The Buddha's first sutra: Wheel of Dharma

THE BUDDHA'S FIRST SUTRA (56.11) Setting in Motion the Wheel of the Dhamma

Turning in the dreaded Wheel of Samsara

Thus have I heard. On one occasion the Awakened One was dwelling at Baraṇasi (Varanasi) in the Deer Park at Isipatana (the Resort of Seers). There he addressed the Group of Five [wandering ascetics, his former companions in the spiritual life]:

“Meditators, these two extremes should be abandoned by one who has gone forth from the homelife to the left-home life. What are the two? The pursuit of sensual happiness in sensual pleasures, which is low, vulgar, the way of worldlings, ignoble, unbeneficial on the one hand and the pursuit of self-mortification, which is painful, ignoble, and unbeneficial on the other.

“Without veering off towards either of these extremes, the Tathagata (the Wayfarer, the Buddha) has awakened to the Middle Way, which gives rise to knowledge, which gives rise to vision, which leads to peace, to direct experience, to enlightenment, to nirvana.

“What, meditators, is that Middle Way awakened to by the Tathagata, which gives rise to knowledge and vision…and which leads to nirvana? It is this 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 stillness.

“This, meditators, is that Middle Way awakened to by the Tathagata, which gives rise to knowledge and vision, which leads to peace, to direct experience, to enlightenment, to nirvana.

“Now this, meditators, is the ennobling truth of disappointment (suffering, pain, misery, dukkha): rebirth is disappointing, aging is disappointing, illness is disappointing, death is disappointing; union with what is displeasing is disappointing; separation from what is pleasing is disappointing; not to get what one wants is disappointing; in brief, the Five Aggregates clung to as self are disappointing.

“Now this, meditators, is the ennobling truth of the origin of disappointment: It is this craving that leads to renewed becoming (rebirth), accompanied by delight and lust, seeking delight here and there; that is, craving for sensual pleasure, craving for eternal existence, craving for annihilation.

“Now this, meditators, is the ennobling truth of the cessation of disappointment: It is the remainderless fading away and cessation of that craving, the letting go and abandoning of it, freedom from it, nonreliance on it.

“Now this, meditators, is the ennobling truth of the way leading to the cessation of disappointment: It is this Ennobling Eightfold Path; that is (1-8), right view…right stillness.

“‘This is the ennobling truth of disappointment’: Meditators, in regard to things unheard before, there arose in me knowledge, vision, wisdom, direct experience (true knowledge), and light.

What does it take to be a "wise man"?

“‘This ennobling truth of disappointment is to be fully understood’: Meditators, in regard to things unheard before, there arose in me knowledge, vision, wisdom, direct experience, and light.

“‘This ennobling truth of disappointment has been fully understood’: Meditators, in regard to things unheard before, there arose in me knowledge, vision, wisdom, direct experience, and light.

“‘This is the ennobling truth of the origin of disappointment’: Meditators, in regard to things unheard before, there arose in me knowledge, vision, wisdom, direct experience, and light.

“‘This ennobling truth of the origin of disappointment is to be abandoned’: Meditators, in regard to things unheard before, there arose in me knowledge, vision, wisdom, direct experience, and light.

“‘This ennobling truth of the origin of disappointment has been abandoned’: Meditators, in regard to things unheard before, there arose in me knowledge, vision, wisdom, direct experience, and light.

“‘This is the ennobling truth of the cessation of disappointment’: Meditators, in regard to things unheard before, there arose in me knowledge, vision, wisdom, direct experience, and light.

“‘This ennobling truth of the cessation of disappointment is to be realized’: Meditators, in regard to things unheard before, there arose in me knowledge, vision, wisdom, direct experience, and light.

“‘This ennobling truth of the cessation of disappointment has been realized’: Meditators, in regard to things unheard before, there arose in me knowledge, vision, wisdom, direct experience, and light.

“‘This is the ennobling truth of the way leading to the cessation of disappointment’: Meditators, in regard to things unheard before, there arose in me knowledge, vision, wisdom, direct experience, and light.

