SN 56.11 PTS: S v 420 CDB ii 1843   Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta Setting the Wheel of Dhamma in Motion   Translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu     Alternate translation: Harvey Ñanamoli Piyadassi   PTS: S v 420 CDB ii 1843     Source: Transcribed from a file provided by the translator.     Copyright © 1993 Thanissaro Bhikkhu. Access to Insight edition © 1993 For free distribution. This work may be republished, reformatted, reprinted, and redistributed in any medium. It is the author's wish, however, that any such republication and redistribution be made available to the public on a free and unrestricted basis and that translations and other derivative works be clearly marked as such. Other formats:

I have heard that on one occasion the Blessed One was staying at Varanasi in the Game Refuge at Isipatana. There he addressed the group of five monks: "There are these two extremes that are not to be indulged in by one who has gone forth. Which two? That which is devoted to sensual pleasure with reference to sensual objects: base, vulgar, common, ignoble, unprofitable; and that which is devoted to self-affliction: painful, ignoble, unprofitable. Avoiding both of these extremes, the middle way realized by the Tathagata — producing vision, producing knowledge — leads to calm, to direct knowledge, to self-awakening, to Unbinding. "And what is the middle way realized by the Tathagata that — producing vision, producing knowledge — leads to calm, to direct knowledge, to self-awakening, to Unbinding? Precisely this Noble Eightfold Path: right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration. This is the middle way realized by the Tathagata that — producing vision, producing knowledge — leads to calm, to direct knowledge, to self-awakening, to Unbinding. "Now this, monks, is the noble truth of stress:1 Birth is stressful, aging is stressful, death is stressful; sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair are stressful; association with the unbeloved is stressful, separation from the loved is stressful, not getting what is wanted is stressful. In short, the five clinging-aggregates are stressful. "And this, monks, is the noble truth of the origination of stress: the craving that makes for further becoming — accompanied by passion & delight, relishing now here & now there — i.e., craving for sensual pleasure, craving for becoming, craving for non-becoming. "And this, monks, is the noble truth of the cessation of stress: the remainderless fading & cessation, renunciation, relinquishment, release, & letting go of that very craving. "And this, monks, is the noble truth of the way of practice leading to the cessation of stress: precisely this Noble Eightfold Path — right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration. "Vision arose, insight arose, discernment arose, knowledge arose, illumination arose within me with regard to things never heard before: 'This is the noble truth of stress'... 'This noble truth of stress is to be comprehended'... 'This noble truth of stress has been comprehended.' "Vision arose, insight arose, discernment arose, knowledge arose, illumination arose within me with regard to things never heard before: 'This is the noble truth of the origination of stress'... 'This noble truth of the origination of stress is to be abandoned' 2 ... 'This noble truth of the origination of stress has been abandoned.' "Vision arose, insight arose, discernment arose, knowledge arose, illumination arose within me with regard to things never heard before: 'This is the noble truth of the cessation of stress'... 'This noble truth of the cessation of stress is to be directly experienced'... 'This noble truth of the cessation of stress has been directly experienced.' "Vision arose, insight arose, discernment arose, knowledge arose, illumination arose within me with regard to things never heard before: 'This is the noble truth of the way of practice leading to the cessation of stress'... 'This noble truth of the way of practice leading to the cessation of stress is to be developed'... 'This noble truth of the way of practice leading to the cessation of stress has been developed.' 3 "And, monks, as long as this knowledge & vision of mine — with its three rounds & twelve permutations concerning these four noble truths as they actually are present — was not pure, I did not claim to have directly awakened to the right self-awakening unexcelled in the cosmos with its devas, Maras, & Brahmas, with its contemplatives & priests, its royalty & commonfolk. But as soon as this knowledge & vision of mine — with its three rounds & twelve permutations concerning these four noble truths as they actually are present — was truly pure, then I did claim to have directly awakened to the right self-awakening unexcelled in the cosmos with its devas, Maras & Brahmas, with its contemplatives & priests, its royalty & commonfolk. Knowledge & vision arose in me: 'Unprovoked is my release. This is the last birth. There is now no further becoming.'" That is what the Blessed One said. Gratified, the group of five monks delighted at his words. And while this explanation was being given, there arose to Ven. Kondañña the dustless, stainless Dhamma eye: Whatever is subject to origination is all subject to cessation. And when the Blessed One had set the Wheel of Dhamma in motion, the earth devas cried out: "At Varanasi, in the Game Refuge at Isipatana, the Blessed One has set in motion the unexcelled Wheel of Dhamma that cannot be stopped by priest or contemplative, deva, Mara or God or anyone in the cosmos." On hearing the earth devas' cry, the devas of the Four Kings' Heaven took up the cry... the devas of the Thirty-three... the Yama devas... the Tusita devas... the Nimmanarati devas... the Paranimmita-vasavatti devas... the devas of Brahma's retinue took up the cry: "At Varanasi, in the Game Refuge at Isipatana, the Blessed One has set in motion the unexcelled Wheel of Dhamma that cannot be stopped by priest or contemplative, deva, Mara, or God or anyone at all in the cosmos." So in that moment, that instant, the cry shot right up to the Brahma worlds. And this ten-thousand fold cosmos shivered & quivered & quaked, while a great, measureless radiance appeared in the cosmos, surpassing the effulgence of the devas. Then the Blessed One exclaimed: "So you really know, Kondañña? So you really know?" And that is how Ven. Kondañña acquired the name Añña-Kondañña — Kondañña who knows.   Notes 1. The Pali phrases for the four noble truths are grammatical anomalies. From these anomalies, some scholars have argued that the expression "noble truth" is a later addition to the texts. Others have argued even further that the content of the four truths is also a later addition. Both of these arguments are based on the unproven assumption that the language the Buddha spoke was grammatically regular, and that any irregularities were later corruptions of the language. This assumption forgets that the languages of the Buddha's time were oral dialects, and that the nature of such dialects is to contain many grammatical irregularities. Languages tend to become regular only when being used to govern a large nation state or to produce a large body of literature: events that happened in India only after the Buddha's time. (A European example: Italian was a group of irregular oral dialects until Dante fashioned it into a regular language for the sake of his poetry.) Thus the irregularity of the Pali here is no proof either for the earliness or lateness of this particular teaching. 2. Another argument for the lateness of the expression "noble truth" is that a truth — meaning an accurate statement about a body of facts — is not something that should be abandoned. In this case, only the craving is to be abandoned, not the truth about craving. However, in Vedic Sanskrit — as in modern English — a "truth" can mean both a fact and an accurate statement about a fact. Thus in this case, the "truth" is the fact, not the statement about the fact, and the argument for the lateness of the expression does not hold. 3. The discussion in the four paragraphs beginning with the phrase, "Vision arose...," takes two sets of variables — the four noble truths and the three levels of knowledge appropriate to each — and lists their twelve permutations. In ancient Indian philosophical and legal traditions, this sort of discussion is called a wheel. Thus, this passage is the Wheel of Dhamma from which the discourse takes its name. *** SN 56.11 Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta The Discourse on the Setting in Motion of the Wheel (of Vision) of the Basic Pattern: the Four Realities of the Noble One(s)   Translated from the Pali by Peter Harvey building on the translation of Bhikkhu Bodhi   Alternate translation:   Ñanamoli Piyadassi Thanissaro PTS: S v 420 CDB ii 1843     Source: Transcribed from a file provided by the translator.     Copyright © 2007 Peter Harvey <peter.harvey@sunderland.ac.uk> Access to Insight edition © 2007 For free distribution. This work may be republished, reformatted, reprinted, and redistributed in any medium. It is the author's wish, however, that any such republication and redistribution be made available to the public on a free and unrestricted basis and that translations and other derivative works be clearly marked as such. Other formats:

