And thus replied the Blessed One:
“Monks, I do not live in self-indulgence although I torture my body no more. Nor have I forsaken my quest. Open your ears. Found is deliverance from death and illusion!”
And because the five still doubted, the Blessed One said to them:
“Tell me, monks,—when we dwelt in the forest, did I ever before speak to you in this manner?”
And they said:
“Sir, never.”
And it is told in the ancient scriptures that the very Evening opened their ears and heard.
So, with the five about him, the Perfect One spoke the first words of the Teaching of the Law, the first ever heard in this world,—and where the last shall be spoken who can tell? But it is needful that all to whom their happy Karma allows it should hear and ponder these words for in them is all truth. Now this is the high teaching in the Deer Park of Isipatana, as dusk came on and the shadows.
And it is told in the ancient scriptures that the very evening appeared to bow at the knees of the Exalted One—the World-Honoured, that she might hear his word. Like a maiden she came, the stars the pearls about her throat, the gathering dark her braided hair, the deepening vastness of space her cloudy robe. For a crown had she the holy heavens where dwell divine spirits. The Three Worlds were her body, her eyes were as blue lotus blossoms opening to the moonlight, and her voice of stillness as the distant murmur of bees. To worship and to hear the Perfect One this lovely maiden came.
And though our Lord spoke in the Pali tongue each man heard his own. And thus said the Blessed One, the Tathagata, He who has thus Attained: