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Pratītyasamutpāda

Pratītyasamutpāda (Sanskrit: प्रतीत्यसमुत्पाद, Pāli: paṭiccasamuppāda), commonly translated as dependent origination, or dependent arising, is a key doctrine in Buddhism shared by all schools of Buddhism.[1][note 1] It states that all dharmas (phenomena) arise in dependence upon other dharmas: "if this exists, that exists; if this ceases to exist, that also ceases to exist". The basic principle is that all things (dharmas, phenomena, principles) arise in dependence upon other things.

Brick inscribed with the Sutra on Dependent Origination. Found in Gopalpur, Gorakhpur District, Uttar Pradesh. Dated ca. 500 CE, Gupta period. Ashmolean Museum.
Translations of
pratītyasamutpāda/paṭiccasamuppāda
Englishdependent origination,
dependent arising,
interdependent co-arising,
conditioned arising
Sanskritप्रतीत्यसमुत्पाद
(IAST: pratītyasamutpāda)
Paliपटिच्चसमुप्पाद (paṭiccasamuppāda)
Bengaliপ্রতীত্যসমুৎপাদ
(prôtītyôsômutpādô)
Burmeseပဋိစ္စ သမုပ္ပါဒ်
IPA: [bədeiʔsa̰ θəmouʔpaʔ]
Chinese緣起
(Pinyin: yuánqǐ)
Japanese縁起
(Rōmaji: engi)
Khmerបដិច្ចសមុប្បាទ
(padecchak samubbat)
Korean연기
(RR: yeongi)
Sinhalaපටිච්චසමුප්පාද
Tibetanརྟེན་ཅིང་འབྲེལ་བར་འབྱུང་བ་
(Wylie: rten cing 'brel bar
'byung ba
THL: ten-ching drelwar
jungwa
)
TagalogPlatityasamutpada
Thaiปฏิจจสมุปบาท
(RTGSpatitcha samupabat)
VietnameseLý duyên khởi
Glossary of Buddhism

The doctrine includes depictions of the arising of suffering (anuloma-paṭiccasamuppāda, "with the grain", forward conditionality) and depictions of how the chain can be reversed (paṭiloma-paṭiccasamuppāda, "against the grain", reverse conditionality).[2][3] These processes are expressed in various lists of dependently originated phenomena, the most well-known of which is the twelve links or nidānas (Pāli: dvādasanidānāni, Sanskrit: dvādaśanidānāni). The traditional interpretation of these lists is that they describe the process of a sentient being's rebirth in saṃsāra, and the resultant duḥkha (suffering, pain, unsatisfactoriness),[4] and they provide an analysis of rebirth and suffering that avoids positing an atman (unchanging self or eternal soul).[5][6] The reversal of the causal chain is explained as leading to the cessation of rebirth (and thus, the cessation of suffering).[4][7]

Another interpretation regards the lists as describing the arising of mental processes and the resultant notion of "I" and "mine" that leads to grasping and suffering.[8][9] Several modern western scholars argue that there are inconsistencies in the list of twelve links, and regard it to be a later synthesis of several older lists and elements, some of which can be traced to the Vedas.[9][10][11][12][13][5]

The doctrine of dependent origination appears throughout the early Buddhist texts. It is the main topic of the Nidana Samyutta of the Theravada school's Saṃyuttanikāya (henceforth SN). A parallel collection of discourses also exists in the Chinese Saṁyuktāgama (henceforth SA).[14]

Overview

Dependent origination is a philosophically complex concept, subject to a large variety of explanations and interpretations. As the interpretations often involve specific aspects of dependent origination, they are not necessarily mutually exclusive to each other.

Dependent origination can be contrasted with the classic Western concept of causation in which an action by one thing is said to cause a change in another thing. Dependent origination instead views the change as being caused by many factors, not just one or even a few.[15]

The principle of dependent origination has a variety of philosophical implications.

  • As an ontological principle (i.e., as a metaphysical concept about the nature of existence), it holds that all phenomena arise from other, pre-existing phenomena, and in turn current phenomena condition future phenomena. As such, everything in the world has been produced by causes.[16][17][18] Traditionally, this is also closely connected to the Buddhist doctrine of rebirth, and how rebirth occurs without a fixed self or soul, but as a process conditioned by various phenomena and their relations.[17]
  • As an epistemological principle (i.e., as a theory about knowledge),[19] it holds that there are no permanent and stable things (though there are classes of permanent phenomena vis. space (vacuum), cessations (including nirvana), and suchness (the absence of self, namely, anatta).[20][21] Because everything is dependently originated, nothing is permanent (hence the Buddhist concept of impermanence, anicca) and nothing has any self-nature or essence (anatta).[22][21][23] Consequently, all phenomena lack essence.[19] In various traditions, this is closely associated with the doctrine of emptiness (śūnyatā).[24]
  • As a phenomenological or psychological principle, it refers to the workings of the mind and how suffering, craving, and self-view arise.[5] This can refer to how different mental states condition each other over time, or to how different mental phenomena condition each other in a single moment.[3][25]

Etymology

Pratītyasamutpāda consists of two terms:

  • Pratītya: "having depended."[26] The term appears in the Vedas and Upanishads[note 2] in the sense of "confirmation, dependence, acknowledge origin".[27][28] The Sanskrit root of the word is prati* whose forms appear more extensively in the Vedic literature, and it means "to go towards, go back, come back, to approach" with the connotation of "observe, learn, convince oneself of the truth of anything, be certain of, believe, give credence, recognize". In other contexts, a related term pratiti* means "going towards, approaching, insight into anything".[28]
  • Samutpāda: "arising",[26] "rise, production, origin"[29] In Vedic literature, it means "spring up together, arise, come to pass, occur, effect, form, produce, originate".[30]

Pratītyasamutpāda has been translated into English as dependent origination, dependent arising, interdependent co-arising, conditioned arising, and conditioned genesis.[31][16][note 3]

Jeffrey Hopkins notes that terms synonymous to pratītyasamutpāda are apekṣhasamutpāda and prāpyasamutpāda.[37]

The term may also refer to the twelve nidānas, Pali: dvādasanidānāni, Sanskrit: dvādaśanidānāni, from dvādaśa ("twelve") + nidānāni (plural of "nidāna", "cause, motivation, link").[quote 2] Generally speaking, in the Mahayana tradition, pratityasamutpada (Sanskrit) is used to refer to the general principle of interdependent causation, whereas in the Theravada tradition, paticcasamuppāda (Pali) is used to refer to the twelve nidānas.

Dependent origination in early Buddhism

The principle of conditionality

In the early Buddhist texts, the basic principle of conditionality is called by different names such as “the certainty (or law) of dhamma” (dhammaniyāmatā), “suchness of dharma” (法如; *dharmatathatā), the “enduring principle” (ṭhitā dhātu), “specific conditionality” (idappaccayatā) and “dhammic nature” (法爾; dhammatā).[24] This principle is expressed in its most general form as follows:[3][39][40][note 4]

When this exists, that comes to be. With the arising (uppada) of this, that arises. When this does not exist, that does not come to be. With the cessation (nirodha) of this, that ceases.

— Samyutta Nikaya 12.61.[41]

According to Paul Williams "this is what causation is for early Buddhist thought. It is a relationship between events, and is what we call it when if X occurs Y follows, and when X does not occur Y does not follow."[42] Richard Gombrich writes that this basic principle that "things happen under certain conditions" means that the Buddha understood experiences as "processes subject to causation."[43] Bhikkhu Bodhi writes that specific conditionality "is a relationship of indispensability and dependency: the indispensability of the condition (e.g. birth) to the arisen state (e.g. aging and death), the dependency of the arisen state upon its condition."[44]

Peter Harvey states this means that "nothing (except nirvāna) is independent. The doctrine thus complements the teaching that no permanent, independent self can be found."[3] Ajahn Brahm argues that the grammar of the above passage indicates that one feature of the Buddhist principle of causality is that "there can be a substantial time interval between a cause and its effect. It is a mistake to assume that the effect follows one moment after its cause, or that it appears simultaneously with its cause."[39]

Variable phenomena, invariant principle

According to the Paccaya sutta (SN 12.20 and its parallel in SA 296), dependent origination is the basic principle of conditionality which is at play in all conditioned phenomena. This principle is invariable and stable, while the “dependently arisen processes” (paṭiccasamuppannā dhammā) are variable and impermanent.[40][45][note 5]

Pater Harvey argues that there is an "overall Basic Pattern that is Dhamma" within which "specific basic patterns (dhammas) flow into and nurture each other in complex, but set, regular patterns.".[3]

