
                THREE CARDINAL DISCOURSES OF THE BUDDHA
  
                             Translated by
                             Nanamoli Thera


                        Wheel Publication No. 17

                          First Edition   1960
                          Second Printing 1972
                          Third Printing  1981


              Copyright 1981, 1995 Buddhist Publication Society
  
                      BUDDHIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY
                      KANDY              Sri Lanka
  
  
                                 * * *


                         DharmaNet Edition 1995

                   Transcription: Christopher Sessums
                Proofreading & Formatting: John Bullitt

        This electronic edition is offered for free distribution
            via DharmaNet by arrangement with the publisher.

                        DharmaNet International
                 P.O. Box 4951, Berkeley CA 94704-4951

                            * * * * * * * *

  


                              INTRODUCTION
                              ~~~~~~~~~~~~
  
                Not doing any kind of evil,
                Perfecting profitable skill,
                And purifying one's own heart:
                This is the Buddha's dispensation.

                                -- Dhammapada 183
  

  The message of the Awakened Ones, so stated as it is in the
  //Dhammapada// in the plain terms of good and evil, upholds the same
  values that every great compassionate religion shares. But the seed of
  good has to grow in the soil of truth; and how the tree grows depends
  upon the nature of the soil in which it is planted, and whence it
  draws nourishment. With men as the custodians of the true, the
  fulfillment of the good depends upon how truth is conceived by men to
  be. By their acts they verify it.
  
        A monk called Gotama, it seems, a son of the Sakyans, who went
        forth into homelessness from a Sakyan clan, has come...   Now a
        good report of Master Gotama has been spread to this effect:
        "That Blessed One is such since he is accomplished  and fully
        awakened, perfect in true knowledge and conduct, sublime, knower
        of worlds, incomparable leader of men to be tamed, teacher of
        gods and men, awakened and blessed... He teaches a True Idea
        that is good in the beginning, good in the middle, and good in
        the end, with its own special meaning and phrasing; he exhibits
        a holy life that is utterly perfect and pure." Now it is good to
        see such Accomplished Ones.
                                        -- MN 41


    So it was said of him at the time. But what, then, was the
  fundamental ground of that teaching? Of the many ways that such a
  question might be answered, perhaps the simplest and best is this: "He
  expounded the teaching that is peculiar to Buddhas: suffering,
  origination, cessation and a path" (MN 56). These four are known as
  the //Four Noble Truths//. This, with the cognate teaching of No Self,
  may be said to constitute the fundamental ground of the teaching of
  Buddhas; this is what marks them, sets them apart and entitles them to
  the unique epithet "Buddha."
  
    The three discourses here presented display precisely, in all its
  incomparably serene simplicity, without assumptions, that special
  fundamental teaching, from which all Buddhism branches, and to which
  it all points back.   The first discourse displays this fourfold Truth
  as something to be realized and verified for oneself here and now; the
  second discloses the contradictions which infect all "self" conceits;
  the third echoes the second from another angle.
  
    The circumstances that lead up to the discovery of these four
  Truths, and to the delivery of these discourses, were briefly as
  follows. The Bodhisatta -- as he then was, before his awakening -- was
  twenty nine when he left the house life, where he enjoyed the extreme
  of luxury. He went into "exile" in order to find not a palliative but
  the true and incontrovertible way out of suffering.

        This world has surely happened upon woe, since it is born and
        ages and dies but to fall from one kind of existence and
        reappear in another. Yet it knows no escape from this suffering,
        from aging and death; surely there is an escape from this
        suffering, from aging and death?
                                        -- SN XII 65


    He studied and practiced under two of the foremost teachers of
  //Samadhi// (concentration, or quiet), and reached the highest
  meditative attainments possible thereby. But that was not enough ("I
  was not satisfied with that as a True Idea; I left it and went away."
  -- MN 36) He then spent the best part of the next six years in the
  practice of asceticism, trying every sort of extreme
  self-mortification. During this time he was waited on by five
  ascetics, who hoped that if he discovered the "deathless state" he
  would be able to communicate his discovery to them. This too failed.

        By this grueling penance I have attained no distinction higher
        than the human ideal worthy of a noble one's knowing and seeing.
        Might there be another way to awakening.
                                        -- MN 36


    He decided to try once more the path of concentration, attained
  through mindfulness of breathing, though this time not pushed to the
  extremity of quiet, but guided instead by ordered consideration.

        I thought: "While my Sakyan father was busy and I (as a child)
        was sitting in the shade of the a rose apple tree, then quite
        secluded from sensual desires, secluded from unprofitable ideas,
        I had direct acquaintance of entering upon and abiding in the
        first //jhana//- meditation, which is accompanied by thinking
        and exploring, with happiness and pleasure born of seclusion.
        Might that be the way to enlightenment?" And following that
        memory came the the recognition: "That is the only way to
        enlightenment."
                                        -- MN 36


    He now gave up self-mortification and took normal food again in
  order to restore to his emaciated body strength sufficient for his
  purpose. Then the five ascetics left him in disgust, judging that he
  had failed, and was merely reverting to what he had forsaken. But now
  in solitude, his new balanced effort in the harmony of virtue, unified
  in concentration, and guided by the ordered consideration of insight
  with mindfulness, at length brought success in discovery of the way to
  the goal he had sought for so long. ("So I too found the ancient path,
  the ancient trail, traveled by the Awakened Ones of old." -- SN XII
  65) Five faculties in perfect balance had brought him to his goal:
  they were the four, namely energy, mindfulness, concentration, and
  understanding, with faith in the efficacy of the other four -- the
  five that "merge into the Deathless" (SN XLVIII 57). According to
  tradition, the "Awakening" took place on the night of Vesakha full
  moon in the fruitful month of May.
   
