San Lo Mvu 94From Uruvilvā to Benares

Commentary on the Sūtra: From Uruvilvā to Benares

Background

This passage belongs to the Vinaya Piṭaka of the Pāli Canon and records an important stage in the Buddha's teaching career after awakening. Uruvilvā is where the Buddha sat in meditation beneath the Bodhi tree and realized nirvana, the first sacred place. Benares (Bārāṇasī) is a great city, a religious and intellectual center of ancient India, where the Buddha later delivered the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta, the first discourse, to the first five arahants.

The journey from Uruvilvā to Benares was not only a geographical journey, but also a symbol of the spreading of the Dharma from the place where the Buddha found awakening to the place where he began to transmit the Dharma widely. This was the period just after the Buddha attained awakening, before the Sangha community had formally taken shape.

Main Content

This sūtra records details of the Buddha's journey after awakening. After attaining awakening at Uruvilvā, the Buddha remained for about seven weeks, verifying and meditating deeply upon the Dharma he had just realized. During this time, he met other ascetics, especially groups of long-haired ascetics in the Uruvilvā region who practiced other methods.

Afterward, the Buddha decided to leave that place to seek those with the faculties to receive the Dharma. This journey led him through many regions, finally reaching Benares, where Sarnath was located, a quiet garden favorable for teaching the Dharma. There the Buddha met the five ascetics, those who had attended him before he renounced extreme practices to seek the middle way, and he transmitted to them the Dharma of the Four Noble Truths (Cattāri Ariyasaccāni) in the Discourse on the Turning of the Wheel of Dharma.

This process was not accidental, but the purposeful guidance of a Buddha, one who had fully awakened and was seeking the way to bring benefit to sentient beings.