The "Setting in Motion of the Wheel of the Dhamma Sutra" or "Promulgation of the Law Sutra" (Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta) is a Buddhist scripture that is considered by Buddhists to be a record of the first sermon given by Gautama Buddha, the Sermon in the Deer Park at Sarnath.
The main topic of this sutra is the Four Noble Truths, which refer to and express the basic orientation of Buddhism in a formulaic expression.
This sutra also refers to the Buddhist concepts of the Middle Way, impermanence, and dependent origination.
According to Buddhist tradition, the Buddha delivered this discourse on the day of Asalha Puja, in the month of Ashadha, in a deer sanctuary in Sarnath. This was seven weeks after he attained Enlightenment. His audience consisted of five ascetics who had been his former companions: Kondanna, Assaji, Bhaddiya, Vappa, and Mahanama.
The Middle Way
The Middle Way as well as "teaching the Dharma by the middle" are common Buddhist terms used to refer to two major aspects of the Dharma, that is, the teaching of the Buddha.
The first phrasing, refers to a spiritual practice that steers clear of both extreme asceticism and sensual indulgence. This spiritual path is defined as the Noble Eightfold Path that leads to awakening.
The second formulation refers to how the Buddha's Teaching (Dharma) approaches ontological issues of existence and personal identity by avoiding eternalism (or absolutism) and annihilationism (and nihilism).
See more at Middle Way - Wikipedia.
The Four Noble Truths
The Four Noble Truths refer to and express the basic orientation of Buddhism:
- Unguarded sensory contact gives rise to craving and clinging to impermanent states and things, which are dukkha, "unsatisfactory," "incapable of satisfying" and painful.
- This craving keeps us caught in samsara, "wandering", usually interpreted as the endless cycle of repeated rebirth, and the continued dukkha that comes with it, but also referring to the endless cycle of attraction and rejection that perpetuates the ego-mind.
- There is a way to end this cycle, namely by attaining nirvana, cessation of craving, whereafter rebirth and the accompanying dukkha will no longer arise again.
- This can be accomplished by following the eightfold path, confining our automatic responses to sensory contact by restraining oneself, cultivating discipline and wholesome states, and practicing mindfulness and meditation (dhyana).
See more at Four Noble Truths - Wikipedia.
The Noble Eightfold Path
The Noble Eightfold Path or Eight Right Paths is an early summary of the path of Buddhist practices leading to liberation from samsara, the painful cycle of rebirth, in the form of nirvana.
The Eightfold Path consists of eight practices: right view, right resolve, right speech, right conduct, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right samadhi ('meditative absorption or union'; alternatively, equanimous meditative awareness).
In early Buddhism, these practices started with understanding that the body-mind works in a corrupted way (right view), followed by entering the Buddhist path of self-observance, self-restraint, and cultivating kindness and compassion; and culminating in dhyana or samadhi, which reinforces these practices for the development of the body-mind. In later Buddhism, insight (prajna) became the central soteriological instrument, leading to a different concept and structure of the path, in which the "goal" of the Buddhist path came to be specified as ending ignorance and rebirth.
See more at Noble Eightfold Path - Wikipedia.
See also
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Sarnath Deer Park
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Mulagandha Kuty Vihara Temple
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Vajrayana Buddhism
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Wheel of Life
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Nine Stages of Mental Development
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