“‘This ennobling truth of the way leading to the cessation of disappointment is to be developed’: Meditators, in regard to things unheard before, there arose in me knowledge, vision, wisdom, direct epxerience, and light.

“‘This ennobling truth of the way leading to the cessation of disappointment has been developed’: Meditators, in regard to things unheard before, there arose in me knowledge, vision, wisdom, direct experience, and light.

“So long, meditators, as my knowledge-and-vision of these Four Ennobling Truths as they really are in their three phases and 12 aspects was not thoroughly purified in this way, I did not claim to have awakened to the unsurpassed supreme enlightenment in this world with its devas, maras, and brahmas (deities, demons, and divines), in this generation with its wandering ascetics and temple priests, its beings of light (devas) and humans.

I can get off this interminable wheel now.

“But when my knowledge-and-vision of these Four Ennobling Truths as they really are in their three phases and 12 aspects was thoroughly purified in this way, then I claimed to have awakened to the unsurpassed supreme enlightenment in this world with its devas, maras, and brahmas, in this generation with its wandering ascetics and temple priests, its beings of light and humans.

“Knowledge-and-vision arose in me: ‘Unshakable is my liberation of heart/mind. This is my final rebirth. Now there is no more again becoming.’”

This is what the Blessed One said. Elated, the Group of Five delighted in the Awakened One’s words.

The first hearer to awaken

And while this discourse (sutra) was being spoken, there arose in Venerable Kondañña the dust-free, stainless vision of the Dhamma: “Whatsoever originates also ceases.”

And when the Wheel of the Dhamma (Doctrine) had been set in motion by the Awakened One, the earth-dwelling beings of light (bhumi-devas) raised a cry:

• 

  The 31 Planes of Existence

  “At Baraṇasi, in the Deer Park at Isipatana, this unsurpassed Wheel of the Dhamma has been set in motion by the Awakened One, which cannot be stopped by any wandering ascetic or temple priest (shramana or brahmana) or deva or Mara or Brahma or by anyone in the world.”
• Having heard the cry of the earth-dwelling beings of light, the beings of light in the realm of the Four Great Kings raised [the same] cry: “At Baraṇasi…this unsurpassed Wheel of the Dhamma has been set in motion by the Awakened One.”
• Having heard the cry of the devas of the realm of the Four Great Kings, the Tavatiṁsa devas (the light beings of the World of the Thirty-Three)…
• the Yama devas…
• the Tusita devas…
• the Nimmanarati devas…
• the Paranimmitavasavatti devas…
• the devas of Brahma’s retinue raised [the same] cry: “At Baraṇasi, in the Deer Park at Isipatana, this unsurpassed Wheel of the Dhamma has been set in motion by the Awakened One, which cannot be stopped by any wandering ascetic or temple priest or deva or Mara or Brahma or by anyone in the world.”

Then at that moment, at that instant, at that very second, this cry spread as far as the brahma world, and this 10,000-fold world system shook, quaked, and trembled, and an immeasurable glory and radiance appeared in the world surpassing the divine majesty of the devas.

Then the Awakened One spoke this inspired utterance:

“Koṇḍañña, indeed, understood! Koṇḍañña, indeed, has understood!” In this way Venerable Koṇḍañña acquired the name “Añña Koṇḍañña—Koṇḍañña Who Has Understood.”

• SN 56.11: Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta—Bhikkhu Bodhi (trans.), suttacentral.net, edited by Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly

On retreat with Bhikkhu Bodhi (Day 1)

Eds., Wisdom Quarterly; Bhikkhu Bodhi (BAUS); Lankarama Buddhist Institute (Dhammausa)

If I did not become the world's most prolific translator of Buddhist texts into American-English, I would have become a stuffy philosopher from the Claremont Colleges of California.

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There were too many people to count accurately, with 60 signed up online (DBM 1, DBM 2, DBM 3) and between 50 and 70 present to see the inauguration of Bhikkhu Bodhi's weeklong meditation-study retreat in Los Angeles.

