Setting in Motion the Wheel of Truth

the-first-discourse-of-buddha

The Book of Protection

By Venerable Piyadassi Thera

Setting in Motion the Wheel of Truth
(Dhammacakkappavattana-Sutta)(1) (The First Discourse of the Buddha)

(For seven weeks immediately following the enlightenment, the Buddha spent his time in lonely retreat. At the close of this period he decided to proclaim the doctrine (Dhamma), he had realized, to those five ascetics who were once struggling with him for enlightenment. Knowing that they were living at Isipatana (modern Sarnath), still steeped in the unmeaning rigours of extreme asceticism, the master left Gaya, where he attained enlightenment, for distant Varanasi, India's holy city. There at the Deer Park he rejoined them.)

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