THREE TURNINGS OF THE WHEEL OF DHARMA

The 'Three Turnings of the Wheel (of Dharma)' refers to a framework for understanding the sutra stream of teachings of the Buddha, as understood by various schools and sects of Mahayana Buddhism.
The distinction is, on the one hand, an historic or quasi-historic scheme by which the Buddha's first sermons, as recorded in the Pali Canon and the tripitakas of other early schools, constitute the First Turning, and the later Mahayana sutras comprise the Second and Third turnings. The tantras of the Vajrayana are generally not included under the rubric of the Three Turnings.^[1] The model of three turnings of the 'Wheel' is an attempt to categorize the content, philosophical view, and practical application of the whole array of Buddhist sutrayana teachings.

Contents

Contents of the Three Turnings

First Turning

Second Turning

Third Turning

Fourth Turning

Definitive and provisional

See also

Contents of the Three Turnings

The basic content and audience of the three turnings of the wheel can be summarized as follows:

First Turning

The first turning is traditionally said to have taken place at Deer Park in Sarnath near Varanasi in northern India near Nepal, to an audience of shravakas. It consisted of the teaching of the Four Noble Truths and the other elements of the Tripitaka – the Abhidharma, Sutrapitaka and Vinaya.

Second Turning

The second turning is said to have taken place at Vulture Peak Mountain in Rajagriha, in Bihar, India. The audience comprised bodhisattvas; in some telling there were also shravaka arhats there as well, who promptly had heart attacks and died from the shock of the new teachings. In the second turning, the emphasis is on emptiness (Skt: ''śūnyāta'') as epitomized in the Prajnaparamita sutras, and on compassion (Skt: ''). These two elements are the primary constituents bodhicitta, the epitome of the second turning. The Madhyamika school that Nagarjuna founded arose from his exegesis of the Prajnaparamita and is included under the second turning.

Third Turning

The third turning was also delivered to an audience of bodhisattvas in Shravasti and other Indian locations (e.g. in Kusinagara, to Bodhisattvas and onlooking Buddhas, in the Mahaparinirvana Sutra) – or even in transcendental Buddhic realms (in the Avatamsaka Sutra). The focal point of the third turning is Buddha nature and particularly the Tathāgatagarbha doctrine. This was elaborated on in great detail by Maitreya via Asanga in the Five Treatises of Maitreya, which are also generally grouped under the third turning. They form the basis of the Yogachara school.

Fourth Turning

The Huayen school of Chinese Buddhism considered the Tathāgatagarbha doctrine a fourth turning, with the third turning comprising only the Yogachara school.^[1] In addition, Vajrayana schools sometimes refer to tantra as the "fourth turning."

Definitive and provisional

Different sects and schools of Buddhism, as well as individual Buddhist teachers and philosophers give different explanations as to which of the three turnings is 'definitive' (Skt: ''nitartha'') and which is 'provisional' (Skt: ''neyartha'') or requiring interpretation. Among mahayana schools, the definitive turning is either the second or third. As for the Buddha himself in the Mahayana sutras, he explicitly communicates that the Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra, the Srimala Sutra, and the Sandhinirmocana Sutra (among others) are definitive and ultimate in their doctrines.

See also

★ Dharmacakra