The Buddha’s first public sermon or teaching is referred to the Discourse of the Turning Wheel Doctrine. It received this title because it launched the Buddha’s commitment to public teaching. This sermon instructs listeners on the themes that are at the center of the Buddha’s thoughts. These themes include pursuing the middle way and the four noble truths. The aim of the Buddha was to help his followers achieve Nirvana, the cessation of suffering brought about by the cycles of death and rebirth. While fundamental to the teachings of the Buddha, few texts have survived that detail exactly what Nirvana is. Consider the following questions as you read the selection below:
- What are the two extremes that the Buddha identifies?
- What solution does the Buddha give so that one might achieve the middle path? What is the
- purpose of the Four Noble Truths? How is Nirvana described?
- What does the attainment of Nirvana bring an end to?
Complete the Primary Source Analysis Form when finished.
Source: James T Fieser,. Scriptures of the World’s Religion. McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
The Discourse of the Turning Wheel (Selections)
Thus have I heard: At one time, the Exalted One was living near Vārāṇasī, at Isipatana near the Deer Park. Then the Exalted One spoke to the group of five monks: These two extremes, O monks, should not be practiced by one who has gone forth [from the household life]. What arethe two? That which is linked with sensual desires, which is low, vulgar, common, unworthy, and useless, and that which is linked with self-torture, which is painful, unworthy, and useless. By avoiding these two extremes the Tathāgata [Buddha] has gained the knowledge of the middle path which gives vision and knowledge, and leads to calm, to clairvoyances, to awakening, to nirvana. O monks, what is the middle path, which gives vision . . . ? It is the noble eightfold path: right views, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right
mindfulness, right concentration. This, O monks, is the middle path, which gives vision. . . .
- Now this, O monks, is the noble truth of suffering: birth is suffering, old age is suffering, death is suffering, sorrow, grieving, dejection, and despair are suffering. Contact with unpleasant things is suffering, not getting what you want is also suffering. In short, the five aggregates of grasping are suffering.
- Now this, O monks, is the noble truth of the arising of suffering: that craving which leads to rebirth, combined with longing and lust for this and that—craving for sensual pleasure, craving for rebirth, craving for cessation of birth. . . .
- Now this, O monks, is the noble truth of the cessation of suffering: It is the complete cessation without remainder of that craving, the abandonment, release from, and nonattachment to it.
- Now this, O monks, is the noble truth of the path that leads to the cessation of suffering: This is the noble eightfold path. . . .
Now monks, as long as my threefold knowledge and insight regarding these noble truths . . . were not well purified, so long, O monks, I was not sure that in this world . . . I had attained the highest complete awakening. But when my threefold knowledge and insight in these noble truths with their twelve divisions were well purified, then, O monks, I was sure that in this world . . . I had attained the highest complete awakening. Now knowledge and insight have arisen in me, so that I know: My mind’s liberation is assured; this is my last existence; for me there is no rebirth.
Nirvana (Selections)
Monks, there exists something in which there is neither earth nor water, fire nor air. It is not the sphere of infinite space, nor the sphere of infinite consciousness, nor the sphere of nothingness, nor the sphere of neither perception nor non-perception [these are advanced meditative states]. It is neither this world nor another world, nor both, neither sun nor moon. Monks, I do not state that it comes nor that it goes. It neither abides nor passes away. It is not caused, established, arisen, supported. It is the end of suffering. . . . What I call the selfless is difficult to perceive, for it is not easy to perceive the truth. But one who knows it cuts through craving, and for one who knows it, there is nothing to hold onto. . . . Monks, there exists something that is unborn, unmade, uncreated, unconditioned. Monks, if there were not an unborn, unmade, uncreated,
unconditioned, then there would be no way to indicate how to escape from the born, made, created, and conditioned. However, monks, since there exists something that is unborn, unmade, uncreated, and unconditioned, it is known that there is an escape from that which is born, made, created, and conditioned. . . . There is wandering for those who are attached, but there is no wandering for those who are unattached. There is serenity when there is no wandering, and when there is serenity, there is no desire. When there is no desire, there is neither coming nor going, and when there is no coming nor going there is neither death nor rebirth. When there is neither death nor rebirth, there is neither this life nor the next life, nor anything in between. It is the end of suffering.