What the first discourse is
According to tradition, the Buddha’s first sermon was given at Sarnath to five ascetics. The text most associated with it is known in Pali as the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta, often translated as the discourse on setting in motion the Wheel of the Dharma. It is preserved in the Pali Canon, and parallel versions exist in other early collections, such as those used in Sanskrit-language traditions. The versions differ in wording and detail, which is one reason scholars speak of the discourse as traditionally recorded rather than word for word as spoken.
This page sets out what the discourse is said to contain. The setting of the Deer Park and the meaning of the place for pilgrims are dealt with elsewhere.
The Middle Way
The discourse begins by describing two extremes to be avoided. One is devotion to sensual pleasure, which it calls low and unprofitable. The other is devotion to self-mortification, which it calls painful and unprofitable as well. The Buddha is said to have taught a middle way that avoids both. This reflects the traditional account of his own life: raised in comfort, then practising severe austerity, and then finding a path between them before his awakening.
The middle way is not a compromise or a splitting of the difference. It describes a course that is directed at understanding rather than at pleasure or at pain. In the discourse it is identified with the Noble Eightfold Path.
The Four Noble Truths
The core of the discourse is the set of four truths, usually called noble because of their importance, not because of the class of the hearer. They are usually presented in the manner of a physician’s diagnosis, though this comparison comes from later commentary.
- Suffering. Life contains dukkha, a Pali word often translated as suffering, stress or unsatisfactoriness. The discourse lists birth, ageing, illness, death, separation from what one loves and meeting what one dislikes. Translators disagree over which English word best captures dukkha, and the word covers more than pain.
- The origin of suffering. The cause is identified as craving, or thirst, which leads to renewed existence. It includes craving for pleasure, for becoming and for non-becoming.
- The cessation of suffering. There is an ending to this craving, described as its complete fading away and release. This ending is associated with nirvana, called nibbana in Pali.
- The path. The way to that cessation is the Noble Eightfold Path.
The Eightfold Path
The path is traditionally grouped in eight parts, often arranged in three categories:
- Wisdom: right view and right intention.
- Ethical conduct: right speech, right action and right livelihood.
- Mental discipline: right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration.
The word “right” here is sometimes translated differently, for example as skilful or complete. The list is a framework for practice rather than a sequence to be completed in order, and traditions emphasise different parts.
The response of the five
The discourse is traditionally followed by an account that Kondanna, one of the five ascetics, understood the teaching and became the first to do so. In the texts, the event is described as the arising of the “dust-free, stainless eye of the Dhamma”. The other four are said to have followed soon after, forming the earliest group of monks. A second discourse, on non-self, is traditionally dated to a few days later, but it is a separate text.
The record also says that after the teaching, celestial beings proclaimed that the wheel had been set in motion. Whether one reads this literally or as a literary way of marking the moment’s importance depends on the tradition and the reader. The image of the wheel is also why the Dharma wheel symbol is so closely tied to Sarnath.
How traditions read it
The Four Noble Truths are accepted across Buddhist traditions, but emphasis and interpretation differ. Theravada traditions generally treat the discourse as foundational and central. Mahayana traditions also honour it, while placing it alongside later Mahayana sutras, and often read it in connection with the ideal of the bodhisattva. Vajrayana traditions likewise build on these teachings. No single reading is the correct one, and teachers within each tradition explain the truths in their own ways.
Reading the teaching with care
The summary above is brief and cannot replace study with a qualified teacher or careful reading of the texts. Short translations of dukkha and nirvana involve choices, so it helps to compare more than one. At Sarnath, pilgrims often sit near the ruins or the memorial stupa and recite the discourse or hear it chanted, and in some traditions this is done at festivals such as the full moon day associated with the first teaching. Customs differ by country and community.