DHAMMA-KAKKA-PPAVATTANA-SUTTA The Foundation of the Kingdom of Righteousness
Reverence to the Blessed One, the Holy One, the Fully-Enlightened One.
1. Thus have I heard. The Blessed One was once staying at Benares, at the hermitage called Migadâya. And there the Blessed One addressed the company of the five Bhikkhus[1], and said:
2. ‘There are two extremes, O Bhikkhus, which the man who has given up the world[2] ought not to follow–the habitual practice, on the one hand of those things whose attraction depends upon the passions, and especially of sensuality–a low and pagan[3] way (of seeking satisfaction) unworthy, unprofitable, and fit only for the worldly-minded–
and the habitual practice, on the other hand, of asceticism (or self-mortification), which is painful, unworthy, and unprofitable.
3. ‘There is a middle path, O Bhikkhus, avoiding these two extremes, discovered by the Tathâgata[1]–a path which opens the eyes, and bestows understanding, which leads to peace of mind, to the higher wisdom, to full enlightenment, to Nirvâna!
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[1. These are the five mendicants who had waited on the Bodisat during his austerities, as described in ‘Buddhist Birth Stories,’ pp. 88, 89. Their names are given on p. 113 of that book; see below, the note on ง 32.
2. Pabbagito, one who has gone forth, who has renounced worldly things, a ‘religious.’
3. Gamma, a word of the same derivation as, and corresponding meaning to, our word ‘pagan.’]
Dhamma-Kakka-Ppavattana Sutta: Foundation of the Kingdon of Righteousness
Translated from Pâli by T. W. Rhys Davids [1881]