The Sutta of Conveying the Nature of Reality
(Also known as The Turning of the Wheel of Dharma)
SN 56.11; S v 420
Translated by Christopher J. Ash
The flourishing one (the Buddha) was staying in Benares, in the deer park at Isipatana, and at this time he instructed the group of five mendicants:
“There are these two extremes, Practitioners, that should not be practised by those who are home-leavers.*
“Which two? Exactly these: indulging in sensual pleasures – which is low and vulgar, ordinary, ignoble, and not connected to the goal – and this: being dedicated to suppressing oneself, which is stressful, ignoble and not connected to the goal.
“Not going to either extreme, the middle way is completely awakened to by a tathāgata. This brings insight and comprehension; and leads to peace, higher knowledge, complete awakening, to nirvāna.
“So what is this middle way (which has been) thoroughly realized by a tathāgata? Just this ennobling eightfold way, that is: appropriate view, intention, speech, livelihood, effort, mindfulness, and self-possession.**
“This is the middle way completely awakened to by a tathāgata, which brings insight and comprehension; and leads to peace, higher knowledge, complete awakening, and to nirvāna.
“Practitioners, according to the spiritually ennobled ones, there is dukkha: birth dukkha, illness dukkha, death dukkha, association-with-the-displeasing dukkha, separation-from-the-pleasing dukkha, not-getting-what-one-wants dukkha. In short, clinging-to-the-fivefold-personality-processes dukkha.
“Further, Practitioners, according to the spiritually ennobled ones, there is the generation of dukkha. It is precisely from thirst that dukkha arises – thirst bringing repeated rounds of becoming, accompanied by passion and delight, and seeking pleasure here and there. That is, thirst for sensual pleasures, thirst for becoming and thirst for non-becoming.
“Further, Practitioners, for the spiritually ennobled ones, there is the cessation of dukkha; which is the complete dissolution and cessation of exactly that thirst – the relinquishment of it, the rejection of it, freedom from it, and non-reliance upon it.
“Further, Practitioners, for the spiritually ennobled ones, there is the way of living which is this cessation, namely: appropriate view, intention, speech, livelihood, effort, mindfulness, and self-possession.
“In me, insight, discernment, wisdom, knowledge and clarity arose, freshly, in stages, in this way:
“’This is dukkha.’ ‘It needs to be properly comprehended.’ And, ‘It has been properly comprehended.’
“Insight, discernment, wisdom, knowledge and clarity, arose in me. freshly, in stages, in this way:
“’This is the generation of dukkha.’ ‘This generating of dukkha is to be abandoned.’ And, ‘This generating of dukkha has been abandoned.’
“Insight, discernment, wisdom, knowledge and clarity, arose in me, freshly, in stages:
“’This is the cessation of dukkha.’ ‘This cessation of dukkha needs to be experienced personally.’ And, ‘This cessation of dukkha has been experienced personally.’
“Insight, discernment, wisdom, knowledge and clarity, arose in me, freshly, in stages, in this way:
“’This is the way of living which is the cessation of dukkha.’ ‘This way of living needs to be developed.’ And, ‘This way of living which is the cessation of dukkha has been developed.’
“Upon realising these twelve aspects, there arose in me fresh insight, discernment, wisdom, knowledge and clarity.
“As long as my insight and vision was not well purified, concerning these four truths just as they are, with their three stages and their twelve aspects, I did not – in this world with its progeny of gods, māras, creator-god, wanderers and priests, super-humans, and humans – did not claim to have completely realised full and unsurpassed awakening.
“As soon as my insight and vision concerning these things, just as they are, was well purified (in this twelvefold manner), then did I claim to have completely realised this full and unsurpassed awakening.
“Moreover, the insight and vision arose in me: ‘Immovable is my freedom. This is my last birth. Now there is no cycle of becoming.’”
This is how the flourishing one instructed the (five). Being inspired, the five mendicants were delighted. And with this induction, the stainless, dust-free vision arose in Kondañña: “Whatever is arising, in every respect, it is ceasing!”
Upon the flourishing one communicating the nature of reality, the earth-devas exclaimed with one voice, “The incomparable nature of reality has been conveyed by the flourishing one at Isipatana, the deer sanctuary near Benares, and no recluse, brahmin, deva, māra, brahma, or other being in the world can hinder it.”
The lowest-heaven devas, having heard what the earth-devas said, exclaimed with one voice, “The incomparable nature of reality has been conveyed by the flourishing one at Isipatana, the deer sanctuary near Benares, and no recluse, brahmin, deva, māra, brahma, or other being in the world can hinder it.”
This utterance was echoed and re-echoed in the upper realms, and from lowest-heaven it was proclaimed in the second deva realm, [where Sakka rules], and then to Yama, and then to fourth deva realm, the Tusita heaven, and then up to the fifth deva realm, and on to the Beyond Signs realm.
And, the devas in the company of Brahma, having heard what the Beyond Signs devas said, proclaimed in one voice, “The incomparable nature of reality has been conveyed by the flourishing one at Isipatana, the deer sanctuary near Benares, and no recluse, brahmin, deva, māra, brahma, or other being in the world can hinder it.”
So it was, in a moment, an instant, a flash, that knowledge of the transmission of the nature of reality travelled up to the world of Brahma, and the ten thousand worlds system trembled, quaked and shook.
The flourishing one joyfully exclaimed: “Friend Kondañña, you really got it! You really know!’
That is how Añña-Kondañña got his name: ‘Kondañña Who Knows.”
_____
Translation © Christopher J. Ash, 2021.
NOTES:
* ‘Home-leaver’ refers to monks, of course; but it also refers to anyone who aspires to liberation and who practises the way of dis-identification with what comes and goes. A home-leaver in this second sense lets go taking a stand in imagining their ‘self’ as permanent; and they relinquish making their ‘home’ in their conceits about their existence.
** Samādhi, commonly translated as concentration, or collectedness.