The Sermon at Benares
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Meenu Sethi
Meenu Sethi

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The Sermon at Benares The Sermon at Benares

When her son dies, Kisa Gotami goes from house to house. What does she ask for? Does she get it? Why not?
Kisa Gotami goes from house to house in her grief asking them for a medicine so as to revive her child. No, she does not get it as people thought she had lost her senses since her boy was dead.
Kisa Gotami again goes from house to house after she speaks with the Buddha. What does she ask for? Does she get it? Why not?
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What does Kisa Gotami understand the second time that she failed to understand the first time? Was this what Buddha wanted her to understand?
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Why do you think Kisa Gotami understood this only the second time? In what way did Buddha change her understanding?
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How do you usually understand the idea of selfishness? Do you agree with Kisa Gotami that she was being selfish in her grief?
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GAUTAMA Buddha (563 B.C.- 483 B.C.) began life as a prince named Siddhartha Gautama, in northern India. At twelve, he was sent away for schooling in the Hindu sacred scriptures and four years later he returned home to marry a princess. They had a son and lived for ten years as befitted royalty. a. Who was Gautama Buddha? b. What did Gautama Buddha study? c. Find the exact word from the extract which means 'people of royal family'.
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At about the age of twenty-five, the Prince, heretofore shielded from the sufferings of the world, while out hunting chanced upon a sick man, then an aged man, then a funeral procession, and finally a monk begging for alms. These sights so moved him that he at once went out into the world to seek enlightenment concerning the sorrows he had witnessed. a. Why did Gautama Buddha go out to seek enlightenment? b. What did Gautama Buddha see while hunting? c. Find the exact word from the extract which means 'a state of high spiritual knowledge'.
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He wandered for seven years and finally sat down under a peepal tree, where he vowed to stay until enlightenment came. Enlightened after seven days, he renamed the tree the Bodhi Tree and began to teach and to share his new understandings. At that point he became known as the Buddha. a. What was the name of the peepal tree under which Buddha sat? b. What did Buddha do while sitting under the tree? c. When did he get enlightenment and what did he do?
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The Buddha preached his first sermon at the city of Benares, most holy of the dipping places on the River Ganges; that sermon has been preserved and is given here. It reflects the Buddha's wisdom about one inscrutable kind of suffering. a. Where did Buddha preach his first sermon? b. What does the sermon preached by Buddha reflect? c. 'Find the exact word from the extract which means impossible to understand'.
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Poor Kisa Gotami now went from house to house, and the people pitied her and said, "Here is mustard-seed; take it!" But when she asked, "Did a son or daughter, a father or mother, die in your family?" they answered her, 'Alas! the living are few, but the dead are many. Do not remind us of our deepest grief." And there was no house but some beloved one had died in it. a. Why did Kisa Gotami travel from house to house? b. What did Kisa Gotami ask before taking the mustard seeds? c. Could she find what she was looking for?
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"Not from weeping nor from grieving will anyone obtain peace of mind; on the contrary, his pain will be the greater and his body will suffer. He will make himself sick and pale, yet the dead are not saved by his lamentation. He who seeks peace should draw out the arrow of lamentation, and complaint, and grief." a. Who said these lines? b. How can a person seek peace? c. Find the exact word from the text which means 'to express sadness about something'.
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Why did Prince Siddhartha leave the palace and become a beggar?
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What do you know about the early life of Buddha?
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Where did Buddha preach his first sermon?
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How did Kisa Gotami realise that life and death is a process?
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What was the effect of the sufferings of the world on Buddha?
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According to Kisa Gotami what is the greatest grief of life?
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Why was Kisa Gotami sad? What did she do in her hour of grief?
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What were the teachings of Buddha?
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