Having progressed through the teachings of the Four Noble Truths which we did a year ago and having traversed the Satipatthana Sutta or the Four Foundations or Establishments of Mindfulness through Mindfulness of the Body, Mindfulness of Feelings, Mindfulness of the Mind, and now Mindfulness of the Way Things are (the Dharmas or Teachings of the Buddha), we arrive back at the Four Noble Truths which are the last of the teachings of the Fourth Foundation of Mindfulness. We have reviewed three of the Four Noble Truths in these last weeks - the Noble Truth of suffering, the Noble Truth of the causes for suffering, the Noble Truth of the cessation of suffering, and now we arrive at the gate of liberation, the Noble Truth of the way to the end of suffering, the Noble Eight fold Path.
When the Buddha was first enlightened, he spent some time delighting in his newfound state. He believed that no one would understand what he had discovered if he shared what he had learned. The story goes that a being from one of the higher realms urged him to teach, impressing on him the suffering in the world and arousing his compassion to help suffering beings. The Buddha’s argument was that beings on this earth were so attached to their pleasures and the way of the world that they couldn’t see through the delusion that lasting happiness could only be found through pleasures of the body. The visitor from the higher realm assured him that there were human beings without much dust in their eyes and that he should start by teaching them. The Buddha considered this entreaty and then remembered the five ascetics he had been traveling and practicing with before he went off on his own to become enlightened. He thought perhaps they might be able to understand and set out to find them.
When he did find them, they resisted and even mocked him at first because he had given up on his extreme asceticism of eating one kernel of rice a day and had become healthy. But they also noted the glow emanating from him and decided to listen to what he had to say.
The first full teaching that the Buddha gave to his friends has become known as the Turning of the Wheel and is a central discourse in the Buddha’s teachings. As Ajahn Sucitto says in "Turning the Wheel of Dhamma”, this discourse sets out the four noble truths [including the Noble 8 fold path] and the ‘Middle Way’ – the teaching structure that is the heart of his Way of realization. (Samyutta Nikaya 56).”
The ‘Middle Way’ was the Buddha’s teaching that two extremes should not be followed by "one who has gone forth into homelessness" - the pursuit of sensual happiness in sensual pleasure and the pursuit of self-mortification. This teaching of the ‘Middle Way’ has relevance for us as lay people in every aspect of our lives and practice. (SM 56, translating by Bhikkus Bodhi).
He goes on to say that the hub of the wheel of Dhamma represents the discipline needed to walk the path, the spokes represent the eight path factors of the Noble Eight Fold Path, and the rim of the wheel represents Samsara, the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth and is often referred to as the wheel of Samsara or Suffering. The wheel is often depicted with a hand at the center, either turning the wheel or holding it steady. Lion’s Roar, “Buddhism A to Z,” https://www.lionsroar.com/buddhism/dharma-wheel-dharmachakra/
The eight spokes of the wheel, elements of the path to awakening, are right (or wise, or skillful) view, intention, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness, and concentration. They are divided into three broader groupings - ethical conduct (sīla) which includes wise speech, wise action, and wise livelihood, the training of the mind (samāhi) which includes wise effort, wise concentration, and wise mindfulness, and wisdom (pañña) which includes wise intention and wise view.
As Matthew Brensilver says in his article entitled "Sīla, Samādhi, Pañña" (which is an excerpt from a talk at Spirit Rock), "Ajahn Chah said that sīla-samādhi-pañña, ethical conduct, mind training, and wisdom, are not three separate activities, they are part of the same fruit. They are the mango pit, flesh, and skin. ...these three cultivations are one and the same: inextricably bound." https://www.spiritrock.org/articles/sila-samadhi-panna
He goes on to say this:
"To be mindful of goodness brings love, and to be mindful of pain brings love. That is something like a miracle. This weird asymmetry, that to attend to goodness brings love, and to attend to suffering also brings love. That’s not something that we should take on faith. But this is the laboratory.
The more attuned we are to our hearts, the clearer our ethical behavior becomes. So the more we actually become embodied, start to feel our body fully, to feel our heart, the clearer ethical conduct becomes. It’s like we become attuned to our own system in such a way that we begin to see that doing good feels good. And the kind of karmic loop, when we act out of alignment with our own deepest integrity, that feedback loop gets shorter and shorter, so we really feel it. And this clarity breeds more careful, non-harming behavior.
The steadier and more unified the mind gets, the deeper the love can be. Sometimes the mind gathers so singularly around an object — the breath, a mettā phrase, the body, sound, sight, looking into the eyes of another person — the mind just becomes unified. And all the static, fragmentation, and division collapses. And in that mind state, it’s like a drop of love reaches everywhere.
The mind is said to to be boundless. That’s not making a statement about the nature of mind, but the actual experience is that in this moment there is love without end, without discrimination, without preference.
And then lastly, the more clearly we see, the more effortless the love becomes. Clearly we see the less tenable hatred becomes.” https://www.spiritrock.org/articles/sila-samadhi-panna
When the Buddha completed his teaching, one member of the five ascetics around him was enlightened, an ascetic named Koṇḍañña. And this passage completes the teaching:
"Then the Blessed One uttered this inspired utterance: 'Koṇḍañña has indeed understood! Koṇḍañña has indeed understood!' In this way the Venerable Koṇḍañña acquired the name “Añña Koṇḍañña—Koṇḍañña Who Has Understood.” SM 56