Translator's note: The setting: seven weeks after the Buddha's enlightenment/awakening, he goes to five former companions that he had previously practiced extreme asceticism with (Vin i 8-10). After trying asceticism, he had given this up for a more moderate approach based on a healthy body and jhāna (mindful, calm and joyful altered states of consciousness based on samādhi (mental unification)). The following is seen as the first teaching he gave to anyone. In other contexts, the Buddha taught the Four Realities of the Noble One(s) to people after first giving them a preparatory discourse to ensure they were in the right frame of mind be able to fully benefit from the teaching: Then the Blessed One gave the householder Upāli a step-by-step discourse, that is, talk on giving, talk on moral virtue, talk on the heaven worlds; he made known the danger, the inferior nature of and tendency to defilement in sense-pleasures, and the advantage of renouncing them. When the Blessed One knew that the householder Upāli's mind was ready, open, without hindrances, inspired and confident, then he expounded to him the elevated Dhamma-teaching of the buddhas: dukkha, its origination, its cessation, the path. [M i 379-80] The four realities taught by the Buddha are not as such things to "believe" but to be open to, see and contemplate, and respond to appropriately: by fully understanding dukkha/pain, abandoning that which originates it, personally experiencing its cessation, and cultivating the path that leads to this.   Thus have I heard. At one time the Blessed One was dwelling at Bārāṇasī in the Deer Park at Isipatana. There the Blessed One addressed the bhikkhus of the group of five thus: "Bhikkhus, these two extremes should not be followed by one gone forth (into the homeless life). What two? That which is this pursuit of sensual happiness in sense pleasures, which is low, vulgar, the way of the ordinary person, ignoble, not connected to the goal; and that which is this pursuit of self-mortification, which is painful, ignoble, not connected to the goal. Bhikkhus, without veering towards either of these two extremes, the One Who Moves in Reality has awakened to the middle way, which gives rise to vision, which gives rise to knowledge, which leads to peace, to higher knowledge, to full awakening, to Nibbāna. "And what, bhikkhus, is that middle way awakened to by the One Who Moves in Reality which gives rise to vision, which gives rise to knowledge, which leads to peace, to higher knowledge, to full awakening, to Nibbāna? It is just this Noble Eight-factored Path, that is to say, right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right mental unification. This, bhikkhus, is that middle way awakened to by the One Who Moves in Reality, which gives rise to vision, which gives rise to knowledge, which leads to peace, to higher knowledge, to full awakening, to Nibbāna. "Now this, bhikkhus, for the Noble One(s), is the reality which is pain: birth is painful, aging is painful, illness is painful, death is painful; sorrow, lamentation, physical pain, unhappiness and distress are painful; union with what is disliked is painful; separation from what is liked is painful; not to get what one wants is painful; in brief, the five bundles of grasping-fuel are painful. "Now this, bhikkhus, for the Noble One(s), is the pain-originating reality. It is this craving which leads to renewed existence, accompanied by delight and attachment, seeking delight now here now there; that is, craving for sense-pleasures, craving for existence, craving for extermination (of what is not liked). "Now this, bhikkhus, for the Noble One(s), is the pain-ceasing reality. It is the remainderless fading away and cessation of that same craving, the giving up and relinquishing of it, freedom from it, non-reliance on it. "Now this, bhikkhus, for the Noble One(s), is the reality which is the way leading to the cessation of pain. It is this Noble Eight-factored Path, that is to say, right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right mental unification. "'This for the Noble One(s) is the reality of pain': in me, bhikkhus, in regard to things unheard before, there arose vision, knowledge, wisdom, true knowledge, and light. "Now on this, 'This, for the Noble One(s) the reality of pain, is to be fully understood': in me, bhikkhus, in regard to things unheard before, there arose vision, knowledge, wisdom, true knowledge, and light. "Now on this, 'This, for the Noble One(s) the reality of pain, has been fully understood': in me, bhikkhus, in regard to things unheard before, there arose vision, knowledge, wisdom, true knowledge, and light. "(Likewise,) in me, bhikkhus, in regard to things unheard before, there arose vision, knowledge, wisdom, true knowledge and light, with respect to: 'This for the Noble One(s) is the pain-originating reality,' 'This, for the Noble One(s) the pain-originating reality, is to be abandoned,' and 'This, for the Noble One(s) the pain-originating reality, has been abandoned.' "(Likewise,) in me, bhikkhus, in regard to things unheard before, there arose vision, knowledge, wisdom, true knowledge and light, with respect to: 'This for the Noble One(s) is the pain-ceasing reality,' 'This, for the Noble One(s) the pain-ceasing reality, is to be personally experienced' and 'This, for the Noble One(s) the pain-ceasing reality, has been personally experienced' "(Likewise,) in me, bhikkhus, in regard to things unheard before, there arose vision, knowledge, wisdom, true