2
The Buddha as Teacher
2.1 THE DECISION TO PROPAGATE
THE DHARMAA
ll accounts state that the Buddha spent the first seven weeks after his
Awakening in the vicinity of the Bodhi Tree near Bodhgaya. During
that time, two merchants en route from Orissa passed close by and
were advised by the spirit of a dead relative to make offerings to the new Bud-
dha, who was sitting at the foot of a certain tree. They offered honey cakes
and sugar cane and took refuge in (formally committed themselves to the pre-
eminence of) the Buddha and his Dharma, thus becoming the Buddha's first
lay devotees in the world. In this case the Buddha did not preach Dharma to
the two men but merely received their reverence and offerings. Veneration of
holy persons was in many instances nonsectarian and did not necessarily in-
volve subscribing to their ideas. Buddhist lay ritual is shown here developing
naturally out of pre-Buddhist practices (Strong EB, sec. 2.1.1).
At first the Buddha thought that humanity, addicted to its attachments,
would not understand the Dharma he had discovered. If he tried to propound
his doctrines but had no effect, he would be wasting his time. Sahampati
Brahma, one of the highest gods in the popular religion of the time, read the
Buddha's mind, left the Brahma-world, and appeared before the Buddha,
pleading, "May the Blessed One teach the Dharma. May the Well-gone One
teach the Dharma. There are living beings with little dust in their eyes who
fall away through not hearing the Dharma. Some of them will gain full knowl-
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