The Buddha's first sutra: Turning the Wheel

Amber Larson and Dhr. Seven (eds.), Ven. Nanamoli Thera (trans.), Wisdom Quarterly

Setting in Motion the Wheel of Truth

Thus have I heard. On one occasion the Blessed One (the Buddha) was living outside Benares at the Deer Park in the Resort of Seers. There he addressed the meditators known as the Group of Five.

"Meditators, two extremes should be abandoned by those who have left home to go forth on a quest for enlightenment. What two?

"The first is being devoted to the pleasure of indulging in sensual craving, which is low, vulgar, the way of the ordinary person, ignoble, not connected to the goal of liberation from suffering (nirvana), and second being devoted to self-torment (through extreme austerities and self-mortification as penance), which is painful, ignoble, and not connected to the goal.

"The Middle Way discovered by a Awakened One avoids both of these extremes. It gives rise to vision, knowledge, and it leads to serenity, to direct experience, to discovery, and to nirvana (the permanent end of all suffering).

"What is that Middle Way? It is this Noble (Ennobling) Eightfold Path:

1. right view
2. right intention
3. right speech
4. right action
5. right livelihood
6. right effort
7. right mindfulness
8. right concentration.

"It is the Middle Way discovered by the Awakened One that gives rise to vision, knowledge, and leads to serenity, to direct experience, to discovery, to nirvana.

• Peter Harvey translation: The Discourse on the Setting in Motion of the Wheel (of Vision) of the Basic Pattern: the Four True Realities for the Spiritually Ennobled Ones
• Ven. Piyadassi translation: Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta: Setting in Motion the Wheel of Truth

The Blessed One is setting the Truth in motion!

"What is suffering the understanding of which leads to enlightenment? Rebirth is suffering (disappointment, never fulfilling, always unsatisfactory), aging is suffering, sickness is suffering, death is suffering, sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair are suffering, associating with the unloved is suffering, separation from the loved is suffering, not getting what one wants is suffering — in short, suffering is the Five Aggregates clung to as self.

"What is the origin of suffering the understanding of which leads to enlightenment? It is the craving that produces renewal of becoming (rebirth) accompanied by lust and delight, enjoying this and that —  in other words, craving for sensual experiences, craving for being (renewed becoming again and again), and craving for non-being (nonexistence).

"What is the end of suffering the understanding of which leads to enlightenment? It is the remainderless fading and ceasing, abandoning, relinquishing, letting go, and rejecting of craving.

"What is the way leading to end of all suffering the understanding of which leads to enlightenment?

"It is this Noble Eightfold Path (this ennobling Middle Way): right view, right intention; right speech, right action, right livelihood; right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration.

Ennobling = Enlightening

"'Suffering, as an ennobling truth, is this.' Such was the vision, knowledge (knowing-and-seeing), understanding, discovering, the light that arose with regard to things never before heard by me.

"'This suffering, as an ennobling truth, can be diagnosed.' Such was the vision...

"'This suffering, as an ennobling truth, has been diagnosed.' Such was the vision...

"'The origin of suffering, as an ennobling truth, is this.' Such was the vision...

'This origin of suffering, as an ennobling truth, can be abandoned.' Such was the vision...

'This origin of suffering, as an ennobling truth, has been abandoned.' Such was the vision...with regard to things never before heard by me.

"'The end of suffering, as an ennobling truth, is this.' Such was the vision...

'This end of suffering, as an ennobling truth, can be verified.' Such was the vision...

'This end of suffering, as an ennobling truth, has been verified.' Such was the vision...with regard to ideas never before heard by me.

"'The way leading to the end of suffering, as an ennobling truth, is this.' Such was the vision...

'This way leading to the end of suffering, as an ennobling truth, can be developed.' Such was the vision...

'This way leading to the end of suffering, as an ennobling truth, has been developed.' Such was the vision...with regard to ideas never before heard by me.

Supreme Teacher

"As long as my knowing and seeing how things are was not pure in 12 aspects, in three phases of each of the Four Noble Truths, I did not claim in this world — with its devas, its maras and brahmas, in this generation with its wandering ascetics and Brahmins, with its princes and humans — to have discovered supreme awakening.

"But as soon as my knowing and seeing how things are was pure in 12 aspects, in three phases of each of the Four Noble Truths, then did I claim in this world — with its devas, its maras and brahmas, in this generation with its wandering ascetics and Brahmins, its princes and humans — to have discovered the supreme awakening.

"Knowing and seeing arose in me in this way: 'My heart's emancipation is certain. This is the last rebirth. Now there is no more renewal of becoming.'"

That is what the Blessed One said. The meditators known as the Group of Five were glad, and they approved of his words.

During this utterance, there arose in Venenerable Kondañña the spotless, immaculate vision of the Dharma: "Whatever is subject to arising is subject to passing away."

When the Wheel of Truth had been set rolling by the Blessed One the earthbound devas exclaimed: "At Benares, in the Deer Park at the Resort of Seers, the matchless Wheel of Truth has been set rolling by the Blessed One, not to be stopped by ascetic or divine or deva or mara or brahma or anyone in this world!"

The Buddha came from Gandhara.

On hearing the earthbound devas' exclamation, all the devas in the six paradise worlds of the sensual sphere in turn took up the exclamation until it reached beyond the Retinue of Brahma in the sphere of pure form.

So in that hour, at that moment, the exclamation soared up to the World of Brahma, and this ten-thousandfold world shook and quaked and rocked. And a measureless radiance surpassing the very splendor of the devas (shining ones) shone throughout the entire world-system.

Then the Blessed One exclaimed: "Kondañña knows! Kondañña knows!" That is how he acquired the name Añña-Kondañña — "Kondañña who knows" (SN 56.11).