knowledge and light, with respect to: 'This for the Noble One(s) is the way leading to the cessation of pain,' 'This, for the Noble One(s) the way leading to the cessation of pain, is to be developed,' and 'This, for the Noble One(s) the way leading to the cessation of pain, has been developed.' "So long, bhikkhus, as my knowledge and seeing of these Four Realities of the Noble One(s), as they really are in their three phases (each) and twelve modes (altogether) was not thoroughly purified in this way, then so long, in the world with its devas, māras and brahmās, in this population with its renunciants and brahmans, its devas and humans, I did not claim to be fully awakened to the unsurpassed perfect awakening. But when, bhikkhus, my knowledge and vision of these Four Realities of the Noble One(s), as they really are in their three phases and twelve modes was thoroughly purified in this way, then, in the world with its devas, māras and brahmās, in this population with its renunciants and brahmans, its devas and humans, I claimed to be fully awakened to the unsurpassed perfect awakening. Indeed, knowledge and seeing arose in me: 'Unshakeable is the liberation of my mind; this is my last birth: now there is no more renewed existence.'" This is what the Blessed One said. Elated, the bhikkhus of the group of five delighted in the Blessed One's statement. And while this explanation was being spoken, there arose in the venerable Koṇḍañña the dust-free, stainless vision of the Basic Pattern: "whatever is patterned with an origination, all that is patterned with a cessation." And when the Wheel (of Vision) of the Basic Pattern (of things) had been set in motion by the Blessed One, the earth-dwelling devas raised a cry: "At Bārāṇasī, in the Deer Park at Isipatana, the unsurpassed Wheel (of Vision) of the Basic Pattern (of things) has been set in motion by the Blessed One, which cannot be stopped by any renunciant or brahman or māra or brahmā or by anyone in the world." Having heard the cry of the earth-dwelling devas, the devas of the Four Great Kings raised the same cry. Having heard it, the Thirty-three devas took it up, then the Yāma devas, then the Contented devas, then the devas Who Delight in Creating, then the devas Who Delight in the Creations of Others, and then the devas of the brahmā group. Thus at that moment, at that instant, at that second, the cry spread as far as the brahmā world, and this ten thousandfold world system shook, quaked, and trembled, and an immeasurable glorious radiance appeared in the world, surpassing the divine majesty of the devas. Then the Blessed One uttered this inspiring utterance: "the honorable Koṇḍañña has indeed understood! The honorable Koṇḍañña has indeed understood! In this way, the venerable Koṇḍañña acquired the name Koṇḍañña Who Has Understood.   Glossary and Commentary Abandoned, to be: pahātabban. In the Dasuttara Sutta (D iii 272-93), various other items are said to be things "to be abandoned": "the 'I am' conceit"; "ignorance and craving for existence"; the three kinds of craving; the four "floods" — of sense-desire, existence, views and ignorance; the five hindrances; craving for the six sense-objects; the seven latent tendencies — to sense-desire, ill-will, views, wavering, conceit, attachment to existence, and ignorance; the eight wrongnesses — wrong view to wrong mental unification; the nine things rooted in craving, such as quarreling over possessions; the ten wrongnesses — wrong view to wrong mental unification, then wrong knowledge and wrong liberation. Basic Pattern: Dhamma is a difficult word to translate, but "Basic Pattern" captures something of what it is about: it is the nature of things as a network of interdependent processes, teachings which point this out, practices based on an understanding of this, transformative experiences that come from this, and Nibbāna as beyond all conditioned patterns. Basic Pattern, vision of, or Dhamma-eye: dhamma-cakkhu. The arising of this marks the attainment of the first breakthrough to becoming a Noble One. Often it means becoming a stream-enterer, but a person may also go straight to becoming a once-returner or non-returner. Basic Pattern, Wheel of the (Vision) of: Dhamma-cakka. "Wheel" is cakka, and vision or eye is cakkhu. Given their similarity, some pun may be implied here, especially as the Dhamma-wheel is only said to turn the moment that Koṇḍañña gains the Dhamma-cakkhu, vision of the Dhamma/Basic Pattern. Moreover, in Buddhist art, Dhamma-wheels sometimes resemble eyes. The Dhamma-wheel is set in motion in the instant Koṇḍañña sees the realities pointed out by the Buddha. It does not turn just from the Buddha teaching, but when there is transmission of insight into Dhamma from the Buddha to another person, thus inaugurating the influence of Dhamma in the world. This parallels the passage in the Cakkavatti-sīhanāda Sutta, where a divine wheel appears in the sky only when a Cakkavatti (Wheel-turning) ruler, who rules according to Dhamma — righteously and with compassion, ascends the throne, and it follows him as he moves through the world, conquering without violence (D iii 61-2). Bhikkhu: generally translated "monk," but literally "almsman," a renunciant living off donated alms. Bundles of grasping-fuel: the upādāna-kkhandhas or grasping-aggregates/groups/bundles. These are material form (the body), feeling, perception, the constructing/volitional activities and consciousness, all of which we generally grasp at