The document summarizes the early life of Gautama Buddha and his first sermon in Benares. It describes how Buddha attained enlightenment under a peepal tree after wandering for seven years seeking answers about human suffering. It then tells the story of Kisa Gautami who came to Buddha in grief over losing her son. Buddha told her to find mustard seeds from a house where no one had died, helping her accept that death is inevitable for all living things.

1. • The Mystery of life and death has always
baffled us. Whenever we loose some one near
and dear to us, we are in grief.
• This lesson reminds us that death is the
ultimate truth. Every creature, who is born
must die one day.

3. The Sermon at Benares
About the author :Betty Renshaw Barber
Clinton, MS
Betty Louise Renshaw Barber was born in Shannon,
Mississippi on September 3, 1927, to P. C. and Lillian
Renshaw. After graduating valedictorian from
Shannon High School, she went on to obtain her
Bachelor of Arts degree from Mississippi College,
and later a Master of Arts from Mississippi University
for Women. She taught at the preschool level for
several years, and eventually, she was able to pass
her experiences on to others by teaching preschool
teachers.
Betty married Joseph Henry Barber, Jr. on December
23, 1950. They were married for 61 years.

4. The Sermon at Benares
 The mystery of life and death
always baffles us. When we lose
someone near and dear we are sad.
 This lesson teaches us that
death is the ultimate truth.
 This lesson is about the early
life of Gautama Buddha and his first
sermon preached at Benares.
 A woman who had lost her son,
in grief went to Buddha and
pleaded him to bring his son back
to life.
 Let us read the lesson and find
how Gautama Buddha taught the
lady that death was inevitable.

5. The Sermon at Benares
 Gautama Buddha (563 B.C. – 483 B.C.) began
life as a prince named Siddhartha Gautama.
 At the age of 12 he started his schooling in
sacred Hindu scriptures and four years later he
was married to Yashodhara, a princess.
 At the age of 25 , while out hunting he came
across a sick man, than an aged man , and finally
a monk begging for alms.

6. The Sermon at Benares
 This sights moved him so much that he at once
went out to seek enlightenment about the sorrows he
had seen.
 After wandering for seven years, he finally set
under a peepal tree and got enlightenment, and came
to be known as Buddha.
 He perished his sermon at Benares, the most holy
dipping places on river Ganga.
 The sermon reflects the Buddha’ wisdom about
one mysterious kind of suffering.

7. The Sermon at Benares
 Kisa Gautami lost her only son and her grief she went from
house to house asking people for medicine to bring her son
back to life, but in vain.
 One man told her to go to Gautama Buddha and she
followed the advice.
 She went to Buddha and cried, “Lord and master , give me
the medicine that will cure my dead son.
 He answered, “Bring a hand full of mustard-seed form a
house where no one has lost a child, husband , parent or friend.

8. The Sermon at Benares
 She went from door to door but could
not find even a single house to fulfill the
condition.
 Then she came to know that death is
the ultimate truth. One who is born must
die.
 Therefore the wise do not lament on
death.