    It was upon invitation that he resolved to communicate his discovery
  to others. For his first audience to whom to divulge it he chose the
  five ascetics who had shared his self-mortification, but had later
  left him. They were now at Benares -- India's "eternal city" -- and so
  in due course he went there to rejoin them. Just two months after his
  awakening he preached his first sermon -- the "Setting Rolling of the
  Wheel of Truth" or "Bringing into Existence the Blessing of the True
  Ideal" -- with the five ascetics for his hearers. The tradition says
  it was the evening of the Asalha full moon in July, the day before the
  rainy season begins, and he began to speak at the moment when the sun
  was dipping, and the full moon simultaneously rising.
  
    This, his first sermon, made one of his listeners, the ascetic
  Kondanna, a "stream-enterer," with his attainment of the first of the
  four progressive stages of realization. The other four soon followed
  in his footsteps. The second sermon, on the characteristic of
  Not-Self, was preached to the same five, and it brought them to the
  fourth and final stage, that of arahatship: "and then" as it is said,
  "there were six arahats in the world" (Vinaya Mahavagga 1).
  
    These are the first two discourses presented here, and they were the
  first two sermons ever uttered by the Buddha. The third, the "Fire
  Sermon," was delivered some months later to an audience of a thousand
  ascetics converted from the heaven-bent practice of fire-worship.
  
    All three discourses deal only with understanding (//panna//), among
  the faculties mentioned above as required to be balanced. But
  understanding, in order to reach perfection, has indeed to be aided by
  the others, or in other words to be founded upon virtue ("habit
  without conflict"), and to be fortified by concentration (though not
  necessarily developed to the fullness of quietism). Thus and no
  otherwise can it reach its goal of unshakable liberation. Now the
  hearers of all these three discourses were, like the Buddha himself,
  all ascetics already expert in the techniques and refinements of both
  virtue (//sila//) and concentration (//samadhi//). So the Buddha had
  thus no need to tell them about what they already knew very well.
  Similarly he had no need to expound the doctrine of action (//kamma//)
  and its ripening (//vipaka//), with which they were thoroughly
  acquainted through the ancient teachings. What he had to do was first
  to show how it is possible to go astray towards the opposite extremes
  of sensual indulgence and self-torment; and second to describe the
  facts, to show how things are, clearly and succinctly enough to stir
  his hearers to the additional spontaneous movement of understanding
  essential and indispensable for the final discovery of deliverance,
  each for himself. ("A 'Perfect One' is one who shows the way." -- MN
  70)
  
    Now let the discourses speak for themselves. Their incalculable
  strength lies in their simplicity, and in their actuality. The
  profound truth is there, discoverable even through the misty medium of
  translation!
  
                                 * * *




                   SETTING ROLLING THE WHEEL OF TRUTH
  
                   //Dhamma-cakka-ppavattana-sutta//

  
  Thus I heard. On one occasion the Blessed One was living at Benares in
  the Deer Park at Isipatana (the Resort of Seers). There he addressed
  the bhikkhus of the group of five.
  
  "Bhikkhus, these two extremes ought not to be cultivated by one gone
  forth from the house-life. What are the two? There is devotion to
  indulgence of pleasure in the objects of sensual desire, which is
  inferior, low, vulgar, ignoble, and leads to no good; and there is
  devotion to self-torment, which is painful, ignoble and leads to no
  good.
  
  "The middle way discovered by a Perfect One avoids both these
  extremes; it gives vision, it gives knowledge, and it leads to peace,
  to direct acquaintance, to discovery, to nibbana. And what is that
  middle way? It is simply the noble eightfold path, that is to say,
  right view, right intention; right speech, right action, right
  livelihood; right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration. That
  is the middle way discovered by a Perfect One, which gives vision,
  which gives knowledge, and which leads to peace, to direct
  acquaintance, to discovery, to nibbana.
  
  "Suffering, as a noble truth, is this: Birth is suffering, aging is
  suffering, sickness is suffering, death is suffering, sorrow and
  lamentation, pain, grief and despair are suffering; association with
  the loathed is suffering, dissociation from the loved is suffering,
  not to get what one wants is suffering -- in short, suffering is the
  five categories of clinging objects.
  
  "The origin of suffering, as a noble truth, is this: It is the craving
  that produces renewal of being accompanied by enjoyment and lust, and
  enjoying this and that; in other words, craving for sensual desires,
  craving for being, craving for non-being.
  
  "Cessation of suffering, as a noble truth, is this: It is
  remainderless fading and ceasing, giving up, relinquishing, letting go
  and rejecting, of that same craving.
  
  "The way leading to cessation of suffering, as a noble truth, is this:
  It is simply the noble eightfold path, that is to say, right view,
  right intention; right speech, right action, right livelihood; right
  effort, right mindfulness, right concentration.
  
  "'Suffering, as a noble truth, is this.' Such was the vision, the
  knowledge, the understanding, the finding, the light, that arose in
  regard to ideas not heard by me before. 'This suffering, as a noble
  truth, can be diagnosed.' Such was the vision, the knowledge, the
  understanding, the finding, the light, that arose in regard to ideas
  not heard by me before. 'This suffering, as a noble truth, has been
  diagnosed.' Such was the vision, the knowledge, the understanding, the
  finding, the light, that arose in regard to ideas not heard by me
  before.
  
  "'The origin of suffering, as a noble truth, is this.' Such was the
  vision... 'This origin of suffering, as a noble truth, can be
  abandoned.'  Such was the vision... 'This origin of suffering, as a
  noble truth, has been abandoned.' Such was the vision... in regard to
  ideas not heard by me before.
  
  "'Cessation of suffering, as a noble truth, is this.' Such was the
  vision... 'This cessation of suffering, as a noble truth, can be
  verified.' Such was the vision... 'This cessation of suffering, as a
  noble truth, has been verified.' Such was the vision... in regard to
  ideas not heard by me before.
  