as "I." In the above discourse, one might see "birth... death" as particularly related to the khandha of material form, "sorrow... distress" as particularly related to that of feeling, and "union... not to get what one wants" as involving activities and perceptions. All involve consciousness. The common translation of upādāna-kkhandhā as "groups/aggregates of grasping" is wrong, as only part of the khandha of constructing/volitional activities is actual grasping. The khandhas are the object of grasping, upādāna. Moreover, "upādāna" also means fuel, that which is "taken up" by fire, here the "fire" of grasping and the other defilements. "Bundles of grasping-fuel" captures both these connotations of "upādāna." On this, cf. ch.2 of Thanissaro Bhikkhu, The Mind Like Fire Unbound, 1993., Barre, Mass.: Dhamma Dana Publications. The fuel-like nature of the khandhas is explicitly referred to at S iii 33-4 and M i 140-1 (MN 22 — just above "Well-proclaimed Dhamma" section), which compare the khandhas, as "not yours," to grass, sticks, branches and foliage being collected to be taken away and burnt. S iv 19-20 (SN 35.28) describes the six senses, their objects, their related consciousnesses, stimulations and feelings as all "burning" with attachment, hatred and delusion and "with birth, aging, death; with sorrow, lamentation, pain, unhappiness and distress," i.e., with causes of pain, and with things that are painful. Craving: taṇhā, which is not just any kind of "desire," but demanding desire. Chanda, the "desire to do," for example, can have wholesome forms which are part of the path. Developed, to be: bhāvitabban: to be developed, cultivated, practiced. This term is related to bhāvanā, development, cultivation, practice. Citta-bhāvanā, or cultivation of the heart-mind, is a term for what is referred to in English as "meditation." In the Dasuttara Sutta (D iii 272-93), various other items are said to be things "to be developed": "mindfulness regarding the body, accompanied by pleasure"; calm (samatha) and insight (vipassanā); three samādhis — with both mental application and examination, with just examination, with neither; the four applications of mindfulness; the fivefold right samādhi — (which involve) suffusion of joy, of happiness, of mind (ceto-), of light, and the reviewing sign (nimitta); recollection of the Buddha, Dhamma, Saṅgha, moral virtue, liberality, and devas; the seven factors of awakening; the Noble Eight-factored Path; the nine factors of effort for perfect purity; the ten kasiṇas (e.g., colored discs) as meditation objects. Devas, māras and brahmās: devas refer to divine beings, especially those of the higher reaches of sense-desire (kāma-) realm that is seen to be the world shared by them, humans, animals, ghosts and hell-beings. The earth-dwelling devas and the following six types of devas in the above discourse are, in ascending order, the types of devas of the sense-desire realm. A māra is a tempter-deity, seen as seeking to keeping beings attached to sense pleasures. A brahmā is a divine being of the more refined realm of elemental form (rūpa-); beings attain rebirth at this level due to attaining meditative jhāna, which māras try to prevent happening. The devas of the brahmā group (brahma-kāyikā) are those of this realm of elemental form, the lowest of which are the devas of (Great) Brahmā's retinue (brahma-pārisajjā). A Great Brahmā is a type of being who is full of lovingkindness and compassion, but with a tendency to deludedly think he created the world. The brahmās also include more refined kinds of beings. Fully understood, to be: pariññeyyan. In the Dasuttara Sutta (D iii 272-93), various other items are said to be things "to be fully understood": "stimulation that is with-taint and linked to grasping (phasso sāsavo upādāniyo)"; "mind and material form"; the three kinds of feeling; the four nutriments; the five bundles of grasping-fuel; the six internal sense-spheres; the seven stations of consciousness (types of rebirth); the eight worldly conditions — gain and loss, fame and shame, blame and praise, pleasure and pain; the nine abodes of beings; the five physical senses and their objects. Mental unification: samādhi, generally translated as "concentration," does not refer to the process of concentrating the mind, but to the state of being concentrated, unified, in jhāna. Nibbāna: the destruction of attachment, hatred and delusion, the cessation of pain, the unconditioned state. Noble: ariya is a word applied to the persons of nobility of citta (mind/heart/spirit) who have had some direct insight into the realities for the Noble One(s) (see entry on these), so as to be firmly established on the path — which is itself Noble — to Nibbāna, the end of pain. One Who Moves in Reality: Tathāgata is a term for a Buddha. It literally means "Thus-gone" or "Thus-come." What is "thus" is what is real. Translating the term as "One Who Moves in Reality" brings the term alive as referring to person who has awakened to the real nature of things, and experiences things as they really are, most significantly in terms of dukkha, its origination, its cessation, and the way to this. Pain: dukkha. The basic everyday meaning of the word dukkha as a noun is "pain" as opposed to "pleasure" (sukha). These, with neither-dukkha-nor-sukha, are the three kinds of feeling (vedanā) (e.g., S iv 232). S v 209-10 explains dukkha vedanā as pain (dukkha) and unhappiness (domanassa), i.e., bodily and mental dukkha. This shows that the primary