It\u2019s a wonderful sutta to know, if not by heart, then at least conceptually. And there\u2019s a handy trick for setting it to memory, using (Tom will love this) numbers<\/span>. (numbers are in fact somewhat ubiquitous in early Buddhist teachings<\/a>, as ways of setting the teachings to memory.)<\/p>\n Just remember: 1, 2, 4, 8. Easy enough, right?<\/p>\n 1. This is the first teaching of the Buddha. It helps to know the basic bio of the Buddha, but this is a good start.<\/p>\n 2. We are first presented with the 2 extremes that ought not be practiced: indulgence in sense-pleasures and self-mortification. And the Middle Way between these is what the Buddha has realized.<\/p>\n 4. We\u2019re taught the 4 Noble Truths and the 4th noble truth is,<\/p>\n 8. the Noble 8-fold Path. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n Everything else, we could say, is commentary and elaboration.<\/p>\n One of the great points of the sutta is the stress of moderation<\/span>. The Buddha, both here and in his teachings as a whole, sought to be pragmatic or useful<\/span>. He did not lay down a serious of absolutes with regard to truth or practice. Yet I find some Buddhists taking this practicality to an extreme of its own, it seems, toward relativism.<\/p>\n In the Buddha\u2019s stress of practical, first-hand knowledge, the Buddha did not<\/span> deny certain underlying truths about the way the world is. In fact he affirmed certain definite truths about existence and our experience. <\/span>Among these, obviously, are the 4 Noble Truths mentioned above. Other truths discovered<\/span> by the Buddha include the ti-lakhana<\/span>, the 3-marks of existence, impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and not-self.<\/p>\n \u201cWhether the Perfect Ones appear, or if the Perfect Ones do not appear, it still remains a firm condition, an immutable fact and fixed law: that all formations are impermanent, all formations are subject to suffering, that everything is without a self.\u201d (A. III. 134, according to Nyanatiloka\u2019s \u201cBuddhist Dictionary\u201d 2004, p.210)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Or (for you P\u0101li readers):<\/p>\n \u2018\u2018Upp\u0101d\u0101 v\u0101, bhikkhave, tath\u0101gat\u0101na\u1e43 anupp\u0101d\u0101 v\u0101 tath\u0101gat\u0101na\u1e43, \u1e6dhit\u0101va s\u0101 dh\u0101tu <\/a> dhamma\u1e6d\u1e6dhitat\u0101 dhammaniy\u0101mat\u0101. Sabbe sa\u1e45kh\u0101r\u0101 anicc\u0101. Ta\u1e43 tath\u0101gato abhisambujjhati abhisameti. Abhisambujjhitv\u0101 abhisametv\u0101 \u0101cikkhati deseti pa\u00f1\u00f1\u0101peti pa\u1e6d\u1e6dhapeti vivarati vibhajati utt\u0101n\u012bkaroti \u2013 \u2018sabbe sa\u1e45kh\u0101r\u0101 anicc\u0101\u2019ti. Upp\u0101d\u0101 v\u0101, bhikkhave, tath\u0101gat\u0101na\u1e43 anupp\u0101d\u0101 v\u0101 tath\u0101gat\u0101na\u1e43 \u1e6dhit\u0101va s\u0101 dh\u0101tu dhamma\u1e6d\u1e6dhitat\u0101 dhammaniy\u0101mat\u0101. Sabbe sa\u1e45kh\u0101r\u0101 dukkh\u0101. Ta\u1e43 tath\u0101gato abhisambujjhati abhisameti. Abhisambujjhitv\u0101 <\/a> abhisametv\u0101 \u0101cikkhati deseti pa\u00f1\u00f1\u0101peti pa\u1e6d\u1e6dhapeti vivarati vibhajati utt\u0101n\u012bkaroti \u2013 \u2018sabbe sa\u1e45kh\u0101r\u0101 dukkh\u0101\u2019ti. Upp\u0101d\u0101 v\u0101, bhikkhave, tath\u0101gat\u0101na\u1e43 anupp\u0101d\u0101 v\u0101 tath\u0101gat\u0101na\u1e43 \u1e6dhit\u0101va s\u0101 dh\u0101tu dhamma\u1e6d\u1e6dhitat\u0101 