We pored over the texts, with a bound set of handouts of many sutras, references, and charts put together by Ms. Y (Buddhas4nobletruths@gmail.com), the woman responsible for inviting this venerable scholar-monk two years ago after flying to see him at Chaung Yen Monastery in Upstate New York then making all of the event arrangements in coordination with Lankarama Buddhist Institute, San Gabriel Valley, La Puente, Los Angeles County.

How it all began

Breaking headline: The Buddha Shakyamuni did NOT leave his wife and sneak out of the palace as we have all been taught in the allegory of the Buddha's life!

That story or jataka fable is found in the commentary to DN 14, but the sutra itself says that those events took place in the life of the Buddha Vipassi 91 aeons (kalpas) ago, thus relegating this instructional story to mythology.

Made known is the Path to Freedom

How the Buddha actually left, what he was thinking as he set out on his noble quest -- to get away from rebirth, aging, death (Ariyapariyesana Sutta, MN 26), himself being subject to them -- which was that he would seek the end of rebirth, the unailing, and the deathless (amata = nirvana).

He realized it was ignoble to, himself being subject to these things, seek for possessions subject to these things. It would be far nobler to find what is free of them.

He began so slowly, with such basic things that one would have thought nothing was going to happen. Then came the sidebars, the added knowledge, the extras, answering our questions, clarifying point of contention. He was miraculously able to answer anything with chapter and verse references right out of his head. He at 75 is well and happy, spry and sharp, much more lucid than when we last saw him in New York.

Recommended Books

In the Buddha's Words: An Anthology of Discourses...by Bhikkhu Bodhi

The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha...by Bhikkhu Bodhi and Ven. Nanamoli 

The Connected Discourses of the Buddha...by Bhikkhu Bodhi

The Long Discourses of the Buddha: A Trans... by Maurice O'Connell Walshe

A Comprehensive Manual of Abhidhamma: Buddhism...by Bhikkhu Bodhi

Numerical Discourses of the Buddha: An Anthology...by Bhikkhu Bodhi

Is it all just pain (dukkha)?

[Babs] Barbara O'Brien (ThoughtCo.com, updated July 23, 2018) edited by Wisdom Quarterly

All conditional existence is fraught with disappointment, non-fulfillment, pain, agony, tears.

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I want to KILL that child-fricken perp!

In the first sutra after his great enlightenment, the Buddha gave a teaching called the Four Noble Truths.

It's said that the Four [Ennobling] Truths contain the entire Dharma because all of the Buddha's teachings are connected to the Truths.

The First Noble Truth explains dukkha, a Pali/Sanskrit word that is often translated as "suffering," but which might also be translated as [disappointment, pain] "stress" or "unsatisfactoriness." Life [all conditional existence] is dukkha, the Buddha said.

But why is this so? The Second Noble Truth explains the origins of dukkha (samudaya). The Second Truth is often summarized as "Dukkha is caused by craving," but there's more to it than that.

Craving

"Anything Goes" (Cole Porter)

In his first teaching on the Four Noble Truths, the Buddha said:

"And this, monastics, is the noble truth of the origin of dukkha: it is craving that makes for further becoming -- accompanied by passion and delight, relishing now here and now there -- craving for sensual pleasure, craving for becoming, craving for non-becoming."

The Pali [the only exclusively-Buddhist language] word translated as "craving" is tanha, which literally means "thirst." It's important to understand that craving is not the only cause of life's misery.

It is only the most obvious cause, the most evident. There are other factors that create and feed the craving, and it's also important to understand them.

  

Many kinds of craving (desire)

In his first sutra, the Buddha also described three kinds of tanha -- craving for sensual pleasure, craving for continued becoming [eternal existence], and craving for non-becoming [annihilation]. More

Sutra on the Not-self Characteristic

Ven. Ñanamoli Thera (trans.), Anatta-Lakkhana Sutra: "The Discourse on the Not-Self Characteristic (SN 22.59); Eliza Darcey, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Thus have I heard. On one occasion the Blessed One was living at Benares, in the Deer Park at Isipatana (the "Resort of Seers"). There he addressed the meditators called the group of five [wandering ascetics]:

"Meditators!"

