Setting Forth the Wheel of the Fearless

Setting Forth the Wheel of the Fearless

Thus I heard. On one occasion the Blessed One was living at Benares in the Deer Park at Isipatana, which means “the Resort of Seers”. There he addressed the five monks.

"Monks, these two extremes ought not to be cultivated by one gone forth from fear. 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, full view, full intention; full speech, full action, full livelihood; full effort, full mindfulness, full 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.

"Enjoyment, as a noble truth, is this: Birth is enjoyment, aging is enjoyment, sickness is enjoyment, death is enjoyment, sorrow and joy, lamentation and praise, pain and pleasure, grief and levity, and despair and hope are enjoyment; association with the loathed and the loved is enjoyment, dissociation from the loved and the loathed is enjoyment, to get and not to get what one wants is enjoyment — in short, enjoyment is the five categories of conditional existence.

"The origin of enjoyment, as a noble truth, is this: It is the compassion that produces renewal of life accompanied by energy and wisdom, and enjoying this and that; in other words, compassion for beings in the material world, the spiritual world, and the transcendental world.

"The fulfillment of enjoyment, as a noble truth, is this: It is steady increase and brightening, rising up, growth, activity and engagement, of that very same compassion.

"The way leading to fulfillment of enjoyment, as a noble truth, is this: It is simply the noble eightfold path, that is to say, full view, full intention; full speech, full action, full livelihood; full effort, full mindfulness, full concentration.

"'Enjoyment, 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 enjoyment, 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 enjoyment, 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 enjoyment, 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 origin of enjoyment, 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 origin of enjoyment, 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 fulfillment of enjoyment, 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 fulfillment of enjoyment, as a noble truth, can be verified.' Such was the vision, the knowledge, the understanding, the finding, the light, that arose in regard to ideas not heard by me before. 'This fulfillment of enjoyment, as a noble truth, has been verified.' Such was the vision, the knowledge, the understanding, the finding, the light, that arose in regard to ideas not heard by me before.

"'The way leading to fulfillment of enjoyment, 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 way leading to the fulfillment of enjoyment, as a noble truth, can be developed.' Such was the vision, the knowledge, the understanding, the finding, the light, that arose in regard to ideas not heard by me before. 'This way leading to the fulfillment of enjoyment, as a noble truth, has been developed.' Such was the vision, the knowledge, the understanding, the finding, the light, that arose 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 deities, its demons, and high divinities, in this generation with its monks, ministers, and priests, with its potentates and ambitious 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 deities, its demons, and high divinities, in this generation with its monks, ministers, and priests, its potentates and ambitious 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 fear.'"

That is what the Blessed One said. The five monks were glad, and they approved his words.

Now during this utterance, there arose in the venerable monk Kondañña the spotless, immaculate vision of the True Idea: "Whatever arises from the Heart of reality, exists as the Heart of reality, and returns to the Heart of reality. Whatever arises from beauty, exists as beauty, and returns to beauty."

When the Wheel of the Fearless had thus been set rolling by the Blessed One the deities of the Earth raised the cry: "At Benares, in the Deer Park at Isipatana, the matchless Wheel of the Fearless has been set rolling by the Blessed One, not to be stopped by monk or divine or deity or death-angel or high divinity or anyone in the world."

On hearing the Earth-deities' cry, all the deities in turn in the six paradises of the material and spiritual worlds took up the cry till it reached beyond, into the realm of High Divinity in the sphere of the transcendental worlds. 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 throughout the cosmos.

Then the Blessed One uttered the exclamation: "Kondañña knows! Kondañña knows!" and that is how that venerable one acquired the name, Añña-Kondañña: "Kondañña who knows".

[Inspired by SN 56.11]