According to the sermon delivered by Buddha at Benares, how does lamenting over the death of a loved one affect a person, and how can one attain peace of mind?
Answer
Lamenting increases physical suffering and mental pain without reviving the dead; true peace of mind is attained by overcoming grief and drawing out the arrow of lamentation.
Step-by-step solution
- State Buddha's teaching on human life: Human life in this world is brief, troubled, and inextricably linked with pain, with no mechanism to avoid death.
- Analyze the impact of weeping and grieving: Crying or lamenting cannot bring a deceased person back to life; instead, it makes the grieving person sick, pale, and physically weak.
- Explain Buddha's metaphor of the arrow: Grief, complaints, and sorrow act as a toxic arrow inside a person's mind that prolongs suffering.
- Explain how to attain mental tranquility: A person must pull out this 'arrow of lamentation', overcome all sorrow, and free themselves from worldly attachments.
- Conclude: By surrendering selfishness and accepting death as universal, one becomes blessed and achieves true peace of mind.
Common mistake: Writing a generic essay on coping with loss instead of using the specific teachings, arguments, and metaphors presented in Buddha's sermon in the text.
Concept tested: Achieving peace of mind by overcoming grief
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Related questions
- 1 In his sermon, what two analogies does the Buddha use to describe the mortality of human beings? Explain the significance of each analogy.
- 2 Analyse how the poet creates a contrast between the Buddha’s teachings and the materialistic world in "The Sermon at Benares".
- 3 Why did the Buddha ask Kisa Gotami to bring a handful of mustard seeds specifically from a house where no one had lost a child, parent, brother, or friend?
- 4 According to the chapter 'The Sermon at Benares', which four sights did Prince Siddhartha encounter while out hunting that moved him to renounce his royal life?
- 5 Which of the following best describes the central theme of "The Sermon at Benares"?
- 6 Write two words that describe the narrator’s tone in the sermon and quote one line from the poem that illustrates each tone.