sense of dukkha, when used as a noun, is physical "pain," but then its meaning is extended to include mental pain, unhappiness. The same spread of meaning is seen in the English word "pain," for example in the phrase, "the pleasures and pains of life." Painful: dukkha as an adjective refers to things which are not (in most cases) themselves forms of mental or physical pain, but which are experienced in ways which bring mental or physical pain. When it is said "birth is painful" etc, the word dukkha agrees in number and gender with what it is applied to, so is an adjective. The most usual translation "is suffering" does not convey this. Birth is not a form of "suffering," nor is it carrying out the action of "suffering," as in the use of the word in "he is suffering." "Patterned with an origination" and "patterned with a cessation": samudaya-dhamma and nirodha-dhamma: here "dhamma," the same word as for the Basic Pattern, is used as an adjective. One might also translate: "is subject to origination" and "is subject to cessation." The words samudaya and nirodha are the same ones used for the "origination" and "cessation" of pain/dukkha. Personally experienced, to be: sacchikātabban, from sacchikaroti, to see with one's own eyes, to experience for oneself. One is reminded of the epithet of the Dhamma as "ehipassiko... paccataṃ veditabbo viññūhi": "come-see-ish... to be experienced individually by the discerning." A ii 182 explains that the eight deliverances (vimokhas) are to be personally experienced (sacchikaraṇīyā) by one's (mental) body; former lives are to be personally experienced by mindfulness (sati); the decease and rebirth of beings are to be personally experienced by (divine) vision (cakkhu), and the destruction of the taints (āsavas) is to be personally experienced by wisdom (paññā). The last of these seems that which applies in the case of experiencing the cessation of dukkha. In the Dasuttara Sutta (D iii 272-93), various other items are said to be things "to be personally experienced": "unshakeable liberation of mind"; "knowledge and liberation"; knowledge of past lives, the rebirths of other beings, and of destruction of one's taints; the "fruits" (-phalas) which are stream-entry, once-returner-hood, non-returner-hood and arahantship; the five dhamma-groups — of moral virtue, mental unification, wisdom, liberation, and knowledge and vision of liberation; the six higher knowledges; the seven powers of one who has destroyed the taints; the eight deliverances; the nine successive cessations — first jhāna up to the cessation of perception and feeling; the ten dhammas of the non-learner — right view to right mental unification, then right knowledge and right liberation. Reality for the Noble One(s) (or, for the Noble One(s), a reality): Ariya-sacca, usually translated "Noble Truth," but K.R.Norman sees this as "the least likely of all the possibilities" for the meaning of ariya-sacca. He points out that the commentators interpret it as: "'truth of the noble one,' 'truth of the noble ones,' 'truth for a noble one,' i.e., the truth that will make one noble, as well as the translation 'noble truth' so familiar to us. The last possibility, however, they put at the very bottom of the list of possibilities, if they mention it at all" (A Philological Approach to Buddhism, London: School of Oriental and African Studies, 1997, p. 16). He prefers "truth of the noble one (the Buddha)," but acknowledges that the term may be deliberately multivalent. At S v 435, the Buddha is "the Noble One," but the term also applies to any of the Noble persons who have insight into the ariya-saccas: stream-enterers, once-returners, non-returners and arahants. They are different from the "ordinary person," the puthujjana, though an ordinary person can become a Noble person by insight into Dhamma. As regards the translation of sacca, this means "truth" in many contexts, but as an adjective it means both "true" and "real." Taking sacca as meaning "truth" in the term ariya-sacca is problematic as in the above discourse it is said that the second ariya-sacca is "to be abandoned"; but surely, the "truth" on the origination of pain should not be abandoned. Rather, the "reality" which is the origination of pain — craving — should be abandoned. Moreover, the discourse says that the Buddha understood, "This is the ariya-sacca which is pain," not "The ariya-sacca 'This is pain,'" which would be the case if sacca here meant a truth whose content was expressed in words in quote marks. The ariya-saccas as "realities for the Noble One(s)" are reminiscent of such passages as S iv 95, which says that, "That in the world by which one is a perceiver of the world, a conceiver of the world — this is called the world in the discipline of the Noble One (ariyassa vinaye)." That is, Noble Ones understand things in a different way from ordinary people. Renewed existence: punabbhava, again-becoming or rebirth. Renunciants and brahmans: those who renounce the household life for a religious quest, and priests of the pre-Buddhist religion of India. "Renunciants" include Buddhist and Jain monks and nuns, and also certain ascetics who rejected Brahmanism and were Fatalists, Materialists or Skeptics. Vision: cakkhu means eye, but also vision, insight. Way leading to the cessation of pain: dukkha-nirodha-gāminī paṭipadā.   Buddha: First Sermon - The Middle Path (c. 6th Century BCE) [Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta - Setting Rolling the Wheel of Truth ]

