Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta

Vietnamese Buddhist depiction of this first discourse.

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The Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta (Pali; Dharmacakra Pravartana Sūtra, Sanskrit; The Setting in Motion of the Wheel of Dharma, English; 转法轮经, Chinese) is traditionally the Buddha's first discourse after he attained Bodhi and Nirvāṇa.

Sources

In the Pali Canon, this sutta is contained in the Sutta Pitaka's Saṃyutta Nikāya, chapter 56 ("Saccasamyutta" or "Connected Discourses on the Truths"), sutta number 11. (Thus, an abbreviated reference to this sutta is "SN 56:11").^[1] A similar account can be found in the Pali Canon's Vinaya Pitaka's Mahākhandhaka.

In the Chinese Buddhist canon there are numerous editions of this sutra from a variety of different schools in ancient India, including the Sarvāstivāda, Dharmaguptaka, and Mahīśāsaka schools, as well as an edition translated as early as 170 CE by An Shigao.

Parallel texts can be found in other early Buddhist sources as well, such as the Sarvāstivādin Lalitavistara; and, the Lokottaravādin Mahāvastu.^[2]

English title

"Dhamma" (Pāli) or "Dharma" (Sanskrit) can mean a variety of things depending on its context^[3]; in this context, it refers to the Buddha's teachings or his "truth" that leads to one's liberation from suffering. "Chakka" (Pāli) or "chakra" (Sanskrit) can be translated as "wheel." The "dhammacakka," which can be translated as "Dhamma-Wheel," is a Buddhist symbol referring to Buddha's teaching of the path to enlightenment. "Pavattana" (Pāli) can be translated as "turning" or "rolling" or "setting in motion."

English translations of this sutta's full title include:

• "Setting in Motion the Wheel of the Dhamma" (Bodhi, 2000, pp. 1843–7)
• "Setting in Motion the Wheel of Truth" (Piyadassi, 1999)[3]
• "Setting Rolling the Wheel of Truth" (Ñanamoli, 1993)[4]
• "Setting the Wheel of Dhamma in Motion" (Thanissaro, 1993)[5]
• "Turning the Wheel of Dhamma" (Dhamma, 1997).

Contents

Theravada edition

In this discourse, the Buddha addresses five monks^[4] who attended to him just prior to his Enlightenment.^[5] The Buddha cautions the monks against pursuing either of two extremes: worldly sensual pleasures or painful self-mortification. The Buddha refers to the path that avoids these extremes as the "Middle Way" (majjhimā patipadā).

The Buddha then states that the middle way he awakened to involves pursuing a "Noble Eightfold Path" (ariyo atthangiko maggo) that includes "right" (sammā) understanding, intention, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness and concentration. This path leads to vision, knowledge, peace, enlightenment and Nibbana.

The Buddha then identifies the following "Four Noble Truths":

1. Suffering (dukkha) involves birth, aging, illness, death, being with what is displeasing, being separated from what is pleasing, not getting what one wants, and "in brief" the five aggregates-of-clinging (pancupādānakkhandhā).
2. Suffering's origin (dukkhasamudayo) is craving (tanhā) for sensual pleasures, existence and extermination.
3. Suffering's end (dukkhanirodho) comes from the relinquishment of and freedom from this craving.
4. The path leading to suffering's end is the aforementioned Noble Eightfold Path.

These Four Noble Truths should be individually achieved in a threefold manner: the noble truth is recognized, its pursuit envisioned, its attainment fully achieved. The Buddha relays that, once he achieved each of the four truths in this threefold manner, he awakened to unsurpassed perfect "Enlightenment" (anuttaram sammāsambodhim ).

While each of the monks listening to the Buddha delighted in his words, one in particular, Ven. Kondanna, understood.

Thus the Dhamma-Wheel had been set unstoppably in motion.

