Here's how it happened. The Buddha was staying near Varanasi, in the deer park at Isipatana, and he said this to the five seekers gathered there:
"If you've left ordinary life behind to find the truth, there are two dead ends you shouldn't waste yourself on.
- Chasing pleasure — it's cheap, shallow, and gets you nowhere.
- Punishing yourself — it's painful, pointless, and gets you nowhere either.
Steering clear of both of those, I've found a path that runs down the middle. It clears your sight and settles your mind, and it leads to calm, real understanding, and freedom.
And what is that middle path that clears your sight and settles your mind — that leads to calm, real understanding, and freedom? It's this — eight things to get right:
- Seeing clearly
- Meaning well
- Speaking honestly
- Acting decently
- Earning a living that does no harm
- Putting in steady effort
- Staying aware
- Steadying the mind
That's the middle path I found — the one that clears your sight and settles your mind, and leads to calm, real understanding, and freedom.
(These are often called the Noble Eightfold Path: Right View, Right Intention, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, Right Concentration.)
Four Things That Are True
Now this is the truth about suffering. Being born is hard. Growing old is hard. Getting sick is hard. Dying is hard. Being stuck with what you can't stand hurts; being torn from what you love hurts; not getting what you want hurts. The whole bundle of grasping at life — that's where the suffering lives.
Now this is the truth about where suffering comes from. It comes from craving — the restless wanting that keeps pulling you back for more, hunting for the next good feeling wherever it can find one: wanting pleasure, wanting to keep existing, wanting to disappear.
Now this is the truth about the end of suffering. It's the complete fading-out of that very craving — finally letting it go, releasing it, holding on to none of it.
Now this is the truth about the path that leads there. It's simply this same eightfold path: seeing clearly, meaning well, speaking honestly, acting decently, earning a living that does no harm, steady effort, staying aware, and steadying the mind.
Knowing Each One Three Ways
"'This is the truth about suffering' — that's something I came to see for myself, about things no one had taught me. Sight opened, understanding opened, wisdom opened, knowledge opened, light opened.
'This suffering is something to be fully grasped' — sight, understanding, wisdom, knowledge, and light opened in me.
'This suffering has now been fully grasped' — sight, understanding, wisdom, knowledge, and light opened in me.
"'This is the truth about where suffering comes from' — sight, understanding, wisdom, knowledge, and light opened in me.
'This cause is something to be let go of' — sight, understanding, wisdom, knowledge, and light opened in me.
'This cause has now been let go of' — sight, understanding, wisdom, knowledge, and light opened in me.
"'This is the truth about the end of suffering' — sight, understanding, wisdom, knowledge, and light opened in me.
'This ending is something to be experienced directly' — sight, understanding, wisdom, knowledge, and light opened in me.
'This ending has now been experienced directly' — sight, understanding, wisdom, knowledge, and light opened in me.
"'This is the truth about the path that leads to the end of suffering' — sight, understanding, wisdom, knowledge, and light opened in me.
'This path is something to be developed' — sight, understanding, wisdom, knowledge, and light opened in me.
'This path has now been developed' — sight, understanding, wisdom, knowledge, and light opened in me.
"As long as my knowing-and-seeing of these four truths — in their three stages, across all twelve points — wasn't completely clear, I didn't claim to anyone that I'd woken up fully, with nothing left to surpass it — not to this whole world with its gods and its demons, its seekers and its sages, its rulers and its ordinary people.
But once my knowing-and-seeing of these four truths — in their three stages, across all twelve points — was completely clear, then I did claim it: that I'd woken up fully, with nothing left to surpass it, in this whole world with its gods and demons, its seekers and sages, its rulers and ordinary people. And the knowing settled in me, certain: My freedom can't be shaken. This is my last birth. There's nothing more after this."
How It Landed
That's what the Buddha said, and the five of them were glad to hear it.
And while he was speaking, something opened up in one of them, Kondañña — a clear, clean insight cut through:
Anything that begins is something that ends.
And the moment the Buddha set this teaching in motion, the call went up.
The earth-dwelling gods cried out: "Near Varanasi, in the deer park at Isipatana, the Buddha has set in motion the unsurpassed wheel of truth — and no one anywhere, no seeker or sage, no god, no demon, no one at all, can stop it from turning."
Hearing the earth-gods, the gods of the sky took up the cry. Hearing them, the gods of the realm of the Four Kings took it up. Then the gods of the heaven of the Thirty-Three. Then the Yama gods. Then the gods of contentment. Then the gods who delight in creating. Then the gods who command what others create. Then the gods of the highest reaches of form — each realm in turn passing the call upward, higher and higher.
So in that moment, in that instant, the cry rose all the way to the highest heavens. The ten-thousandfold world-system shook and shuddered and trembled, and a vast, boundless light broke out across it — brighter even than the radiance of the gods themselves.
Then the Buddha spoke these words: "Kondañña has understood! Kondañña truly has understood!"
And that's how the venerable Kondañña came to be called Aññā Kondañña — Kondañña Who Knows.