[The first sermon included here are the words of the Buddha when he spoke in the deer park at Benares as recorded in the SAMYUTTA-NIKAYA V:420, one of the collections of the SUTTA PITAKA, the largest of the "three baskets" of early Buddhist texts. Hearing this brief discourse, the five previous companions, who were at first skeptical of Buddha's new claims, were convinced and became the first five "perfected ones" in his order.]

from T.W. Rhys Davids and Herman Oldenberg, trans, Vinyaya Texts, in F. Max Mueller, ed., The Sacred Books of the East, 50 vols., (Oxford: Clarendon, 1879-1910), Vol 13. pp. 94-97, 100-102 repr. in Alfred J. Andrea and James H. Overfield, The Human Record: Sources of Global History, Vol 1, 2d. ed., (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1994), pp. 72-74

[Andrea Introduction] Many parallels exist between the legendary lives of the Mahavira (the founder of the Indian philsophy of Jainism) and the Buddha, and several of their teachings are strikingly similar. Each rejected the special sanctity of (the Old Indian) Vedic literature, and each denied the meaningfulness of caste distinctions and duties. Yet a close investigation of their doctrines reveal substantial differences.

Like the Mahavira, young Prince Siddhartha Gautama, shrinking in horror at the many manifestations of misery in this world, fled his comfortable life and eventually became an ascetic. Where, however, the Mahavira found victory over karma in severe self-denial and total nonviolence, Prince Gautama found only severe disquiet. The ascetic life offered him no enlightenment as to how one might escape the sorrows of mortal existence. After abandoning extreme asceticism in favor of the Middle Path of self-restraint, Gautama achieved Enlightenment in a flash while meditating under a sacred pipal tree. He was now the Buddha.

Legend tells us he then proceeded to share the path to Eulightenment by preaching a sermon in a deer park at Benares in northeastern India to five ascetics, who became his first disciples. Buddhists refer to that initial sermon as "Setting in Motion the Wheel of the Law," which means that the Buddha had embarked on a journey (turning the wheel) on behalf of the law of Righteousness (dharma).

The following document is a reconstruction of that first sermon Although composed at least several centuries after Siddhartha Gautama's death it probably contains the essence of what the Buddha taught his earliest disciples

 

SETTING IN MOTION THE WHEEL OF THE LAW

And the Blessed one thus addressed the five Bhikkhus [monks]. ' "There are two extremes, O Bhikkhus, which he who has given up the world, ought to avoid. What are rhese two extremes'? A life given to pleasures, devoted to pleasures and lusts: this is degrading, sensual, vulgar, ignoble, and profitless; and a life given to rnortifications: this is painful, ignoble, and profitless. By avoiiding these two extremes, O Bhikkhus, the Tathagata [a title of Buddha meaning perhaps "he who has arrived at the truth"] has gained the knowledge of the Middle Path which leads to insight, which leads to wisdom which conduces to calm, to knowledge, co the Sambodhi [total enlightenment], to Nirvana [state of release from samsara, the cycle of existence and rebirth].

The Eightfold Path

"Which, O Bhikkhus, is this Middle Path the knowledge of which the Tathagata has gained, which leads to insight, which leads to wisdom, which conduces to calm, to knowledge, to the Sambodhi, to Nirvana? It is the Holy Eightfold Path, namely,

Right Belief [understanding the truth about the universality of suffering and knowing the path to its extinction],

Right Aspiration [a mind free of ill will, sensuous desire and cruelty],

Right Speech [abstaining from lying, harsh language and gossip],

Right Conduct [avoiding killing, stealing and unlawful sexual intercourse],

Right Means of Livelihood [avoiding any occupation taht brings harm directly or indirectly to any other living being],

Right Endeavor [avoiding unwholsome and evil things],

Right Memory [awareness in contemplation],

Right Meditation. [concentration that ultimately reaches the level of a trance],

This, O Bhikkhus, is the Middle Path the knowledge of which the Tathagata has gained, which leads to insight, which leads to wisdom, which conduces to calm, co knowledge, to the Sambodhi, to Nirvana.

