Four Noble Truths and Dependent Origination, Day 1

The Dalai Lama opens the first of three days of teaching at Bodh Gaya, with the main audience Indian school children and Indian students of Buddhism, and a translator speaking the English. After Pali and Sanskrit recitation he sketches the three turnings of the wheel of Dharma and places the day’s first text, the Sutra on the Four Noble Truths, in the first; the second is the Rice Seedling Sutra on dependent origination. He recalls the Buddha’s advice to test his words as gold is tested, and describes the Nalanda tradition of reason and logic.

He then speaks about religious harmony in India and argues that education should teach love and compassion. The second half covers the Buddha’s path to awakening, the Four Noble Truths, Nagarjuna on cessation, and dependent arising as the basis of emptiness. It ends as the Rice Seedling Sutra is read.