Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta

(Setting in Motion the Wheel of Truth)

 

Thus have I heard: On one occasion the Blessed One was living in the Deer Park at Isipatana (the Resort of Seers) near Varanasi (Benares). There he addressed the group of five monks (bhikkhus):

 

"Monks, these two extremes ought not to be practiced by one who has gone forth from the household life. (What are the two?) There is addiction to indulgence of sense-pleasures, which is low, coarse, and common, the way of ordinary people, unworthy, and unprofitable; and there is addiction to self-mortification, which is painful, unworthy, and unprofitable.

 

"Avoiding both these extremes, the Tathagata (The Perfect One) has realized the Middle Path; it gives vision, it gives knowledge, and it leads to calm, to insight, to enlightenment and to Nibbana. And what is that Middle Path realized by the Tathagata...? It is the Noble Eightfold path, namely: right view, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration. This is the Middle Path realized by the Tathagata which gives vision, which gives knowledge, and leads to calm, to insight, to enlightenment, and to Nibbana.

 

"The Noble Truth of Suffering (dukkha), is this: Birth is suffering, aging is suffering, sickness is suffering, death is suffering, sorrow and lamentation is suffering, pain, grief, and despair are suffering, association with the unpleasant is suffering, dissociation from the pleasant is suffering, not to receive what one desires is suffering — in brief the five aggregates of attachment are suffering.

 

"The Noble Truth of the Origin (cause) of Suffering is this: It is this craving (thirst) which produces re-becoming (rebirth) accompanied by passionate greed, and finding fresh delight now here, and now there, namely craving for sense pleasure, craving for existence and becoming, and craving for non-existence (self-annihilation).

 

"The Noble Truth of the Cessation of Suffering is this: It is the complete cessation of that very craving, giving it up, relinquishing it, liberating oneself from it, and detaching oneself from it.

 

"The Noble Truth of the Path Leading to the Cessation of Suffering is this: It is the Noble Eightfold Path, and nothing else, namely: right views, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration.

 

"'This is the Noble Truth of Suffering': such was the vision, the knowledge, the wisdom, the science, the light that arose in me with regard to things not heard before. ‘This Suffering should be fully understood as a noble truth': such was the vision, the knowledge, the wisdom, the science, the light that arose in me with regard to things not heard before. 'This suffering, as a noble truth has been fully realized': such was the vision, the knowledge, the wisdom, the science, the light that arose in me concerning things not heard before.

 

"'This is the Noble Truth of the Origin (cause) of Suffering': such was the vision, the knowledge, the wisdom, the science, the light that arose in me with regard to things not heard before.’This Origin of Suffering as a noble truth should be abandoned': such was the vision, the knowledge, the wisdom, the science, the light that arose in me regarding things not heard before. 'This Origin of suffering as a noble truth has been abandoned: such was the vision, the knowledge, the wisdom, the science, the light that arose in me regarding things not heard before.

 

"'This is the Noble Truth of the Cessation of Suffering': such was the vision, the knowledge, the wisdom, the science, the light that arose in me  with regard to things not heard before. 'This Cessation of suffering, as a noble truth, should be realized': such was the vision, the knowledge, the wisdom, the science, the light that arose in me with regard to things not heard before. 'This Cessation of suffering, as a noble truth has been realized': such was the vision, the knowledge, the wisdom, the science, the light that arose in me regarding things not heard before.

 

"'This is the Noble Truth of the Path leading to the cessation of suffering': such was the vision, the knowledge, the wisdom, the science, the light that arose in me with regard to things not heard before. 'This Path leading to the cessation of suffering, as a noble truth, should be cultivated': such was the vision, the knowledge, the wisdom, the science, the light that arose in me with regard to things not heard before. 'This Path leading to the cessation of suffering, as a noble truth has been developed': such was the vision, the knowledge, the wisdom, the science, the light that arose in me with regard to things not heard before.

 

"As long as my vision of true knowledge was not fully clear in these three aspects, in these twelve ways, concerning the Four Noble Truths, I did not claim to have realized the perfect Enlightenment, in this world with its gods, with its Maras and Brahmas, in this world with its recluses and brahamanas, with its princes and men. But when my vision of true knowledge was fully clear in these three aspects, in these twelve ways, regarding the Four Noble Truths, then I claimed to have realized the perfect Enlightenment that is supreme in this world with its gods, with its Maras and Brahmas, in this world with its recluses and brahamanas, with its princes and men. And a vision of true knoweledge arose in me thus: 'Unshakable is the deliverance of my heart. This is the last birth. Now there is no more rebirth.'"

 

This the Blessed One said. The group of five monks was glad, and they rejoiced at the words of the Blessed One.