Preparing the Fire

Patrick Kearney's Vipassana Retreat Talk at Bodhi Tree Monastery (2009)

Tonight we follow the Buddha from Baranasi back to the area where he practised before his awakening, the Nerañjara River near Gaya. First, at Baranasi, the Buddha awakens Yasa, the son of a rich banker. This is the first time the Buddha awakens a lay person, proving the dharma can be understood by the laity as well as by professional ascetics; and the first time the Buddha gives a “graduated discourse,” which becomes the basic template of his teaching method. Yet this is not counted as the third teaching. Why not?

After his successes in Baranasi the Buddha goes alone to visit Uruvela Kassapa, the important head of an order of dreadlocks ascetics. He spends at least a month performing miracles to convert Kassapa and his followers. Why was Kassapa so important? Finally the Buddha leads the newly converted ascetics to Gayasisa, near Gaya, to give them the third teaching, Adittapariyaya Sutta (Burning …).

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