Invariant principle

According to the Paccaya sutta (SN 12.20) and its parallel, this natural law of this/that conditionality is independent of being discovered by a Buddha (a "Tathāgata"), just like the laws of physics. The Paccaya sutta states that whether or not there are Buddhas who see it "this elemental fact (dhātu, or “principle”) just stands (thitā), this basic-pattern-stability (dhamma-tthitatā), this basic-pattern-regularity (dhamma-niyāmatā): specific conditionality (idappaccayatā)."[3][40][47]

Bhikkhu Sujato translates the basic description of the stability of dependent origination as "the fact that this is real, not unreal, not otherwise".[45] The Chinese parallel at SA 296 similarly states that dependent origination is "the constancy of dharmas, the certainty of dharmas, suchness of dharmas, no departure from the true, no difference from the true, actuality, truth, reality, non-confusion".[48] According to Harvey, these passages indicate that conditionality is "a principle of causal regularity, a Basic Pattern (Dhamma) of things" which can be discovered, understood and then transcended.[3]

Variable phenomena - dependently arisen processes

The principle of conditionality, which is real and stable, is contrasted with the "dependently arisen processes", which are described as "impermanent, conditioned, dependently arisen, of a nature to be destroyed, of a nature to vanish, of a nature to fade away, of a nature to cease."[40] SA 296 describes them simply as "arising thus according to causal condition, these are called dharmas arisen by causal condition."[49]

Conditionality and liberation

The Buddha's discovery of conditionality

Regarding the arising of suffering, SN 12.10 discusses how before the Buddha's awakening, he searched for the escape from suffering as follows: "when what exists is there old age and death? What is a condition for old age and death?", discovering the chain of conditions as expressed in the twelve nidanas and other lists.[40][50] MN 26 also reports that after the Buddha's awakening, he considered that dependent origination was one of the two principles which were "profound (gambhira), difficult to see, difficult to understand, peaceful, sublime, beyond the scope of mere reasoning (atakkāvacara), subtle." The other principle which is profound and difficult to see is said to be Nirvana, "the stopping, or transcending, of conditioned co-arising" (Harvey).[3][note 6]

In the Mahānidānasutta (DN 15) the Buddha states that dependent origination is "deep and appears deep", and that it is "because of not understanding and not penetrating this teaching" that people become "tangled like a ball of string" in views (diṭṭhis), samsara, rebirth and suffering.[51][52] SN 12.70 and its counterpart SA 347 state that “knowledge of Dhamma-stability" (dhamma-tthiti-ñānam) comes first, then comes knowledge of nirvana (nibbane-ñānam).[3][53] However, while the process which leads to nirvāna is conditioned, nirvāna itself is called “unborn, unbecome, unmade, unconstructed” (Ud. 80–1).[3] The Milinda Panha compares to how a mountain is not dependent on the path that leads to it (Miln. 269)".[3] According to Harvey, since it is "not co-arisen (asamuppana) (It. 37–8), nirvāna is not something that is conditionally arisen, but is the stopping of all such processes."[3]

Seeing the dharma

MN 28 associates knowing dependent origination with knowing the dharma:[3][40][54]

“One who sees dependent origination sees the Dharma. One who sees the Dharma sees dependent origination.” And these five grasping aggregates are indeed dependently originated. The desire, adherence, attraction, and attachment for these five grasping aggregates is the origin of suffering. Giving up and getting rid of desire and greed for these five grasping aggregates is the cessation of suffering.’

A well-known early exposition of the basic principle of causality is said to have led to the stream entry of Sariputta and Moggallāna. This ye dharmā hetu phrase, which appears in the Vinaya (Vin.I.40) and other sources, states:[3][55][56]

Of those dharmas which arise from a cause, the Tathagata has stated the cause, and also their cessation.

A similar phrase is uttered by Kondañña, the first convert to realize awakening at the end of the first sermon given by the Buddha: "whatever has the nature to arise (samudaya dhamma) also has the nature to pass away (nirodha dhamma)."[56]

Application

Conditionality as the middle way - not-self and emptiness

The early Buddhist texts also associate dependent arising with emptiness and not-self. The early Buddhist texts outline different ways in which dependent origination is a middle way between different sets of "extreme" views (such as "monist" and "pluralist" ontologies or materialist and dualist views of mind-body relation).[note 7] In the Kaccānagottasutta (SN 12.15, parallel at SA 301), the Buddha states that "this world mostly relies on the dual notions of existence and non-existence" and then explains the right view as follows:[58]

But when you truly see the origin of the world with right understanding, you won’t have the notion of non-existence regarding the world. And when you truly see the cessation of the world with right understanding, you won’t have the notion of existence regarding the world.[59]

The Kaccānagottasutta then places the teaching of dependent origination (listing the twelve nidanas in forward and reverse order) as a middle way which rejects these two "extreme" metaphysical views which can be seen as two mistaken conceptions of the self.[60][5][note 8]

According to Hùifēng, a recurring theme throughout the Nidānasamyutta (SN 12) is the Buddha's "rejection of arising from any one or other of the four categories of self, other, both or neither (non-causality)."[24] A related statement can be found in the Paramārtha­śūnyatāsūtra (Dharma Discourse on Ultimate Emptiness, SĀ 335, parallel at EĀ 37:7), which states that when a sense organ arises "it does not come from any location...it does not go to any location", as such it is said to be "unreal, yet arises; and on having arisen, it ends and ceases." Furthermore this sutra states that even though "there is action (karma) and result (vipāka)" there no "no actor agent" (kāraka). It also states that dharmas of dependent origination are classified as conventional.[24]

The Kaccānagottasutta and its parallel also associates understanding dependent origination with avoiding views of a self (atman). This text states that if "you don’t get attracted, grasp, and commit to the notion ‘my self’, you’ll have no doubt or uncertainty that what arises is just suffering arising, and what ceases is just suffering ceasing."[58][59] Similarly, the Mahānidānasutta (DN 15) associates understanding dependent origination with abandoning various wrongs views about a self, while failing to understand it is associated becoming entangled in these views.[61] Another sutra, SĀ 297, states that dependent origination is "the Dharma Discourse on Great Emptiness," and then proceeds to refute numerous forms of “self-view” (ātmadṛṣṭi).[24]

SN 12:12 (parallel at SĀ 372) the Buddha is asked a series of questions about the self (who feels? who craves? etc.), the Buddha states that these questions are invalid, and instead teaches dependent origination.[24] SĀ 80 also discuss an important meditative attainment called the emptiness concentration (śūnyatā­samādhi) which in this text is associated contemplating how phenomena arise due to conditions and are subject to cessation.[24]

The four noble truths

According to early suttas like AN 3.61, the second and third noble truths of the four noble truths are directly correlated to the principle of dependent origination.[62][63][64] The second truth applies dependent origination in a direct order, while the third truth applies it in inverse order.[64] Furthermore, according to SN 12.28, the noble eight-fold path (the fourth noble truth) is the path which leads to the cessation of the twelve links of dependent origination and as such is the “best of all conditioned states” (AN.II.34).[3] Therefore, according to Harvey, the four noble truths "can be seen as an application of the principle of conditioned co-arising focused particularly on dukkha."[3]

Lists of nidanas

In the early Buddhist texts, dependent origination is analyzed and expressed in various lists of dependently originated phenomena (dhammas) or causes (nidānas). Nidānas are co-dependent principles, processes or events, which act as links on a chain, conditioning and depending on each other.[65][66] When certain conditions are present, they give rise to subsequent conditions, which in turn give rise to other conditions.[67][68][69] Phenomena are sustained only so long as their sustaining factors remain.[70]

The most common one is a list of twelve causes (Pali: dvādasanidānāni, Sanskrit: dvādaśanidānāni).[71] Bucknell refers to it as the "standard list". It is found in section 12 of the Samyutta Nikaya and its parallels, as well as in other suttas belonging to other Nikayas and Agamas.[72] This list also appears in Mahasamghika texts like the Salistamba Sutra and in (later) works like Abhidharma texts and Mahayana sutras. According to Eviatar Shulman, "the 12 links are paticcasamuppada," which is a process of mental conditioning.[73] Cox notes that even though the early scriptures contain numerous variations of lists, the 12 factor list became the standard list in the later Abhidharma and Mahayana treatises.[74]

The most common interpretation of the twelve cause list in the traditional exegetical literature is that the list is describing the conditional arising of rebirth in saṃsāra, and the resultant duḥkha (suffering, pain, unsatisfactoriness).[67][68][69][4][65][66][note 9] An alternative Theravada interpretation regards the list as describing the arising of mental formations and the resultant notion of "I" and "mine," which are the source of suffering.[9]

Understanding the relationships between these phenomena is said to lead to nibbana, complete freedom from the cyclical rebirth cycles of samsara.[75][4][7] Traditionally, the reversal of the causal chain is explained as leading to the cessation of mental formations and rebirth.[4][7] Alex Wayman notes that "according to Buddhist tradition, Gautama discovered this formula during the night of Enlightenment and by working backward from "old age and death" in the reverse of the arising order."[76] Wayman also writes that "in time, the twelve members were depicted on the rim of a wheel representing samsara."[76]

