INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF BUDDHIST PHILOSOPHY
SEMINAR ONE
TEXT I. Setting in Motion the Wheel of Dharma[1]
(The First Sermon)
Thus have I heard.[2] The Lord[3] was once living in the Deer Park at Isipatana (the Resort of Seers) near Benares. There he addressed the group of five monks[4]: “Monks, these two extremes[5] ought not to be practised by one who has gone forth from the household life.[6] What are the two? One extreme is devotion to the sensual pleasures,[7] which is common, the way of ordinary people,[8] unworthy,[9] and unprofitable.[10] Another extreme is devotion to self-mortification, which is painful, vulgar, unworthy, and unprofitable.
Avoiding both these extremes, the Tathågata[11] has realized the Middle Path: it gives vision,[12] it gives knowledge[13], it gives calm, it gives special knowledge,[14] and it leads to enlightenment,[15] to Nirvana.[16] And what, monks, is the Middle Path?[17] It is simply the Noble[18] Eightfold Middle Way,[19] namely: right[20] view, right intention, right speech, right action, right living, right effort, right recollection,[21] and right concentration.[22] And that Middle Path leads to calm, to enlightenment, and to Nirvana.”
“Now this, monks, is the Noble Truth[23] about suffering.[24] Birth is suffering; ageing is suffering; sickness is suffering; death is suffering; sorrow and lamentation, pain, grief, and dispair are suffering; association with the unpleasant is suffering; dissociation from the pleasant is suffering; not to get what one wants is suffering – in brief, the five aggregates[25] of attachment are suffering.”
“Now this, monks, is the Noble Truth about the origin[26] of suffering. It is this craving[27] which produces re-existence[28] and is bound up with enjoyment and passion.[29] It finds fresh delight now here and now there. It is craving for sensual pleasure, craving for existence,[30] and craving for non-existence (or self-annihiliation).[31]”
“Now this, monks, is the Noble Truth about the cessation[32] of suffering. It is the complete passionless[33] cessation of that very craving, giving it up, renouncing it, emancipating oneself from it, detaching oneself from it.”
“Now this, monks, is the Noble Truth of the Path leading to the cessation of suffering: it is simply the Noble Middle Eightfold Path, namely, right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right living, right effort, right recollection, and right concentration.”
“Monks, at the thought ‘this is the Noble Truth of Suffering’, there arose in me the vision, the knowledge, the wisdom,[34] the light – with regard to things not heard before. And this suffering should be fully realized. Monks, at the thought ‘this is the Noble Truth about the origin of suffering’, there arose in me the vision, the knowledge, the wisdom, the light – with regard to things not heard before. And this origin of suffering has been abandoned.”
“Monks, at the thought ‘this is the Noble Truth about the Cessation of Suffering’ … etc. And this cessation of suffering has been realized.” Monks, at the thought ‘this is the Noble Truth about the Path leading to the cessation of suffering. And this Path should be cultivated.”[35]
“Now, monks, as my knowledge of the Four Noble Truths, in its three aspects,[36] was not fully clear to me, I did not claim to have realized the Perfect Awakening that is supreme in the world[37] with its Maras[38] and Brahmas,[39] with its wandering ascetics[40] and brahmans,[41] with its princes and men. Now this vision and the knowledge arose in me thus: My heart’s deliverance[42] is assured. There is no more rebirth[43] for me.”
Thus the Blessed One said. The five monks were glad, and they rejoiced at his words.
SEMINAR I: What is it all about?
Let us begin from the beginning. In the beginning the Buddha addressed his words to the five ascetics. Mind it, not to the world, not to men, nor even to ascetics in general, but to a particular group of ascetics whom he had thoroughly known from the previous stage of his life among ascetics and hermits, and whom he had chosen to be his first hearers and pupils. Moreover when he admonished them to avoid extremes to which all men are naturally inclined, he did it bearing in mind that their final release from the world of extremes was imminent. ‘Extreme’ is the way of nature and, at the same time, the way in which normal (that is, banal, vulgar) people act, speak, and think. The Noble Ones, ariya are an exception from normalcy and nature. However, those who had already excepted themselves practically from normal life, that is ascetics (pabbajita) and monks (bhikhu), ought to know what is the noble middle.
