THE BUDDHA AS TEACHER 33subject to origination is subject to cessation. This was a momentousincident
in the history ofBuddhism. It indicated that the Buddha could indeed teach
the Dharma to others in such a way that they would receive it and taste the
results for themselves. As a result, the Buddha declared, "Kam:u;linya knows!
Kaul).~inya knows!" Having already experienced such an Awakening himself,
he could recognize it in another and so publicly indicated Kaul).~inya's new
state of mind. Kaul).~inya asked the Buddha for full ordination, which he re-
ceived with the simple formula, "Come, bhik~u, the Dharma is well pro-
claimed. Follow the chaste course to the complete termination of suffering."
Thus he became the first member of the Bhik$U Sangha-the Order of Monks.
The texts assert that at the conclusion of the discourse, the earth deities
announced to the higher heavens that the Buddha had set rolling the unsur-
passed wheel of Dharma that could not be stopped by anyone in the cosmos.
On hearing this, the higher levels of deities took up the proclamation until it
reached the Brahma worlds. The earth quaked, and a dazzling light illumi-
nated the cosmos momentarily. Whether or not these events actually occurred,
they are standard narrative devices conveying the point that the major events
in the Buddha's life were cosmic in their importance. The reference to the
wheel of Dharma, however, was used by early Buddhists with regard to this
event and to no other. It is actually a play on words. On the one hand, it refers
to a passage in the sermon in which the Buddha sets out a table of two sets of
variables-the Four Noble Truths, and the three levels of knowledge appro-
priate to each: knowing the truth, knowing the duty it entails, and knowing
that one has completed the duty. He then lists all 12 permutations of the two
sets (not to be confused with the 12 conditions of dependent co-arising). This
sort of table, in Indian legal and philosophical traditions, is called a wheel. For
this reason, the wheel used as a symbol of the Dharma has 12 spokes, uniting
at the hub, symbolizing the 12 permutations that unite in knowledge and vi-
sion of things as they actually are.
The wheel, however, also has political connotations. The wheel-turning
monarch is one whose power is so universally acknowledged in the Indian
subcontinent that the wheel of his chariot can drive from one ocean to the
other unimpeded. The implication here is that the Buddha's authority as a re-
ligious leader is equivalent to the power of such a monarch; his first sermon is
the establishment of that authority (Strong EB, sec. 2.6.1). Later movements
in Buddhism adopted the turning-of-the-wheel image to indicate what they
regarded as momentous developme~ts in the Buddhist tradition-the rise of
the Madhyamika school, the Yogacara school, and Vajrayana-but more con-
servative traditions recognize only one turning of the Dharma wheel, the ser-
mon we have just reviewed.
On the days immediately following the first sermon, the other four men-
dicants took turns begging alms for the group and listening to the Buddha's
instruction. Very soon all four attained the Dharma-eye and received admis-
sion to the order.
The Buddha then preached a discourse on the five skandhas, briefly men-
tioned earlier under the First Noble Truth. Physical form, feeling, perception,