Lists of nidanas

The twelve nidanas

The popular listing of twelve nidānas is found in numerous sources. In some of the early texts, the nidānas themselves are defined and subjected to analysis (vibhaṅga). The explanations of the nidānas can be found in the Pali SN 12.2 (Vibhaṅga "Analysis" sutta) and in its parallel at SA 298.[77] Further parallels to SN 12.2 can be found at EA 49.5, some Sanskrit parallels such as the Pratītyasamutpādādivibhaṅganirdeśanāmasūtra (The Discourse giving the Explanation and Analysis of Conditional Origination from the Beginning) and a Tibetan translation of this Sanskrit text at Toh 211.[78][79][80]

Nidana term: Pali (Sanskrit) Chinese character used in SA[81] Translations[45][82][8][78][80] Analysis (vibhaṅga) found in the early sources
Avijjā (Avidyā) 無明 Ignorance, nescience SN 12.2: "Not knowing suffering, not knowing the origination of suffering, not knowing the cessation of suffering, not knowing the way of practice leading to the cessation of suffering: This is called ignorance. It leads to action, or constructing activities."[83][72] Parallel sources like SA 298 and the Sanskrit Vibhaṅganirdeśa also add lack of knowledge regarding numerous other topics, including karma and its results, the three jewels, moral goodness, "the internal and the external", purity and impurity, arising by causal conditions, etc.[77]
Saṅkhāra (Saṃskāra) Volitional formations, Fabrications,[72] constructions,[83] choices SN 12.2: "These three are fabrications: bodily fabrications, verbal fabrications, mental fabrications. These are called fabrications."[72][note 10] SA 298 contains the same three types.[84]
Viññāṇa (Vijñāna) Consciousness, discernment, sense consciousness SN 12.2 and SA 298 both agree that there are six types of consciousness: eye-consciousness, ear-consciousness, nose-consciousness, tongue-consciousness, body-consciousness, intellect (or mind) consciousness.[84][72][note 11][85]
Nāmarūpa 名 色 Name and Form, mentality and corporeality, body and mind SN 12.2: "Feeling,[note 12] perception,[note 13] intention,[note 14] contact, and attention:[note 15] This is called name.[note 16] The four great elements,[note 17] and the body dependent on the four great elements: This is called form." SA 298 and the Sanskrit Vibhaṅganirdeśa define nama differently as the other four skandhas (feeling, perception, saṃskāra, consciousness).[78][86][note 18]
Saḷāyatana (ṣaḍāyatana) 六 入 處 Six sense bases, sense sources, sense media SN 12.2 and SA 298 both agree that this refers to the sense bases of the eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind (intellect).[87][72]
Phassa (Sparśa) Contact,[88] sense impression, "touching" SN 12.2 and SA 298 agree that the coming together of the object, the sense medium and the consciousness of that sense medium[note 19] is called contact. As such there are six corresponding forms of contact.[87][note 20]
Vedanā Feeling, sensation, hedonic tone SN 12.2 defines Vedanā as six-fold: vision, hearing, olfactory sensation, gustatory sensation, tactile sensation, and intellectual sensation (thought). Vedanā is also explained as pleasant, unpleasant and/or neutral feelings that occur when our internal sense organs come into contact with external sense objects and the associated consciousness (in SA 298, in the Vibhaṅganirdeśa and in other Pali suttas). These two definitions for feeling are agreed upon by the Pali and Chinese sources.[89]
Taṇhā (tṛ́ṣṇā) Craving, desire, greed, "thirst" SN 12.2: "These six are classes of craving: craving for forms, craving for sounds, craving for smells, craving for tastes, craving for tactile sensations, craving for ideas. This is called craving."[72] These six classes of craving also appear in SA 276. SA 298 and the Vibhaṅganirdeśa contain three different types of craving: craving for sensuality, craving for form, craving for formlessness. These three do not appear in the SN, but they do appear in DN 3.[90] Elsewhere in the SN, three other types of craving appear: craving for sensuality (kama), craving for existence (bhava), craving for non-existence (vibhava). These do not appear in the Chinese SA, but can be found in EA 49.[91]
Upādāna Clinging, grasping, sustenance, attachment SN 12.2 states that there are four main types: clinging to sensuality (kama),[note 21] clinging to views (ditthi),[note 22] clinging to ethics and vows (silabbata, "precept and practice"),[note 23] and clinging to a self-view (attavada)." SA 298 agrees with the first three, but has "clinging to self" for the fourth, instead of clinging to a "self-view".[92][note 24][72]
Bhava Existence, Becoming, continuation [note 25] SN 12.2: "These three are becoming: sensual becoming,[note 26] form becoming,[note 27] formless becoming."[note 28][72] SA 298 agrees completely with SN 12.2.[94]

A Glossary of Pali and Buddhist Terms: "Becoming. States of being that develop first in the mind and can then be experienced as internal worlds and/or as worlds on an external level."[95] There are various interpretations of what this term means.[note 29][note 30][note 31]

Jāti Birth, rebirth SN 12.2: "Whatever birth, taking birth, descent, coming-to-be, coming-forth, appearance of aggregates, & acquisition of [sense] media of the various beings in this or that group of beings, that is called birth."[72] SA 298 agrees with SN 12.2 and adds two more items: acquiring dhatus, and acquiring the life-faculty.[97] This is interpreted in many different ways by different sources and authors.[note 32][note 33][note 34]
Jarāmaraṇa 老 死 Aging or decay, and death SN 12.2: "Whatever aging, decrepitude, brokenness, graying, wrinkling, decline of life-force, weakening of the faculties of the various beings in this or that group of beings, that is called aging. Whatever deceasing, passing away, breaking up, disappearance, dying, death, completion of time, break up of the aggregates, casting off of the body, interruption in the life faculty of the various beings in this or that group of beings, that is called death."[72] SA 298 generally agrees, adding a few more similar descriptions.[97]

Alternative lists in SN/SA

The twelve branched list, though popular, is just one of the many lists of dependently originated dharmas which appear in the early sources.[12] According to Analayo, the alternative lists of dependently arisen phenomena are equally valid "alternative expressions of the same principle."[71]

Choong notes that some discourses (SN 12.38-40 and SA 359-361) contain only 11 elements, omitting ignorance and starting out from willing (ceteti). SN 12.39 begins with three synonyms for saṅkhāra, willing, intending (pakappeti) and carrying out (anuseti). It then states that "this becomes an object (arammanam) for the persistence of consciousness (viññanassa-thitiya)" which leads to the appearance of name and form. The standard listing then follows.[100]

SN 12.38 (and the parallel at SA 359) contain a much shorter sequence, it begins with willing as above which leads to consciousness, then following after consciousness it states: "there is in the future the becoming of rebirth (punabbhavabhinibbatti)", which leads to "coming-and-going (agatigati)", followed by "decease-and-rebirth (cutupapato)" and following that "there arise in the future birth, ageing-and-death, grief, lamentation, pain, distress, and despair."[100] Another short sequence is found at SN 12. 66 and SA 291 which contain an analysis of dependent origination with just three factors: craving (tanha), basis (upadhi, possibly related to upadana), and suffering (dukkha).[101]

In SN 12.59 and its counterpart SA 284, there is a chain that starts by saying that for someone who "abides in seeing [the Chinese has grasping at] the flavour in enfettering dharmas (saññojaniyesu dhammesu), there comes the appearance (avakkanti) of consciousness." There then follows the standard list. Then it states that if someone abides by seeing the danger (adinavanupassino) in the dharmas (the Chinese has seeing impermanence), there is no appearance of consciousness (Chinese has mind).[102]

SN 12.65 and 67 (and SA 287 and 288) begin the chain with both consciousness and name and form conditioning each other in a cyclical relationship. It also states that "consciousness turns back, it goes no further than name and form."[103] SN 12.67 also contains a chain with consciousness and name and form being in a reciprocal relationship. In this sutta, Sariputta states that this relationship is like two sheaves of reeds leaning on each other for support (the parallel at SA 288 has three sheaves instead).[104]

There are also several passages with chains that begin with the six sense spheres (ayatana). They can be found in SN 12. 24, SA 343, SA 352-354, SN 12. 13-14 and SN 12. 71-81.[105] Another one of these is found in SN 35.106, which is termed the "branched version" by Bucknell because it branches off into six classes of consciousness:[106][12]

Eye consciousness arises dependent on the eye and sights. The meeting of the three is contact. Contact is a condition for feeling. Feeling is a condition for craving. This is the origin of suffering … [the same formula is repeated with the other six sense bases and six consciousnesses, that is, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind]

