Buddha introduced
path to spiritual truth

With these simple yet highly important words, the historical Buddha, known as Siddartha Gautama (563-480 B.C.), set into motion the backdrop for his most influential sermon. To commemorate this event, Buddhist societies around the world celebrate the Dharmachakra Festival, commonly translated as the "First Turning of the Dharma Wheel." To "turn the wheel of Dharma" means that the Buddha, now awakened, could expound to all sentient beings both the truth of existence and the path to emancipation.

His first sermon was presented in a calm park known as the Deer Park in what is now Varanasi, India. In general, the sermon highlights three essential points upon which the entire Buddhist faith revolves. These are the avoidance of extremes through trekking the Middle Path, the security of a firm spiritual life through the practice of the Noble Eightfold Way and the alleviation of suffering through comprehending the Four Noble Truths.

The Buddha admonished his fellow seekers to avoid a life of constant extremes, to shun the vulgar and selfish path that leads people away from wholesome unity. In deciphering the Middle Path, one would negate the impulse to waver in one direction or another. Instead, the ardent spiritual seeker would rest securely in the untainted center path of truth. If we will but stop and discern the self, we will open magnificent doors to advancement merely by properly viewing reality on its own terms, not as we would necessarily have it be.

Trekking the Middle Path, the seeker is encouraged to practice the Noble Eightfold Way, a symbolic means of polishing the self. The Buddha urged his listeners to embark on a constant vigil to ensure they understood things properly, possessed proper intentions, practiced proper speech, engaged in proper actions, enlisted their services in a proper livelihood, secured proper attention, balanced themselves through proper concentration and awakened themselves through proper meditation.

Having embarked on the Middle Path and evaluating the eight barometers of spiritual advancement, we are further encouraged to decipher and penetrate the Fourfold Noble Truths, consisting of:

» the truth of pain and suffering.
» the truth of the cause of pain and suffering.
» the truth of the cessation of pain and suffering.
» the truth of the way that leads to the cessation of pain and suffering.

So in "turning the wheel of the Dharma," the Buddha was proclaiming a realizable method of spiritual advancement while at the same time confirming that each of us is inherently responsible for our own salvation and fully capable of engaging our highest self on a wondrous and enlightening spiritual journey.

The practice of such a resolute spiritual code is not limited to being a Buddhist. The themes presented in that First Sermon are applicable to us all. Will we awaken and embrace our spiritual capacity as capable and empowered spiritual vessels? This is a question that we can only answer through deep introspection and taking the first steps on the path of becoming. We can temper our everyday lives and peer through the eightfold telescope of proper means and view our conduct, our speech, our thinking, even our intentions from a new and nonjudgmental precipice. I believe this gives us hope to make a brighter future for ourselves, and security to shed the heavy veils of guilt and doubt. We are not shackled to an existence of anguish and wrongdoing. Rather, we have the intrinsic mission to perfect ourselves as mirrors of our chosen spirituality. Finally, freedom.

On this September Dharmachakra Festival, let us motivate ourselves to peer within and pull from our hearts our very highest selves. Let us lift the standards of spiritual conduct and hold high a new banner of self-empowerment, one that congratulates the self for being alive and promotes the advancement of a common unity among all people. Let us taste freedom.