In short, the Buddha teaches how to realise true and lasting happiness, Nirvana:
“There is that sphere where there is neither earth, nor water, nor fire, nor wind; neither sphere of the infinitude of space, nor sphere of the infinitude of consciousness, nor sphere of nothingness, nor sphere of neither perception nor non-perception; neither this world, nor the next world, nor sun, nor moon. And there, I say, there is neither coming, nor going, nor stasis; neither passing away nor arising: without stance, without foundation, without support. This, just this, is the end of stress.”
[Ud VIII.1]
“Both formerly and now, it is only stress that I describe, and the cessation of stress.”
[SN XXII.86]
The importance afterwards attached to the accession of Gautama’s next convert is shown by the number of miraculous events which are said to have preceded it. Of these, the only possible historical basis is that in the solitudes of Uruwela there were three brothers named Kasyapa, fire worshippers and hermit philosophers, whose high reputation as teachers had attracted a considerable number of scholars. After Gautama had remained some time with them, the elder brother adopted his system, and at once took a principal place in the small body of believers. His brothers and their scholars followed his example; the first set discourse preached by Gautama to his new disciples is preserved in the Pitakas under the title Adittapariyaya Sutra (Sermon on the Lessons to be drawn from Burning).
This Sutra affords an excellent example of the method so often adopted by Gautama of creating his new doctrines by putting a new meaning into the religious ceremonies of the time, or into the common occurrences of life. The new disciples, who had been worshippers of Agni, the sacred fire, were seated with Gautama on the Elephant Rock near Gaya, with the beautiful valley of Rajagriha stretched out before them, when a fire broke out in the jungle on the opposite hill. Taking the fire as his text, the Teacher declared that as long as men remained in ignorance they were consumed by a fire of the excitement produced within them by external things. These things acted upon them through the five senses and the heart (which Gautama regarded as a sixth organ of sense). The eye, for instance, perceives objects: from this perception arises an inward sensation, producing pleasure or pain. Sensations produce this misery and joy, because they supply fuel to the inward fires of lust, anger, and ignorance, and the anxieties of birth, decay, and death. The same was declared to be the case with the sensations produced by each of the other senses. Those who follow the Buddha’s scheme of inward self-control, the four stages of the Path whose gate is purity and whose goal is love, have become wise. For them, sensations no longer give fuel to the inward fire, since the fires of lust, anger, and ignorance have ceased to burn. These true disciples are thus free from that craving thirst which is the origin of evil, and the wisdom they have acquired will lead them on to perfection; they are delivered from the miseries which would result from another birth. Moreover, in this birth they no longer need the guidance of such laws as those of caste and ceremonies and sacrifice, for they have already reached far beyond them.
81. Seated Buddhas, date unknown, Po Win Daung Caves, near Monywa, Burma.
82. Gautama Buddha lying on his right side in the final repose of death, date unknown, Chayamangkalaram Temple, Malaysia.
From Gaya, Gautama and his new disciples walked on towards Rajagriha. The city was still ruled by Bimbisara, the most powerful chieftain in the eastern valley of the Ganges, whose kingdom of Magadha extended about 160 kilometres south from the river Ganges, and 160 kilometres east from the river Sona. Both Gautama and Kasyapa were well known in the town, and when the raja came out to welcome the teachers, the crowd was uncertain which was the master and which the disciple. Gautama therefore asked Kasyapa why he had given up sacrificing to Agni. The latter saw the motive of the question, and replied that while some took pleasure in sights and sounds and taste and sensual love, and others in sacrifice, he had perceived that all these alike were worthless, and had given up sacrifices of any kind. Nirvana was a state of peace unattainable by men under the guidance of sense and passion, a rest destructive of transmigration, birth, decay, and death: a happy state to be reached by inward growth alone. Gautama is then said to have told the people a story about Kasyapa’s virtue in a former birth; seeing how impressed they were, he went on to explain to them the Four Noble Truths. At the end of this sermon the raja professed himself to be an adherent of the new system. The next day all the people in the place, excited by the conversion of Kasyapa and Bimbisara, crowded to the Yashtivana grove where Gautama had rested to see him and hear what new thing he had to say. When Gautama went to the raja’s house to receive his daily meal, he was surrounded by an enthusiastic multitude. The raja received him with great respect and, saying that Yashtivana was too far off, assigned to him as a residence a bamboo grove (veluvami) close by, which became celebrated as the place where Gautama spent many rainy seasons, and delivered many of his most complete discourses.
There he stayed for two months, and during that time two ascetics named Sariputra and Moggallana joined the Sangha or Society, as the small company of Buddhist mendicants was called. The high position that Gautama soon assigned these new disciples created some ill-feeling among the older members of the Sangha. To disperse the tension, Gautama called together his followers and addressed them at some length on the means requisite for Buddhist salvation, which he summed up in the celebrated verse:
To cease from all wrong-doing,
To get virtue,
To cleanse one’s own heart,
This is the religion of the Buddhas.
83. Seated Gautama Buddha before a wall containing dozens of niches sheltering small Buddha images, date unknown, Pagoda of One Thousand Buddhas at the monastery of Wat Si Saket, Vientiane, Laos.
His reputation spreads (Pali Canon):
“A monk called Gautama, it seems, a son of the Sakyans who went forth from a Sakyan clan, has been wandering in the Kosalan country with a large Sangha of bhikkhus and has come to Sala. Now a good report of Master Gautama has been spread to this effect: ‘That Blessed One is such since he is arahant and Fully Enlightened, perfect in true knowledge and conduct, sublime, knower of worlds, incomparable teacher of men to be tamed, teacher of gods and humans, enlightened, blessed. He describes this world with its gods, its Maras, and its (Brahma) Divinities, this generation with its monks and brahmins, with its kings and its people, which he has himself realised through direct knowledge. He teaches a Dharma that is good in the beginning, good in the middle and good in the end with (the right) meaning and phrasing, he affirms a holy life that is utterly perfect and pure.’ Now it is good to see such arahants.”
[MN 41]
At the same time he laid down the first rules for the guidance of the society, the simple code called the ‘Patimokkha,’ that is ‘the Disburdenment,’ a word afterwards applied to a book containing a summary of the more complex system of laws, as elaborated at the time of Gautama’s death. This meeting of mendicants at which the Society was first incorporated is known as the ‘Savakasannipata,’ or assembly of the disciples.
The enthusiasm of the people seems to have cooled down more rapidly than it arose, for we hear of no other conversions besides those of Sariputra and Moggallana and their pupils. Moreover, the members of the society began even to complain to Gautama that when they went out to beg their daily food they were received with abuse and ridicule, on the grounds that the new teaching would deprive households of their support and depopulate and ruin the country. This they did not know how to answer, which is not surprising, for the charge was unfortunately true. The Brahmans, indeed, held celibacy in high honour, but only in youth and old age; and the ascetics, far from seeking imitators, added such penance to their celibacy expecting that it would be unattainable by ordinary men. The Buddhists painted in glowing colours the contrast between the miseries of life in the world and the sweet calm of life in the Order, and wanted every one for his own sake to share at once in their salvation.