  "'The way leading to cessation of suffering, as a noble truth, is
  this.' Such was the vision... 'This way leading to cessation of
  suffering, as a noble truth, can be developed.' Such was the vision...
  'This way leading to the cessation of suffering, as a noble truth, has
  been developed.' Such was the vision... in regard to ideas not heard
  by me before.

  "As long as my knowing and seeing how things are, was not quite
  purified in these twelve aspects, in these three phases of each of the
  four noble truths, I did not claim in the world with its gods, its
  Maras and high divinities, in this generation with its monks and
  brahmans, with its princes and men to have discovered the full
  awakening that is supreme. But as soon as my knowing and seeing how
  things are, was quite purified in these twelve aspects, in these three
  phases of each of the four noble truths, then I claimed  in the world
  with its gods, its Maras and high divinities, in this generation with
  its monks and brahmans, its princes and men to have discovered the
  full awakening that is supreme. Knowing and seeing arose in me thus:
  'My heart's deliverance is unassailable. This is the last birth. Now
  there is no renewal of being.'"
  
  That is what the Blessed One said. The bhikkhus of the group of five
  were glad, and they approved his words.
  
  Now during this utterance, there arose in the venerable Kondanna the
  spotless, immaculate vision of the True Idea: "Whatever is subject to
  arising is all subject to cessation."
  
  When the Wheel of Truth had thus been set rolling by the Blessed One
  the earthgods raised the cry: "At Benares, in the Deer Park at
  Isipatana, the matchless Wheel of truth has been set rolling by the
  Blessed One, not to be stopped by monk or divine or god or death-angel
  or high divinity or anyone in the world."
  
  On hearing the earth-gods' cry, all the gods in turn in the six
  paradises of the sensual sphere took up the cry till it reached beyond
  the Retinue of High Divinity in the sphere of pure form. And so indeed
  in that hour, at that moment, the cry soared up to the World of High
  Divinity, and this ten-thousandfold world-element shook and rocked and
  quaked, and a great measureless radiance surpassing the very nature of
  the gods was displayed in the world.
  
  Then the Blessed One uttered the exclamation: "Kondanna knows!
  Kondanna knows!", and that is how that venerable one acquired the
  name, Anna-Kondanna -- Kondanna who knows.

                                        -- SN LVI, 11
  
  
                                 * * *
  



                      THE NOT-SELF CHARACTERISTIC
  
                       //Anatta-lakkhana-sutta//
  
  Thus I heard. On one occasion the Blessed One was living at Benares,
  in the Deer Park at Isipatana (the Resort of Seers). There he
  addressed the bhikkhus of the group of five: "Bhikkhus." -- "Venerable
  sir," they replied. The Blessed One said this.
  
  "Bhikkhus, form is not-self. Were form self, then this form would not
  lead to affliction, and one could have it of form: 'Let my form be
  thus, let my form be not thus.' And since form is not-self, so it
  leads to affliction, and none can have it of form: 'Let my form be
  thus, let my form be not thus.'
  
  "Bhikkhus, feeling is not-self...

  "Bhikkhus, perception is not-self...

  "Bhikkhus, determinations are not-self...
  
  "Bhikkhus, consciousness is not self. Were consciousness self, then
  this consciousness would not lead to affliction, and one could have it
  of consciousness: 'Let my consciousness be thus, let my consciousness
  be not thus.' And since consciousness is not-self, so it leads to
  affliction, and none can have it of consciousness: 'Let my
  consciousness be thus, let my consciousness be not thus.'
  
  "Bhikkhus, how do you conceive it: is form permanent or impermanent?"
  -- "Impermanent, venerable Sir." -- "Now is what is impermanent
  painful or pleasant?" -- "Painful, venerable Sir." -- "Now is what is
  impermanent, what is painful since subject to change, fit to be
  regarded thus: 'This is mine, this is I, this is my self'"? -- "No,
  venerable sir."
  
  "Is feeling permanent or impermanent?...

  "Is perception permanent or impermanent?...

  "Are determinations permanent or impermanent?...
  
  "Is consciousness permanent or impermanent?" -- "Impermanent,
  venerable sir." -- "Now is what is impermanent pleasant or painful?"
  -- "Painful, venerable sir." -- "Now is what is impermanent, what is
  painful since subject to change, fit to be regarded thus: 'This is
  mine, this is I, this is my self'"? -- "No, venerable sir."
  
  "So, bhikkhus any kind of form whatever, whether past, future or
  presently arisen, whether gross or subtle, whether in oneself or
  external, whether inferior or superior, whether far or near, must with
  right understanding how it is, be regarded thus: 'This is not mine,
  this is not I, this is not myself.'
  
  "Any kind of feeling whatever...

  "Any kind of perception whatever...

  "Any kind of determination whatever...
  
  "Any kind of consciousness whatever, whether past, future or presently
  arisen, whether gross or subtle, whether in oneself or external,
  whether inferior or superior, whether far or near must, with right
  understanding how it is, be regarded thus: 'This is not mine, this is
  not I, this is not my self.'
  
  "Bhikkhus, when a noble follower who has heard (the truth) sees thus,
  he finds estrangement in form, he finds estrangement in feeling, he
  finds estrangement in determinations, he finds estrangement in
  consciousness.
  
  "When he finds estrangement, passion fades out. With the fading of
  passion, he is liberated. When liberated, there is knowledge that he
  is liberated. He understands: 'Birth is exhausted, the holy life has
  been lived out, what can be done is done, of this there is no more
  beyond.'"
  
  That is what the Blessed One said. The bhikkhus were glad, and they
  approved his words.
  
  Now during this utterance, the hearts of the bhikkhus of the group of
  five were liberated from taints through clinging no more.

