Sermon 26: The Incomparable Wheel of Dhamma

"The incomparable Wheel of Dhamma is turned by the Blessed One at Isipatana, the deer sanctuary near Benares, and no monk or Brahmin, deva, Mara, or Brahma-god, or other being in the world can stop it"

(S. LVI, 1 1)

Today, the topic chosen for the increase of awareness and wisdom is an exposition of Lord Buddha's first discourse on the Dhamma given to the five religious wanderers in the deer sanctuary outside Benares 2555 years ago. This discourse on the Dhamma is called the Turning of the Wheel of Dhamma, and this title may be explained in the following way. First, there is the key word Dhamma, a word that if clearly understood, will enable one to comprehend the whole of Lord Buddha's Teachings. If we look at its derivation, we find that it comes from the verb to uphold or support. Dhamma literally is therefore "that which supports." But what does this mean? We can see two meanings of this word, which concern us at present. The first is Dhamma as natural Law or the true nature of things. Dhamma in this case is "that which supports", or is the true nature of all impermanent sentient beings and of all the processes of change found in insentient objects. Secondly, Dhamma is the clear path pointed out by Lord Buddha, which it is profitable for all people to tread. This path of clarity which is based upon the true nature of all things, living and without life, is itself "that which supports" anyone who practices according to it.

Bearing in mind therefore, these two meanings of Dhamma, we may go on to consider the meaning of Turning the Wheel. Dhamma, the natural state of things, is always here, is always everywhere, is always the nature of our own mind and body but due to the fact that in the mind there are stains and defilements which prevent its unobstructed understanding, it has to be pointed out to others, it has to be made manifest, it has to be brought to their attention. The Wheel is the symbol of Dhamma and the turning of this Wheel is the explanation or indication of that which is there all the time, that which supports. Dhamma is symbolized by a wheel because of the dynamic nature of a wheel, a device which revolves and carries one forward, a device which helps one to get from here to there, or from the unsatisfactory nature of this world of our present experience, to the state called the Sublime Happiness or Nibbana. As a wheel is to be used, so Dhamma is to be used, and as a wheel, which is merely gazed at will not help transport one anywhere, so the Dhamma which is only thought about and never practiced will not lead to any practical benefits. When one sees the Wheel of Dhamma represented, it is usually shown with eight spokes and with four jewels. These represent the Noble Eightfold Path and the Four Noble Truths respectively, both of which were taught in this Turning of the Wheel of Dhamma. Sometimes one sees, as in the ancient stone sculpture at Nakorn Pathom, one or two deer also represented. This is because Lord Buddha first taught the Dhamma in the Deer Sanctuary outside Benares and it is said that so great was his compassion that even the deer came to listen to the majestic and enlightening words which flowed from his seeing into the real nature of things, from his seeing of Dhamma.

After these preliminary remarks, let us cast back our minds to picture that day two thousand five hundred and fifty-five years ago and the events that took place then. The five religious wanderers who had formerly been disciples of Gotama while he had practiced rigorous austerities, and who had left him when he began to take food again prior to his Enlightenment when he became a Buddha, these five had been living in the Deer Sanctuary for some time. They thought that Gotama had reverted to a life of luxury and despised him declaring that it was better to depart from such feeble asceticism. Now when after his Enlightenment at Buddha Gaya, Gotama decided to teach others, he considered that his former five companions would be able to understand the wonderful Dhamma uncovered by him. So Lord Buddha journeyed on foot from Gaya to Benares in stages, which must have taken about a month, and then approached the Deer Sanctuary. The five wanderers saw that 'the backslider,' Gotama was approaching. They vowed not to get up and not to help him in any way although he could take a seat if he wished. But so majestic and of such irresistible attraction was the person of Lord Buddha that they had to go back upon their own decisions, one getting up to take his bowl, another his outer cloak, a third preparing water for washing his feet, a fourth a vessel of drinking water, while the last one spread a cloth for him to sit upon. Thus, in spite of their resolution, they all carried out the duties of pupils towards their teacher.