Other depictions of the chain at SN 12.52 and its parallel at SA 286, begin with seeing the assada (taste; enjoyment; satisfaction) which leads to craving and the rest of the list of nidanas.[107] Meanwhile, in SN 12.62 and SA 290, dependent origination is depicted with just two nidanas, contact (phassa) and feeling (vedana). SN 12.62 says that when one becomes disenchanted with contact and feeling, desire fades away.[108]

Alternative lists in other Nikayas

The Kalahavivāda Sutta of the Sutta Nipāta (Sn. 862-872) has the following chain of causes (as summarized by Doug Smith):

"name-and-form conditions contact, contact conditions feeling, feeling conditions desire, desire conditions clinging, and clinging conditions quarrels, disputes, lamentations, and grief."[109][110]

Dīgha Nikāya Sutta 1, the Brahmajala Sutta, verse 3.71 describes six nidānas:

They experience these feelings by repeated contact through the six sense-bases; feeling conditions craving; craving conditions clinging; clinging conditions becoming; becoming conditions birth; birth conditions aging and death, sorrow, lamentation, sadness and distress.[111][note 35]

Similarly, the Madhupiṇḍikasutta (MN 18) also contains the following passage:[112]

Eye consciousness arises dependent on the eye and sights. The meeting of the three is contact. Contact is a condition for feeling. What you feel, you perceive. What you perceive, you think about. What you think about, you proliferate (papañca). What you proliferate about is the source from which a person is beset by concepts of identity that emerge from the proliferation of perceptions. This occurs with respect to sights known by the eye in the past, future, and present. [The same process is then repeated with the other six sense bases.]

The Mahānidānasutta (DN 15) and its Chinese parallels such as DA 13 describe a unique version which is dubbed the "looped version" by Bucknell (DN 14 also has a similar looped chain but it adds the six sense fields after name and form):[113][12][114]

Name and form are conditions for consciousness. Consciousness is a condition for name and form. Name and form are conditions for contact. Contact is a condition for feeling. Feeling is a condition for craving. Craving is a condition for grasping. Grasping is a condition for continued existence. Continued existence is a condition for rebirth. Rebirth is a condition for old age and death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, sadness, and distress to come to be. That is how this entire mass of suffering originates.

The Mahahatthipadopama-sutta (M 28) contains another short explanation of dependent origination:[5][115]

these five grasping aggregates are indeed dependently originated. The desire, adherence, attraction, and attachment for these five grasping aggregates is the origin of suffering. Giving up and getting rid of desire and greed for these five grasping aggregates is the cessation of suffering.

Correlation with the five aggregates

Mathieu Boisvert correlates the middle nidanas (3-10) with the five aggregates.[116] According to Boisvert, the consciousness and feeling aggregates correlate directly with the corresponding nidana, while the rupa aggregate correlates with the six sense objects and contact. The samskara aggregate meanwhile, correlates with nidana #2, as well as craving, clinging and bhava (existence, becoming).[116]

Boisvert notes that while sañña ("perception" or "recognition") is not explicitly found in the twelvefold chain, it would fit in between feeling and craving. This is because unwholesome perceptions (such as delighting in pleasurable feelings) are responsible for the arising of unwholesome samskaras (like craving). Likewise, skillful perceptions (such as focusing on the three marks of existence) lead to wholesome samskaras.[117]

According to Analayo, each of the twelve nidanas "re-quires all five aggregates to be in existence concurrently." Furthermore:[71]

The teaching on dependent arising does not posit the existence of any of the links in the abstract, but instead show how a particular link, as an aspect of the continuity of the five aggregates, has a conditioning influence on another link. It does not imply that any of these links exist apart from the five aggregates.[71]

Development of the twelve nidanas

Commentary on Vedic cosmogeny

Wayman[118]
Brhadaranyaka Pratityasamutpada
"by death indeed was this covered" nescience (avidya)
"or by hunger, for hunger is death" motivation (samskara)
He created the mind, thinking, 'Let me have a Self'" perception (vijnana)
"Then he moved about, worshipping. From him, thus worshipping, water was produced" name-and-form (nama-rupa)
(=vijnana in the womb)

Alex Wayman has argued that the ideas found in the dependent origination doctrine may precede the birth of the Buddha, noting that the first four causal links starting with avidya in the Twelve Nidānas are found in the cosmic development theory of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad and other older Vedic texts.[119][118][120]

According to Kalupahana, the concept of causality and causal efficacy where a cause "produces an effect because a property or svadha (energy) is inherent in something" along with alternative ideas of causality, appear extensively in the Vedic literature of the 2nd millennium BCE, such as the 10th mandala of the Rigveda and the Brahmanas layer of the Vedas.[121][note 36]

Jurewicz
Hymn of Creation, RigVeda X, 129[13] Twelve Nidanas[13] Skandhas[13] Commentary[6][13]
"...at first there was nothing, not even existence or nonexistence."[124] Avijja (ignorance) -
"...a volitional impulse [kama, "desire"] initiates the process of creation or evolution."[124] Samkhara ("volitions")[125] Samkhara
(4th skandha)
In Buddhism, "[d]esire, the process which keeps us in samsara, is one of the constituents of this skandha."[125]
Kamma is the seed of consciousness. Vijnana Vijnana
(5th skandha)
* In the Hymn of Creation, consciousness is a "singular consciousness," (Jurewicz) "non-dual consciousness," (Gombrich) "reflexive, cognizing itself." (Gombrich)[125]
* In Buddhism, Vijnana is "consciousness of," not consciousness itself.[125]
Pure consciousness manifests itself in the created world, name-and-form, with which it mistakenly identifies, losing sight of its real identity.[126] Nama-Rupa, "name-and-form" - * According to Jurewicz, the Buddha may have picked at this point the term nama-rupa, because "the division of consciousness into name and form has only the negative value of an act which hinders cognition."[6] The first four links, in this way, describe "a chain of events which drive a human being into deeper and deeper ignorance about himself."[6]
* According to Gombrich, the Buddhist tradition soon lost sight of this connection with the Vedic worldview, equating nama-rupa with the five skandhas,[125] denying a self (atman) separate from these skandhas.[127]

A similar resemblance has been noted by Joanna Jurewicz, who argues that the first four nidanas resemble the Hymn of Creation (RigVeda X, 12) and other Vedic sources which describe the creation of the cosmos.[126][6] Jurewicz argues that dependent origination is "a polemic" against the Vedic creation myth and that, paradoxically, "the Buddha extracted the essence of Vedic cosmogony and expressed in explicit language." Richard Gombrich agrees with this view, and argues that the first four elements of dependent origination are the Buddha's attempt to "ironize and criticize Vedic cosmogony."[128] According to Gombrich, while in the Vedic creation theory "the universe is considered to be grounded on a primordial essence which is endowed with consciousness," the Buddha's theory avoids this essence (atman-Bahman).[124]

Jurewicz and Gombrich compare the first nidana, ignorance (avijja), with the stage before creation that is described in the Rigveda's Hymn of Creation.[124][6] While the term avidya does not actually appear in this Hymn, the pre-creation stage is seen as unknowable and characterized by darkness.[6] According to Gombrich, at this stage "consciousness is non-dual, which is to say that it is the ability to cognize but not yet consciousness of anything, for there is no split yet into subject and object." This is different from the Buddha's point of view, in which consciousness is always consciousness of something.[125] Jurewicz then compares the Vedic creator's desire and hunger to create the atman (or "his second self") with volitional impulses (samskara).[6] According to Jurewicz, the third nidana, vijñana, can be compared to the atman's vijñanamaya kosha in Vedic literature, which is the consciousness of the creator and his subjective manifestations.[6]

According to Jurewicz, "in Vedic cosmogony, the act of giving a name and a form marks the final formation of the creator's atman." This may go back to the Vedic birth ceremony in which a father gives a name to his son.[6] In Vedic creation pure consciousness creates the world as name and form (nama-rupa) and then enters it. However, in this process, consciousness also hides from itself, losing sight of its real identity.[126] The Buddhist view of consciousness entering name and form depicts a similar chain of events leading to deeper ignorance and entanglement with the world.[6]

Jurewizc further argues that the rest of the twelve nidanas show similarities with the terms and ideas found in Vedic cosmogeny, especially as it relates to the sacrificial fire (as a metaphor for desire and existence). These Vedic terms may have been adopted by the Buddha to communicate his message of not-self because his audience (often educated in Vedic thought) would understand their basic meaning.[6] According to Jurewizc, dependent origination replicates the general Vedic creation model, but negates its metaphysics and its morals. Furthermore, Jurewizc argues that:[6]

This deprives the Vedic cosmogony of its positive meaning as the successful activity of the Absolute and presents it as a chain of absurd, meaningless changes which could only result in the repeated death of anyone who would reproduce this cosmogonic process in ritual activity and everyday life.