The extreme, however, is not only a degree of a quality, but is, itself, a special quality. So, the addiction to sensual life here is a quality that is opposed to moderate sensuality and not to a total absence of (or abstention from) sensual life. More than that, a moderate sensuality differs more from an addiction to sensuality than from, say, moderate abstention from sensuality. In other words, what matters here is not so much the difference between two opposites (such as attraction and aversion) as the qualitative difference between extremism and moderation in their manifestation. The middleness plays the role of the neutralizer of qualitative oppositions, and the Way is a way of such a neutralization.
However simple and concrete its application, the notion of middleness in the First Sermon clearly anticipates some far more abstract and speculative philosophical interpretations which we find in other (not always later) texts. Now I shall mention only two of those interpretations. First, the middleness acquires the features of a radical philosophical position (which, in a way, is contrary to the very idea of middleness) which not only neutralizes opposites, but relativizes, and sometimes negates, the existence of the oppository qualities or phenomena.
Let us return to the question: what is it all about? – About the suffering, of course, it goes without saying. But it does not go without saying. The most philosophically interesting moment in the First Sermon is that suffering is not postulated here as that which there is, or simply is, ontologically, in terms of being. For there is no notion of “being” (or of “non-being”, for that matter) in this text. Furthermore, suffering is not a “thing” of any kind, nor is it a state of a thing or a universal state of all things or of the world in toto. It is, in the best case, the universal fact. Fact in a quite concrete phenomenological sense, that is, fact as that which is thought of, seen or observed. But by whom? – By those whose position is outside all that which suffers. But about that a bit further down.
The two most universal states postulated in this text are ‘arising’ (samudaya) and ‘stopping the rise’ (nirodha) of all that is introduced as fact, or as the cause of the fact, or as a consequence of that fact. Thus it may be said that each phenomenon is, by definition, in one of these two states – it either arises or stops to arise.
Now, two additional questions: what is suffering and what suffers? To the first question the answer is the First Noble Truth. There is no answer to the second question in this text. Wasn’t this answer the stumbling block for the great Buddhist debaters from the 3rd century BC to this day? But now I have to get ahead of this text and attempt to tackle the question from the point of view of knowledge. Then it may be supposed that suffering is one suffering for those who suffer but do not know the Noble Truth of Suffering, and quite another suffering for those who know the Noble Truth of Suffering (see here n. 36) and thereby are on the Way of Stopping the arising of suffering (Pali: dukhasamudaya nirodha magga). Then we may speak tentatively of two sufferings – empirical and theoretical. For, however paradoxical it may sound, “those who know the suffering, do not suffer, because they also (or rather, in the first place) know that there can be no sufferer, nor even knower (see II). The text II (see below) strongly states that it is the five aggregates of individual existence that suffer. The problem, however, is gravely complicated, for you cannot state that they suffer; because none of them, nor all of them taken together can know the suffering.
Again and again in the course of Buddhist philosophizing this problem boils down to relation (or rather correlation) of suffering to knowledge (let us note, by the way, that the five aggregates not only cannot know, but cannot not know either). Empiricist judgments of the type: “I know that I suffer, because I suffer”, do not apply here, because the suffering is cognized only by a transcendental knowledge while the idea of the transcendental knower is not to be found at least in the texts of the Pali Canon.
The text is the first (first not chronologically, but in a conventionally established by commentators sequence of texts) factual exposition of the Teaching, Dharma. ‘Factual’, because it is about the universal fact of suffering. Two universal states are introduced with respect of that fact, and the very word truth (sacca, skr. satya) in this exposition means the truth about the fact of suffering and about all that there is (or, more exactly: “all that arises or ceases to arise”) in relation to suffering. But whatever there is that suffer or does not suffer, remains outside the framework of the exposition. This is so because it is suffering that determines whatever there is and not the other way around (about two other determinants see below, pp. 000). That is why there can be no postulation of any independent “being” or “existence” here, including the suffering itself.