Then they welcomed him using the word 'avuso' which means 'friend' although implying respect. But it is rather a word used between equals and not one which a pupil would use addressing his teacher. Then Lord Buddha cautioned them that this word was not appropriate and that one who had won the highest spiritual freedom should not be addressed in this way. From this fact we learn that it is very important to have the right attitude of mind before listening to Dhamma as it will not profit one at all if heard with a heart full of pride. When he had brought about humility in the five and they admitted that he had never claimed to have won the Deathless fruit of Nibbana before, then they were ready to receive the Dhamma in their hearts. They had taken up the proper position of pupils, of those who do not know and they were prepared to listen to him as a teacher, as One-who-Knows, One-who-Sees. They had become ripe to hear Dhamma, which in that quiet and well-shaded grove, Lord Buddha expounded for the first time.

We should remember in considering his opening words that he was addressing those who had already left their homes, who were wanderers and indeed he calls them 'Bhikkhus', the word still used for Buddhist monks. These are the words he spoke: "These two extremes, 0h Bhikkhus, should not be followed by one who has gone forth from worldly life (to take up religious practice): sensual indulgence which is low, coarse, vulgar, ignoble, unprofitable; and self-torture which is painful, ignoble and unprofitable." In those days, a religious life was often founded upon self torture, as it is even; in India of the present day; or the view was held that deliverance might be expected through the so-called satisfaction of the senses and their appetites which were looked upon as 'natural'. While mortification of the flesh, supposed to free the soul, was often the mark of religious hermits and wanderers, the pleasing of desires was reckoned to be the mark of the householder. Both courses were pointed out by Lord Buddha to be ignoble and unprofitable. That is, the do not necessarily lead those who practice either to spiritual nobility or to real harmonious growth in Dhamma which is profitable. In proclaiming that neither of these courses bring one to a more happy and harmonious life, one may remember that both of them had been practiced by Lord Buddha himself before his Enlightenment: As a prince of a royal house he had led a life of great luxury, while after his great renunciation he tried and found lacking the life of rigorous austerity.

Now Lord Buddha was not one merely to criticize without offering a better course of action, so we find him saying immediately after the above statement: "The Middle Practice-Path discovered by a Perfect One avoids both these extremes, it gives vision, it gives knowledge, and it leads to peace, to direct acquaintance, to discovery of perfect enlightenment, to Nibbana. And what is that Middle Practice-Path? 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 Collectedness. That is the Middle-Practice-Path discovered by the Perfect One..." Within these eight categories covering the range of Moral behavior, Mental development and Wisdom, are contained the whole way of training oneself. All the ways and methods of training explained by the Perfectly Enlightened One during the forty-five years of his teaching are in fact all aspects of this Eightfold Path. It is called 'noble' because it leads the person who practices it to develop first in morally wholesome states of mind and then further to look into and examine the nature of himself, which is to develop wisdom. It leads by practice to development of the true spiritual nobility and is thus called noble. It is called Practice-Path because it is not concerned with dogmas, beliefs or theories but concerns only the training of oneself, the way to practice in the present moment. It is called a 'Middle Path of Practice' because it avoids all sorts of extremes, both of views and practices, which are for the harm, not for the benefit, of those who undertake or believe in them. Its 'middle-ness' consists in transcending all sorts of extreme positions, in passing over and beyond their limitations.

Having established that there is a path to practice, Lord Buddha continues by calling the attention of his first five disciples, (and calling our attention), to some inescapable facts of our existence. These are all contained under this heading: The Noble Truth of Unsatisfactory experience. These facts are birth, old age, disease, death, association with what is disliked, separation from what is liked, not getting what one wants; in short, the five grasped-at aggregates are unsatisfactory. Apart from the last clause, which will be treated in a future discourse, there seems nothing difficult here, for all these things are very well-known sources of un-satisfactoriness. So why has Lord Buddha talked of these apparently obvious things? The fact is of course, that although we may agree that birth, old age, sickness and death are unsatisfactory, or to use the Buddhist term, dukkha, we seldom give these inescapable elements in life even a moment's thought-until they are upon us and we can do little about them. People talk about living a complete or whole life, by which they sometimes mean doing whatever they like, but this is not to live a complete life. One has to recognize, or one will be forced to recognize, that besides the pleasant in life there is also the painful, besides the wished for there is also the unwished, besides the cherished there is the hated and so forth. And one side is inseparable from the other. One cannot have only the wanted never the unwanted but one must take them as they come packaged together. One was born, and in the same package comes death; one was young but with it goes old age, one was healthy but one has to learn that sickness is part of the bargain; one is strong but strength fades to weakness. Taking account of this and knowing it so well that it really changes one's course in life, is called living the whole life. When we try to hide away from these unwelcome sides to life, then we make a fatal mistake, which will make all these aspects all the more, painful when finally and inevitably we encounter them. Unsatisfactory experience or dukkha includes all the unwelcome painful feelings, mental or physical, severe or merely irritating. When we take into account the amount of experience of this sort, which we suffer day in, day out, then we are beginning to get a balanced view of life.

