Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta: the Pali chant with translation, and its meaning

The Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta, the Buddha's first sermon, on the middle way and the four noble truths: the Pali with a translation of every section

The Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta is the Buddha's first sermon. He gave it to the group of five monks in the Deer Park at Isipatana, near Bārāṇasī, about two months after his awakening. It has two main subjects: the middle way, which falls into neither of two extremes, and the four noble truths, which he had known fully in three rounds and twelve aspects. While he was teaching, Venerable Koṇḍañña gained the eye of the Dhamma, the first person to understand the teaching. The full sutta is further down this page, translated section by section, and the Pali can be opened under every section. This introduction explains the background, what the name means, a short summary, the day it was taught, and how it is chanted.

What is the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta? The first sermon at Isipatana

The events leading up to this sutta are told by the Buddha himself in the Ariyapariyesana Sutta (MN 26). After his awakening at Uruvelā he considered whom to teach first. His two former teachers, Āḷāra Kālāma and Uddaka Rāmaputta, had already died, so he thought of the group of five monks who had looked after him during his years of hard striving, and he set out from Uruvelā to find them at Isipatana. When the five saw him coming in the distance, they agreed not to rise for him or bow to him, because they believed he had given up the struggle and gone back to a life of comfort. But as he came closer they could not keep to their agreement: some went out to take his bowl and robe, some prepared a seat, some set out water to wash his feet. Still they called him by his name and āvuso, the word for a friend of equal standing. He told them he had reached the deathless and asked them to listen. Three times they objected, until he asked whether they had ever heard him speak like this before. When they said they had not, they agreed to listen.

So the first thing he taught answered their doubt exactly. The five believed that the way out of suffering was to torment the body, and they saw giving up self-torment as a return to sensual pleasure. He showed that both are extremes, and that the way he had found is a middle way. Then he taught the four noble truths. The sutta is in the Saṁyutta Nikāya, in the chapter on the truths (SN 56.11), and the same account is recorded in the Vinaya Piṭaka, in its story of the time after the awakening. The five monks were Koṇḍañña, Vappa, Bhaddiya, Mahānāma and Assaji.

What does Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta mean, and how is it said?

The name is made of four Pali words: dhamma, the truth and the teaching; cakka, a wheel; pavattana, setting turning, setting in motion; and sutta, a discourse. Together they mean 'the discourse on setting the wheel of the Dhamma turning'. The image comes from the sutta itself: at the end the gods call out one to another that the Blessed One has set the unsurpassed wheel of the Dhamma turning, and no one in the world can turn it back. In Buddhist art the first sermon is therefore often shown as a Dhamma wheel, sometimes with a deer lying on each side to recall the Deer Park where it was taught.

In Thai the name is read tham-ma-chak-kap-pa-wat-ta-na-sut. When it is chanted in Pali it is said as the Pali is written, dhamma-cakka-ppavattana-sutta. Many people simply call it the Dhammacakka, the Wheel of the Dhamma, and the shortest translation of the name is 'the discourse of turning the Dhamma wheel'.

The Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta in short

The sutta is not long. If you want an overview before reading it in full, its contents fall into seven parts:

1. Two extremes that one who has gone forth should not follow: indulgence in sensual pleasure, and self-torment.
2. The middle way the Tathāgata awakened to, the noble eightfold path, which opens the eyes, brings knowledge, and leads to calm, direct knowledge, awakening and nibbāna.
3. The four noble truths, suffering, its origin, its cessation and the way to its cessation, each with a short explanation.
4. Three rounds of knowledge for each truth: knowing that this is the truth, knowing what must be done about it, and knowing it has been done, twelve aspects in all.
5. His statement that he did not claim awakening until his knowledge of all twelve aspects was fully purified, and that once it was, he knew his release could not be shaken and this was his last birth.
6. Koṇḍañña gains the eye of the Dhamma, seeing that whatever has the nature to arise, all of it has the nature to cease.
7. The gods of every level call out, one to the next, that the wheel of the Dhamma has been set turning, and the Buddha exclaims, 'Koṇḍañña has understood!'

If you are looking for a short version to chant, there is no separate shorter sutta. In the Tipiṭaka, repeated passages are abbreviated with the word peyyāla (pe), much like 'etc.', and the Pali on this page is abbreviated the same way. Many chanting books write the repeated passages out in full and begin with evaṁ me sutaṁ, 'thus have I heard', so the chanted version is longer than the text in the Tipiṭaka. The wording can differ a little between editions, but the content is the same.

The two extremes and the middle way

Dveme, bhikkhave, antā pabbajitena na sevitabbā.
Katame dve?
Yo cāyaṁ kāmesu kāmasukhallikānuyogo
hīno gammo pothujjaniko anariyo anatthasaṁhito,
yo cāyaṁ attakilamathānuyogo
dukkho anariyo anatthasaṁhito.

Monks, these two extremes should not be followed by one who has gone forth. Which two? Devotion to pleasure in sensual things, which is low, vulgar, the way of ordinary people, ignoble and useless; and devotion to tormenting oneself, which is painful, ignoble and useless.