— "Venerable sir," they replied. Then the Blessed One said this:

1. "Meditators, form [the physical, the material, the tangible, body] is not self. Were form self, then this form would not lead to affliction, and one could command of form: 'Let my form be thus, let my form not be thus.' Since form is not self, it leads to affliction, and no one can command form: 'Let my form be thus, let my form not be thus.'
2. "Feeling is not self...
3. "Perception is not self...
4. "Determinations are not self...
5. "Consciousness is not self. Were consciousness self, then this consciousness would not lead to affliction, and one could command consciousness: 'Let my consciousness be thus, let my consciousness not be thus.' Since consciousness is not self, it leads to affliction, and no one can command consciousness: 'Let my consciousness be thus, let my consciousness not be thus.'

"Meditators, how is one to conceive it: Is form permanent or impermanent?"

— "Impermanent, venerable sir."

— "Is what is impermanent painful or pleasant?" — "Painful, venerable sir."

— "Is what is impermanent -- and painful because it is subject to change -- fit to be regarded in this way: 'This is mine, this is I, this is myself'"?

— "No, venerable sir."

"Is feeling permanent or impermanent?...

"Is perception permanent or impermanent?...

"Are determinations permanent or impermanent?...

"Is consciousness permanent or impermanent?"

— "Impermanent, venerable sir."

— "Is what is impermanent pleasant or painful?"

— "Painful, venerable sir."

— "Is what is impermanent -- and painful since it is subject to change -- fit to be regarded in this way: 'This is mine, this is I, this is myself'"?

— "No, venerable sir."

• "Not self" is at the heart of the Heart Sutra

"Therefore, meditators, any kind of form whatsoever -- whether past, future, or presently arisen, whether gross or subtle, whether internal (of oneself) or external (of another), whether inferior or superior, whether far or near must, with right understanding of how it truly is, be regarded: 'This is not mine, this is not I, this is not myself.'
 
"Any kind of feeling whatsoever...

"Any kind of perception whatsoever...
 
"Any kind of determination whatsoever...

"Any kind of consciousness whatsoever -- whether past, future, or presently arisen -- whether gross or subtle, whether internal or external, whether inferior or superior, whether far or near must, with right understanding of how it truly is, be regarded: 'This is not mine, this is not I, this is not myself.'

"Meditators, when a noble [i.e., enlightened] follower who has heard (the truth, the Dharma) sees things [namely, the Five Aggregates Clung to as Self, as they truly are] in this way,

1. one finds estrangement in form,
2. one finds estrangement in feeling,
3. one finds estrangement in perception,
4. one finds estrangement in determinations,
5. one finds estrangement in consciousness.

"When one finds estrangement, passion fades out. With the fading of passion, one is liberated. When liberated, there is direct knowledge that one is liberated. One understands: 'Birth is exhausted, the pure life has been lived, what can be done has been done, of this [suffering in birth] there is no more beyond.'"

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

Now during this utterance, the hearts of the meditators of the group of five were liberated from taints through utterly letting go and clinging no more.

The Buddha's FIRST SUTRA

Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly based on peculiar Peter Harvey translation of the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutra (SN 56.11) accesstoinsight.org

TRANSLATOR'S NOTE: The setting IS seven weeks after the Buddha's enlightenment/awakening. He has traveled to his five former companions with whom he had previously practiced extreme asceticism (Vin i 8-10).

After trying extreme asceticism as a path to enlightenment, he found that it does not lead to awakening. So he abandoned the two extremes of indulgence (as a royal) and mortification (as an ascetic) for a moderate approach, a Middle Way, based on a healthy body and meditative absorptions (jhānas, calm and joyful altered states of consciousness based on samādhi or "mental unification").