According to Gombrich, the Buddhist tradition soon lost sight of their connection with the Vedic worldview that the Buddha was critiquing in the first four links of dependent origination. Though it was aware that at the fourth link there should be an appearance of an individual person, the Buddhist tradition equated rupa with the first skandha, and nama with the other four skandhas. Yet, as Gombrich notes, samkhara, vijnana, and vedana also appear as separate links in the twelvefold list, so this equation can't be correct for this nidana.[126]

Synthesis of older lists

Early synthesis by the Buddha

According to Erich Frauwallner, the twelvefold chain resulted from the Buddha's combination of two lists. Originally, the Buddha explained the appearance of dukkha from tanha, "thirst," craving. Later on, the Buddha incorporated avijja, "ignorance," as a cause of suffering into his system. This is described in the first part of dependent origination.[10] Frauwallner saw this "purely mechanical mixing" as "enigmatical", "contradictory" and a "deficiency in systematization."[129]

Paul Williams discusses Frauwallner's idea that the 12 links may be a composite. However, he ultimately concludes that "it may be impossible at our present stage of scholarship to work out very satisfactorily what the original logic of the full twelvefold formula was intended to be, if there ever was one intention at all."[130]

As a later synthesis by monks

Hajime Nakamura has argued that we should search the Sutta Nipata for the earliest form of dependent origination since it is the most ancient source. According to Nakamura, "the main framework of later theories of Dependent Origination" can be reconstructed from the Sutta Nipata as follows: avidya, tanha, upadana, bhava, jaramarana.[131] Lambert Schmitthausen has also argued that the twelve-fold list is a synthesis from three previous lists, arguing that the three lifetimes-interpretation is an unintended consequence of this synthesis.[132][note 37]

Boisvert
Skandha Nidana
Vijnana
("mere consciousness")[note 38]
Vijnana (consciousness)
Rupa (matter, form) Saḷāyatana (six sense-bases)
+
phassa (contact)
(includes
sense-objects
+
mental organ (mano))
Vedana (feeling) Vedana (feeling)
Sanna (perception) Sanna prevents the arising of
Samkharas (mental formations) Tanha ("thirst," craving)
Upadana (clinging)
Bhava (becoming)

According to Mathieu Boisvert, nidana 3-10 correlate with the five skandhas.[134] Boisvert notes that while sañña, "perception," is not found in the twelvefold chain, it does play a role in the processes described by the chain, particularly between feeling and the arising of samskaras.[135] Likewise, Waldron notes that the anusaya, "underlying tendencies, are the link between the cognitive processes of phassa ("contact") and vedana (feeling), and the afflictive responses of tanha ("craving") and upadana ("grasping").[136]

Schumann
The 12-fold chain the 5 skhandhas
First existence
1. Body
2. Sensation
3. Perception
1. Ignorance
2. Formations 4. Formations
3. Consciousness 5. Consciousness
Second existence
4. Nama-rupa 1. Body
5. The six senses
6. Touch
7. Sensation 2. Sensation
3. Perception
4. Formations
5. Consciousness
8. Craving
9. Clinging
Third existence
10. Becoming
1. Body
11. Birth
2. Sensation
3. Perception
4. Formations
5. Consciousness
12. Old age and death

Hans Wolfgang Schumann argues that a comparison of the twelve nidanas with the five skhandhas shows that the 12 link chain contains logical inconsistencies, which can be explained when the chain is considered to be a later elaboration.[137] Schumann thus concluded that the twelvefold chain was a later synthesis composed by Buddhist monks, consisting of three shorter lists. These lists may have encompassed nidana 1–4, 5–8, and 8-12.[138] Schumann also proposes that the 12 nidanas are extended over three existences, and illustrates the succession of rebirths. While Buddhaghosa and Vasubandhu maintain a 2-8-2 schema, Schumann maintains a 3-6-3 scheme.[137]

According to Richard Gombrich, the twelve-fold list is a combination of two previous lists, the second list beginning with tanha, "thirst," the cause of suffering as described in the second noble truth".[128] The first list consists of the first four nidanas, which reference Vedic cosmogony, as described by Jurewicz.[note 39] According to Gombrich, the two lists were combined, resulting in contradictions in its reverse version.[128][note 40]

Bucknell's thesis

Ancestor version
salayana
(sixfold sense-base)
+
nama-rupa
(name-and-form)
= phassa (contact)

avijja
(ignorance)
sankhara
(volitional action)
vijnana
(consciousness)
vedana (feeling)
etc.

Roderick S. Bucknell analysed four versions of the twelve nidanas, to explain the existence of various versions of the pratitya-samutpada sequence. The twevefold version is the "standard version," in which vijnana refers to sensual consciousness.[note 41] According to Bucknell, the "standard version" of the twelve nidanas developed out of an ancestor version, which in turn was derived two different versions that understand consciousness (vijñana) and name and form (namarupa) differently.[12]

Branched version
salayana (sixfold sense-base)
+
nama-rupa (six sense-objects)

vijnana (consciousness)
= phassa (contact)
vedana (feeling)
etc.

According to Bucknell, SN 35.106 describes a non-linear "branched version" of dependent origination in which consciousness is derived from the coming together of the sense organs and the sense objects (and thus represents sense perception). The Mahānidānasutta (DN 15) describes a "looped version," in which consciousness and nama-rupa condition each other. It also describes consciousness descending into the womb.[140] According to Bucknell, "some accounts of the looped version state explicitly that the chain of causation goes no further back than the loop.[141]

Waldron also mentions idea that in early Buddhism, consciousness may have been understood as having these two different aspects (basic consciousness or sentience and cognitive sense consciousness).[142] While these two aspects were largely undifferentiated in early Buddhist thought, these two aspects and their relation was explicated in later Buddhist thought, giving rise to the concept of alaya-vijñana.[143]

In yet another linear version, dubbed the "Sutta-nipata version", consciousness is derived from avijja ("ignorance") and saṅkhāra ("activities" also translated as "volitional formations").[144]

Looped version
vijnana (consciousness)
↑↓
nama-rupa (name-and-form)
[salayana (sixfold sense-base)]
phassa (contact)
vedana (feeling)
etc.

According to Bucknell, while the "branched version" refers directly to the six sense objects, the "looped version" and the standard version instead use the term nama-rupa as "a collective term for the six types of sense object." He cites various passages from the early sources and the scholarship of Yinshun, Reat and Watsuji in support.[140] Bucknell thinks that name and form was eventually misinterpreted as referring to "mind and body", causing discrepancies in the 12 fold series and making it possible to interpret the beginning of the chain as referring to rebirth.[145][note 42] According to Bucknell, the linear list, with its distortions and changed meaning for consciousness and name and form, may have developed when the list came to be recited in reverse order.[147] Bucknell further notes that the "branched version," corresponds with the interpretation of the twelve nidanas as mental processes while the "looped version," (which sees consciousness as the "rebirth consciousness") corresponds with the "three lives" interpretation.[148]

The 12 nidānas as an early list

Against the view that the 12 link chain is later, Alex Wayman writes "I am convinced that the full twelve members have been in Buddhism since earliest times, just as it is certain that a natural division into the first seven and last five was also known."[76]

Bhikkhu Bodhi writes that the suggestions of some scholars the twelvefold formula is a later expansion of a shorter list "remain purely conjectural, misleading, and objectionable on doctrinal and textual grounds."[71]

Choong, in his comparative study of SN and SA also writes that the different accounts of dependent origination existed at an early stage and that they are simply different ways of presenting the same teaching which would have been used for different times and with audiences. Choong writes that the various versions of dependent arising "are unlikely to represent a progressive development, with some being earlier and others later" and that "the comparative data revealed here do not provide evidence to support the speculative suggestion that there was just one original (or relatively early) account of the series, from which the other attested accounts developed later."[149]

Comparison of lists

The following chart compares different lists of nidanas from the early sources with other similar lists:

Comparison of lists
12 Nidanas Bucknell's "hypothetical reconstruction"[12] Rigveda's Hymn of Creation[6][126] DN 15
Mahanidana sutra[85]
MN 148:28[150] Tanha-list[62] Boisvert's mapping to the skandhas[134] Four Noble Truths
Avijjā [Ignorance] Avijjā
Saṅkhāra [Activities] Kamma
Viññāṇa Sensual consciousness Vijnana Consciousness
Eye-consciousness Vijnana Dukkha
(Five skandhas)
Nāmarūpa
Sense objects
+
Identification of vijnana with the manifest world (name and form)
Name-and-form

