Tagged: Isipatana
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6. Pañcavaggiyakathā (The Account of the Group of Five)
1After realising his first two choices for teaching the Dhamma had passed away, the Buddha (Bhagavā) decided to teach the group of five ascetics who had previously attended him. Journeying to Bārāṇasī, he encountered Upaka, to whom he declared his supreme enlightenment and status as a teacherless Arahant. The five ascetics were initially skeptical of the Buddha, whom they perceived as having reverted to luxury, but he convinced them of his attainment. He then delivered his first discourse, "Setting the Wheel of Dhamma in Motion," teaching them the Middle Way (`Majjhimā Paṭipadā`) which avoids the extremes of sensual indulgence and self-mortification, and the Four Realisations (`caturāriyasaccāni`): suffering, its origin in craving, its cessation, and the path to its cessation: `Ariyo Aṭṭhaṅgiko Maggo` (the Noble Eightfold Path). Koṇḍañña was the first to gain the `dhammacakkhu` (insight into the Dhamma), understanding that whatever is subject to origination is subject to cessation, followed by the other four, all of whom were then ordained. Subsequently, the Buddha taught them the second discourse - the doctrine of anattā (not-self) in relation to the `pañcupādānakkhandhā` or Five Collections (form, feeling, perception, mental formations, consciousness), leading to all five ascetics achieving liberation as Arahants.
7. Pabbajjākathā (The Account of the Going Forth)
2Yasa, a wealthy young man, experiences profound revulsion at his life of sensual pleasure, exclaiming "Oh, what affliction!" and leaves home, encountering the Bhagavā (Buddha). The Buddha teaches Yasa a gradual discourse followed by the Four Noble Truths, leading Yasa to attain the "dust-free, stainless `dhammacakkhu` (insight into the Dhamma)" and, after his father also hears the Dhamma, full liberation as an Arahant and ordination as a bhikkhu. Yasa's father, initially searching for him, is also taught by the Buddha, attains the `dhammacakkhu`, and becomes the first lay follower; Yasa's mother and former wife similarly become the first laywomen followers. Inspired by Yasa, his four closest friends and later about fifty more also seek out the Buddha, receive the same progressive instruction, attain the `dhammacakkhu`, are ordained, and achieve Arahantship, significantly expanding the early Saṅgha.