After rejoicing for seven weeks in his bliss at having overcome all passions and having thus escaped the fruits if Karma, the Buddha made the following reflections:
“I have discovered this deep Doctrine which is difficult to understand, difficult to explore, this irrefutable and noble Kamma.”
But this mankind seeks pleasure, loves and cherishes pleasure, and this pleasure-seeking, pleasure-loving mankind such a thing is scarcely understandable. such a thing as being conditioned in certain ways, the conditioned Origination of things.
Also such things as the breaking up all composed things (Sankhara); the Rejection of all attachments, the Cessation of desire, the Change, the Dissolution, the Extinction of everything. If I would reveal the Dharma, yet people wouldn’t understand me, this would mean vain effort and futile exertion for me; “to proclaim the Dharma which I discovered with such hard and sustained effort to mankind filled with greed and hatred would be a lost and vain effort. Thus reflecting, ye brethren, my heart was inclined to remain inactive (apposukkata), inclined not to proclaim the Dharma”.
But the God Brahma Sahampati beseeched the Buddha to reveal the Dharma with following words: “O! May the exalted one expose the Dharma, may the exalted reveal the Dharma. There are beings of noble character who if they do not hear he Dharma will lose themselves. They will be able to understand the Dharma”.
So he Buddha out of loving-kindness and compassion to all beings gave in to god Brhma Sahampati and with his “Awakened Eye” searched the world. He then saw that there were beings of noble and others o bad character: witty and wit-less beings; gifted and non-gifted ones; Beings who could easily understand and who were show to understand, there were other beings who thought it evil to praise another world.
Finally the Buddha out of compassion to all beings was determined to reveal his teachings.
He first thought of his two teachers Alara Kalama and Uddhaka Ramaputta who would have easily understood the Dharma, but they had died, but his friends Kondanna, Bhaddiya, Vappa, Mahanama and Assaji (Five Ascetics/Panca Vaggi) are in Benares who once had practiced self-mortification with Him. The Buddha decided to must go there and talk to them. He went from Uruvela to Isipatana, the deer-park near Benares.
They saw him coming towards them and one said to another, "Look yonder! There is Gotama, the luxury-loving fellow who gave up fasting and fell back into a life of ease and comfort. Don’t speak to him or show him any respect. Let nobody go and offer to take his bowl or his robe. We’ll just leave a mat there for him to sit on if he wants to and if he does not, he can stand. Who is going to attend on a good-for-nothing ascetic like him"
However, as the Buddha came nearer and nearer, they began to notice that he had changed. There was something about him, something noble and majestic such as they had never seen before. And in spite of themselves, before they knew what they were doing, they forgot all they had agreed on. One hastened forward to meet him, and respectfully took his bowl and robe; another busily prepared a seat for him, while a third hurried off and brought him water to wash his feet.
After he had taken a seat the Buddha spoke to them and said "Austerities only confuse the mind. In the exhaustion and mental stupor to which they lead, one can no longer understand the ordinary things of life, still less the truth that lies beyond the senses. I have given up extremes of either luxury or asceticism. I have discovered the Middle Way".
And Buddha proclaimed for the first time the Dharma in a Discourse called ‘the Dhamma-Chakkappa-vattana-Sutta’ to five ascetics.
Gautama Buddha started teaching not to debate but for the advantage of and out of compassion for human beings. He explained the middle way which avoids extremes, the Four Noble Truths, and prescribed the Eight-fold path. The Four Noble Truths are: 1. There is suffering; 2. Suffering has a cause; 3. the cause is removable, and 4. There are ways to remove the causes. So as to remove the causes the Buddha prescribed an Eight-fold Path: Right speech, Right action, Right livelihood, Right effort, Right mindfulness, Right concentration, Right attitude and Right view.
Hearing these five ascetics became the Buddha's first disciples. Kondanna was the first to understand “the four Noble Truths” and became the Buddha’s first Disciple.