SN 56.11

The middle way does not mean doing things by halves, or finding a point halfway between comfort and hardship. It is a different road altogether: the noble eightfold path of right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness and right immersion. The sutta says this path opens the eyes, brings knowledge, and leads to calm, to direct knowledge, to awakening and to nibbāna. In daily life the middle way means looking after the body just well enough for the mind to do its work, neither giving in to every craving nor punishing oneself to no purpose.

The four noble truths and the task for each

The core of the sutta is the four noble truths. The Buddha explains each briefly, and then shows that each truth has its own task, something that has to be done about it:

• Suffering: birth, ageing, illness, death, being with what one does not love, being parted from what one loves, not getting what one wants; in short, the five aggregates that are clung to. The task is to understand it fully.
• The origin of suffering: craving, the wanting that leads to rebirth, bound up with delight and desire. It is of three kinds: craving for sense pleasures, craving to be, and craving not to be. The task is to give it up.
• The cessation of suffering: the complete fading and ending of that craving, giving it up, letting it go, being free of it, no longer attached. The task is to realise it, to see it for oneself.
• The way to the cessation of suffering: the noble eightfold path, the middle way described above. The task is to develop it, to make more of it in real life.

Pairing each truth with its task matters. Suffering is not there to be run from, or only endured, but understood. Craving is not just to be understood but given up. Nibbāna is not something to take on trust but to realise. And the path is not something to memorise but to practise.

Three rounds, twelve aspects

In the middle of the sutta the Buddha describes how, for each noble truth, knowledge arose in three rounds: first knowing that this is the truth, then knowing what has to be done about it, then knowing that it has been done. Later explanations (the commentaries) call these three the knowledge of the truth (saccañāṇa), the knowledge of the task (kiccañāṇa) and the knowledge that it is done (katañāṇa). Three rounds times four truths make twelve aspects. Each time he says that vision, knowledge, wisdom, clear knowing and light arose about things never heard before: this came from his own seeing, not from anything handed down.

He says that as long as his knowledge and vision of all twelve aspects was not fully purified, he did not declare that he had awakened. Once it was purified he declared it, and this knowledge arose:

Ñāṇañca pana me dassanaṁ udapādi:
akuppā me vimutti, ayamantimā jāti, natthi dāni punabbhavo.

And the knowledge and vision arose in me: my release cannot be shaken; this is my last birth; now there is no more coming to be.

SN 56.11

Koṇḍañña's eye of the Dhamma

Near the end, the sutta tells that while he was listening, Koṇḍañña gained the stainless eye of the Dhamma, free of dust. What he saw is very short:

Yaṁ kiñci samudayadhammaṁ,
sabbaṁ taṁ nirodhadhammaṁ.

Whatever has the nature to arise, all of it has the nature to cease.

SN 56.11

This insight sounds simple, but it was seen in his own mind, not memorised; it is the first of the three marks, impermanence. Koṇḍañña was the first person to see the Dhamma after the Buddha. The Buddha exclaimed, 'Koṇḍañña has understood!', and so he became known as Aññāsi Koṇḍañña, 'Koṇḍañña who understood'. He then asked for ordination and became the first monk of the Buddha's teaching, so that day is counted as the first on which the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Saṅgha were all present. The other four monks came to see the Dhamma soon after, and when the five heard the Anattalakkhaṇa Sutta, the second sermon, their minds were freed from the defilements by not grasping.

On what day was the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta taught?

By tradition the Buddha taught the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta on the full moon of the eighth month, the fifteenth day of the waxing moon of the eighth lunar month, the day now observed as Āsāḷha Pūjā. It usually falls in July, and in some years in early August. It comes about two months after the day of the awakening, Vesak, in the sixth month. Āsāḷha Pūjā therefore remembers three things together: the first teaching, the first disciple, and the Triple Gem being complete for the first time. The next day is the start of the rains retreat. Āsāḷha Pūjā does not fall on the same date every year in the ordinary calendar, because it follows the lunar calendar.

Chanting the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta: when and how

This sutta is a well-known chant. Monks chant it on important days such as Āsāḷha Pūjā, many monasteries chant it regularly, and people who chant at home often include it too. Some chant it every day or on observance days; some chant it a number of times they have set themselves, which is a personal custom. The sutta itself says nothing about a number of repetitions or about results from chanting. What it gives is the teaching of the middle way and the four noble truths, which is there to be understood and put into practice.

To get the most from chanting it, try this. Read the whole translation once before chanting. Then chant the Pali slowly, section by section, keeping the meaning in mind when you reach the noble truths. When you finish, sit quietly for a while and ask yourself: what suffering came up today, and what kind of wanting was behind it? That simple question turns chanting into reflection on the Dhamma.

How to read the translation below

Below is the full sutta, translated section by section. Under each section a button opens the Pali. The Pali comes from the Mahāsaṅgīti edition of the Tipiṭaka; where it abbreviates a repeated passage, the translation abbreviates too. If you want to understand more after reading it, how suffering arises and ends is explained in detail in dependent origination, and right mindfulness, the seventh factor of the middle way, is practised through the four foundations of mindfulness.

The sutta in translation

Machine translation from: Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta (SN 56.11) · Ariyapariyesana Sutta (MN 26) · Anattalakkhaṇa Sutta (SN 22.59) · Vinaya Piṭaka, Mahāvagga, Mahākhandhaka · Commentary on the Saṁyutta Nikāya (Sāratthappakāsinī)