Editing Four Noble Truths (section)

==Appearance within the discourses==
The developing Buddhist tradition inserted the four truths, using various formulations, at various sutras.{{sfn|Anderson|1999|p={{page needed|date=November 2020}}}} They are being used both as a symbol of all dhammas and the Buddha's awakening, and as a set of propositions which function within a matrix of teachings.{{sfn|Anderson|1999|p=86}} According to Anderson, there is no single way to understand the teachings; one teaching may be used to explain another teaching, and vice versa. The teachings form a network, which should be apprehended as such to understand how the various teachings intersect with each other.{{sfn|Anderson|1999|pp=86–87}}

===Symbolic function===

====''Mahasaccaka Sutta''====
The ''Mahasaccaka Sutta'' ("The Greater Discourse to Saccaka", Majjhima Nikaya 36) gives one of several versions of the Buddha's way to liberation.{{refn|group=note|Majjhima Nikaya 26, "The Noble Search", also gives an account, which is markedly different, omitting the ascetic practices and the four truths.}} He attains the three knowledges, namely knowledge of his former lifes, knowledge of death and rebirth, and knowledge of the destruction of the taints,{{refn|group=note|Which keep one trapped in ''samsara''.}} the Four Noble Truths.{{sfn|Bhikkhu Nanamoli (translator)|1995|p={{page needed|date=October 2020}}}} After going through the four dhyanas, and gaining the first two knowledges, the story proceeds:
{{Blockquote|I directed my mind to the knowledge of the destruction of the intoxicants [suffering ... origin ... cessation ... path] [intoxicants (''asava'') ... origin ... cessation ... path] My mind was liberated [...] the knowledge arose that it was liberated.{{sfn|Bronkhorst|1993|pp=102–103}}}}

Bronkhorst dismisses the first two knowledges as later additions, and proceeds to notice that the recognition of the intoxicants is modelled on the four truths. According to Bronkhorst, those are added the bridge the original sequence of "I directed my mind to the knowledge of the destruction of the intoxicants. My mind was liberated", which was interrupted by the addition of the four truths. Bronkhorst points out that those do not fit here, since the four truths culminate in the knowledge of the path to be followed, while the Buddha himself is already liberated at that point.{{sfn|Bronkhorst|1993|pp=103–104}}

====''Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta''====
[[File:Gandharan - Expounding the Law - Walters 2551.jpg|right|thumb|A relief depicting the first discourse of the Buddha, from the 2nd century (Kushan).<ref group=web>[http://art.thewalters.org/detail/21971 Expounding the Law] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304000844/http://art.thewalters.org/detail/21971 |date=4 March 2016 }}, [[The Walters Art Museum]]</ref> The Walters Art Museum. The Buddha's hand can be seen at right.]]

According to the Buddhist tradition, the first talk of [[Gautama Buddha]] after he attained [[Enlightenment in Buddhism|enlightenment]] is recorded in the ''[[Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta]]'' ("Setting in Motion the Wheel of Dhamma", Samyutta Nikaya 56.11). The ''Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta'' provides details on three stages in the understanding of each truth, for a total of twelve insights. The three stages for understanding each truth are:{{sfn|Rahula|2007a|loc=loc. 3935–3939}}{{sfn|Ajahn Sucitto|2010|pp=99–100}}{{sfn|Ajahn Sumedho|2002|p=9}}{{sfn|Moffitt|2008|loc=loc. 225–226}}{{sfn|Geshe Tashi Tsering|2005|loc=loc. 303–306}}
# ''sacca-ñāṇa'' – knowing the nature of the truth (e.g., acknowledgement, view, reflection)
# ''kicca-ñāṇa'' – knowing what needs to be done in connection with that truth (e.g., practice; motivation; directly experiencing)
# ''kata-ñāṇa'' – accomplishing what needs to be done (e.g., result, full understanding, knowing)

These three stages of understanding are emphasized particularly in the Theravada tradition, but they are also recognized by some contemporary Mahayana teachers.{{sfn|Geshe Tashi Tsering|2005|loc=loc. 303–306}}{{sfn|Thich Nhat Hanh|1999|pp=28–46}}

According to Cousins, many scholars are of the view that "this discourse was identified as the first sermon of the Buddha only at a later date."{{sfn|Cousins|2001|p=38}} According to Stephen Batchelor, the ''Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta'' contains incongruities, and states that
{{Blockquote|The First Discourse cannot be treated as a verbatim transcript of what the Buddha taught in the Deer Park, but as a document that has evolved over an unspecified period of time until it reached the form in which it is found today in the canons of the different Buddhist schools.{{sfn|Batchelor|2012|p=91}}}}