Saṃyukta Āgama edition

The Dharmacakra Pravartana Sūtra can be found in the Saṃyukta Āgama of the Sarvāstivāda school. The early Buddhist schools in India called their collections the Āgamas, rather than the Nikayas. The extant Saṃyukta Āgama version only teaches the Four Noble Truths and has no mention of some of the other major doctrines found in the Pali version.[6] In this version, the Four Noble Truths are taught in three turnings, or sections, of the discourse. There is also mention of the Four Noble Truths leading to Enlightenment, with no mention of Nirvana.

Alternative viewpoints

Gombrich (1988/2002, p. 61), a modern scholar, remarks:

Of course we do not really know what the Buddha said in his first sermon ... and it has even been convincingly demonstrated^[6] that the language of the text as we have it is in the main a set of formulae, expressions which are by no means self-explanatory but refer to already established doctrines. Nevertheless, the compilers of the Canon put in the first sermon what they knew to be the very essence of the Buddha's Enlightenment.

See also

• Dharmacakra
• Enlightenment
• Four Noble Truths
• Middle Way
• Noble Eightfold Path

Notes

1. ^ In the Pali Text Society redaction of the Pali Canon, this sutta is found in the Samyutta Nikaya's fifth volume's page 420; and, thus, an alternate referent for this text is "S v.420."
2. ^ Anandajoti (2010), "Introduction," retrieved 18 May 2010 from http://www.ancient-buddhist-texts.net/English-Texts/Earliest-Discourses/index.htm.
3. ^ For instance, in the context of the objects of mindfulness, "dhamma" refers to "mental objects" (see, Satipatthana Sutta).
4. ^ While the Pali text refers to the five as "bhikkhus" (which is typically translated as "monks"), there was no Sangha yet and these five individuals believed in practices of severe self-denial (see, for instance, the Mahasaccaka Sutta ["The Longer Discourse to Saccaka," MN 36][1]). Thus, some commentators refer to them as ascetics.
5. ^ Prior to his Enlightenment, these monks became disgusted with and abandoned the bodhisatta (that is, the as-yet-unenlightened-person-who-was-to-become-a-Buddha) because he had accepted solid food to eat (see the Mahasaccaka Sutta ["The Longer Discourse to Saccaka," MN 36][2]).
6. ^ In Gombrich (1988/2002, p. 61), Gombrich includes an end note here citing "Norman 1982" (see "References" below).

References

• Anandajoti Bhikkhu (trans.) (2010). The Earliest Recorded Discourses of the Buddha (from Lalitavistara, Mahākhandhaka & Mahāvastu). Kuala Lumpur: Sukhi Hotu. Also available on-line at http://www.ancient-buddhist-texts.net/English-Texts/Earliest-Discourses/index.htm.
• Bodhi, Bhikkhu (trans.) (2000). The Connected Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Samyutta Nikaya. Somerville, MA: Wisdom Pubs. ISBN 0-86171-331-1.
• Dhamma, Ven. Dr. Rewata (1997). The First Discourse of the Buddha. Somerville, MA: Wisdom Pubs. ISBN 0-86171-104-1.
• Gombrich, Richard (1988, repr. 2002). Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benares to Modern Colombo. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-07585-8.
• Ñanamoli Thera (trans.) (1993). Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta: Setting Rolling the Wheel of Truth. Available on-line at http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn56/sn56.011.nymo.html.
• Norman, K.R. (1982). "THe Four Noble Truths: a problem of Pali syntax" in L.A. Hercus et al. (ed.), Indological and Buddhist Studies: Volume in Honour of Professor J.W. de Jong on his Sixtieth Birthday. Canberra, pp. 377–91.
• Piyadassi Thera (trans.) (1999). Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta: Setting in Motion the Wheel of Truth. Available on-line at http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn56/sn56.011.piya.html.
• Thanissaro Bhikkhu (trans.) (1993). Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta: Setting the Wheel of Dhamma in Motion. Available on-line at http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn56/sn56.011.than.html.

External links

• Saṃyutta Nikāya 56.11 Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta: Setting the Wheel of Dhamma in Motion translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu with links to alternative translations.
• Saṃyukta Āgama version translated into English
• Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta read aloud (talking book) by Guy Armstrong
• Romanized Pāli version with English translation