Setting Rolling the Wheel of Truth

(Dhammá-cakká-ppavattaná-sutta)

Thus I heard. On one occasion the Exalted One was living at Benares in the Deer Park at Isipatana (the Resort of Seers). There he addressed the bhikkus of the group of five.

“Bhikkus, these two extremes ought not to be cultivated by one gone forth from the house-life. What are the two? There is devotion to indulgence of pleasure in the objects of sensual desire, which is inferior, low, vulgar, ignoble, and leads to no good; and there is devotion to self-torment, which is painful, ignoble and leads to no good.”

“The middle way discovered by a Tathagata avoids both these extremes; it gives insight, it gives knowledge, and it leads to peace, to direct knowledge, to awakening, to nibbana. And what is that middle way? It is simply the noble eightfold path, that is to say, right view, right intention; right speech, right action, right livelihood; right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration. That is the middle way discovered by the Tathagata, which gives insight, which gives knowledge, and which leads to peace, to direct knowledge, to awakening, to nibbana.”

“Suffering, as a noble truth, is this: Birth is suffering, ageing is suffering, sickness is suffering, death is suffering, sorrow and lamentation, pain, grief and despair are suffering; association with the loathed is suffering, dissociation from the loved is suffering, not to get what one wants is suffering - in short, the five categories affected by clinging are suffering.

The origin of suffering, as a noble truth, is this: It is the craving that produces renewal of being accompanied by enjoyment and lust, and enjoying this and that; in other words, craving for sensual desires, craving for being, craving for non-being.

Cessation of suffering, as a noble truth, is this: It is the remainder-less fading and ceasing, giving up, relinquishing, letting go and rejecting, of that same craving.

The way leading to cessation of suffering, as a noble truth, is this: It is simply the noble eightfold path, that is to say, right view, right intention; right speech, right action, right livelihood; right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration.”

“ ‘Suffering, as a noble truth, is this.’ Such was the insight, the knowledge, the understanding, the vision, the light that arose in regard to things not heard by me before. ‘This suffering, as a noble truth, can be diagnosed.’ Such was the insight, the knowledge, the understanding, the vision, the light that arose in regard to things not heard by me before. ‘This suffering, as a noble truth, has been diagnosed.’ Such was the insight, the knowledge, the understanding, the vision, the light, that arose in regard to things not heard by me before.”

“ ‘The origin of suffering, as a noble truth, is this.’ Such was the insight etc.,… ‘This origin of suffering, as a noble truth, can be abandoned.’ Such was the insight, etc.,… ‘This origin of suffering, as a noble truth, has been abandoned.’ Such was the insight, etc.,... in regard to things not heard by me before.

‘Cessation of suffering, as a noble truth, is this.’ Such was the insight, etc.,.... ‘This cessation of suffering, as a noble truth, can be verified.’ Such was the insight, etc.,.... ‘This cessation of suffering, as a noble truth, has been verified.’ Such was the insight, etc.,.... in regard to things not heard by me before.

‘The way leading to cessation of suffering, as a noble truth, is this.’ Such was the insight, etc.,.... ‘This way leading to cessation of suffering, as a noble truth, can be developed.’ Such was the insight, etc.,.... ‘This way leading to the cessation of suffering, as a noble truth, has been developed.’ Such was the insight, etc.,.... in regard to things not heard by me before.”

“As long as my knowing and seeing how things are was not quite purified in these twelve aspects, in these three phases of each of the four noble truths, I did not claim in the world with its gods, its Maras and high divinities, in this generation with its monks and brahmans, with its princes and men to have discovered the full awakening that is supreme. But as soon as my knowing and seeing how things are, was quite purified in these twelve aspects, in these three phases of each of the four noble truths, then I claimed in the world with its gods, its Maras and high divinities, in this generation with its monks and brahmans, its princes and men to have discovered the full awakening that is supreme. Knowing and seeing arose in me thus: ‘My heart's deliverance is unassailable. This is the last birth. Now there is no renewal of being.’ ”

Critique

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