The Buddha's first sermon

5. The Buddha’s first sermon

After the Enlightenment, the Buddha resolved to teach to others the understanding he had achieved. He decided to address first a group of five monks with whom he had once practiced severe austerities:
Then I thought, “Where do the five monks dwell?” And with my divine vision, I saw the five monks dwelling at Benares in the deer park. So I made my way to Benares. . . . The five monks saw me coming from afar, and decided among themselves, “This, friends, is Gautama coming, who lives in abundance, who has given up exertion. We must not greet him.” But the five monks were not able to hold to their decision. I said “Give ear, monks, I instruct, I teach the Doctrine. If you walk according to the teaching . . . you will learn, realize, and attain the goal of a religious life and abide in it.”*

*Adapted from Edward J. Thomas’s 1927 translation of an ancient Buddhist text.