Deer Park Sutra

    Thus I have heard. The Blessed One was once living in the Deerpark at the Resort of Seers near Baranasi. There he addressed the group of five mendicants: Monks, these two extremes ought not to be practiced by one who has gone forth from a household life. What are the two? There is devotion to the indulgence of sense pleasures, which is low, common, the way of mundane people, unworthy, unprofitable; and there is devotion to self-mortification, which is painful, unworthy, and unprofitable. Avoiding both these extremes, the Tathagata has realized the middle path: it gives vision, it gives knowledge, and it leads to calm, to insight, to enlightenment, to Nirvana. and what is that Middle Path? It is simply the Noble Eightfold Path, namely, right view, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration.

    This is the Middle Path realized by the Tathagata, which gives vision, it gives knowledge, and it leads to calm, to insight, to enlightenment, to Nirvana. The Noble Truth of suffering is this: Birth is suffering; aging is suffering; sickness is suffering; death is suffering; sorrow and lamentation, pain, grief and despair are suffering; association with the unpleasant is suffering; dissociation with the pleasant is suffering; not to get what one wants is suffering - in brief, the five aggregates of attachment are suffering. The Noble Truth of the origin of suffering is this: It is this desire which produces re-existence and re-becoming, bound up with passionate greed. It finds fresh delight, now here now there, namely thirst for sense-pleasures; thirst for existence and becoming; and thirst for non-existence. The Noble Truth of the cessation of suffering is this: It is the complete cessation of that very thirst, giving it up, renouncing it, liberating oneself from it, detaching oneself from it. The Noble Truth of the path leading to the cessation of suffering is this: It is simply the Noble Eightfold Path, namely right view, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration. This is the Noble Truth of Suffering: such was the vision, the knowledge, the wisdom, the science, the light that arose in me with regard to the things not heard before.

    This suffering, as a noble truth, should be fully understood: such was the vision, the knowledge, the wisdom, the science, the light that arose in me with regard to the things not heard before. This is the Noble Truth of the Origin of suffering: such was the vision, the knowledge, the wisdom, the science, the light that arose in me with regard to the things not heard before. This origin of suffering, as a noble truth, should be abandoned: such was the vision, the knowledge, the wisdom, the science, the light that arose in me with regard to the things not heard before. This origin of suffering, as a noble truth, has been abandoned: such was the vision, the knowledge, the wisdom, the science, the light that arose in me with regard to the things not heard before. This is the Noble Truth of the Cessation of suffering: such was the vision, the knowledge, the wisdom, the science, the light that arose in me with regard to the things not heard before.

    This cessation of suffering, as a noble truth, should be realized: such was the vision, the knowledge, the wisdom, the science, the light that arose in me with regard to the things not heard before. This cessation of suffering, as a noble truth, has been realized: such was the vision, the knowledge, the wisdom, the science, the light that arose in me with regard to the things not heard before. This is the Noble Truth of the Path leading to the cessation of suffering: such was the vision, the knowledge, the wisdom, the science, the light that arose in me with regard to the things not heard before. The path leading to the cessation of suffering, as a noble truth, should be cultivated: such was the vision, the knowledge, the wisdom, the science, the light that arose in me with regard to the things not heard before.

    The path leading to the cessation of suffering, as a noble truth, has been cultivated: such was the vision, the knowledge, the wisdom, the science, the light that arose in me with regard to the things not heard before. As long as my vision of true knowledge was not fully clear in these three aspects, in these twelve ways, regarding the Four Noble Truths, I did not claim to have realized the perfect Enlightenment that is supreme in the world with it's gods, with it's Maras and Brahmas, in this world with it's recluses and brahmanas, with it's princes and men. But when my vision of the true knowledge was fully clear in these three aspects, in these twelve ways, regarding the Four Noble Truths, then I claimed to have realized the perfect Enlightenment that is supreme in the world with it's gods, with it's Maras and Brahmas, in this world with it's recluses and brahmanas, with it's princes and men. And a vision of true knowledge arose in me thus: My heart's deliverance is unassailable. This is the last birth. Now there is no more rebirth. This the Blessed One said. The group of five mendicants was glad, and they rejoiced at his words.

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