                                        -- SN XXII, 59
  

                                 * * *




                            THE FIRE SERMON

  
                       //Aditta-pariyaya-sutta//
  

  Thus I heard. On one occasion the Blessed One was living at Gaya, at
  Gayasisa, together with a thousand bhikkhus. There he addressed the
  bhikkhus.
  
  "Bhikkhus, all is burning. And what is the all that is burning?
  
  "The eye is burning, forms are burning, eye-consciousness is burning,
  eye-contact is burning, also whatever is felt as pleasant or painful
  or neither-painful-nor-pleasant that arises with eye-contact for its
  indispensable condition, that too is burning. Burning with what?
  Burning with the fire of lust, with the fire of hate, with the fire of
  delusion. I say it is burning with birth, aging and death, with
  sorrows, with lamentations, with pains, with griefs, with despairs.
  
  "The ear is burning, sounds are burning...

  "The nose is burning, odors are burning...

  "The tongue is burning, flavors are burning...

  "The body is burning, tangibles are burning...
  
  "The mind is burning, ideas are burning, mind-consciousness is
  burning, mind-contact is burning, also whatever is felt as pleasant or
  painful or neither-painful-nor-pleasant that arises with mind-contact
  for its indispensable condition, that too is burning. Burning with
  what? Burning with the fire of lust, with the fire of hate, with the
  fire of delusion. I say it is burning with birth, aging and death,
  with sorrows, with lamentations, with pains, with griefs, with
  despairs.
  
  "Bhikkhus, when a noble follower who has heard (the truth) sees thus,
  he finds estrangement in the eye, finds estrangement in forms, finds
  estrangement in eye-consciousness, finds estrangement in eye-contact,
  and whatever is felt as pleasant or painful or neither-painful-
  nor-pleasant that arises with eye-contact for its indispensable
  condition, in that too he finds estrangement.
  
  "He finds estrangement in the ear...in sounds...

  "He finds estrangement in the nose...in odors...

  "He finds estrangement in the tongue...in flavors...

  "He finds estrangement in the body...in tangibles...
  
  "He finds estrangement in the mind, finds estrangement in ideas, finds
  estrangement in mind-consciousness, finds estrangement in
  mind-contact, and whatever is felt as pleasant or painful or
  neither-painful-nor-pleasant that arises with eye-contact for its
  indispensable condition, in that too he finds estrangement.
  
  "When he finds estrangement, passion fades out. With the fading of
  passion, he is liberated. When liberated, there is knowledge that he
  is liberated. He understands: 'Birth is exhausted, the holy life has
  been lived out, what can be done is done, of this there is no more
  beyond.'"
  
  That is what the Blessed One said. The bhikkhus were glad, and they
  approved his words.
  
  Now during his utterance, the hearts of those thousand bhikkhus were
  liberated from taints through clinging no more.

                                        -- SN XXXV, 28


                            * * * * * * * *



                                 NOTES
  
                              First Sutta
                              ~~~~~~~~~~~
  
  THUS I HEARD: Words spoken by Ananda Thera at the First Council when
     all the Discourses were recited, three months after the Buddha's
     //Parinibbana//.
  
  PERFECT ONE: The Pali word //Tathagata// has several alternative
     explanations, including //tatha agato// ("thus come," i.e., by the
     way followed by all Buddhas) //tatha gato// ("thus gone," i.e., to
     the discovery of the Four Truths), and //tathalakkhanam agato//
     ("come to the characteristic of the 'real' or the 'such,' namely
     the undeceptive truth").
  
  NIBBANA: Pali //nibbana//, Sanskrit //nirvana//. The meaning is
     "extinction," that is, of the "fires" of lust, hate, and delusion,
     or, more briefly, of craving and ignorance, and so nibbana is a
     name for the third Truth as liberation. The word is made up of the
     prefix //nir// (not) and //vana// (effort of blowing; figuratively,
     craving); probably the origin was a smith's fire, which goes out or
     becomes extinguished (//nibbayati//) if no longer blown on by the
     bellows; but the simile most used is that of a lamp's
     extinguishment (//nibbana//) through exhaustion of wick and oil.
  
  NOBLE EIGHTFOLD PATH: The members of the path are defined in the
     //Maha-satipatthana Sutta// and elsewhere as follows:
       //Right View// of the Four Truths;
       //Right Intention// governed by renunciation (non-sensuality),
         non-ill-will, and non-cruelty (harmlessness);
       //Right Speech// in abstention from lying, slander, abuse and
         gossip;
       //Right Action// in abstention from killing, stealing, and sexual
         misconduct;
       //Right Livelihood// for bhikkhus as that allowed by the Rules of
         the Discipline, and for laymen as avoidance of trading in
         weapons, living beings, meat, intoxicants, and poisons
         (AN V);
       //Right Effort// to avoid unarisen and to abandon arisen evil,
         and to arouse unarisen and to develop arisen good;
       //Right Mindfulness// of the Four Foundations of Mindfulness as
         given in the //Maha satipatthana Sutta// -- that is,
         contemplation of the body as a body, of feelings as feelings,
         of states of consciousness as states of consciousness, and of
         ideas as ideas;
       //Right Concentration// as (any of) the four //jhana//-
         meditations.

     Collectively the first two members are called Understanding
     (//panna//), the next three Virtue (//sila//), and the last three
     Concentration (//samadhi//). The Noble Eightfold Path is developed
     in four progressive stages, namely those of Stream-Entry (where
     wrong view ritualism and doubt are ended), Once-Return (where
     sensuality and ill will are weakened), Non-Return (where these two
     are ended) and Arahatship (where lust for form, lust for the
     formless, conceit, agitation and ignorance are ended), this being
     the end of craving which causes suffering.
  
  SUFFERING: the Pali word //dukkha//, made up of //dur// (bad,
     unsatisfactory) and //kha// (state, "-ness") extends its meaning
     from the actual suffering present in physical pain or mental grief
     to any unwelcome state of insecurity, no matter how vague.
  
