Shortly after making the decision to teach, Buddha
surveyed the world in order to choose a place to begin
his teaching career. He decided to travel to Sarnath,
where his five former companions were still practicing
pointless austerities, hoping in this way to find
happiness.
The following excerpt purports to be Buddha's first
public teaching. It is referred to as the "Sutra
Turning the Wheel of Doctrine" because it set in
motion the Buddha's teaching career. In this passage,
he lays out some of the themes that would be central
to his later teachings, such as the importance of
following a "middle way" that avoids the extremes of
sensual indulgence and extreme asceticism, and the
"four noble truths": (1) that all mundane existence
involves
suffering; (2) that suffering is caused by desire; (3)
that there can be a cessation of suffering; and (4)
the eightfold noble path that leads to this cessation.
Thus have I heard: At one time, the Exalted One was
living near Varanasi, at Isipatana near the Deer Park.
Then the Exalted One spoke to the group of five monks:
These two extremes, O monks, should not be practiced
by one who has gone forth [from the household life].
What are the two? That which is linked with sensual
desires, which is low, vulgar, common, unworthy, and
useless, and that which is linked with self-torture,
which is painful, unworthy, and useless. By avoiding
these two extremes the Tathagata [Buddha] has gained
the knowledge of the middle path which gives vision
and knowledge, and leads to calm, to clairvoyances, to
enlightenment, to nirvana.
O monks, what is the middle path, which gives
vision...? It is the noble eightfold path: right
views, right intention, right speech, right action,
right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness,
right concentration. This, O monks, is the middle
path, which gives vision....
(1) Now this, O monks, is the noble truth of
suffering: birth is suffering, old age is suffering,
death is suffering, sorrow, grieving, dejection, and
despair are suffering. Contact with unpleasant things
is suffering, not getting what you want is also
suffering. In short, the five aggregates[19] of
grasping are suffering.
(2) Now this, O monks, is the noble truth of the
arising of suffering: that craving which leads
to rebirth, combined with longing and lust for this
and that--craving for sensual pleasure, craving for
rebirth, craving for cessation of birth.
(3) Now this, O monks, is the noble truth of the
cessation of suffering: It is the complete cessation
without remainder of that craving, the abandonment,
release from, and non-attachment to it.
(4) Now this, O monks, is the noble truth of the path
that leads to the cessation of suffering:
This is the noble eightfold path....
Now monks, as long as my threefold knowledge and
insight regarding these noble truths...were not well
purified, so long, O monks, I was not sure that in
this world...I had attained the highest complete
enlightenment.
But when my threefold knowledge and insight in these
noble truths with their twelve divisions were well
purified, then, O monks, I was sure that in this
world...I had attained the highest complete
enlightenment. Now knowledge and insight have arisen
in me, so that I know: My mind's liberation is
assured; this is my last existence; for me there is no
rebirth
http://online.anu.edu.au/asianstudies/textnotes/buddhism.html