Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Amy Miller introduces the history and dissemination of the Buddha’s teachings, beginning with the first turning of the wheel of Dharma at Sarnath, India. She explains the three turnings—significant phases in which the Buddha taught—and focuses on the first turning, which centred on the Four Noble Truths. Miller clarifies that during this period the Buddha taught emptiness at what is called a more superficial level to suit disciples who risked falling into nihilism, forming the basis of what became the Hīnayāna schools. She then outlines the distinction between Hīnayāna and Mahāyāna approaches.
File metadata (for organising)
File: amy-miller-nutshell-no-details-1-18-history-of-the-teachings-and-dissemination-copy
Teacher: Amy Miller
Collection: Nutshell no details (Amy Miller)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Words: ~247
So let’s look a little at the history of the initial teachings the Buddha gave, how those teachings were disseminated, how they began to spread through other parts of the world. The first teaching the Buddha gave, as I stated before, was in Sarnath, India. So there were what was called the three turnings. Turning of the wheel of Dharma means teaching. And there were three significant turnings of the wheel when the Buddha taught, Three main groups of teachings given in these turnings.
The first turning was on the Four Noble Truths. At this time, the Buddha taught emptiness, the profound view of reality, at a more superficial level, which form the basis of what’s called the Hīnayāna schools. It’s not making a judgment that it’s superficial, but it would basically was to suit certain disciples who had a danger of falling into an extreme of nihilism, that nothing existed. So the Buddha taught emptiness at this level during this first turning. So let me explain the Hīnayāna and the Mahāyāna.