Now experiences of all sorts arise from causes, are born from conditions and cannot arise in the absence of those causes and conditions. It is for this reason that the second Noble Truth speaks of the primary factor which when present ensures that dukkha or un-satisfactoriness will also be present. This necessary condition for the Arising of Dukkha is called Craving or tanha, which is of various kinds being directed at the different sorts of possible existence. So one may remember: where there is craving, there experience will be unsatisfactory. Why will this be true? Because craving is directed at objects, people and experiences which are impermanent, which deteriorate, decline, age, wear out and by no means live up to one's assumptions that people and things are permanent. It is better of course, to crave to lead the good life or even to crave for the goal of Buddhist endeavor, Nibbana. But in the latter case when the goal has been won, then craving is at an end.

This is stated in the Third Noble Truth called the Cessation of Dukkha or unsatisfactory experience. This Noble Truth is defined in the discourse thus: "It is remainder-less fading and ceasing, giving up, relinquishing, letting go and rejecting of that same craving." So when there is craving one suffers but when that craving producing suffering is destroyed or abandoned, then one experiences Nibbana called the Cool, which is opposed to the passions and defilements which heat the mind, or it is called the Sublime Peace in contrast to the frenzied activities of minds stirred up by craving, or it may found under the name of the Void indicating that those who think of the world as substantial and enduring are indeed far from Nibbana.

Now had Lord Buddha only formulated the Three Noble Truths outlined above it could rightly be said of him that he was after all only a teacher with another theory. But it is a very prominent feature of his teaching always to show the way how any particular end may be accomplished. In this case the goal of Nibbana may be reached by making effort in this life, to follow the course of the Noble Eightfold Path which consists of: "Right view, right intention-being the section covering wisdom; Right speech, right action, right livelihood- which are the group of moral conduct; and Right effort, right mindfulness, right collectedness"-the group of factors dealing with training the mind in concentration, awareness and calm. An explanation of these factors in some detail will be given in a future explanation of the Dhamma. (See "Mind is Chief" -Pointing to Dhamma Book Five).

Meanwhile we may easily remember these Four Noble Truths under the four words: Dukkha, Origin, Cessation, Path. Now these four are not just for intellectual interest but are to be seen in one's daily life. The truth which it is most easy to see is of course the first one: Dukkha or unsatisfactory experience, for whatever bodily discomfort one has whether the slightest annoyance to pain of the severest intensity-all that is dukkha; and whatever mental difficulty one experiences from the slightest feelings of impatience or dislike or desire round to the severest cravings, the most violent hatreds, or to the actual imbalance of the mind due to the presence of very powerful and dominating roots of greed, aversion and delusion: all that is dukkha. Anyone who wishes to do so, and who wishes to find true happiness may investigate this dukkha at any time-because most of the time we are bound by the craving, which inevitably produces that dukkha. So the material for one's own salvation is with one all the time and one has no need to turn elsewhere to find it.

The Second Truth, that of the Origin of Dukkha may also be seen all the time and in one's everyday life. But one has to be alert to see it. And to see this Origin called craving supposes that one is really intent upon one's own training, since for most people cravings for pleasures and even religious cravings to be born in a heaven-world are thought of as the source of happiness. It needs clarity and firm purpose to acknowledge craving as the condition for the Origin of Dukkha.