The Four Noble Truths

"This, O Bhikkhus, is the Noble Truth of Suffering: Birch is suffering; decay is suffering; illness is suffering; death is suffering. Presence of objects we hate, is suffering; Separation from objects wc love, is suffering; not to obtain what we desire, is suffering. Briefly,... clinging to existence is suffering.

"This, O Bhikkhus, is the Noble Truth of the Cause of suffering Thirst, which leads to rebirth, accompanied by pleasure and lust, finding its delight here and there. This thirst is threefold, namely, thirst for pleasure, thirst for existence, thirst for prosperity.

"This, O Bhikkhus, is the Noble Truth of the Cessation of suffering: it ceases with the complete cessation of this thirst, -- a cessation which consists in the absence of every passion with the abandoning of this thirst, with doing away with it, with the deliverance from it, with the destruction of desire.

"This, O Bhikkhus, is the Noble Truth of the Path which leads to the cessation of suffering: that Holy Eightfold Path, that is to say, Right Belief, Right Aspiration, Right Speech, Right Conduct, Right Means of Livelihood, Right Endeavor, Right Memory, Right Meditation....

"As long, O Bhikkhus, as I did not possess with perfect purity this true knowledge and insight into these four Noble Truths... so long, O Bhikkhus, I knew that I had not yet obtained the highest, absolute Sambodhi in the world of men and gods....

"But since I possessed, O Bhikkhus, with perfect purity this true knowledge and insight into these four Noble Truths... then I knew, O Bhikkhus, that I had obtained the highest, universal Sambodhi....

"And this knowledge and insight arose in my mind: "The emancipation of my mind cannot be lost; this is my last birth; hence I shall not be born again!"

**

From: Ephanius Wilson, Sacred Books of the East, rev. ed. (London: The Colonial Press, 1900), pp. 158, 160-61, 171-72, repr. In Mark A. Kishlansky, ed., Sources of World History, Volume I, (New York: HarperCollins CollegePublishers, 1995), pp. 67-71

[Kishlansky Introduction] Siddhartha Gautama (ca. 563-483 BCE.) was the son of the king of a small Indian state. Legend holds that it was foretold at his birth that he would either be a great monarch or a great Buddha (literally, "an enlightened one") His father, hoping for the former, raised Siddhartha in luxury. But at the age of 29 Siddhartha experienced a vision of human suffering that led him to renounce his worldly status and goods and take to the road as a wandering ascetic. He joined at least two ascetic sects, whose philosophies he quickly mastered but neither allowed him to achieve the highest truth. He finally attained this goal when one night while he was meditating he was able to comprehend his past and future lives. Siddhartha determined to teach the truths he had realized; he gathered disdiples and preached a middle way between worldliness and asceticism. His teachings swept throughout east Asia, becoming the foundation for one of the world's great religions. Buddhist traditions flourished in both India and China, although they developed separately.

The teachings of the Buddha were recorded by his students and then codified over the next 500 years. The Buddha's sermons are regarded by scholars as as largely authentic, and part of his first sermon, the Sermon at Benares, is reproduced here. The selection that follows is a disquisition on the concept of Nirvana.

NOTE: The first part of this document consists of a version of Buddha's first sermon. It is useful to compare it with the other version, by Rhys David and Herman Oldenberg, handed out separately. The second part of this document is a distinct discussion of the nature of Nirvana.

 

THE SERMON AT BENARES

On seeing their old teacher approach, the five bhikkhus agreed among themselves not to salute him, nor to address him as a master, but by his name only. "For," so they said, "he has broken his vow and has abandoned holiness. He is no bhikkhu but Gotama, and Gotama has become a man who lives in abundance and indulges in the pleasures of worldliness."

But when the Blessed One approached in a dignified manner, they involuntarily rose from their seats and greeted him in spite of their resolution. Still they called him by his name and addressed him as "friend Gotama."

When they had thus received the Blessed One, he said: "Do not call the Tathagata by his name nor address him as 'friend,' for he is the Buddha, the Holy One. The Buddha looks with a kind heart equally on all living beings, and they therefore call him 'Father.' To disrespect a father is wrong; to despise him, is wicked.

"The Tathagata," the Buddha continued, "does not seek salvation in austerities, but neither does he for that reason indulge in worldly pleasures, nor live in abundance. The Tathagata has found the middle path.

"There are two extremes, O bhikkhus, which the man who has given up the world ought not to follow-the habitual practice, on the one hand, of self-indulgence which is unworthy, vain and fit only for the worldly-minded and the habitual practice, on the other hand, of self-mortification, which is painful, useless and unprofitable.

"Neither abstinence from fish or flesh, nor going naked, nor shaving the head, nor wearing matted hair, nor dressing in a rough garment, nor covering oneself with dirt, nor sacrificing to Agni, will cleanse a man who is not free from delusions.

"Reading the Vedas, making offerings to priests, or sacrifices to the gods, self-mortification by heat or cold, and many such penances performed for the sake of immortality, these do not cleanse the man who is not free from delusions.

"Anger, drunkenness, obstinacy, bigotry, deception, envy, self-praise, disparaging others, superciliousness and evil intentions constitute uncleanness; not verily the eating of flesh. "

A middle path, O bhikkhus, avoiding the two extremes, has been discovered by the Tathagata-a path which opens the eyes, and bestows understanding, which leads to peace of mind, to the higher wisdom, to full enlightenment, to Nirvana!