  TRUTH: Pali //sacca// (compare Sanskrit //satya//), from the root
     //sa// (to be there to be existent, to have reality, etc.) and so
     literally a "there-is-ness" in the sense of a state that, unlike a
     mirage, does not deceive or disappoint. The common sense use of
     truth is by no means consistent, and the word and the notion must
     therefore be handled with some care, taking it here only as treated
     by the Buddha.

        As to individual philosophers' and divines' individual factional
        truths -- that is to say, "The world is eternal" or "The world
        is not eternal"; or "The world is finite or the world is
        infinite"; "The soul is what the body is" or "The
        soul is one, the body is another"; "After death a Perfect One
        is" or "After death a Perfect One is not" or "After death a
        Perfect One both is and is not" or "After death a Perfect One
        neither is nor is not" -- when a bhikkhu has cast off all of
        these, has renounced and rejected, banished, abandoned, and
        relinquished them all, he thus becomes one who has cast off all
        factional truths.
                                        -- AN IV, 38

     But how is truth to be found which is not factional?

        There are five ideas that ripen here and now in two ways. What
        five? Faith, preference, hearsay-learning, arguing upon
        evidence, and liking through pondering a view. Now something may
        have faith well placed in it and yet be hollow, empty, and
        false; and again something may have no faith placed in it and
        yet be factual, true, and no other than it seems; and so with
        preference and the rest. If a man has faith, then he guards
        truth when he says, "My faith is thus," but on that account
        draws no unreserved conclusion, "Only this is true, the other is
        wrong." In this way he guards the truth; but there is as yet no
        discovery of truth. And so with preference and the rest.

        How is truth discovered? Here a bhikkhu lives near some village
        or town. Then a householder or his son goes to him in order to
        test him in three kinds of ideas, in ideas provocative of greed,
        of hate, and of delusion, wondering, "Are there in this
        venerable one any such ideas, whereby his mind being obsessed he
        might not knowing, say 'I know,' unseeing, say 'I see,' or to
        get others to do likewise, which would be long for their harm
        and suffering?" While thus testing him he comes to find that
        there are no such ideas in him, and he finds that, "The bodily
        and verbal behavior of that venerable one are not those of one
        affected by lust or hate or delusion. But the True Idea that
        this venerable one teaches is profound, hard to see and
        discover; yet it is the most peaceful and superior of all, out
        of reach of logical ratiocination, subtle, for the wise to
        experience; such a True Idea cannot be taught by one affected by
        lust or hate or delusion."

        It is as soon as by testing him, he comes to see that he is
        purified from ideas provocative of lust, hate, and delusion,
        that he then plants his faith in him. When he visits him he
        respects him, when he respects him he gives ear, one who gives
        ear hears the True Idea, he remembers it, he investigates the
        meaning of the ideas remembered. When he does that he acquires a
        preference by pondering the ideas. That produces interest. One
        interested is actively committed. So committed he makes a
        judgment. According to his judgment he exerts himself. When he
        exerts himself he comes to realize with the body the ultimate
        truth, and he sees it by the penetrating of it with
        understanding. That is how there is discovery of truth. But
        there is as yet no final arrival at truth. How is truth finally
        arrived at? Final arrival at truth is the repetition, the
        keeping in being, the development, of those same ideas. That is
        how there is final arrival at truth."

                                        -- MN 95 (abbreviated)


     This undeceptive truth so arrived at is the Four Noble Truths, of
     which it is said:

        These four noble truths are what is real, not unreal, not other
        (than they seem), that is why they are called Noble Truths.
                                        -- Sacca-Samyutta


     Besides this essential static unity of the four truths as
     undeceptiveness, the dynamic structure of the transfiguration which
     they operate in combination is expressed as follows:

        Who sees suffering sees also the the origin of suffering and the
        cessation of suffering and the way leading to cessation of
        suffering (and whichever of the four truths he sees, he sees
        the three therewith)
                                        -- Sacca Samyutta

     and:
        Of these four noble truths, there is noble truth to be
        diagnosed, there is noble truth to be abandoned, there is noble
        truth to be verified, and there is noble truth to be developed
        (kept in being).
                                        -- Sacca Samyutta
  

  CATEGORIES: this represents the Pali word //kandha// (Sanskrit
     //skandha//), which is often rendered by "aggregate." The five are
     as given in the second Discourse. They are headings that comprise
     all that can be said to arise and that form the object of clinging.
     "The clinging is neither the same of these five categories which
     are its objects, nor is it something apart from them; it is will
     and lust in regard to these five categories of clinging's objects
     that is the clinging there." (MN 109) The five are respectively
     compared to a lump of froth, a bubble, a mirage, a coreless
     plantain-stem, and a conjuring trick.
  
  CLINGING: an unsatisfactory and inadequate, but accepted rendering for
     the Pali //upadana//. The word means literally "taking up" (/upa//
     plus //adana//; compare the Latin //assumere// from //ad// plus
     //sumere//.) By first metaphor it is used for the assumption and
     consumption that satisfies craving and produces existence. As such
     it is the condition //sine qua non// for being. What is consumed
     (or assumed) is the categories (q.v.). The word "clinging" has to
     represent this meaning. Clinging's ending is nibbana.
  
  CRAVING: though the word //tanha// doubtless once meant "thirst"
     (compare Sanskrit //trsna//) it is never used in Pali in that
     sense. With ignorance it is regarded as a basic factor in the
     continuity of existence. Craving draws creatures on through greed,
     and drives them on through hate, while ignorance prevents their
     seeing the truth of how things are or where they are going. Denial
     is as much an activity of craving as assertion is. Denial maintains
     the denied.
  
