This booklet contains the first three discourses that the Buddha gave after his Awakening. In these three discourses the Buddha displays the fundamental, cardinal teachings on the Four Noble Truths from which all of his teachings branch and to which they all point back.
In his first discourse, the Discourse on Setting Rolling the Wheel of Truth (Dhamma-cakka-pavattana-sutta), he displays this fourfold Truth as something to be realized and verified for oneself here and now; in the second, the Discourse on the Characteristic of Not-self (Anatta-lakkhaṇa-sutta), he discloses the contradictions which infect all “self” conceits; and in the third, the Fire Discourse (Āditta-pariyāya-sutta), he shows that worldly, ignorant sense-experience is burning with the fires of greed, hatred and delusion.
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You yourselves must strive, the Buddhas only point the way
Buddha, Dhp 276
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