Pāḷi English Dictionary
Sutta Search
"To set a-roll'n the Dhamma Wheel
I get me off to Kasi town
beating the drum of deathlessness
in a world gone blind."
Resources for researching the Buddha's First Sutta
Saɱyutta Nikāya, V:
MahaVagga, 12:
SakkyaSaṅyutta, ii:
Dhammacakkapavattanavaggo, 1:
DhammaCakkappaVattana Sutta
[SN 5.56.11]
Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta
The Pāḷi
A Roll'n a-tha Dhamma Wheel
For another version of this story see MN 26.
The Challenge
This position of this page was originally occupied by a challenge the answer to be given only to those who responded to the challenge with a correct answer. Since I am not going to be here much longer to respond to the no responders to this challenge, I am providing the challenge, the hints and the answer below.
The Challenge
The riddle of the First Sutta. Read, then research the DhammaCakkappaVattana Sutta. Then explain how this sutta could have resulted in Aññā Kondaññā attaining the DhammaCakkhu.
Hints
The correct response to this challenge will be in the form of a statement that shows that you actually see what happened; it will not be in the form of a conjecture. The answer must express certainty: "This is how this sutta works; it is explained this way."
This is the Buddha's First Sutta. You do not have any other knowledge of the Dhamma. There are no commentaries. Don't reach outside the realm of this sutta.
Do not waste your time speculating about what Anna Kondañña might or might not have already known. Think of a "generic" Anna Kondañña; better yet, put yourself in his place, role-play the role of Anna Kondañña. Another way of saying this is: how would you get to the DhammaCakkhu with only what was given in this sutta?
The Buddha taught in a manner that was always accessible to the intelligent from ground zero.
The Buddha was at this point "A Buddha" he could know that this sutta would be remembered right down to this time and he would make it effective for all time.
Again, this was his first sutta; he would have known that it would be given special attention in the future, and he would make it a masterpiece, a signature piece.
Read a couple or even all the versions of this sutta and refer to the Pāḷi to distinguish what is being translated as what. Do this just to the point where you see that the few minor differences in translation do not alter significantly the information being transmitted in the sutta. Then put the texts aside and use only your recollection to look into the sutta. Review again as necessary.
Distinguish between what the sutta is saying and what you think the sutta is saying; what you think it means as opposed to what it is actually saying.
Concentrate!
And remember who the Buddha is speaking to: five fellows who doubt his accomplishment; he has got to overcome that in some way.
The First Dispelling
Hello. Apparently you were able to present an acceptable explanation of how this sutta works. That means that this page is not likely to give you anything new by way of basic information. What it will do is confirm your thinking and indicate to you that communication has occurred here. This page is the original way I was going to present the first sutta. Then I found myself very hesitant to put the page up. Something kept telling me that explaining the sutta was going to prevent people from discovering it for themselves. Something else kept telling me that there was not a great likelihood that anyone was going to try and crack this one anyway so go ahead. This "Challenge" was the compromise that resulted. I have many thoughts on how this could develop from here. I will discuss them with you when we meet.
The First Dispelling[1]
How does the First Sutta work? How could this sutta have resulted in Aññā Kondañña attaining Stream-Entry?
Take a look. For the ordinary common man this sutta, read keeping in mind that this was the first and only existing sutta of the Buddha at the time, can, on the face of it, make no sense: it doesn't explain the details of the Multi-Dimensional High Way and it doesn't lead logically from the description of the Multi-Dimensional High Way as the Way up the middle to the description of the Four Truths.
So how does the sutta work, or is it not a real sutta?
It is a real sutta and it can work. Here's how:
The Buddha begins by explaining that the problem[2] is not to be attacked either by ignoring it as a problem and engaging in self indulgence, or by seeing the problem as soluble by way of making atonement through penances.
He then states that by not attacking the problem in either of these two ways, another way is revealed, a balance that does not tip toward either side. That way, he explains, is the Multi-Dimensional High Way:
High Views
High Principles
High Talk
High Works
High Lifestyle
High Self Control
High Mindedness, and
High Getting High.
