THE BUDDHA

FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS

1. Existence of Sorrow
2. Cause of Sorrow
3. Cessation of Sorrow
4. Way which leads to the cessation of Sorrow

FIVE PRECEPTS

1. Abstain from killing
2. Abstain from stealing
3. Abstain from adultery
4. Abstain from lying
5. Abstain from liquor

EIGHT FOLD PATH

1. Right Understanding (free from superstition and delusion)
2. Right Thought (high and worthy of the intelligent)
3. Right Speech (kindly, open and truthful)
4. Right Actions (peaceful, honest and pure)
5. Right Livelihood (not bringing hurt or danger to living beings)
6. Right Effort (in self-training and in self-control)
7. Right Mindfulness (active watchful mind)
8. Right Concentration (in deep meditation on the realities of life)

ACTS OF MERIT

1. Give charity to the deserving
2. Observe the percepts of morality
3. Cultivate and develop good thoughts
4. Render service and attend on others
5. Honour and nurse parents and elders
6. Give a share of ur merits to others
7. Accept the merits that others give u
8. Hear the doctrine of righteousness
9. Preach the doctrine of righteousness
10. Rectify ur faults

THE FIRST SERMON at Sarnath

• He who recognizes the existence of suffering, its cause, its remedy and its cessation, has fathomed the Four Noble Truths. He will walk in the right path.
• Right views will be the torch to light his way. Right aims will be his guide. Right words will be his dwelling-place on the road. His gait will be straight, for it is the right behaviour. His refreshments will be the right way of earning his livelihood. Right efforts will be his steps; Right thoughts his breath; and peace will follow in his footprints.
• Whatsoever is originated will be dissolved again. All worry about the self is vain; the ego is like mirage and all the tribulations that touch it will pass away. They will vanish like the nightmare when the sleeper awakes.
• He who has awakened, is freed from fear, he has become Buddha; he knows the vanity of all his cares, his ambitions, and also of his pains
• Happy is he who has overcome all selfishness; happy is he who has attained peace and happy is he who has found the truth.
• Truth is noble and sweet; truth can deliver u from the evil. There is no saviour in the world except the truth.
• Have confidence in truth, although u may not able to comprehend it, although u may suppose its sweetness to be bitter, although u may shrink from it at first. Trust in Truth.
• Lead a holy life for the extinction of suffering.

MEDITATIONS

There are five meditations;
1. The first is meditation of love, in which u must so adjust ur heart, that u long for the weal and welfare of all beings, including the happiness of ur enemies.
2. The second is the meditation of pity, in which u think of all beings in distress, vividly representing their sorrows and anxieties in ur imagination so as to arouse a deep compassion for them in ur soul.
3. The third is the meditation of joy, in which u think of the prosperity of others and rejoice at the rejoicings.
4. The fourth is the meditation on impurity, in which u consider the evil consequences of corruption, the effects of sin and diseases. How trival often the pleasure of the moment and how fatal its consequences.
5. The fifth is the meditation on serenity, in which u rise about love and hate, tyranny and oppression, wealth and want, and regard ur own fate with impartial calmness and perfect tranquility.

FOUR DHYANAS

1. The first is seclusion, in which u must free ur mind from sensuality.
2. The second is a tranquility of mind full of joy and gladness.
3. The third is taking delight in things spiritual.
4. The fourth is a state of perfect purity and peace, in which mind is above all gladness and grief. Be sober and abandon wrong practices which serve only to stultify ur mind.

Four means for dominating of spirit over matter

1. Prevent bad qualities from arising.
2. Put away bad qualities which has arisen.
3. Produce goodness that does not yet come to existence.
4. Search with sincerity and persevere in ur search. In the end, u will find the truth.


Tirumalanath

tirumalanath.neelaiagari@gmail.com