impermanence, and dependent origination in the Noble Eightfold Path.

Gautama Buddha ended his sermon with this statement:
“Now this, monks, is the noble truth of stress:
Birth is stressful, aging is stressful, death is stressful;
sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair are stressful;
association with the unbeloved is stressful,
separation from the loved is stressful,
not getting what is wanted is stressful.
In short, the five aggregates of clinging are stressful.

* * * * *

7