Buddha's Gospel

Early Buddhist Gospel

"And the Blessed One thus addressed the five Bhikkhus [ascetics]. 'There are two extremes, O Bhikkhus, which he who has given up the world, ought to avoid. What are the two pleasures? A life given to pleasures, devoted to pleasures and lusts; this is degrading, sensual, vulgar, ignoble, and profitless; and life given to mortifications; this is painful, ignoble, and profitless. By avoiding these two extremes, O Bhikkus, the Tathagata [one who arrived at the Truth] has gained knowledge of the Middle Path which leads to insight, which leads to wisdom which conduces to calm, to knowledge, to the Sambodhi [total enlightenment], to Nirvana.

'Which, O Bhikkhus, is the Middle Path the knowledge of which the Tathagata has gained? It is the Holy Eightfold path, namely Right Belief [that is understanding the truth about the universality of suffering and knowing the paths leading to its extinction], Right Aspiration [that is a mind free of ill will, sensuous desires, and cruelty], Right Speech [that is abstaining from lying, harsh language, and gossip], Right Conduct [that is avoiding killing, stealing, and unlawful sexual intercourse], Right Means of Livelihood [that is avoiding occupations that brings harm directly or indirectly to any other living being], Right Endeavor [that is avoiding unwholesome and evil things], Right Memory [that is awareness in contemplation], and Right Meditation [that is concentration that ultimately reaches the level of a trance]. This, O Bhikkhus, is the Middle Path.

'This, O Bhikkhus, is the Noble Truth of Suffering. Birth is suffering; decay is suffering; illness is suffering; death is suffering. Presence of objects we hate is suffering; Separation from objects we love is suffering; not to obtain what we desire is suffering. Briefly, ... clinging to existence is suffering.

'This, O Bhikkhus, is the Noble Truth of the Cause of Suffering: Thirst, that leads to rebirth, accompanied by pleasure and lust, finding its delight here and there. This thirst is threefold, namely, thirst for pleasure, thirst for existence, thirst for prosperity.

'This, O Bhikkhus, is the Noble Truth of the Cessation of Suffering: it ceases with the complete cessation of this thirst - a cessation which consists in the absence of every passion - with the abandoning of this thirst, with the doing away with it, with the deliverance from it, with the destruction of desire.

'This, o Bhikkhus, is the Noble Truth of the Path which leads to the cessation of suffering: that Holy Eightfold Path.

/ ASSIGNMENT /

Source:T.W. Rhys Davids and Hermann Oldenberg, tans., Vinaya Texts, in F. Max Mueller, ed., The Sacred Books if the East, (Oxford; Clarendon Press, 1879- 1910), vol., 13, 94-97, 100-102.

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