Moreover, the first philosophical impression of the world in this sermon (I stress “first”, for that impression will change in other texts) is that this world is without axis, without any ontological foundation or principle governing it. Even the suffering that determines the world is, itself, contingent upon the factors of its arising, as its non-arising is contingent upon the factors leading to the stopping of its arising. The world is not innerly differentiated and structured – as we shall see it in other texts. The Way declared in the fourth Noble Truth is of paramount philosophical importance, for it seems to be, as yet, the only factor structuring the composition of the universe.
[1] P. Dhammacakkapavattana (samytta-nîkåja, LVI, 11 of the sutta-pitaka in the Pali Canon). Another translation will be “The First Turn of the Wheel of Dharma” because in the Buddhist tradition this text figures as the first sermon uttered by the Buddha to the five monks in the Deer Park. Dhamma (Skr. Dharma), if written with capital ‘D’ denotes the Teaching of the Buddha. Cakka (Skr. cakra), “wheel”, being one of the most important Indian visual symbols, in Buddhism symbolizes the dynamic principle of the Universe and of the Dharma. Pavattana (Skr. pravartana) here “turn” or “turning”, denotes the manifestation or the actualisation of the Teaching (Dharma).
[2] “Thus have I heard” (P. evam me sutam, S. evam mayå ßrutåm) – the usual beginning of all Buddhist sutras. It refers, most demonstratively, to oral transmission of the Buddha’s words (P. and Skr. buddhavacana) by his pupils. At the same time, it implies authenticity of these words and of the narrative in the context of which they were pronounced by the Buddha.
[3] “The Blessed One” is the standard English translation of the P. bhagavå (Skr. bhagavant), which is accepted here only for the convention’s sake. However, strictly etymologically speaking “lord” (as a term of address to the God) would be a more exact equivalent. This is the most significant epithet not only of the Buddha, but also (particularly in the Mahayana texts) of the whole class of beings called buddhas.
[4] “Monk” here is the English equivalent of P. bhikhu (Skr. bhiksu), which denotes an ascetic-mendicant who begs for alms. Here of course it first of all denotes an ascetic who is a member of the Buddha’s community (P. and Skr. sangha).
[5] This word (P. and Skr. anta) also means “end”, “limit”, “boundary”, “extremity”, and “extremal”.
[6] “Gone forth” or “renouncer” (P. pabbajita, Skr. pravrajita) – the generic term denoting ascetics in general as those who renounced their normal family life.
[7] “Sensual pleasure” here means a pleasure (P. and Skr. sukha) derived from gratification of carnal desire (P. and Skr. kåma). Kåma is the most general term denoting the whole sphere of sensual activity.
[8] “Ordinary people” (P. puthujjana, Skr. prthagjana) here is a clearly pejorative word, very close to “vulgar” or even to “degraded”.
[9] More exactly, “not-noble” (P. anariya, Skr. anårya) mainly in the sense of “common”, “like the others”.
[10] “Unprofitable” (P. anattha, Skr. anartha) here also connotes such meanings as “pointless”, “senseless”, and even “unreasonable” (from P. attha, Skr. artha, meaning “sense”, “purpose”).
[11] The word (P. and Skr. tathågata) literally means “thus-gone”, and is the central term of the whole Buddhological nomenclature. “Thus-gone” defies any direct interpretation as well as any hermeneutical attempt to establish its meaning through analyses of its uses in various contexts. There is, however, a strong conjecture that “thus” here means “in that way only, and in no other way” that suggests the absolute character of all that the Buddha does, says and thinks. Then “thus-gone” would mean “the one who has gone (P. and Skr. gata) in that way and to that sort of destination” [(P. and Skr. gati), see. K. R. Norman, 1969, p. 118.]
[12] Here simply “eye” (P. cakkhu, Skr. caksu), however not only as an organ of sense, but as a special capacity of seeing things differently (wherefrom several different kinds of “eye”).
[13] Here “knowledge” (P. nåna, Skr. jnåna) in the most general way and thereby subject to further differentiations and concretizations.
[14] It would be more precise to call it “supernatural knowledge” (P. abhinna, Skr. abhijnå), because it dispenses with sense perceptions and with types of thought based on them.
[15] More literally – Awakening (P. sambodha and sambodhi). It may suggest that when the Buddha pronounced these words, he had already been awakened.