Now someone here might suggest that these terms would all have been known by seekers at the time, but I think not. These terms are all defined uniquely in this system. But here, they are not defined, but in stead, not even using a bridge like "And this is "samma ditthi", (in which case we would expect similar detailed treatment of the other steps of the Way) using, in fact another word, "truths", he launches into the detailed explanation of the Aristocrats of Truths, the conclusion of which is, as we know, the Multi-Dimensional High Way.
What he is saying in the rest of the sutta is that understanding this is enough to understand with the understanding of a fully awakened one.
So how does this set of ideas, set out as it is here, do that?
"The problem is the solution." That's what they say; that's the common expression. What is meant by that is that it is the fact that this is a problem that directs one's mind to treating it like a problem to be solved and therefore one is set up to discover the solution. Listening let us say with no more advanced ears than a beginner in the system today, the problem becomes immediately apparent (if one puts to one side the natural tendency to assume that one already knows everything and therefore already knows what these various 'highs' mean): 'What are high views? high principles? high talk? high works? high lifestyle? high self control? high mindedness? and high getting high?'
The solution is to really look into this and take it seriously. This is not for someone looking for an afternoon's good read. This requires one to let go of intellectualization and actually observe the mind at work solving a problem. 'Look into' the problem with the mind's eye. Concentrate! The issue needs to be looked into with trust that there is a solution, that this was not just a mistaken preservation of the Dhamma, but was the way the sutta was delivered, intended to be delivered just as it is. And one must be determination to find that solution! Another way of saying this is that one must put one's self in the mind of Aññā Kondañña.
Then you can see: "OK! I can work out for myself what high principles, high talk, high works, high lifestyle, high self control, high mindedness and high getting high are (or could be, at least on the ordinary level)[3] all about. Don't know that the way I am thinking about them is such that they would solve the problem of existence or bring about the end of Dukkha and lead me to understanding with the understanding of a fully awakened one, but I can see in them a good healthy set of values that would do anyone some good. But what is high view?"
So then, working on the issue of high view while simultaneously keeping in mind that this middle way that is supposed to reveal itself does not fall into anything that might be categorized as either self indulgence or self-torment, one might run through any number of "views" and find none that did not fall to one side or another save these four "Truths".[4]
Just to take the broadest possible examples, one could say that holding the view: "I am," falls to the self-indulgence side, while holding the view: "I am not," falls to the self torment side. Both "I both am and am not" and "I neither am nor am not" fall to both sides.
Once these Four Aristocrats of Truths have been judged to be High View, then the remaining "Highs" ("sammas") can be worked out as they are in the Buddha's system, relative to those truths.
For example, High Principles determined by the point of view that everything bound up in being is Dukkha results in the principle of letting go of everything bound up in being.
You see? Gotama, The Buddha, The SammaSamBuddha, so set up the spell as to force the realization: "This is High View!" Namely, those four Aristocrats of Truths.
By the elimination of all the other likely points of view, one realizes that these "Truths" themselves are a point of view. Then one subjects them to the same examination concerning whether or not they fall to one side or another of the self-indulgence/self-torture spectrum ... and one sees they do not fall to either side. They do not dictate taking any action at all! Elimination of Thirst [Taṇhā] is not 'taking' an action, but letting go of an action or a tendency towards an action. It is a 'not doing.'
By making his listeners work this out for themselves, he made it necessary for them to see these Aristocrats of Truths as Aristocrats of Truths, High View itself. Once you see the Truth of Samma Ditthi for yourself, that is Stream Entry. That is Seeing the Middle Way.
The response that would have been sent to responders with the correct answer to the challenge. (0 of 1 since this was first posted in ?2013?
Marvelous! Truly Wonderful!
[1] You should probably read The First Sutta first. Then you can check out some of the other translations of this sutta at DhammaTalk, The First Sutta
[2] The problem of "dukkha"; the issue that there is pain and death in the world for those who are born, the problem that motivated Gotama to set out on his quest for awakening.
[3] I can recall myself when I first began reading the suttas that I was not consciously aware of the details of the "Folds" of the 8-Fold path, but just read them as being the "best" form of behavior falling under that heading..."Helpful in the beginning..." even that was an enormous help! Just following what appeared to me according to my own blind ideas about the best thing to do in this and that circumstance resulted in a greatly improved "ordinary man" in me.
[4] One can imagine that running through a goodly set of "views" would not have taken too long for this Group of Five who had been working on this problem for a long time already and probably had a number of speculative views in mind as possible solutions of their own. For the purposes of this challenge it is reasonable to assume that AK had knowledge of the 64 views that were not High View.