Then the Fourth Noble Truth may also be seen in the workings of one's mind as one goes through life. At first it is most easy to practice and to see in action those factors of the Path concerned with moral conduct. One speaks kindly and gently to others or about them, one speaks truthfully and meaningfully-and this is Right Speech. One refrains from taking what is not given, from taking the lives of other beings, from wrong conduct in sexual desires-and this is Right Action, or one follows a kind of livelihood where one does not break the Precepts by killing nor harming other beings in any way-and this is Right Livelihood. More concentrated attention is necessary if one would see those factors of the Eightfold Path concerned with concentration and wisdom. One's practice of this path is of course entirely voluntary and depends upon one's own desire and how far one aims to go within the present life.

Having outlined these Four Noble Truths to the five wanderers, Lord Buddha proceeds to show that these Truths are not the result of his imagining them, nor are they born of mere intellectual consideration. He says that "there arose in my vision, knowledge, insight, wisdom, light concerning things unknown before" and this phrase recurs three times for each of the Four Truths. For instance, with regard to the first Truth of Dukkha, there are these three stages of understanding described' the first is: "This is the Noble Truth of Dukkha; this is the Noble Truth Of Dukkha and this Dukkha should be understood," while the third aspect of the first Truth shows complete understanding "This is the Noble Truth of Dukkha, and this Dukkha has been understood." Similarly for the Noble Truth of the Origin of Dukkha: "This is the Noble Truth of the Origin of Dukkha, this is the Noble Truth of the Origin of Dukkha and this Origin of Dukkha should be abandoned; this is the Noble Truth of the Origin of Dukkha and this Origin of Dukkha has been abandoned." In the third Noble Truth in the same way we have firstly recognition of the Truth itself, then: "this Cessation of Dukkha should be realized" followed by "this Cessation of Dukkha has been realized," This is the experience of Nibbana but Lord Buddha was not going to keep the treasury he discovered for himself, so we find him investigating further and formulating the Path of practice, and this out of his Great Compassion for beings wandering on, trapped in the round of birth and death and birth. Thus he says of this Path: "This is the Noble Truth of the Path leading to the Cessation of dukkha; This is the Noble Truth of the Path leading to Cessation and this Path leading to Cessation should be developed" and finally: "this Noble Truth of the Path leading to the Cessation of dukkha has been developed" and it was at this time that Lord Buddha saw the Path whereby others could be trained if they wished to undertake the training.

Having then understood and penetrated to these Four Truths in their twelve aspects Lord Buddha, until that time an aspirant to Enlightenment, declares: "I understood incomparable Perfect enlightenment." And then the Perfectly Enlightened One knew this: "Knowledge and vision arose in me: "Unshakable is the deliverance of my heart; this is the last birth and there will be no more birth again (for me)."

The Venerable Anna Kondanna was the first to experience in himself the knowledge of the truth of this liberating Teaching, for he knew "Whatever has the nature to arise all that has the nature to cease", a realization which is called the "Eye of the Dhamma." He actually gained his forename 'Anna' which means 'direct understanding' from this incident and is revered as the first person in the Teaching of the present Buddha to comprehend from his own mind and body the nature of Dhamma which is the natural state of things as they really are. Not only the Venerable Anna Kondanna understood but also countless others have come to penetrate to the heart of this Dhamma for themselves. So it is said the celestial beings rejoiced by exclaiming: The incomparable Wheel of Dhamma is turned by the Blessed One at Isipatana, the Deer Sanctuary near Benares, and no monk or Brahmin, deva, Mara or Brahma-god, or other being in the world can stop it." It matters not whether or not we believe in the celestial beings for the heart of Dhamma lies not in them but in ourselves who may, if we wish to, help also to revolve the Wheel of Dhamma by treading the Eightfold Path. And who indeed will be able to stop this Wheel of Dhamma, which really revolves all the time although we may not see it? For the Wheel of Dhamma is not outward religious manifestations, although these things sometimes help, but the nature of ourselves. The Wheel is always there for us to recognize and to help revolve. And in the seeing of Dhamma, there is the finding of happiness.

EVAM

Thus indeed it is.