The following is the first teaching he gave to anyone. In other contexts, the Buddha taught the Four True Realities for the Spiritually Ennobled Ones to people after first giving them a preparatory gradual discourse to ensure that they were in the right frame of mind/heart be able to fully benefit from the teaching, for example:

"Then the Blessed One gave the householder Upāli a step-by-step discourse, that is, a talk on giving, virtue, the heavenly worlds; he made known the danger, the inferior nature and tendency to defilement in sense-pleasures, and the advantage of letting them go. When the Blessed One knew that the householder Upāli's mind/heart was ready, open, without hindrances, inspired, and confident, then he expounded to him the elevated Dharma-teaching of the buddhas: pain/disappointment (dukkha), its origination, its cessation, and the path" (M i 379-80).

The Four True Realities taught by the Buddha are not things to "believe" as such but verifiable and liberating facts to be open to, see, contemplate, and respond to appropriately: by fully understanding dukkha/pain/the painful, abandoning what originates it, personally experiencing its complete cessation, and developing the path that leads to its cessation.

These Four True Realities are the fundamental dimensions of experience, as seen by a spiritually ennobled person with deep wisdom: the conditioned world, what originates it, the cessation/transcending of it (the unconditioned element nirvana), and the path. Indeed, it is by insight into these that a person becomes spiritually ennobled.

 

SUTRA: Turning the Wheel of the Dharma

The Buddha teaches the Five Wandering Ascetics until they gain enlightenment (Nomu420).

Dhammacakkappavattana Sutra: "The Discourse on the Setting in Motion of the Wheel (or Vision) of the Basic Pattern: The Four True Realities of the Spiritually Ennobled Ones"

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Mara: Don't bother teaching. They'll never understand.

Thus have I heard. At one time the Blessed One was dwelling at Bārāṇasī in the Deer Park at Isipatana. There he addressed the group of five ascetics: "Ascetics, these two extremes should not be followed by one who has gone forth (from the home-life into the left-home life).

"What two? They are the pursuit of sensual happiness in sense pleasures, which is low, vulgar, the way of ordinary folk, ignoble, not connected to the goal [of enlightenment and complete liberation, bodhi and nirvana] or the pursuit of self-mortification, which is painful, ignoble, [the way of many struggling ascetics,] not connected to the goal.

"Ascetics, without veering toward either of these two extremes, the Awakened One has awakened to the Middle Way, which gives rise to vision, gives rise to knowledge, leads to peace, to higher-knowledge, to complete awakening, to nirvana.

 

"And what, ascetics, is that Middle Way awakened to by the Awakened One which gives rise to vision, gives rise to knowledge, leads to peace, to higher-knowledge, to complete awakening, to nirvana?

"It is this Noble Eight-Factored Path, that is:

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

"...Ascetics, this for noble ones (spiritually enlightened/ennobled ones) is the reality of what pain (dukkha) is:

• Birth is painful,
• aging is painful,
• illness is painful,
• death is painful;
• sorrow,
• lamentation,
• physical pain,
• unhappiness and distress are painful;
• union with the disliked is painful;
• separation from the liked is painful;
• not getting what one wants is painful;
• in brief, the Five Bundles of Grasping-Fuel are painful.

What rises is of a nature to fall away.

"Ascetics, this for noble ones is the reality of the origin-of-pain. It is craving (thirst, tanha) that leads to renewed becoming (incessant rebirth), accompanied by delight and clinging that seeks more delight now here now there, namely:

• craving for sense-pleasures
• craving for rebirth
• craving for annihilation (of what is disliked).

"Ascetics, this for noble ones is the reality of the end-of-pain. It is the remainderless fading away and cessation of craving [as brought about by liberating-insight], letting go, and relinquishing it, freedom from it, non-reliance on it.

 

"Ascetics, this for noble ones is the reality of the way leading to the complete cessation of pain. It is the Noble Eight-Factored Path, which is, right view...and right mental unification.

