Sutra: Three Turnings
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During his 45 year teaching career, it is said that the Buddha taught different degrees of reality according to varying circumstances and the disparate dispositions, personality types, and capacities of his students. In general, the entirety of the Buddha's sutra discourses are divided into 3 distinct sets of teachings or "turnings of the dharma wheel." These 3 "turnings" or revolutions of Shakyamuni's teachings are each considered to be complete cycles of explanation that correspond directly to the infinite diversity of individuals. Here is a brief overview of these 3 "turnings":
Shakyamuni Buddha's 1st "turning" was in Deer Park near the present-day city of Varanasi in Northern India. At this time, the Buddha described how the dependently co-arising nature of phenomena allows for the possibility of freedom from suffering. These teachings include the 4 Noble Truths and Dependent Co-arising and were collected into the body of literature known as the Abhidharma or Sciences of Mind and Reality. This first revolution acts as an antidote to the obsessive habit of clinging to an independent self as ultimately substantial.
Shakyamuni's 2nd "turning" was at Vulture Peak Mountain near Rajagriha. There, the Buddha taught how all phenomena lack intrinsic or absolute existence. These teachings were collected into the body of scriptures known as the Prajnaparamita Sutras or Transcendent Wisdom Scriptures. In particular, these teachings on emptiness were taught in order to liberate beings from their psychological and emotional fixations on even the subtlest aspects of reality.
The 3rd set of the Buddha's discourses were delivered at Mount Malaya and Vaishali. In contrast to his second turning, the Buddha's third revolution elucidated how a luminous enlightened essence known as "tathagatagarbha" or "Buddhanature" pervades all beings. These teachings were compiled into a set of sutras known as the Essence Sutras. This final cycle of teachings was taught by the Buddha in order to free beings from their obsessive tendencies of holding onto nihilistic beliefs about reality.