  CESSATION: //nirodha//, meaning the cessation of suffering through the
     cessation of craving, is regardable as the removal of a poison, the
     curing of a disease, not as the mere denial of it opposed to the
     assertion of it, or the obstruction (//pativirodha//) of it in
     conflict with the favoring (//anurodha//) of it (see under
     //Craving//), since both assertion and denial confirm and maintain
     alike the basic idea or state that is required to be cured.
     Cessation, therefore, is not to be confounded with mere negativism
     or nihilism. "Any pleasure and joy that arise in dependence on the
     world is //gratification// that the world is impermanent,
     pain-haunted and inseparable from the the idea of change is the
     //disappointment// in the world; the removal of desire and lust is
     the //cure// (the //escape//) in the world." (AN III) The cure or
     escape is Cessation: the Buddha would not claim awakening till he
     had diagnosed how these three things came to be.
  
  KNOWING AND SEEING HOW THINGS ARE: the force of the Pali word
     //yathabhuta//, (literally how (it has) come to be, how (it) is,
     how (things) exist lies in the direct allusion to the absolutely
     relative conditionedness of all being. It is given specially thus:
     "Seeing 'such is form, such its origin, such its going out,'" and
     so with the other four categories.
  
  THE VENERABLE KONDANNA: one of the five bhikkhus. See Introduction.
  
                                 * * *



                              Second Sutta
                              ~~~~~~~~~~~~
  
  FORM: Pali //rupa// (what appears, appearance). As the first of five
     categories (q.v.) it is defined in terms of the four Great
     entities, namely earth (hardness), water (cohesion), fire
     (temperature), and air (distension and motion), along with the
     negative aspect of space (what does not appear), from all of which
     are derived the secondary phenomena such as persons, features,
     shapes, etc.: these are regarded as secondary because while form
     can appear without any of them they cannot appear without form. It
     is also defined as "that which is being worn away" (//ruppati//),
     thus underlining its general characteristics of instability.
  
  NOT-SELF: Together with the four truths, this is taught only by
     Buddhas. //Anatta// (not-self) is shown as a general characteristic
     without exception.

        The characteristic of impermanence does not become apparent
        because, when rise and fall are not given attention, it is
        concealed by continuity; the characteristic of pain does not
        become apparent because, when continuous oppression is not given
        attention, it is concealed by the postures (changing from one
        posture to another, waking and sleeping); the characteristic of
        not-self does not become apparent because, when resolution into
        the various elements (that compose whatever is) is not given
        attention, it is concealed by compactness.

                                        -- Visuddhimagga Ch. XXI

     Self-identification and hunger for permanence and bliss form the
     principal manifestations of craving, guided by view that is wrong
     because it is not in conformity with undeceptive truth. When
     confronted with the contradictions and the impossibility of
     self-identification with any of the five Categories of Clinging's
     objects (q.v.) craving seeks to satisfy this need by imagining a
     soul (individual or universal); but since no such soul, however
     conceived, can escape falling within the five Categories of
     Clinging's objects, this solution is always foredoomed to failure.
     Similarly any attempt to identify self with nibbana must always
     fail for the same reason. Nibbana conceived as identical (with
     self) or (self) as apart from it (emanence) or inside it
     (immanence), or nibbana conceived as "mine" is misconceived. (MN
     1). This does not prevent a Perfect One from using the speech that
     is current in the world in order to communicate, though he does so
     without misapprehending it it, as is shown in the //Dhammapada://

        Self is savior of self;
        what other savior could there be?
        For only with (one-) self well tamed
        one finds the savior, hard to find.

        Only by self is evil done,
        self born and given being by self,
        oppressing him who knowledge lacks
        as grinding diamond does the stone.

                                        -- Dhammapada Verses 160-1

     Similarly with the expression "in oneself" (//ajjhattam//) in the
     Second Discourse, this is simply a convenient convention for the
     focus of the individual viewpoint, not to be misapprehended. A
     bhikkhu heard the Buddha saying, as in the Second Discourse here,
     that the five Categories are "not mine," etc., and he wondered; "So
     it seems form is not-self; feeling, perception, determinations, and
     consciousness are not-self. What self, then, will the action done
     by the not-self affect?" He was severely rebuked by the Buddha for
     forgetting the conditionedness of all arisen things. (MN 109) "It
     is impossible that anyone with right view should see any idea as
     self." (MN 115) and "Whatever philosophers and divines see self in
     its various forms, they see only the five Categories, or one or
     other of them." (SN XXII, 47)

  FEELING: (//vedana//) this is always confined strictly to the
     affective feelings of (bodily or mental) pleasure and pain with the
     normally ignored neutral feeling of "neither-pain-nor pleasure."
     These can be subdivided in various ways.
  
  PERCEPTION: (//sanna//) means simply recognition.
  
  DETERMINATIONS: a great many different renderings of this term are
     current, the next best of which is certainly "formations." The Pali
     word //sankhara// (Sanskrit //samskasa//) means literally "a
     construction," and is derived from the prefix //sam// (con) plus
     the verb //karoti// (to do, to make); compare the Latin
     //conficere// from //con// plus //facere// (to do), which gives the
     French //confection// (a construction). The Sanskrit means ritual
     acts with the purpose of bringing about good rebirth. As used in
     Pali by the Buddha it covers any aspects having to do with action,
     willing, making, planning, using, choice, etc. (anything
     teleological); and contact (q.v.) is often placed at the head of
     lists defining it. Otherwise defined as bodily, verbal, and mental
     action.
  
  CONSCIOUSNESS: (//vinnana//) is here the bare "being conscious" left
     for consideration when the other four categories have been dealt
     with. It is only describable in individual plurality in terms of
     the other four Categories, as fire is individualized only by the
     fuel it burns (see MN 38 & 109). Otherwise it is regardable as an
     infiniteness (MN 111) dependent upon the contemplation of it as
     such. It is only impermanent, etc., because however it arises, it
     can only do so in dependence on the other Categories, that is, on
     conditions themselves impermanent, painful and not-self. It never
     arises unless accompanied by co-nascent //perception// (q.v.) and
     //feeling// (q.v.). It has six "doors" (see under Eye and Mind) for
     cognizing its objective fields, but no more.
  