Visible objects
+
Rupa
Saḷāyatana Six-fold sense bases - Eye
Phassa Contact Contact Contact
Vedanā Feeling (sensation) Feeling Feeling Vedana
- - - Anusaya (underlying tendencies) - Sanna (perception)
prevents arising of ↓[note 43]
Taṇhā Craving Craving Craving ("thirst") Samkharas
(see also kleshas)
Upādāna Clinging (attachment) Clinging Clinging
Bhava
(kammabhava)
Becoming Becoming Becoming
Jāti Birth Birth Birth Dukkha
(Birth, aging and death)
Jarāmaraṇa Aging and death Aging and death Aging, death, and this entire mass of dukkha

Transcendental/reverse dependent origination

Understanding dependent origination is indispensable for realizing nirvana since it leads to insight into how the process of dependent arising can be brought to an end (i.e. nirvana). Since the process of dependent origination always produces suffering, the reversal or deactivation of the sequence is seen by Buddhists as the way to stop the entire process.[151][3] Traditionally, the reversal of the sequence of the twelve nidanas is explained as leading to the cessation of rebirth and suffering.[4][69][36] The early Buddhist texts state that on the arising of wisdom or insight into the true nature of things, dependent origination ceases. Some suttas state that "from the fading and cessation of ignorance without remainder comes the cessation of saṅkhāras..." et cetera (this is said to lead to the cessation of the entire twelve-fold chain in reverse order).[note 43]

According to Jayarava Atwood, while some dependent origination passages (termed lokiya, worldly) "[model] beings trapped in cycles of craving and grasping, birth and death", other passages (termed lokuttara, ‘beyond the world’) "[model] the process and dynamics of liberation from those same cycles."[153] According to Bodhi, these are also classified as "exposition of the round" (vaṭṭakathā) and "the ending of the round" (vivaṭṭakathā).[154] Beni Barua called these two different kinds of dependent origination "cyclic" and "progressive".[153] Various early Buddhist texts present different sequences of transcendental dependent origination (lokuttara paṭicca-samuppāda) or reverse dependent origination (paṭiloma-paṭiccasamuppāda).[2][153][75][note 44] The Upanisā Sutta (and its Chinese parallel at MĀ 55) is the only text in which both types of dependent origination appear side by side and therefore it has become the main source used to teach reverse dependent origination in English language sources.[153] Jayarava cites numerous other Pali suttas which contain various lists of dependently originated phenomena that lead to liberation, each one being a "precondition" (upanisā) for the next one in the sequence.[note 45]

According to Jayarava, AN 11.2 (which has a parallel at MA 43) is a better representative of transcendental dependent origination passages and better conforms "to the general outline of the Buddhist path as consisting of ethics, meditation and wisdom."[153] AN 11.2 states that once someone has fulfilled one element of the path, it naturally leads to the next one.[153] Therefore, there is no need to will or wish (Pali: cetanā, intention, volition) for one thing to lead to the other one, since this happens effortlessly.[153] Therefore, the sutta states that "good qualities flow on and fill up from one to the other, for going from the near shore to the far shore."[155] The process begins with the cultivation of ethics, using the following formula which is then applied to each further factor sequentially: "Mendicants, an ethical person, who has fulfilled ethical conduct, need not make a wish: ‘May I have no regrets!’ It’s only natural that an ethical person has no regrets...etc."[155]

Comparison of Lists

The following chart compares various transcendental dependent arising sequences found in Pali and Chinese sources:

Transcendental Dependent Arising in various sources [156][153]
SN 12.23[157] MĀ 55 (Parallel to SN 12.23) AN 11.1-5 and AN 10.1-5, MĀ 42 and 43 AN 7.65, 8.81, 6.50, 5.24 MĀ 45 (parallel to AN 8.81) Comments [153][75]
Suffering (Dukkha) Suffering (苦, Skt. Duḥkha) _ _ _ B. Bodhi comments: "Suffering spurs the awakening of the religious consciousness," it shatters "our naive optimism and unquestioned trust in the goodness of the given order of things," and "tears us out of our blind absorption in the immediacy of temporal being and sets us in search of a way to its transcendence."
_ _ _ _ Shame (慚) and scruple (愧) Equivalent to the Pali "hiri" (shame, Skt. hrī), or "remorse at bad conduct" and "ottappa" (Skt. apatrāpya, moral dread or fear of our own bad conduct).
_ _ _ _ Love and respect (愛恭敬) The Sanskrit for respect is gaurava
_ _ _ Mindfulness and Full Awareness (sati-sampajañña) _ In MN 10, mindfulness is cultivated by being attentive (upassana) to four domains: the body, feelings (vedana), the mind (citta), and principles/phenomena (dhammas). In MN 10, sampajañña is a "situational awareness" (trans. Sujato) regarding all bodily activities.[158]
_ _ _ Shame and moral concern (hiri and ottapa) _ Bhikkhu Bodhi: "Hiri, the sense of shame, has an internal reference; it is rooted in self-respect and induces us to shrink from wrongdoing out of a feeling of personal honor. Ottappa, fear of wrongdoing, has an external orientation. It is the voice of conscience that warns us of the dire consequences of moral transgression: blame and punishment by others, the painful kammic results of evil deeds, the impediment to our desire for liberation from suffering."[159]
_ _ _ Sense Restraint (indriya-saṃvara) _ MN 38: "When they see a sight with their eyes, they don’t get caught up in the features and details. If the faculty of sight were left unrestrained, bad unskillful qualities of desire and aversion would become overwhelming. For this reason, they practice restraint, protecting the faculty of sight, and achieving its restraint." The same passage is repeated for each of the other sense bases (including thoughts in the mind).[160]
_ _ Fulfilling ethical conduct (sīla) Sīla _ The early sources contain various teachings on basic ethical conduct such as the five precepts and the ten courses of wholesome action.
_ _ Clear conscience (avippaṭisāra) AN 10.1 / Lack of regrets (AN 11.1) _ _
Faith (saddhā) Faith (信) _ _ Faith (信) Skt. śraddhā. An attitude of trust directed at ultimate liberation and the three jewels. SN 12.23 states that "suffering is the supporting condition for faith", thereby linking it with the last nidana in the 12 nidana chain. Faith also comes about through the hearing of the exposition of true Dhamma (teaching). Faith also leads to the practice of morality (sila).
_ Wise Attention (正思惟) _ _ Wise Attention (正思惟) Skt. yoniso-manasikāra
_ Right mindfulness (正念) _ _ Right mindfulness & attentiveness (正念正智) Skt. smṛti (and samprajāna)
_ Guarding the sense faculties (護諸根) _ _ Guarding the senses (護諸根) Skt. indriyasaṃvara
_ Ethics (護戒) _ _ Ethics (護戒) Skt. śīla
_ Non-regret (不悔) _ _ Non-regret (不悔)
Joy (pāmojja) Joy (歡悅, Skt. prāmodhya) Joy _ Joy (歡悅) From confidence in the sources of refuge and contemplation on them, a sense of joy arises
Rapture (pīti) Rapture (喜, Skt. prīti) Rapture _ Rapture (喜) Generally, the application of meditation is needed for the arising of rapture, though some rare individuals might experience rapture simply from the joy which arises from faith and a clear conscience arising from moral living. The meditative states called jhanas are states of elevated rapture.
Tranquillity (passaddhi) Calming down (止, Skt. prāśabdha) Tranquility _ Calming down (止) In the higher states of meditation, rapture gives way to a calm sense of tranquility.
Happiness (sukha) Happiness (樂) Happiness _ Happiness (樂) A subtler state than rapture, a pleasant feeling.
Samādhi Samādhi (定) Samādhi Samādhi (AN 8.81 has sammā "right" samādhi) Samādhi (定) Bodhi: "The wholesome unification of the mind", totally free from distractions and unsteadiness.
Knowledge and vision of things as they really are (yathābhūta-ñānadassana) To see reality, and know things as they are (見如實知如真, Skt. yathābhūta-jñānadarśana) Knowledge and vision of things as they really are Knowledge and vision of things as they really are To see reality, and know things as they are (見如實知如真) With a peaceful and concentrated mind, insight (vipassana) can be developed, the first phase of which is insight into the nature of the five aggregates. Only pañña, the wisdom which penetrates the true nature of phenomena, can destroy the defilements which keep beings bound to samsara. This wisdom is not mere conceptual understanding, but a kind of direct experience akin to visual perception which sees the impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and selflessness of all phenomena. In Northern Buddhist traditions and Mahayana works, insight into emptiness is further emphasized.
Disenchantment (nibbidā) Disenchantment (厭) Disenchantment Disenchantment Disenchantment (厭, Skt. nirveda) Noticing the passing away of phenomena, the fact that nothing is stable, reliable or permanent, gives rise to a sense of disenchantment towards them. B. Bodhi: "a conscious act of detachment resulting from a profound noetic discovery. Nibbida signifies in short, the serene, dignified withdrawal from phenomena that supervenes when the illusion of their permanence, pleasure, and selfhood has been shattered by the light of correct knowledge and vision of things as they are."
Dispassion (virāga) Dispassion (無欲) Dispassion Dispassion Dispassion (無欲, Skt. virāga) The first truly transmundane (lokuttara) stage in the progression. B. Bodhi: "Whatever tends to provoke grasping and adherence is immediately abandoned, whatever tends to create new involvement is left behind. The old urges towards outer extension and accumulation give way to a new urge towards relinquishment as the one clearly perceived way to release."
Liberation (vimutti) _ Liberation (MĀ 42 ends the sequence here) Liberation (AN 8.81 skips this stage) Liberation (解脱, Skt. vimokṣa) Having a twofold aspect: the emancipation from ignorance (paññavimutti) and defilements (cetovimutti) experienced in life, the other is the emancipation from repeated existence attained when passing away.
Knowledge of destruction of the āsavas - defiled influences (āsava-khaye-ñāna) Nirvāṇa (涅槃) Knowledge and vision of liberation (Vimutti-ñānadassana) Knowledge and vision of liberation Nirvāṇa (涅槃) Different sources finish the sequence with different terms indicating spiritual liberation.

