Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta: The Sermon : หน้า 31/263

Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta: The Sermon Something which you will find at the beginning of every sutta are Aṅanda’s words 'Evam.e sutam...': i.e. ‘Thus have I heard (directly from the Lord Buddha)’. On one occasion, the Blessed One was staying at the Isipatana Deer Park close by the town of Benares [Vārāṇasi]. At that place, the Buddha summoned the ‘group of five’ [pañcacavaggiya] and addressed them thus: O! Bhikkhus! Monks who wish to overcome suffering must strictly avoid the two extremes of practice, namely: 1. Sensual indulgence [kamasukhallikanuyoga] 2. Self-mortification [attakilamathānu yoga] 1. Indulging in sensual pleasures [kamasukhallikanuyoga] Sensual indulgence is being enamoured by the pleasures of the five senses (i.e. images, sounds, aromas, tastes and physical contact) — and endless hankering after the pleasures therein, until such hankering becomes a habit. Reliance on such sense pleasures becomes so engrained in one’s being that one has no more thought of renunciation or of going forth into the monkhood.