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The First Turning Of The Wheel Of Dharma
Chokhor Duchen is one of the four most important Buddhist festivals, which falls on the fourth day of the sixth lunar month of Tibetan calendar. On this day, buddhists celebrate the very first teaching of Shakyamuni Buddha to his human disciples 2600 years ago, at the Deer Park in Sarnath near Varanasi, India.
To his first five disciples, Shakyamuni Buddha revealed the four truths of the noble beings which are: 1. suffering; 2. the origin of suffering; 3. the cessation of suffering; 4. the path leading to the cessation of suffering.
An account of this teaching is preserved in the Dharmacakra Sutra - The Sutra Of The Turning Of The Wheel of Dharma.
- Extract from a teaching by Lama Dondrup Dorje Rinpoche. The full text is available to read under the feature of Chronicle of the Buddha, Bodhisattva and Deity. Click here to see the full list of articles available.