dhammaniy\u0101mat\u0101. Sabbe dhamm\u0101 anatt\u0101. Ta\u1e43 tath\u0101gato abhisambujjhati abhisameti. Abhisambujjhitv\u0101 abhisametv\u0101 \u0101cikkhati deseti pa\u00f1\u00f1\u0101peti pa\u1e6d\u1e6dhapeti vivarati vibhajati utt\u0101n\u012bkaroti \u2013 \u2018sabbe <\/a> dhamm\u0101 anatt\u0101\u2019\u2019\u2019ti. Catuttha\u1e43. (which I found at A.III. 137 here<\/a>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Edited down to match the above, it looks like this:<\/p>\n \u2018\u2018Upp\u0101d\u0101 v\u0101, bhikkhave, tath\u0101gat\u0101na\u1e43 anupp\u0101d\u0101 v\u0101 tath\u0101gat\u0101na\u1e43, \u1e6dhit\u0101va s\u0101 dh\u0101tu <\/a> dhamma\u1e6d\u1e6dhitat\u0101 dhammaniy\u0101mat\u0101: sabbe sa\u1e45kh\u0101r\u0101 anicc\u0101, sabbe sa\u1e45kh\u0101r\u0101 dukkh\u0101, sabbe dhamm\u0101 anatt\u0101. (A.III. 137 here<\/a>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Getting back to the English, the superior language of Christianity, Democracy and the \u00dcbermensch\u2026 What the Buddha is saying here is that there <\/span>are <\/span>some real facts about reality. <\/span>These are, dare I say, absolute <\/span>facts. These are facts we can cling to, can hold onto for dear life in our stormy days and nights. Kind of like a raft we could cling to\u2026 until\u2026<\/p>\n Well, in one sense it\u2019s foolish for us (me and other very far from enlightened beings) to quibble so much about the very <\/span>end<\/span> of the path. <\/span> The problem I see is that people want to jump to the end before doing the hard work in the middle.<\/p>\n For those at the end of the path, it might be fruitful to discuss how perhaps all things are actually permanent<\/span>. This is what a group known as the Sarv\u0101stiv\u0101dins (Sanskrit for \u201cAll Exist-believers\u201d or those who believe that things exist in all 3 times\u2026 long story). Or, one at the end<\/span> of the path might debate whether the final view is a view at all, or is in fact no view at all. This is a distinction made in Mah\u0101y\u0101na between the Pr\u0101sangikas and Sv\u0101tantrikas.<\/p>\n Okay, so maybe, at the very pinnacle of awakening, one experiences perfect viewlessness. Even if that is the case, it DOESNT mean that we\u2019re to try to act viewless when we do in fact have views (most of them probably in the big category of micch\u0101<\/span>, or wrong<\/span>.) A large part of Buddhist practice is about getting our views right<\/span>. This doesn\u2019t mean walking lockstep in some Buddhist marching line, but rather examining our own perceptions and understanding, which is both a meditative and conceptual process, to determine which of our views (of ourselves and the world) are skillful and which of them are not.<\/p>\n There is a certain developmental process of views that I think we go through (and I think Buddhism fits well within this).<\/p>\n I\u2019m grading student papers (Buddhist academic purgatory) now and one of the topics they could choose to write on was the Buddha\u2019s first teaching, the Dhammacakkappavattana-sutta, the \u201cTurning the Wheel of Dhamma Discourse.\u201d It\u2019s a wonderful sutta to know, if not by heart, then at least conceptually. And there\u2019s a handy trick for setting it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":118,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n\n
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