[16] Nirvana (P. nibbåna, Skr. nirvåna), in this episode, is the highest state that had already been achieved by the Lord.
[17] The path (P. patipada) here means only this one path the knowledge of which has been gained by the Buddha.
[18] “Noble” (P. ariya, Skr. årya) is used in a general sense, as opposed to common, low, base, etc.
[19] “Way” (P. magga, Skr. mårga) is more or less synonymous to “path”.
[20] “Right” (P. samma, Skr. samyak) has, in the Buddhist texts, two main meanings: the first meaning is referred to a quality of a thing it is attributed to, such as “perfect”, “correct”, “complete”; the second meaning reflects the very “thingness” of a thing in question, in the such characteristics as “real”, “genuine”, “original”, or even “natural” (as opposed to artificially constructed).
[21] “Recollection” (P. sati, Skr. smrti) – a special term of Buddhist yoga, denoting the procedure of inverse remembering, that is when one directs one’s memory back, starting from the present moment.
[22] “Mental concentration” (P. and Skr. samådhi) – one of the central terms and one of the main varieties of Buddhist yoga and Indian yoga in general.
[23] Here “truth” (P. sacca, Skr. satya) is used in a specifically Buddhist sense, that is only in the sense of “Noble Truth” and not as truth in general (i.e. as the truth about anything else).
[24] In this text “suffering” (P. dukha, Skr. duhkha) means both suffering in general and any particular suffering.
[25] Literally “heap”, “mass” (P. khandha, Skr. skandha). In special Buddhist terminology – a constituent element of individual existence. The five aggregates are: 1) form or bodily form (P. and Skr. rüpa); 2) feelings or sensations (P. and Skr. vedanå); 3) perceptions (P. sannå, Skr. sanjnå); 4) volitions or coefficient factors (P. sankhåra, Skr. samskåra); 5) consciousness (P. vinnåna, Skr. vijnåna). As grounded in or based on grasping or attachment (P. and Skr. upådåna), the five aggregates are called “the aggregates of grasping”. As associated with suffering, they assume the name of “aggregates of suffering”.
[26] More literally, “rise”, “arising”, “emergence” (P. and Skr. samudaya).
[27] “Craving” (P. tanhå, Skr. trsnå) – is the central term denoting, in general, the whole emotional-motivational sphere of Buddhist psychology.
[28] Also “leading to rebirth” (P. panobhavika).
[29] “Passion” (P. and Skr. råga) is an active and positive (the passion of desire) mental force. It also may be understood as a concretisation of kåma (see above n. 7).
[30] Also “being”, “becoming” (P. and Skr. bhåva).
[31] More exactly, “stopping of existence” (P. vibhava).
[32] “Cessation” (P. and Skr. nirodha) here has two main meanings. The first is passive (when something ceases to exist or does not arise by itself), the second, active and closer to “stopping” or even to “annulling”. It also can be translated as “non-arising” (see IV, n. 24).
[33] “Passionless” (P. and Skr. viråga) is the first and most important characteristic of the cessation of suffering.
[34] “Wisdom” (P. pannå, Skr. prajnå), as a Buddhist term, denotes Knowledge of a higher type, superior to all other varieties of knowledge (see above, n. 13).
[35] “Cultivated” (P. bhåvita) here is a special yogic term related to a special variety of visual meditation (P. bhåvana).
[36] The three aspects of knowledge are: 1) the knowledge of the truth as it is (P. and Skr. yathå bhütam), in which case the knowledge is the Truth; 2) the knowledge of that which should be done with regard to this Truth; 3) the knowledge of that which has been done with regard to this Truth.
[37] That is, in this world (P. and Skr. loka), created by a certain god-creator.
[38] Mara (P. måra) – a Buddhist mythological figure manifesting sensual desire.
[39] Brahma – god-creator.
[40] “Wandering ascetic” (P. samana, Skr. sramana) – a special variety of ancient Indian ascetics.
[41] Brahman – a Hindu priest in general or a priest performing Vedic rituals.
[42] Literally, deliverance (P. vimutti, Skr. vimukti) of mind (P. ceto, Skr. cetas).
[43] Or “new existence” which means to say that this is the last rebirth of the Buddha.