"What is that middle path, O bhikkhus, avoiding these two extremes, discovered by the Tathagata - that path which opens the eyes, and bestows understanding, which leads to peace of mind, to the higher wisdom, to full enlightenment, to Nirvana?

"Let me teach you, O bhikkhus, the middle path, which keeps aloof from both extremes. By suffering, the emaciated devotee produces confusion and sickly thoughts in his mind. Mortification is not conducive even to worldly knowledge; how much less to a triumph over the senses !

"He who fills his lamp with water will not dispel the darkness, and he who tries to light a fire with rotten wood will fail. And how can anyone be free from self by leading a wretched life, if he does not succeed in quenching the fires of lust, if he still hankers after either worldly or heavenly- pleasures. But he in whom self has become extinct is free from lust: he will desire neither worldly nor heavenly pleasures, and the satisfaction of his natural wants will not defile him. However, let him be moderate, let him eat and drink according to the needs of the body.

"Sensuality is enervating: the "self-indulgent" man is a slave to pleasure to his passions, and pleasure-seek. ing is degrading and vulgar.

"But to satisfy the necessities of life is not evil. To keep the body in good health is a duty for otherwise we shall not be able to trim the lamp of wisdom, and keep our mind strong and clear. Water surrounds the lotus-flower, but does not wet its petals.

"This is the middle path, O bhikkhus. that keeps aloof from both extremes.

And the Blessed One spoke kindly to his disciples, pitying them for their errors, and pointing out the uselessness of their endeavors, and the ice of ill-will that chilled their hearts melted away under the gentle warmth of the Master's persuasion.

Now the Blessed One set the wheel of the most excellent law rolling, and he began to preach to the five bhikkhus, opening to them the gate of immortality, and showing them the bliss of Nirvana.

The Buddha said:

"The spokes of the wheel are the rules of pure conduct: justice is the uniformity of their length, wisdom is the tire; modesty and thoughtfulness are the hub in which the immovable axle of truth is fixed.

"He who recognizes the existence of suffering, its cause, its remedy, and its cessation has fathomed the four noble truths. He will walk in the right path.

"Right views will be the torch to light his way. Right aspirations will be his guide. Right speech will be his dwelling-place on the road. flis gait will be straight, for it is right behavior. His refreshments will be the right way of earning his livelihood. right efforts will be his steps right thoughts his breath; and right contemplation will give him the peace that follows in his footprints.

"Now, this, O bhikkhus, is the noble truth concerning suffering:

"Birth is attended with pain, decay is painful, disease is painful, death is painful. Union. with the unpleasant is painful, painful is separation from the pleasant, and any craving that is unsatisfied, that too is painful. In brief, bodily conditions which spring from attachment are painful.

"This, then, O bhikkus, is the noble truth concerning suffering.

"Now this, O bhikkhus, is the noble truth concerning the origin of suffering:

"Verily, it is that craving which causes the renewal of existence, accompanied by sensual delight, seeking satisfaction now here, now there, the craving for the gratification of the passions, the craving for a future life, and the craving for happiness in this life.

"This, then, O bhikkhus, is the noble truth concerning the origin of suffering-

"Now this, O bhikkhus, is the noble truth concerning the destruction of suffering:

"Verily, it is the destruction, in which no passion remains, of this very thirst; it is the laying aside of, the being free from, the dwelling no longer upon this thirst.

"This then, O bhikkhus, is the noble truth concerning the destruction of suffering-

'Now this, O bhikkhus, is the noble truth concerning the way which leads to the destruction of sorrow. Verily! it is this noble eightfold path: that is to say:

"Right views; right aspirations; right speech; right behavior; right livelihood, right effort; right thoughts; and right contemplation.

"This, then, O bhikkhus, is the noble truth concerning the destruction of sorrow. "By the practice of lovingkindness I have attained liberation of heart, and thus I am assured that I shall never return in renewed births. I have even now attained Nirvana."

And when the Blessed One had thus set the royal chariot wheel of truth rolling onward, a rapture thrilled through all the universes. The devas left their heavenly abodes to listen to the sweetness of the truth; the saints that had parted from this life crowded around the great teacher to receive the glad tidings; even the animals of the earth felt the bliss that rested upon the words of the Tagathata: and all the creatures of the host of sentient beings, gods, men, and beasts, hearing the message of deliverance, received and understood it in their own language.

And when the doctrine was propounded, the venerable Kondanna, the oldest one among the five bhikkhus, discerned the truth with his mental eye, and he said: "Truly, O Buddha, our Lord, thou hast found the truth!" Then the other bhikkhus too, joined him and exclaimed: "Truly, thou art the Buddha, thou has found the truth. "

And the devas and saints and all the good spirits of the departed generations that had listened to the sermon of the Tathagata, joyfully received the doctrine and shouted: "Truly, the blessed One has founded the kingdom of righteousness. The Blessed One has moved the earth; he has set the wheel of Truth rolling, which by no one in the universe, be he god or man, can ever be turned back. The kingdom of Truth will be preached upon earth; it will spread; and righteousness, good-will, and peace will reign among mankind."