The Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta is a foundational Buddhist concept, specifically a discourse or sermon, which translates to "The Setting in Motion of the Wheel of Dhamma" or "The First Turning of the Wheel". It is considered the first sermon delivered by Gautama Buddha after his enlightenment. The discourse was given to his five former companions—Kondañña, Assaji, Bhaddiya, Vappa, and Mahānāma—at the Deer Park in Isipatana (modern Sarnath, India), seven weeks after he attained enlightenment.
The Sutta was created to solve the problem of human suffering (dukkha) by presenting a path to its cessation. It begins by rejecting the two extremes of self-indulgence (craving for sense pleasures) and severe self-mortification (asceticism), which were common practices at the time.
The mechanism of the Sutta is the exposition of the Middle Way and the Four Noble Truths. The Middle Way is identified as the Noble Eightfold Path, which leads to knowledge, enlightenment, and Nibbāna (cessation of defilements). The Four Noble Truths are the core provisions of the Sutta: the truth of suffering (dukkha), the truth of the origin of suffering (craving), the truth of the cessation of suffering (abandoning craving), and the truth of the path leading to the cessation of suffering. This path is the Noble Eightfold Path, consisting of Right View, Right Thought, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration. The Sutta connects directly to the entire body of Buddhist teachings, as it contains the essence of the Buddha's doctrine and sets the Wheel of Dhamma in motion. The core content of the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path has remained central to the Sutta, though some scholars have debated whether the "Noble Truth" expression or its content was a later addition to the texts. Upon hearing the discourse, Kondañña became the first person, apart from the Buddha, to realize the Dhamma.