  ESTRANGEMENT: the Pali noun //nibbida// and its verb //nibbindati//
     are made up of the prefix //nir// in its negative sense of "out,"
     and the root //vid// (to find, to feel, to know intimately).
     //Nibbada// is thus a finding out. What is thus found out is the
     intimate hidden contradictoriness in any kind of
     self-identification based in any way on these things (and there is
     no way of determining self-identification apart from them -- see
     under NOT-SELF). Elsewhere the Buddha says:

        Whatever there is there of form, feeling, perception,
        determinations, or consciousness, such ideas he sees as
        impermanent, as subject to pain, as a sickness, as a tumor, as a
        barb, as a calamity, as an affliction, as an alienation, as a
        disintegration, as a void, as not-self. He averts his heart from
        those ideas, and for the most peaceful, the supreme goal, he
        turns his heart to the deathless element, that is to say, the
        stilling of all determinations, the relinquishment of all
        substance, the exhaustion of craving, the fading of passion,
        cessation, extinction.
                                        -- MN 64

     The "stuff" of life can also be seen thus. Normally the discovery
     of a contradiction is for the unliberated mind a disagreeable one.
     Several courses are then open. It can refuse to face it, pretending
     to itself to the point of full persuasion and belief that no
     contradiction is there; or one side of the contradiction may be
     unilaterally affirmed and the other repressed and forgotten; or a
     temporary compromise may be found (all of which expedients are
     haunted by insecurity); or else the contradiction may be faced in
     its truth and made the basis for a movement towards liberation. So
     too, on finding estrangement thus, two main courses are open:
     either the search, leaving "craving for self-identification"
     intact, can be continued for sops to allay the symptoms of the
     sickness; or else a movement can be started in the direction of a
     cure for the underlying sickness of craving, and liberation from
     the everlasting hunt for palliatives, whether for oneself or
     others. In this sense alone, "Self protection is the protection of
     others, and protection of others self-protection" (//Satipatthana
     Samyutta//).
  
                                 * * *


                              Third Sutta
                              ~~~~~~~~~~~
  
  EYE, etc.: the six, beginning with the eye and ending with the mind
     (q.v.), are called the six "Bases for Contact (see Contact) in
     oneself," and are also known as the six "Doors" of perception.
     Their corresponding objects are called "external bases,"
     ("sense-organ" is both too material and too objective), since the
     emphasis here is on the subjective faculty of //seeing//, etc., not
     the associated piece of flesh //seen// in someone else or in the
     looking-glass, which, in so far as it is visible, is not "seeing"
     but "form" as the "external" object of the seeing "eye in oneself,"
     and insofar as it is tangible is the object of the body-base in
     oneself, and insofar as it is apprehended as a "bodily feature" is
     the object of the mind-base in oneself. Here the eye should be
     taken simply as the perspective-pointing-inward-to-a-center in the
     otherwise uncoordinated visual field consisting of colors, which
     makes them cognizable by eye-consciousness, and which is
     misconceivable as "I". The six Bases in Oneself are compared to an
     empty village, and the six External Bases to village-raiding
     robbers.
  
  FORMS: the first of the six External Bases, respective objective
     fields or objects of the six Bases in Oneself (see EYE). The Pali
     word //rupa// is used for the eye's object as for the first of the
     five Categories, but here in the plural. Colors, the basis for the
     visual perspective of the eye (q.v), are intended, primarily (see
     also under FORM above.
  
  CONTACT: the Pali word //phassa// comes from the verb //phusati// (to
     touch, sometimes used in the sense of to arrive at, or to realize),
     from which also comes the word //photthabba// (tangible, the object
     of the Fifth Base in oneself, namely, body-sensitivity). But here
     it is generalized to mean contact in the sense of presence of
     object to subject, or presence of cognized to consciousness, in all
     forms of consciousness. It is defined as follows:
     "Eye-consciousness arises dependent on eye and on forms; the
     coincidence of the three is contact (presence), and likewise in the
     cases of the ear, nose, tongue, body and mind. Failing it, no
     knowledge, no consciousness of any sort whatever, can arise at
     all." This fundamental idea is sometimes placed at the head of
     lists of things defining Determinations (q.v.).
  
  BODY: the Pali word //kaya// is used both for the physical body and
     for any group, as the English word "body" is. In Pali it is also
     used in the sense (a) for the physical frame, namely "this body
     with its consciousness" in a general sense, sometimes called "old
     action," and then it forms the subject of body contemplation as set
     forth in the //Satipatthana Sutta//, the aim of which is to analyze
     this "conglomeration" into its motley constituents. Or else it is
     used in a strict sense, as here, namely (b) that "door" of the
     subjective body-sensitivity or tactile sense, the
     perspective-pointing-inwards-to-a-center in the otherwise
     uncoordinated tactile field of tangibles consisting of the hard,
     the hot-or-cold, and the distended-and-movable (see also under
     EYE).
  
  MIND: the Pali word //mano// belongs to the root meaning to measure,
     compare, coordinate. Here it is intended as that special "door" in
     which the five kinds of consciousness arising in the other five
     doors (see under EYE), combine themselves with their objective
     fields into a unitive //perspective-pointing-inwards-to-a-center//,
     together with certain objects apprehendable in this mind-door, such
     as infiniteness of space, etc. (and names, fictions, etc.).
     Whatever is cognized in this door (see under Consciousness) is
     cognized as an //idea// (q.v.). And in the presence (with the
     contact) of ignorance (of the four truths) it is misconceived as
     "I". It is thus the fusing of this heterogeneous stuff of
     experience into a coherent pattern, when it also has the function
     of giving temporal succession and flow to that pattern by its
     presenting all ideas for cognition as "preceded." In the
     //Abhidhamma//, but not in the //Suttas//, "the (material) form
     which is the support for the mind" is mentioned (implying perhaps
     the whole "body with its consciousness"), but not further
     specified. This would place mind on a somewhat similar basis to the
     eye-seeing, as meant here in its relation to the objective piece of
     flesh (see under EYE). Later notions coupled it with the heart. Now
     fashion identifies it with the brain; but such identifications are
     not easy to justify unilaterally; and if they in any way depend
     upon a prior and always philosophically questionable assumption of
     a separate body-substance and a mind-substance, they will find no
     footing in the Buddha's teaching where substances are not assumed.
  
