The Buddha's Mission

The Buddha’s Mission

Objectives:

1.   To teach the student about the Buddha’s life and mission

2. To teach the student about the Buddha’s first group of disciple.

3. To teach the students about the first and last sermon of the Buddha

Consequence

1.    The student can explain the Buddha’s life and mission.

2.  The student can tell about the first disciples and the place where the Buddha gave his first sermon to his disciples.

3.  The student can tell about the first and last sermons of the Buddha.

First two lay disciples.

    On the full moon of the night of may, while sitting in deep meditation under a Bodhi tree, at Gaya city, Eastern India, Siddhatta Gotama attained Enlightenment, real happiness, and became Buddha, the Awakened One. Two merchants called Tapussa and Bhallika passed by and seeing the Buddha sitting under the Bodhi tree, they offered him a meal of honey cakes.

    After eating the food, the Buddha talked to them about his new experience, and the two merchants became his first lay disciples, the first Buddhists. The Buddha at the time of  his enlightenment, was thirty-five years of age.

    The student may have a question in mind, “What is Enlightenment?” The answer is that enlightenment is the state of pure mind, The mind is free from ignorance, from hatred, and from craving. The mind is in the state of being enlightened and comprehending truth.