'The three turnings the Wheel of Dharma'
The wheel of dharma was turned in four principal stages by the Buddha:
- the first three stages were common teachings of sutra meant for everyone;
- the fourth was the uncommon teaching of tantra meant only for a few, specially suited individuals.
The three stages of the Wheel of Dharma refer to the first three turnings, all of which were sutra teachings:
- In terms of location, these three turning were given as follows:
1) ཆོས་ཀྱི་འཁོར་དང་པོ། - 'The First Turning of the Wheel' was done at the specific location of "Rishi's Dropping Place" at Varanasi;
2) ཆོས་ཀྱི་འཁོར་བར་མ། - 'The Middle Turning of the Wheel' was done at the specific location of Vulture's Peak in Rajagrha, a place commonly named Rajghir;
3) ཆོས་ཀྱི་འཁོར་ཐ་མ། - 'The final Turning of the Wheel' was not in a specific place like the first two but was given in various places and at various times after the first two.
- In terms of content: each of the three wheels has a principal thrust to it. Accordingly, an alternative name is given to each turning of the wheel, indicating the principal point or subject matter given at the time.
1) དང་པོ་བདེན་བཞིའི་ཆོས་འཁོར། - 'The Initial Dharma Wheel of the Four Truths'; The first wheel of dharma is called so since that turning of the wheel was the complete presentation of the teaching of 'The Four Noble Truths'.
2) བར་པ་མཚན་ཉིད་མེདཔའི་ཆོས་འཁོར། - 'The Middle Dharma Wheel of Lack of Characteristics"; called so since it demonstrated emptiness by showing the lack of any real characteristic inherent in all phenomena.
3) ཐ་མ་ལེགས་ཆེའི་ཆོས་འཁོར། - 'the final dharma wheel of fine distinctions' which consisted of various topics and is arranged and seen in various ways by the various schools of Tibetan Buddhism.
A common name for the final turning is ལེགས་པར་རྣམ་པར་ཕྱེ་པའི་ཆོས་འཁོར། - 'the dharma wheel of fine, complete distinction' since the Buddha taught matters that made fine and final distinctions between Relative and Ultimate Truths.
The final turning of the wheel of dharma by the buddha is also called the དོན་དམ་རྣམ་པར་ངེས་པའི་ཆོས་ཀྱི་འཁོར་ལོ། - 'the dharma wheel of complete certainty in the absolute' because, through its fine distinctions, it bring a complete ascertainment of the meaning of the absolute.
- Now in more detail, a description of the three wheels follows:
1) The first wheel of dharma was principally the teaching of the four truths which, using talk of impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, impurity, and so on, urges listeners who see cyclic existence as desirable to become dis-enchanted with it, and so to enter the authentic dharma path. The teaching of the wheel is regarded as lesser in comparison to the following teachings and is therefore known as the Hinayana, "lower or inferior vehicle".
2) The second wheel of dharma was principally the teaching of the lack of entity in phenomena which was given for the sake of showing beings who were capable of hearing such profound truth the mode of a buddha's existence. The second wheel contains the teachings of the paramitas, particularly the prajñaparamita sutras that teach emptiness. This teaching could not be heard by everyone, only those who were capable of hearing the profound view. It is said that some of the Arhats, who were the masters of the First Turning teaching, had heart attacks on hearing the Second Turning teaching of emptiness. Thus, the teachings of the second and subsequent wheels being of a superior level to those in the first, they are known as the Mahayana, the "great vehicle".
3) The third wheel contains teachings which makes precise distinctions about what does exist and does not, what is and is not, etc., for the sake of actually leading bodhisatvas into the buddha mind through the agency of the བདེ་བར་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་པོ། - the sugatagarbha or ‘Buddha-Nature’. This turning contains the Cittamatra teachings and the teachings on Tathagatagarbha - ‘Buddha Essence’.
Whereas the Second Turning principally emphasizes the emptiness of phenomena which are the object of mind, the Third Turning principally emphasizes the presence of enlightened mind in all beings.
Which of those teachings are teachings that need to be interpreted in order to find the definitive truth and which are teachings that are the definitive truth not requiring any further interpretations?
It seems, at least from examining what the Buddha himself says in sutra, and especially the sutras of the third wheel, that the three turnings of the dharma wheel were presented in linear sequence of increasing profundity. However, not all Tibetan schools accept that position.
In general, all Mahayanists accept that:
- The First Turning has དྲང་དོན། - neyartha - 'provisional meaning' (requiring interpretation);
- The Second and Third Turning is ངེས་དོན། - nitartha - 'definitive meaning'.
However, among the followers of Tibetan Buddhism there are some subtle distinctions between definitive provisional teaching and provisional definitive teaching. These distinction come from just classifying the scriptures or following mainly reasoning in accepting that the Second Turning is ultimate nitartha and the final is mainly neyartha. The Kagyu, Nyingma, and some Sakya scholars accept the former, the Gelug and most Sakya scholars accept the latter.
