It begins to come together

Now boys and girls if you've been following along you will recall that after achieving enlightenment Buddha delivered his first sermon at where ? . . . that's right, at Sarnath, outside Varanasi. That sermon was delivered to his five disciples as he sat under a tree. This is a detail from a temple on Koh Samui depicting that moment.

By the way, the first sermon is so imprtant because it laid out what Budhdists refer to as The Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path. What are the Four Noble Truths?

1. Life is Suffering. So the desire to be cremated at Varanasi and have your ashes thrown in the Ganges is to help end the cycle of rebirth. Shirley McLain may think reincarnation is cool but to a Buddhist who believes the First Noble Truth, you'd just as soon not have another go round.
2. The causes of suffering are desire and ignorance.
3. Suffering can be stopped. This is believed by many to be the main purpose of Buddha's teaching. He was a pragmatic guy and not interested in answers to metaphysical qustions that would not actually help to stop suffering.
4. The way to stop suffering and to achieve nirvana is the Eightfold Path. Live your life according to these eight points and you'll be good to go.

Got that?