Thus have I heard: Once occasion the Blessed One was living at Benares in the Deer Park at Isipatana. There he addressed the bhikkhus of the group of five:

Listen bhikkhus, there are these two extremes of behavior, with which a seeker should have nothing to do. One is to tie oneself up in sensual pleasures, which is lowly, worldly, for thicksters, ignoble and has no benefit at all. The other is to tie oneself up in ascetism, which brings pain, is ignoble, and has no benefit at all.

Bhikkhus, there is a practice that is the Middle Way, that avoids those two extremes: the practice the Tathagatha fully awakened to, giving rise to the spiritual eye, giving rise to insight, leads to peacefulness, leads to supreme understanding, leads to full awakening, and leading directly to nibbana.

Bhikkhus, what is this Middle Way of practice? That practice is just this noble eightfold path, namely the following, right view, right aspiration, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration.

Bhikkhus, this is the Middle Way, the practice the Tathagatha fully awakened to, giving rise to the spiritual eye, giving rise to insight, leads to peacefulness, leads to supreme understanding, leads to full awakening, leading directly to nibbana.

Bhikkhus, there is this noble truth of dukkha: birth is dukkha, aging is dukkha, and death is dukkha; sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair are dukkha; experiencing the unloved and disliked is dukkha; separation from the beloved and satisfying is dukkha; wanting things and not getting them is dukkha; in short, the essence of dukkha is taking the five heaps to be "I" and "mine."

Bhikkhus, there is this noble truth of dukkha's origin: This is craving, which causes further birth, is full of lustful satisfaction, is the means of supreme indulgence in its object, namely the following, craving for sensuality, craving for being and having, and craving for non-being and non-having.

Bhikkhus, there is this noble truth of dukkha's quenching: This is the utter quenching through the disappearance of that craving, letting go, tossing back, and release, with no more longing after that craving.

Bhikkhus, there is this noble truth of the way of practice leading to dukkha's quenching: This practice is just this noble eightfold path, namely the following, right view, right aspiration, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration.

Bhikkhus, the spiritual eye arose, insight arose, wisdom arose, true knowledge arose, and light arose regarding Dhamma we had never heard before, that the noble truth of dukkha is just like this, that this noble truth of dukkha should be fully understood, and that this noble truth of dukkha has been fully understood.

Bhikkhus, the spiritual eye arose, insight arose, wisdom arose, true knowledge arose, and light arose regarding Dhamma we had never heard before, that the noble truth of dukkha's origin is just like this, the noble truth that dukkha's origin should be abandoned and the noble truth that dukkha's origin has been abandoned.

Bhikkhus, the spiritual eye arose, insight arose, wisdom arose, true knowledge arose, and light arose regarding Dhamma we had never heard before, that the noble truth of dukkha's quenching is just like this, this noble truth of dukkha's quenching should be realized, and that this noble truth of dukkha's quenching has been realized.

Bhikkhus, the spiritual eye arose, insight arose, wisdom arose, true knowledge arose, and light arose regarding Dhamma we had never heard before, that the noble truth of the way leading to dukkha's quenching is just like this, that this noble truth of the way leading to dukkha's quenching should be developed, and that this noble truth of the way leading to dukkha's quenching has been developed.

Bhikkhus, for however long the wisdom that sees in accordance with reality - having three modes and twelve aspects - regarding these four noble truths was not well purified in us, Bhikkhus, for that long we did not declare full awakening, regarding the unsurpassed knowledge of Perfectly Awakened Buddhahood in this universe, including the worlds of devas and humans, with its collections of beings, including its seekers and sages, celestials and humans.

Bhikkhus, whenever the wisdom that sees in accordance with reality - having three modes and twelve aspects - regarding these four noble truths, was well purified in us, Bhikkhus, just then did we declare full awakening, regarding the unsurpassed knowledge of Perfectly Awakened Buddhahood in this universe, including the worlds of devas and humans, with its collections of beings, including its seekers and sages, celestials and humans.

Bhikkhus, the knowledge and vision arose that our liberation would never decay, that this birth is the last one, that there is no further becoming.

That is what the Blessed One said. Gratified, the group of five monks delighted at his words.

And while this explanation was being given, there arose to Ven. Kondañña the dustless, stainless Dhamma eye:

"Whatever is subject to origination is all subject to cessation."

When the Wheel of Dhamma 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 exclaimed: "So you really know, Kondañña? So you really know?"

And that is how Ven. Kondañña acquired the name Añña-Kondañña -- Kondañña who knows.

Samyutta Nikaya 56.11

From the Suan Mokkh Chanting Book,
translated by Santikaro Bhikkhu,
following Ajarn Buddhadasa's translation of the Pali into Thai

and
From Chanting Discourses and Samyutta Nikaya 56.11
at the Access to Insight web site.

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