Everyone’s goal of life can be classified into 3 levels : 2. Middle goal of life

The aim is at not only trying to have sufficient in this entire life, but also to set future life goals, by using every possible opportunity to act in meritorious ways

The Four Noble Truths : 4. Explanation of the Noble Truth of the Path to the End of Suffering

The Lord Buddha’s explanation of the Path to the End of Suffering includes all four of the Path to the End of suffering’s implications in the light of the Four Noble Truths:

The Fruits of Merit are Not a Miracle

Those people who are habitually pessimistic, angry, greedy, etc, always attract negative things to themselves

Dhammacakkapavattana Sutta: The Sermon : 3. The Noble Middle Way [majjhima patipada]

Anyone who wishes to escape from the Cycle of Existence [vadda samara], who has gone to all the trouble to re-nounce the life of a householder

Dhammacakkapavattana Sutta: The Sermon : 2. Self-Mortification [attakilamathanuyoga]

This is the practice of self-denial or self-mortification which is a non-Buddhist practice. It is one of many practices favoured by non-Buddhist ascetics such as Niganthas

Dhammacakkapavattana Sutta: The Sermon

Something which you will find at the beginning of every sutta are Ananda’s words ‘Euam me sutam…’: i.e. ‘Thus have I heard (directly from the Lord Buddha)

First Disciple: the most seasoned in the Perfections

At the end of the Lord Buddha’s sermon, kondanna, the leader of the ‘Group of Five’, became a Stream-Enterer [sotapana]

Overview : 2. The Path of Self-Mortification

According to the Buddha, the practice of self-mortification [attakilamathanuyoga] is fruitless

Overview : Introduction

After the Enlightenment which transformed Siddhatthe Gotama into the Lord Buddha beneath the Bodhi tree on the banks of the River Neranjara

Author’s Preface

Buddhism is unique in teaching a way to overcome suffering, with its aim definitively to liberate oneself from the Cycle of Existence [vadda-samsara] thereby attaining the highest eternal happiness