Sermon At Benares Essay, Research Paper

The Sermon at Benares

Bill Conway 3-4-97 Rel 103 3:00

1.The two extremes in which the Buddha speaks of are: that conjoined with

the passions and luxury, low, vulgar, common, ignoble and useless. The second

is: that conjoined with self-torture, painful, ignoble, and useless. The

avoidance of these two extremes is the path to enlightenment of the middle path

as the Buddha had. The middle path produces insight and knowledge, and tends to

calm, to higher knowledge, enlightenment, Nirvana. 2. The Buddha speaks of

four noble truths. They are as follows: 1) The noble truth of suffering. 2) The

noble truth of cause of suffering. 3) The noble truth of the cessation of

suffering, the cessation without a remainder of craving, the abandonment,

forsaking, release, non-attachment. 4) The noble truth of the way that leads to

the cessation of suffering. 3.The eight-fold path is namely, right views,

right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort,

right mindfulness, and right concentration. 4.Nirvana is the absolute

enlightenment that leads to purification of the soul. It is achieved through

the belief in the four noble truths and the action taken to use or follow them.

This all together provides enlightenment and the ultimate goal of reaching

Nirvana. Nirvana also means, you are at one with Buddha and have gained the

respect of him. Ultimately it is similar to the belief of heaven and God.