Overall Teaching

The Buddha surveys the world to find who the best first student could be. He decides upon the five disciples. On the way he meets a sceptical Ājīvika. At first the five reject him but as he approaches they find themselves incapable of not rising and honouring him. Eventually he turns the Wheel of Dharma, which includes the four noble truths in twelve aspects, dependent origination, no-self, impermanence. Many beings’ eyes are purified. At Maitreya’s exhortation the Buddha expounds the qualities of the Dharma Wheel and the Buddha. 

Summary

1.     Then the Buddha accomplished all he needed to achieve. Ready to teach, he reflected on whom to teach first:

a. Knowing that Rudraka was the best first student, he saw that he had died one week prior with his divine eye.

b. Knowing that Ārāḍa Kālama was second best, he saw that he had died just three days earlier with his divine eye.

c. He then noted that the five disciples who abandoned him were suitable, having attained high states already, and that they would not turn against him, and that they are now suffering hardships without him. Knowing they were at the Deer Park, he set out for it.

2.     Having arose the trichiliocosm trembled. Then, seeing an Ājīvika (materialist) merchant on the way, the merchant noted how wonderful the Buddha’s appearance was, and described it in various ways and asked who he practiced religion with.

a.     The Buddha replied that he has no teacher and that he has no rivals.

b. The merchant sceptically asked repeatedly whether he was claiming to be a Buddha—the Buddha confirmed that he was.

c. Asking where he was going, the Buddha replied that he was going to Vārāṇasī to turn the Wheel of Dharma that has never been turned in this world.

d.    Sceptically the merchant replies “may it come to pass!”

3.     Then Sudarśana, a Nāga king, invited the Buddha to stay with him. Many others on the way invited the Buddha to stay with them on the way. 

4.     Eventually when he got to a river crossing a ferryman refused to offer the Buddha a ride since he had no money to pay the fare: so the Buddha flew to the other bank. Telling king Bimbisara, from that day on the king had the ferry fare waived.

5.     Finally, at Vārāṇasī, the Buddha went on an alms round and ate.

6.     Later he approached the five ascetics who commented that he comes having become a lazy glutton, and decided not to rise when he arrived, but to offer him a spare seat—Kauṇḍinya alone refused to do this. However, the close the Buddha got to them the more uncomfortable they got staying seated—the closer he got the more overwhelming his splendour got and their plan fell apart.

a.     They all arose and offered a seat and water for him to wash his feet.

b. The companions all spoke kindly to the Buddha and, like the Ājīvika, marveled at his transformed and resplendent appearance and calm senses, and they asked who he practiced with.

c. He replied that he should not be called Venerable (Ayuṣman, which means long lived), but rather as the Tathāgata, Buddha—he has become awakened and tranquilised all faults.

d. The Buddha beckoned them to listen to him so that they may too be liberated within a stainless and insightful state of mind.

e. The Buddha noted that they had decided, previously, not to arise for him and only offer a spare seat to him. When they heard this, they had spontaneously took upon the robes of a monk, instead of ascetic, and had shaven heads: their behaviour became as if they had been ordained for a hundred years and they had thereupon “gone forth.”

f.  The monks bowed and confessed their wrong behaviour and declared him as their teacher. They then gave a bath to the Buddha in a lotus pond.

g. The Buddha then seeing where previous Buddhas turned the Wheel of Dharma, circumambulated the seat where the three previous Buddhas of this aeon sat and sat upon it with crossed legs. The five monks prostrated and sat before him.

7.     The Buddha emitted light which encompassed the entire world and outshone the sun and moon. Even beings in the darkest places where they could not see others began to realise other beings existed in the world. Then the world shook in the six ways and various refreshing and agreeable sounds were heard. 

a. From within the light all the deeds of the Buddha’s bodhisattvahood were told, and said that now the Buddha has come to turn the Wheel of Dharma.

b.    It also notes on how rare it is to engender faith and to be free to hear the Dharma.

8.     In order for the Buddha to begin teaching the gods surrounded the scene and offered countless lion thrones requesting that the Buddha sit on them. They all requested the Buddha to teach the Dharma and to remember his earlier promise to free all beings. They then request him again in the form of verse, noting how he knows the medicines for the ailments of the world, having accumulated the six perfections and resting in the suchness of emptiness.