Challenge Issued: Sunday, March 14, 2004 11:49 AM
Responses to date: [Saturday, Thursday, August 07, 2025 11:30 AM]: 2 from the same person
Correct responses: 0
Introduction to the Buddha's First Discourse
by Narada Maha Thera
Introduction to the First Discourse
Setting in Motion the Wheel of the Dhamma
Translated by Bhikkhu Bodhi
Foundation of the Kingdom of Righteousness
Translated by Rhys Davids
From the Rhys Davids Introduction:
"It would be difficult to estimate too highly the historical value of this Sutta. There can be no reasonable doubt that the very ancient tradition accepted by all Buddhists as to the substance of the discourse is correct, and that we really have in it a summary of the words in which the great Indian thinker and reformer for the first time successfully promulgated his new ideas. And it presents to us in a few short and pithy sentences the very essence of that remarkable system which has had so profound an influence on the religious history of so large a portion of the human race."
Setting Rolling the Wheel of Truth
Translated by Ñanamoli Thera
The Formula of the Revolution of the Wheel of Experience
Translated by Venerable Punnaji
Setting in Motion the Wheel of Truth
Translated from the Pāḷi by Piyadassi Thera
Setting the Wheel of Dhamma in Motion
Translated from the Pāḷi by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
Dhammacakka Pavattana Sutta
The setting rolling of the wheel of Dhamma
Translated with commentary by Venerable Mahasi Sayadaw
Discourse on the Wheel of truth
Translation of Sayadaw Bhaddanta Pañña Dipa
http://www.erowid.org/spirit/traditions/buddhism/buddhism_dhamma.shtml#ch11
In French
Dhamma Cakkappavattana Sutta (extrait du Samyutta nikya, Sacca samyutta) La Roue de la Loi
In German
Vom Vollendeten Gesprochenes Dhammacakka-ppavattana Vagga
In Russian [Link]
In Norwegian
Buddhas første tale: Om de fire edle sannheter
Buddhas første tale: Om de fire edle sannheter Translated from the Pāḷi Mahavagga by Kåre A. Lie
In Swedish
Lärans Hjul sätts i rörelse
Översatta till svenska Kerstin Jönhagen
In Spanish
El Discurso de la Puesta En Movimiento de la Rueda de la Doctrina, Texto traducido del pali por Bhikkhu Nandisena
Para Fijar Rodar la Rueda de Dhamma Edited "Machine Translation" of the Mike Olds translation. I have no idea if this translation makes good sense, comments welcome.
Vinaya Piṭaka [VP.2.MV.1.1-6] 1.1: The Talk on Awakening,
1.2: The Talk at the Goatherds' Banyon,
1.3: The Talk at the Mucalinda,
1.4: The Talk at the Rājāyatana,
1.5: The Talk on Brahmā's Entreaty,
1.6: The First Discourse, Horner, trans.
These are all on one file. The Vinaya version of the First Sutta and the story from the Awakening to it's delivery to the Group of Five that left the world with Gotama.
Additional References:
PTS, L. Feer, Samyutta-Nikaya V: Maha-vagga XII: Sacca-Samyutta 2: Dhammacakkapavattana-vaggo, pp 420
PTS, F.L. Woodward, trans., The Book of the Kindred Sayings V: The Great Chapter XI: Kindred Sayings about the Truths II: Foundation of the Kingdom of the Norm, pp 356
WP, Bhikkhu Bodhi, trans., The Connected Discourses of the Buddha II: The Great Book 12: Connected Discourses on the Truths 2: Setting in Motion the Wheel of the Dhamma, pp1843 (same as above)
SN 3.22.59 The Second Discourse, on Not-Self.
Han-da dā-ni bhikkhave! Ā-manta-yā-mi vo:
"Va-ya-dh'ammā saṅ-khārā. A-p-pa-mād'ena sam'pā-deth-¢-ti."
§
There you are, then, Beggars! I craft this counsel for you:
The own-made is a flighty thing, I say
get yourselves out of this sputtering madness!
This was the final word of the Tathāgata.
Digha Nikaya II #16: Mahā Parinibbāna Suttanta -- mo, trans
