The Sermon at Benares

A sermon is a religious or moral talk. It is usually more formal than an ordinary lecture or talk, because it aims to teach spiritual or ethical lessons. Yes, the word can also be used humorously or negatively to mean a long, often annoying lecture, like a scolding or lecture from someone such as a parent.

- afflicted with: affected by suffering, disease, or pain
- be composed: to be calm or in control of oneself
- desolation: a state or place of great sorrow or emptiness
- lamentation: expression of sorrow or grief
- procure: to get or obtain
- be subject to: to be under the power of, or to be likely to experience

Yes, the Sermon on the Mount was delivered by Jesus Christ. The sermon at Benares was delivered by the Buddha.

Kisa Gotami goes from house to house asking for medicine for her dead son. She does not get it, because the child is already dead and no medicine can bring him back. People also tell her that death is common in every house, so none can help her in that way.

The second time, after speaking with the Buddha, she asks for a handful of mustard-seed from a house where no one has lost a child, husband, parent, or friend. She does not get it, because she finds that every house has suffered some death and grief.

The second time, Kisa Gotami understands that death is common to all and that she is not the only one suffering. She realizes that every family has known loss, and that grief should not make her selfish. Yes, this is exactly what the Buddha wanted her to understand: the universal truth of death and the need to overcome selfish sorrow.