Early Monastic Buddhism v1.c15.1

v1.c15.1

In chapters II-V, we have discussed the religious beliefs of the pre-Buddhistic days and the criticism that Buddha made of the same; in the present and subsequent chapters we propose to review the ethics and doctrines as promulgated by the great Teacher. It is said that the topic of Buddha's first religious discourse, the *Dhammacakkappavattanasutta*,¹ was the Middle Path (*majjhimā paṭipadā*), which was so called because it kept itself clear of the two extremes, one being the life of worldly pleasures, perhaps pointing to the life led by the brāhmaṇas who believed in the efficacy of sacrifices and rituals, and the other being the life of austere asceticism resorted to by the non-brāhmanic orders like the Jainas and the Ājīvikas. In the 5th century B.C. when Buddha appeared on the scene, both forms of belief, viz., attainment of the *summum bonum* either by householders through sacrificial rituals or by ascetics through self-mortifications took a strong hold of the people's minds. In the *Aṅguttara-nikāya*² the former is called *āgaḷhā paṭipadā* and the latter *nijjhāmā paṭipadā*. To combat these two beliefs Buddha enunciated his *majjhimā paṭipadā* consisting of the practice of the eight-fold path and the comprehension of the four truths. The *majjhimā paṭipadā* is also explained philosophically as the teaching which establishes the hollowness of the extreme assertions about the ultimates like *asti* and *nāsti*, *śāśvata* and *aśāśvata*, *anta* and *ananta*.¹