The Great Physician

021. THE FIRST TURNING OF THE WHEEL

The Buddha was reunited with his five ascetic disciples in the deer park at Sarnath, where he delivered his first sermon, before all the living beings of the universe. The five disciples were immediately aware that they were now in the presence of a great being, a fully-fledged Buddha. The Buddha’s sermon covered the Middle Way (see pages 151–152), and the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path (see pages 25–32). The sermon is sometimes called “the first turning of the wheel of the Dharma” and is often represented by the deer and wheel.

022. THE WAY AND THE PATH

“Giving himself up to indulgence in sensual pleasure, the base, common, vulgar, unholy, unprofitable; and giving himself up to self-torment, the painful, unholy, unprofitable. Both these two extremes the Perfect One has avoided. He has found the Middle Way, which causes one to see and to know and which leads to peace, to discernment, to enlightenment, to nirvana. It is the Noble Eightfold Path, the way that leads to the extinction of suffering, namely right understanding, right thought, right speech, right bodily action, right livelihood, right effort, right awareness and right concentration.”

FROM THE PALI CANON

023. LEADING THE WAY

The Buddha continued to teach for 49 years. He addressed at their own level anyone who sought to listen, regardless of caste. Kings, princes and even murderers become his disciples, and many were led to liberation. Both men and women could be disciples, and were ordained and accepted into the monastic orders.

024. THE FIRE SERMON

"Some months after his enlightenment, while living at Gaya, the Buddha gave the famous fire sermon: “All is burning. And what is the all that is burning? Phenomena preceded by mind are afire with wanting, anger and delusion. By seeing the cause and abhorring such suffering, the noble disciple becomes calm. The storm abated, the disciple knows no longer does chaos need to be suffered.”

THE ADITTAPARIYAYA SUTTA

025. DEATH OF THE BUDDHA

The blacksmith Chunda donated a dish of food to the Buddha, who was then 80 years old. Sensing danger in the meat, the Buddha asked for it to be served to him alone and for the remaining food to be buried. He ate his meal, and soon became ill. Knowing that the time for his death was near, he lay on his right side with his head facing north.

026. LAST TEACHING

The Buddha’s last words were: “Impermanent are all compounded things. Strive on heedfully.”

027. THE FINAL JOURNEY

According to the Digha Nikaya, on his death the Buddha attained the four levels of meditative absorption and entered the sphere of infinite space, followed by the spheres of infinite consciousness, nothingness, and neither perception nor non-perception. Finally, he attained the end of feeling and perception, Parinirvana (final nirvana).