B. Bodhi (commenting on SN 12.23): "The retrospective cognition of release involves two acts of ascertainment. The first, called the "knowledge of destruction" (khaya ñana), ascertains that all defilements have been abandoned at the root; the second, the "knowledge of non-arising" (anuppade ñana), ascertains that no defilement can ever arise again."

Interpretations

There are numerous interpretations of the doctrine of dependent origination across the different Buddhist traditions and within them as well. Various systematizations of the doctrine were developed by the Abhidharma traditions which arose after the death of the Buddha. Modern scholars have also interpreted the teaching in different ways. According to Ajahn Brahm, a fully correct understanding of dependent origination can only be known by awakened being or ariyas. Brahm notes that "this goes a long way to answering the question why there is so much difference of opinion on the meaning of dependent origination."[161]

Collett Cox writes that the majority of scholarly investigations of dependent origination adopt two main interpretations of dependent origination, they either see it as "a generalized and logical principle of abstract conditioning applicable to all phenomena" or they see it as a "descriptive model for the operation of action (karman) and the process of rebirth."[74] According to Bhikkhu Analayo, there are two main interpretative models of the 12 nidanas in the later Buddhist exegetical literature, a model which sees the 12 links as working across three lives (the past life, the present life, the future life) and a model which analyzes how the 12 links are mental processes working in the present moment. Analayo argues that these are not mutually exclusive, but instead are complementary interpretations.[71]

Alex Wayman has argued that understanding the dependent origination formula requires understanding its two main interpretations. According to Wayman, these two are: (1) the general principle of dependent origination itself, its nidanas and their relationships and (2) how it deals with the particular process of the rebirth of sentient beings.[162]

Conditionality

The general principle of conditionality is expressed in numerous early sources as "When this is, that is; This arising, that arises; When this is not, that is not; This ceasing, that ceases."[163][164] According to Rupert Gethin, this basic principle is neither a direct Newtonian-like causality nor a singular form of causality. Rather, it asserts an indirect and plural conditionality which is somewhat different from classic European views on causation.[165][166][167][168] The Buddhist concept of dependence is referring to conditions created by a plurality of causes that necessarily co-originate phenomena within and across lifetimes, such as karma in one life creating conditions that lead to rebirth in a certain realm of existence for another lifetime.[15][169][170][note 46]

Bhikkhu Bodhi writes that the Buddhist principle of conditionality "shows that the "texture" of being is through and through relational."[164] Furthermore, he notes that dependent arising goes further than just presenting a general theory about conditionality, it also teaches a specific conditionality (idappaccayatā), which explains change in terms of specific conditions. Dependent arising therefore also explains the structure of relationships between specific types of phenomena (in various interlocking sequences) which lead to suffering as well as the ending of suffering.[164]

Necessary and sufficient conditions

Ajahn Brahm has argued that the Buddhist doctrine of conditionality includes two main elements of the logical concepts of conditionality: necessity and sufficiency. According to Brahm, “when this is, that is; from the arising of this, that arises.” refers to a "sufficient condition" while “when this is not, that is not; from the ceasing of this, that ceases” refers to a "necessary condition".[39] Like Brahm, Bodhi also argues that there are two main characterizations of conditionality in the early sources. One is positive, indicating "a contributory influence passing from the condition to the dependent state," while the other is negative, indicating "the impossibility of the dependent state appearing in the absence of its condition." He compares these two with the first and second phrases of the general principle definition respectively. Regarding the second, positive characterization, other early sources also state that a condition "originates (samudaya) the dependent state, provides it with a source (nidāna), generates it (jātika), gives it being (pabhava), nourishes it (āhāra), acts as its foundation (upanisā), causes it to surge (upayāpeti)" (see: SN 12.11, 23, 27, 66, 69).[44]

However, according to Harvey and Brahm, while the 12 nidanas are necessary conditions for each other, not all of them are necessary and sufficient conditions (some are, some are not). As Harvey notes, if this was the case, "when a buddha or arahat experienced feeling they would inevitably experience craving" (but they do not). As such, feeling is only one of the conditions for craving (another one is ignorance). Therefore, in this Buddhist view of causality, nothing has a single cause.[3] Bodhi agrees with this, stating that not all conditional relations in dependent arising are based on direct causal necessitation. While in some cases there is a direct necessary relationship between the phenomena outlined in the lists (birth will always lead to death), in other cases there is not.[44] This is an important point because as Bodhi notes, "if dependent arising described a series in which each factor necessitated the next, the series could never be broken," and liberation would be impossible.[171]

Abhidharma views of conditionality

The Buddhist abhidharma traditions developed a more complex schematization of conditionality than that found in the early sources. These systems outlined different kinds of conditional relationships. According to K.L. Dhammajoti, vaibhāṣika abhidharma developed two major schemes to explain conditional relations: the four conditions (pratyaya) and the six causes (hetu).[172] The vaibhāṣika system also defended a theory of simultaneous causation.[173] While simultaneous causation was rejected by the sautrāntika school, it was later adopted by yogācāra.[174] The Theravāda abhidhamma also developed a complex analysis of conditional relations, which can be found in the Paṭṭhāna.[175] A key element of this system is that nothing arises from a single cause or as a solitary phenomenon, instead there are always a plurality of conditions giving rise to clusters of dhammas (phenomena).[161] The Theravāda abhidhamma outlines twenty four kinds of conditional relations.[176]

Conditioned or unconditioned?

As a result of their doctrinal development, the various sectarian Buddhist schools eventually became divided over the question of whether or not the very principle of dependent origination was itself conditioned (saṃskṛta) or unconditioned (asaṃskṛta). This debate also included other terms such as “stability of dharma” (dharmasthititā) and “suchness” (tathatā), which were not always seen as synonymous with "dependent origination" by all schools.[24] The Theravāda, vātsīputriya and sarvāstivāda school generally affirmed that dependent origination itself was conditioned. The mahāsāṃghikas and mahīśāsakas accepted the conditioned nature of the “stability of dharma,” but both held that dependent origination itself was unconditioned. The Dharmaguptaka's Śāriputrābhidharma also held that dependent origination was unconditioned.[24]

Ontological principle

Relations of being, becoming, existence and ultimate reality

According to Bhikkhu Bodhi, Peter Harvey and Paul Williams, dependent arising can be understood as an ontological principle; that is, a theory to explain the nature and relations of being, becoming, existence and ultimate reality. (Theravada) Buddhism asserts that there is nothing independent, except nirvana.[177][16][17][note 47][note 48] This ontology holds that all physical and mental states depend on and arise from other pre-existing states, and in turn from them arise other dependent states while they cease.[178] These 'dependent arisings' are causally conditioned, and thus pratityasamutpada is the Buddhist belief that causality is the basis of ontology. As Williams explains, "all elements of samsara exist in some sense or another relative to their causes and conditions. That is why they are impermanent, for if the cause is impermanent then so too will be the effect."[17]

Gombrich describes dependent origination as the idea that "nothing accessible to our reason or our normal experience exists without a cause". Furthermore, this can be seen as a metaphysical middle way which does not see phenomena as existing essentially nor as not-existing at all. Instead it sees the world as "a world of flux and process", a world of "verbs, not nouns."[18]

According to Rupert Gethin, the ontological principle of dependent origination is applied not only to explain the nature and existence of matter and empirically observed phenomenon, but also to the causally conditioned nature and existence of life.[179] Indeed, according to Williams, the goal of this analysis is to understand how suffering arises for sentient beings through an impersonal law and thus how it can also be brought to an end by reversing its causes.[180] Understood in this way, dependent origination has no place for a creator God nor the ontological Vedic concept called universal Self (Brahman) nor any other 'transcendent creative principle'.[181][182] In this worldview, there is no ‘first cause’ from which all beings arose, instead, every thing arises in dependence on something else.[183][43]