According to Bronkhorst this "first sermon" is recorded in several sutras, with important variations.{{sfn|Bronkhorst|1993|p=110}} In the Vinaya texts, and in the ''Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta'' which was influenced by the Vinaya texts, the four truths are included, and Kondañña is enlightened{{sfn|Bronkhorst|1993|p=110}}{{sfn|Anderson|2001|p=69}} when the "vision of Dhamma"{{sfn|Bhikkhu Bodhi|2000|p=1846}} arises in him: "whatever is subject to origination is all subject to cessation."{{refn|group=note|Translation Bhikkhu Bodhi (2000), ''Samyutta Nikaya'', SN 56.11, p. 1846. See also Anderson (2001), ''Pain and its Ending'', p. 69.}} Yet, in the ''Ariyapariyesanā Sutta'' ("The Noble Search", Majjhima Nikaya 26) the four truths are not included,{{refn|group=note|MN 26.17 merely says "[']This will serve for the striving of a clansman intent on striving.' And I sat down there thinking: 'This will serve for striving.'{{sfn|Bhikkhu Nanamoli (translator)|1995|p=259}} According to Bhikkhu Bodhi Majjhima Nikaya 36 then continuous with the extreme ascetic practices, which are omitted in MN 26.{{sfn|Bhikkhu Nanamoli (translator)|1995|p=1216, note 403}} In verse 18, the Buddha has attained Nirvana, being secured from bondage by birth, ageing, sickness and death, referring to the truths of dependent origination and "the stilling of all formations, the relinquishing of all attachments, the destruction of craving, dispassion, cessation."{{sfn|Bhikkhu Nanamoli (translator)|1995|pp=259–260}}}} and the Buddha gives the five ascetics personal instructions in turn, two or three of them, while the others go out begging for food. The versions of the "first sermon" which include the four truths, such as the ''Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta'', omit this instruction, showing that
{{Blockquote|...the accounts which include the Four Noble Truths had a completely different conception of the process of liberation than the one which includes the Four Dhyanas and the subsequent destruction of the intoxicants.{{sfn|Bronkhorst|1993|p=110}}}}

According to Bronkhorst, this indicates that the four truths were later added to earlier descriptions of liberation by practicing the four dhyanas, which originally was thought to be sufficient for the destruction of the arsavas.{{sfn|Bronkhorst|1993|p=110}} Anderson, following Norman, also thinks that the four truths originally were not part of this sutta, and were later added in some versions.{{sfn|Anderson|1999|p=68}}{{refn|group=note|According to Cousins, Anderson misunderstands Norman in this respect, but does "not think that this misunderstanding of Norman's position critically affects Anderson's thesis. Even if these arguments do not prove that the four truths are definitely a later insertion in the Dhammacakkapavattana-sutta, it is certainly possible to take the position that the sutta itself is relatively late."{{sfn|Cousins|2001|p=38}}}}

According to Bronkhorst, the "twelve insights" are probably also a later addition, born out of unease with the substitution of the general term "prajna" for the more specific "four truths".{{sfn|Bronkhorst|1993|p=106}}

====''Maha-parinibbana Sutta''====
According to the Buddhist tradition, the ''[[Maha-parinibbana Sutta]]'' (Last Days of the Buddha, Digha Nikaya 16) was given near the end of the Buddha's life. This sutta "gives a good general idea of the Buddha's Teaching:"<ref group=web name="ati_Maha-parinibbana_Sutta">{{Cite web|url=https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/dn/dn.16.1-6.vaji.html|title=Maha-parinibbana Sutta: Last Days of the Buddha|website=www.accesstoinsight.org}}</ref>
{{Blockquote|And the Blessed One addressed the bhikkhus, saying: "Bhikkhus, it is through not realizing, through not penetrating the Four Noble Truths that this long course of birth and death has been passed through and undergone by me as well as by you. What are these four? They are the noble truth of suffering; the noble truth of the origin of suffering; the noble truth of the cessation of suffering; and the noble truth of the way to the cessation of suffering. But now, bhikkhus, that these have been realized and penetrated, cut off is the craving for existence, destroyed is that which leads to renewed becoming, and there is no fresh becoming."

Thus it was said by the Blessed One. And the Happy One, the Master, further said:

{{poemquote|Through not seeing the Four Noble Truths,
Long was the weary path from birth to birth.
When these are known, removed is rebirth's cause,
The root of sorrow plucked; then ends rebirth.}}
}}

===Propositional function===

====''Maha-salayatanika Sutta''====
The ''Maha-salayatanika Sutta'', Majjhima Nikaya 149:3 plus 149:9, give an alternative presentation of the four truths:
{{Blockquote|When one abides inflamed by lust, fettered, infatuated, contemplating gratification, [...] [o]ne's bodily and mental troubles increase, one's bodily and mental torments increase, one's bodily and mental fevers increase, and one experiences bodily and mental suffering.<br /><br />...when one does not know and see as it actually is [the feeling] felt as pleasant or painful or neither painful-nor-pleasant that arises with eye-contact as condition, then one is inflamed by lust for the eye, for forms, for eye-consciousness, for eye-contact, for [the feeling] felt as pleasant or painful or neither painful-nor-pleasant that arises with eye-contact as condition [repeated for the nose, tongue, body, mind].<br /><br />When one abides uninflamed by lust, unfettered, uninfatuated, contemplating danger [...] one's craving [...] is abandoned. One's bodily and mental troubles are abandoned, one's bodily and mental torments are abandoned, one's bodily and mental fevers are abandoned, and one experiences bodily and mental pleasure.<br /><br />...when one knows and see as it actually is [the feeling] felt as pleasant or painful or neither painful-nor-pleasant that arises with eye-contact as condition, then one is not inflamed by lust for the eye, for forms, for eye-consciousness, for eye-contact, for [the feeling] felt as pleasant or painful or neither painful-nor-pleasant that arises with eye-contact as condition [repeated for the nose, tongue, body, mind].{{sfn|Bhikkhu Nanamoli (translator)|1995|p=1137}}}}