The Buddha taught four big categories of teachings.
by Khenpo Tashi
“Turning the Dharma wheel” means the Buddha is teaching. The first three turnings are more common, the last turning is uncommon.
Turning the Dharma Wheel is a symbol of the Buddha teaching the Dharma. All the different teachings of the Dharma can normally be categorized into three categories. These are the Three Turnings. The Varjayana, which is taught by the Buddha in different physical forms, may be considered the Fourth Turning of the Dharma Wheel.
Each of these groupings, or turning of the Dharma Wheel, are introduced through the three trainings (Tib: lab pa sum): Discipline (tsul trim), Meditative Concentration (ting nge dzin), Wisdom (she rab).
First Turning of the Dharma Wheel
(under Lesser Vehicle of the Hearer-listeners and Pratyekabuddhas)
The Buddha taught about impermanence, impurity, suffering, ugliness, selflessness, to make the students stop clinging to Samsara. To develop renunciation. He taught in the Deer Park in Varanasi, India, to the first five monks.
Wisdom: to realize the emptiness of self, to extinguish the afflictive emotions
Meditative Concentration: to meditate on Four Noble Truths, emptiness of self, Hinayana’s Thirty Seven Factors of Enlightenment (thek men gi jyang chok so dun)
Discipline: Individual Liberation vows or Pratimoksha (Tib: Sothar dompa)
Most Common Topics: Four Noble Truths, Samsara, Karma, Emotional Afflictions
Second Turning of the Dharma Wheel
(under Greater Vehicle of the Bodhisattvas)
To bring about partial ending to conceptual elaborations, the Buddha then taught about buddha-nature, through concepts, such as emptiness, signlessness and aspirationlessness of relative things.
He taught at Vulture’s Peak Mountain, Rajgir, India, to 5,000 arhats, such as Sariputra and Maudgalyayana, the 500 nuns including Prajapati, the host of laymen and laywomen including Anathapindada and the laywoman Visakha, a multitude of gods, nagas, and gandharvas, and a multitude of bodhisattvas, including Bhadrapala, Ratnasambhava, and Jaladatta.
Wisdom: to realize the two emptinesses (of self and phenomena)
Meditative Concentration: many profound methods to reach emptiness or selflessness of self and phenomena
Discipline: Bodhisattva discipline/vows (Tib: Jangsem dompa), which also includes the Individual Liberation vows
Most Common Topics: Transcendental Perfection of Wisdom, Stages and Paths
Third Turning of the Dharma Wheel:
(under Greater Vehicle of the Bodhisattvas)
To bring order to all of his teachings, the Buddha taught about buddha-nature, through complete absence of concepts. Mainly through the purity of the three spheres, beyond acceptance and rejection, being and non-being. He also arranged his teachings according to the imputed (Tib: kun tak), dependent (shen wang) and absolute (yong drub).
This is the final group under the three common turnings. He taught at Vaisali and other places, India, to uncountable monks, nuns, gods, nagas and bodhisattvas.
Wisdom: to realize two emptinesses
Meditative Concentration: emptiness and clarity, Mahayana’s 37 Factors of Enlightenment (Tib: thek chen gi jyang chok so dun)
Discipline: Bodhisattva discipline/vows (Tib: Jangsem dompa), which also includes the Individual Liberation vows
Most Common Topics: Buddha-bodies, Purelands, Provisional and Definitive Meanings
Fourth Turning of the Dharma Wheel
(under Secret Vehicle of the Awareness Holders)
In the form of Vajradhara, the Buddha taught the Secret Mantra. Called Tantra or Vajrayana. Secret Mantra is about indestructible reality. Indestructible reality is supreme indivisibility and inseparability. It is called ‘resultant vehicle’ because it incorporates the result – Buddhahood – into the cause – the Buddhist practices. Buddha Shakyamuni taught Secret Mantra via different Buddha forms and at hidden places.
According to the Buddha, Secret Mantra appears extremely rarely in the human world. The three other turnings are more common. Secret Mantra is only effective to those who have very strong foundation in the three other turnings.
Wisdom: to realize the wisdom that sees the all-encompassing pure appearance and existence (nang si dakpa rabjam tok pe yeshe)
Meditative Concentration: Generation and Completion Stages (kye rim and dzog rim)
Discipline: Secret mantra discipline/vows and Samayas (sang ngak dompa and damtsik)