Because the Chinese translations of the Dharmaguptaka Vinaya and Mahīśāsaka Vinaya lack any equivalent of the term “being a compassionate one” (kāruññatā), which expresses the motivation for the Buddha’s first sermon in current Pāli texts, and because Śākyamuni had no consideration for others leading up to attaining his enlightenment, the phrase “ca ...... sattesu ca kāruññataṃ paṭicca” was likely added by later generations. This shows that compassion as a motivation behind the Buddha’s first sermon cannot be traced directly back to Śākyamuni himself. Therefore, it is understood that the Buddha’s first sermon is not based on compassion.
Between the two motives of “Brahmā’s entreaty” and “kāruññatā”, the latter only holds any significance when occurring after Brahmā’s entreaty. Therefore, it is likely wrong to treat the idea of having compassion towards others as the same as recognizing Brahmā’s entreaty when trying to understand the motivation behind the Buddha’s first sermon. However, if one were to explore the intentions of the authors of the Pāli texts, I suppose Buddhists who understood the motive of “ca ...... sattesu ca kāruññataṃ paṭicca” were critical of the motivation behind the Buddha’s first sermon expressed by the Brahmā’s entreaty and held a negative view of its significance.
