Who delivered the Sermon at Benares? What did he preach?
The Buddha delivered his first Sermon at Benares. He preached his understanding and wisdom about the inscrutable kind of sufferings that people undergo when they experience the deaths of their near and dear ones. He preached not to grieve but, to be peaceful and free from sorrow.
Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:
The Buddha said: “The life of mortals in this world is troubled and brief and combined with pain. For there is not any means by which those that have been born can avoid dying; after reaching old age there is death; of such a nature are living beings. As ripe fruits are early in danger of falling so mortals when born are always in danger of death.
1. What according to Buddha is the nature of human life on this earth?
2. Can the humans escape death?
3. Give the meaning of the word ‘avoid’.
Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow.
“Of those who, overcome by death, depart from life, a father cannot save his son, nor kinsmen their relations. Mark! while relatives are looking on and lamenting deeply, one by one mortals are carried off, like an ox that is led to the slaughter.
1. Can a father or a kinsman stop the death of any human?
2. How are the humans carried off?
3. How are the humans carried off?
Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:
So the world is afflicted with death and decay, therefore the wise do not grieve, knowing the terms of the world. “Not from weeping nor from grieving will anyone obtain peace of mind; on the contrary, his pain will be the greater and his body will suffer. He will make himself sick and pale, yet the dead are not saved by his lamentation.
1. Why do wise people do not grieve when there is a death?
2. Can our weeping or grieving have any benefit?
3. Given the meaning of the word ‘lamentation’.
Kisa Gotami again goes from house to house after she speaks with the Buddha. What does she ask for, the second time around? Does she get it? Why not?
How do you usually understand the idea of ‘selfishness’? Do you agree with Kisa Gotami that she was being ‘selfish in her grief ’?
Describe the early life of Siddhartha Gautama.
What moved Siddhartha? Why?
Why did Siddhartha go out into the world?
How did Siddhartha get enlightenment?
Or
How did Siddhartha become the Buddha?
What did the Buddha do after getting Enlightenment? Why?
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