9.     Thereupon a Bodhisattva called One Who Turns the Wheel When the Intent Is Formed offered a well adorned Dharma Wheel to the Buddha, which had previously be turned by all previous Buddhas. The Bodhisattva then praised the Buddha in verse.

10.  For the first part of the night the Buddha dwelt in silence, gave an eloquent talk in the middle part of the night, and then in the last part of the night he summoned the five monks and taught them as follows:

a.     Monks should avoid self-indulgence and should avoid asceticism and punishing the body more than it suffers naturally. Thus the Sugata teaches the Middle Way of Right View, Intention, Speech, Action, Livelihood, Effort, Mindfulness, and Concentration.

b.    There are Four Truths of the Noble Ones:

i.        Suffering: birth, old age, sickness, death, meeting with the unpleasant and parting with the pleasant, not finding what is sought: in short the five aggregates.

ii.   The Origin of Suffering: craving that perpetuates existence, with passion for enjoyment finding pleasures here and there.

iii. The Cessation of Suffering: the dispassionate cessation of that craving.

iv.     The Path that Leads to the Cessation of Suffering: the eightfold path as noted above.

c. This made manifest the Buddha’s wisdom and vision, and not having heard it previously, he made it manifest by focusing intently on suffering, its origin, cessation, and the path to the cessation. The following tasks related to the four noble truths also made his wisdom manifest:

i.        Suffering is to be known—he had fully known it.

ii.      Its cause is to abandoned—he had fully abandoned it.

iii.     Its cessation is to be actualised—he had fully actualised it.

iv.     The path to the cessation is to be practiced—he had fully practiced it.

d.    Having recited them three times, he had developed wisdom that knew their twelve aspects.[1] Thereupon he knew that he had done what needed to be done and would not have another life.

e.     In verse the Buddha tells Kauṇḍinya that the aggregates do not make up the self, and that all phenomena are impermanent and causally produced with no self to be found anywhere. With the aggregates perceived to be the quality of all phenomena they cease. Thus having eliminated conceptual thinking, ignorance ceases and so on through the twelve links of dependent origination: thus beings arising from causes and conditions suffer and transmigrate, with no self that transmigrates. Those with no conceptuality find the true way and bring ignorance to a halt. Buddha means one who knows causality, and does not refer to any aggregates, senses, or elements. Within the Dharma, exclusive of heretics, emptiness has been proclaimed, and those who understand it have studied and were purified under previous Buddhas.

11.  Thus the Wheel of Dharma was turned with its twelve aspects[2] and the Three Jewels came to be, with the news going throughout all realms.

a.     Kauṇḍinya in particular had purified his eye of Dharma.

b. All other beings there purified their eyes and were liberated from unfavourable rebirths.

12.  Hundreds of buddhas in the universe, hearing the Buddha’s voice, were asked by their disciples why they became silent: they said it was because this Buddha had strove greater than countless Bodhisattvas and is now turning the Dharma Wheel. Having heard this, countless beings engendered love and entered into awakening, wishing to bring others the eye of Dharma.

13.  Thereupon Maitreya told the Buddha that they would like the Buddha to describe what kind of wheel the Wheel of Dharma is:

a. The Buddha explained that it is hard to be grasped, beyond duality, not an object of conceptuality, and is the sameness of wisdom and consciousness.

b. Many other qualities are enumerated which, in brief, describe how it is nonconceptuality, emptiness, signlessness, desirelessness, and so forth.

c. The Buddha then describes the qualities of the Buddha who turns that Dharma Wheel. Some of the descriptions include the king among physicians, unshakable king of mountains, oceanlike due to his profundity, non-clinging like the wind, the fire like one who burns away all emotions; he possesses the maṇḍala of the perfection of wisdom; is a charioteer of beings; like a wish-fulfilling jewel.

d. Thereupon the Buddha explains the thirty-two marks and the reasons why he has them based upon his good deeds from the past. They won’t be recounted here. In addition, his abilities based upon his perfections are also enumerated. As the text says, it would take an aeon or more to list them all.

14.  Then, in verse, the Buddha explains that the Wheel of Dharma has been turned, which is profound, empty, without characteristics, like an illusion, cutting through all views, infinitely vast, beyond self and no-self, in suchness. It has been realised by the Buddha, who is called a guide and who trains limitless beings, guides them, and gathers them, and in mastering the Dharma, he is the king of the Dharma.

[1] The identity of the four truths, their four corresponding tasks, and the four accomplishment of those tasks.

[2] The ending of the twelve links.