 

"'This for noble ones is the reality of pain' -- ascetics, with regard to things never heard before, there arose in me vision, knowledge, wisdom, higher-knowledge, and light.

 

"'This for noble ones is the reality of pain, this is to be fully understood' -- ascetics, with regard to things never heard before, there arose in me vision, knowledge, wisdom, higher-knowledge, and light.

 

"'This for noble ones is the reality of pain, this has been fully understood' -- ascetics, with regard to things never heard before, there arose in me vision, knowledge, wisdom, higher-knowledge, and light.

 

The oldest artifacts representing the Buddha in human form are from his native Afghanistan.

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I get it! He didn't claim to be awake till he was sure.

"[Likewise,] ascetics, with regard to things never heard before, there arose in me vision, knowledge, wisdom, higher-knowledge, and light with regard to:

"'This for noble ones is the reality of the origin-of-pain, this is to be abandoned.' 'This for noble ones is the reality of the origin-of-pain -- this has been abandoned.'

 

"[Likewise,] ascetics, with regard to things never heard before, there arose in me vision, knowledge, wisdom, higher-knowledge, and light with regard to:

"'This for noble ones is the  reality of the ceasing-of-pain,' this is to be personally experienced.' 'This for noble ones is the reality of the ceasing-of-pain -- this has been personally experienced.'

 

"[Likewise,] ascetics, with regard to things never heard before, there arose in me vision, knowledge, wisdom, higher-knowledge, and light, with regard to:

"'This for noble ones is the reality that is the way leading to the cessation of pain,' this is to be developed. 'This for noble ones is the reality that is the way leading to the cessation of pain,' this has been developed.

In the Buddha's Words (Bhikkhu Bodhi)

"Ascetics, as long as my knowledge and vision of these four realities for noble ones, as they truly are in their three phases [each] with 12 modes [altogether], was not thoroughly purified in this way, then for so long -- in this world with its devas, māras, and brahmās, in this generation with its wandering ascetics (renunciants) and Brahmins (temple priests), its devas and humans -- I did not claim to be fully awakened to the unsurpassed perfect awakening.

"But when, ascetics, my knowledge and vision of these four realities for noble ones, as they truly are in their three phases and 12 modes was thoroughly purified in this way, then -- in this world with its devas, māras, and brahmās, in this generation with its wandering ascetics and Brahmins, its devas and humans -- I did claim to be fully awakened to the unsurpassed perfect awakening.

"Indeed, knowledge and vision arose in me: 'Unshakeable is the liberation of my mind/heart; this is my last rebirth: now there is no more renewed becoming (continued rebirth).'"

  

Reaction

This is what the Blessed One said and, elated, the group of five ascetics delighted in the Blessed One's words. And while this explanation was being spoken, there arose in Venerable Koṇḍañña the dust-free, stainless vision of the basic pattern: "Whatever is originated, all of that comes [by its intrinsic nature] to cessation."

Let the other devas know that finally a fully-enlightened teacher has awakened on earth!

 
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 Brahmin or māra or brahmā or by anyone in the world!"

The devas cried out. And a great arose.

Having heard the cry of the earth-dwelling devas, the devas of the Realm 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 with Mastery over the Creations of Others, and then the devas of the brahmā group.

Thus at that second, at that moment, at that instant the cry spread as far as the brahmā world, and this ten-thousandfold world-system shook, quaked, and trembled, and an immeasurably glorious radiance appeared in the world, surpassing the shining majesty of the devas.

 

The Buddha and Añña Koṇḍañña

Then the Blessed One voiced this inspired utterance: "Indeed, the honorable Koṇḍañña has understood! Indeed, the honorable Koṇḍañña has understood! In this way, Venerable Koṇḍañña acquired the name Koṇḍañña [the first disciple to become enlightened], which means "Who Understood."

• The first arhat and first monk, Añña Koṇḍañña
• Alternate translation by Ven. Ñanamoli 
• Alternate translation by Ven. Piyadassi
• Wiki quick version: Dhammacakkappavattana Sutra