  MIND-CONSCIOUSNESS: if it is remarked that each of the six pairs of
     Bases, the five consisting of eye, ear, nose, tongue, and body,
     being coordinated by mind, are open to any one's self-inspection;
     and that consciousness is considered here as arising dependently
     upon each of these six pairs of Bases and in no other way
     whatsoever (since no other description rejecting all six is
     possible without self-contradiction); then this notion of
     mind-consciousness should present no special difficulty.
  
  IDEA: the word //dhamma// is gerundive from the verb //dharati// (to
     carry, to remember), thus it means literally a "carryable, a
     rememberable." In this context of the six pairs of Bases it means
     the rememberables which form the mind's special object; as distinct
     from the forms seen only with the eye, the sounds heard with the
     ear, the odors smelt with the nose, the flavors tasted with the
     tongue, and the tangibles touched with the body, ideas are what are
     apprehended through the mind-door (see under Eye, Forms and Mind,
     and also Contact). These six cover all that can be known. But while
     the first (see FORMS) are uncoordinated //between themselves// and
     have no direct access to each other, in the mind-door the five find
     a common denominator and are given a coordinating perspective,
     together with the mind's own special objects. So the //idea// as a
     rememberable, is the aspect of the known apprehended by the mind,
     whether coordinating the five kinds of consciousness, or
     apprehending the ideas peculiar to it (see Mind), or whether
     apprehending its own special objects. This must include all the
     many other meanings of the word //dhamma// (Sanskrit //dharma//).
     Nibbana, in so far as it is knowable -- describable -- is an object
     of the mind, and is thus an idea. "All ideas are not-self." What is
     inherently unknowable has no place in the Teaching.
  

                                 * * *




                The Three Suttas and Their Relationship
                ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  
  The first of these three discourses sets out the vision of the truth
  peculiar to Buddhas, with its foundation of Suffering ("I teach only
  suffering, and the liberation from suffering"). The second then takes
  the five Categories given in the definition of Suffering in the first,
  and it shows how, in this comprehensive analysis every component can
  be diagnosed rightly, that is to say in conformity with truth. It is
  this treatment that elicits the characteristic of Not-self. The two
  characteristics of Impermanence and Suffering in the world were well
  recognized in ancient indian philosophies and have never been peculiar
  to Buddhism. This exposure of the inherent contradiction in the very
  nature of the idea of self-identity, to which craving cleaves with the
  would-be self-preserving stranglehold of a drowning man upon his
  rescuer, is here made the very basis for the movement to liberation.
  Craving is cured through coming to understand how things are while
  truth is being guarded (see under TRUTH above). The consequent fading
  of lust is brought about by this discovery of truth, and the
  understanding that there is no more of this beyond is the result of
  the final arrival at Truth by keeping it in being through development.
  In the third discourse the very same ground is gone over but described
  in different terms. The comprehensive analysis in terms of the five
  categories with their general rather than individual emphasis, is
  replaced by the equally comprehensive and complementary analysis in
  terms of the six pairs of Bases, which analyze the individual
  viewpoint, without which no consciousness can arise. And instead of
  the dispassionate term "Not-self," everything that could possibly be
  identified as self is, without mentioning the term, presented to the
  same effect in the colors of a conflagration of passion behind a
  mirage of deception. Only a Buddha "whose heart is cooled by
  compassion" can have the courage to venture so far in the search for
  truth and discover thereby the true state of peace.
  


                               Questions
                               ~~~~~~~~~
  
  Is not seeking one's own salvation a selfish aim?

  If the aim prescribed were a heavenly personal existence forever with
  self-preservation (whether through selfishness as such, or disguised
  as altruism), then the answer could hardly but be, "Yes." But with the
  aim as the removal of self-insistence in every form (not excluding
  ultimately self-denial, which like any negation, is just another
  affirmation of the basic idea so strenuously denied) -- the cure of
  the infectious sickness that leads to untold suffering -- does the
  question arise at all? But even granting that it did, would not the
  Arahat disciple display, after the Buddha, the highest altruism by
  showing how the aspiration to health is not a deception, since by his
  success he bears witness that it can be achieved and that no one is
  forever excluded from following his example?
  
                                   *

  But this description in terms of suffering, is it not pessimistic?

  Is it not rather the very reverse? For true optimism is surely shown
  by having the courage and energy to see how things are, and where
  liberation lies; and would it not be true pessimism to be satisfied to
  try and make existence out to be pleasanter or safer, and liberation
  easier, than is in conformity with the truth? Must not true liberation
  lie beyond the dialectic of pessimism and optimism, beyond
  alternatives of selfishness and altruism, as Truth (not factional
  truths) lies beyond that of being and non-being?
  
                                   *

  Does not the teaching of "Not-self" imply that there is in fact no
  action; that, for instance, there are no living beings to kill?

  The answer is certainly, "No." The reasons would be too lengthy to go
  into here in detail. But it is said by the Buddha:

        The Buddhas in the past, accomplished and fully awakened, those
        the Blessed Ones maintained the efficacy of action and of
        certain action to be done, and so will those do in the future,
        and so do I now.
                                        -- AN III, 136
  

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                Publication No. 17)
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