Though Eviatar Shulman sees dependent origination as mainly being concerned with mental processes, he also states that it "possessed important ontological implications" which "suggest that rather than things being conditioned by other things, they are actually conditioned by consciousness." This is implied by the fact that form (rūpa) is said to be conditioned by consciousness and willed activities (saṇkhara) as well as by how grasping is said to condition existence (bhava).[5] For Shulman, "these forms of conditioning undermine the realistic ontology normally attributed to early Buddhism" and furthermore "suggest that the mind has power over objects beyond what we normally believe" as well as implying that "ontology is secondary to experience."[5]

While some scholars have argued that the Buddha put aside all metaphysical questions, Noa Ronkin argues that, while he rejected certain metaphysical questions, he was not an anti-metaphysician: nothing in the texts suggests that metaphysical questions are completely meaningless. Instead, the Buddha taught that sentient experience is dependently originated and that whatever is dependently originated is conditioned, impermanent, subject to change, and lacking independent selfhood.[184]

Rebirth

Analysis of rebirth without a self

The view that the application of dependent origination in the twelve nidanas is closely connected with rebirth is supported by passages from the early sources. Both the Sammādiṭṭhisutta and the Mahānidānasutta specifically mention the factors of dependent origination as being related to the process of conception in the womb.[109][185] Bhikkhu Bodhi affirms the centrality of rebirth for dependent origination. Bodhi writes that "the primary purpose, as seen in the most archaic Buddhist texts, is to show the causal origination of suffering, which is sustained precisely by our bondage to rebirth."[186]

Ajahn Brahm agrees, writing that the main purpose of dependent origination is to explain "how there can be rebirth without a soul" and "why there is suffering, and where suffering comes to an end." Brahm cites the definitions of the nidanas in the Vibhaṅgasutta (SN 12.2) which clearly indicate that birth and death is meant literally.[39] According to Brahm,

Paṭicca-samuppāda shows the empty process, empty of a soul that is, which flows within a life and overflows into another life. It also shows the forces at work in the process, which drive it this way and that, even exercising sway in a subsequent life. Dependent origination also reveals the answer to how kamma done in a previous life can affect a person in this life.[39]

Brahm argues that there are two parallel processes at work in dependent origination (which are really one process looked at from different angles), one is delusion and kamma leading to rebirth consciousness (nidanas # 1 - 3) and the other is craving and clinging leading to existence and rebirth (# 8 - 11). Brahm describes this as follows: "deluded kamma and craving produce the fuel which generates existence and rebirth (into that existence), thereby giving rise to the start of the stream of consciousness that is at the heart of the new life."[39]

Furthermore, dependent origination explains rebirth without appeal to an unchanging self or soul (atman). Paul Williams sees dependent origination as closely connected with the doctrine of not-self (anatman) which rejects the idea there is a unchanging essence that moves across lives. Williams cites the Mahatanhasankhaya Sutta as showing how dependent origination is to be seen as an alternative theory to such views.[17] According to Williams, dependent origination allows the Buddha to replace a view of the world based on unchanging selves "with an appeal to what he sees as being its essentially dynamic nature, a dynamism of experiences based on the centrality of causal conditioning."[187]

Bhikkhu Analayo writes that "dependent arising is the other side of the coin of emptiness, in the sense of the absence of a substantial and unchanging entity anywhere in subjective experience. Experience or existence is nothing but conditions. This leaves no room for positing a self of any type."[71]

According to Eisel Mazard, the twelve Nidanas are a description of "a sequence of stages prior to birth," as an "orthodox defense against any doctrine of a 'supernal self' or soul of any kind [...] excluding an un-mentioned life-force (jīva) that followers could presume to be additional to the birth of the body, the arising of consciousness, and the other aspects mentioned in the 12-links formula."[188][note 49] According to Mazard, "many later sources have digressed from the basic theme and subject-matter of the original text, knowingly or unknowingly."[188]

Abhidharma three life model
 
A circular schema of the 12 nidanas as understood in Theravada Buddhist scholasticism

In the Buddhist Abhidharma traditions like the Theravāda, more systematized explanations of the twelve nidanas developed.[179][189] As an expository device, the commentarial traditions of the Theravāda, sarvāstivāda-vaibhasika and sautrantika schools defended an interpretation which saw the 12 factors as a sequence that spanned three lives.[3][76] This is sometimes referred to as the "prolonged" explanation of dependent origination.[190][3]

The three life interpretation can first be seen in the Paṭisambhidāmagga (I.275, circa 2nd or 3rd c. BCE).[191] It is also defended by the Theravāda scholar Buddhaghosa (c. fifth century CE) in his influential Visuddhimagga (Vism.578–8I) and it became standard in Theravada.[192][193][194] The three-lives model, with its "embryological" interpretation which links dependent origination with rebirth was also promoted by the Sarvāstivāda school as evidenced by the Abhidharmakosa (AKB.III.21–4) of Vasubandhu (fl. 4th to 5th century CE) and the Jñanaprasthana.[194][3][76] Wayman notes that this model is also present in Asanga's Abhidharmasamuccaya and is commented on by Nagarjuna.[76]

The three lives interpretation can be broken down as follows:[76][193][195][196][note 50]

  • The previous life: the first two nidanas, namely ignorance and mental fabrications. They are basis for the events in the present. Nyanatiloka, writing from a traditional Theravada perspective, calls these "karma process" (kamma-bhava).
  • The present life: The third to the tenth nidanas (consciousness, nama-rupa, the sense bases, contact, feeling, craving, clinging, becoming) relate to the present life. This begins with the descent of vijnana (consciousness, perception) into the womb. Nyanatiloka notes that nidanas 3-7 are part of the "rebirth process" (uppatti-bhava) and nidanas are 8-10 are "karma process".[note 51]
  • The future life: The last two nidanas (birth, old age and death) represent the future lives conditioned by the present causes. Nyanatiloka states these last two nidanas are a "rebirth process."

Bhikkhu Bodhi notes that this distribution of the 12 nidanas into three lives "is an expository device employed for the purpose of exhibiting the inner dynamics of the round. It should not be read as implying hard and fast divisions, for in lived experience the factors are always intertwined."[71] Furthermore, Bodhi argues that these twelve causes are not something hidden, but are "the fundamental pattern of experience" which "always present, always potentially accessible to our awareness."[71]

Nagarjuna's Pratityasamutpada-hrdaya-karika also outlines the 12 nidanas as a rebirth process. According to Wayman, Nagarjuna's explanation is as follows: "the three defilements - nescience, craving, and indulgence - give rise to the two karmas - motivations and gestation - and that these two give rise to the seven sufferings - perception, name-and-form, six sense bases, contact, feelings, re-birth, and old age and death."[76] Vasubandhu's presentation is fully consistent with Nagarjuna's: "nescience, craving, and indulgence are defilement; motivations and gestations are karma; the remaining seven are the basis (asraya) as well as the fruit (phala).[76]

As outlined by Wayman, Asanga's Abhidharma-samuccaya divides the nidanas into the following groups:[76]

  • Nidanas 1, 2 and 3 which cast beings downward into the whirl of transmigration
  • Nidanas 4 to 7 represent what undergoes transmigration, "the aspects of the person undergoing phenomenal life" (Wayman).
  • Nidanas 8, 9, 10 produce new karma
  • Nidanas 11 and 12 are the fruits or results of karma produced previously

According to Gombrich, the "contorted" three lives interpretation is rendered unnecessary by the analysis provided by Jurewicz and other scholars which show that the 12 link chain is a composite list.[198]

Mental processes

The twelve nidanas have also been interpreted within various Buddhist traditions as explaining the arising of psychological or phenomenological processes in the present moment or across a series of moments.[3][25]

Abhidharma interpretations

Prayudh Payutto notes that in Buddhaghosa's Sammohavinodani, a commentary to the Vibhaṅga, the principle of dependent origination is explained as occurring entirely within the space of one mind moment.[25] Furthermore, according to Payutto, there is material in the Vibhaṅga which discusses both models, the three lifetimes model (at Vibh.147) and the one mind moment model.[3][25][199] Similarly, Cox notes that the Sarvastivadin Vijñānakāya contains two interpretations of dependent origination, one which explains the 12 nidanas as functioning in a single moment as a way to account for ordinary experience and another interpretation that understands the 12 nidanas as arising sequentially, emphasizing their role in the functioning of rebirth and karma.[74]

Wayman notes that an interpretation referring to mental processes (referred to as dependent origination with a transient character) can also be found in northern sources, such as the Jñānaprasthāna, the Arthaviniscaya-tika and the Abhidharmakosa (AKB.III.24d).[76][3] The Jñānaprasthāna, explains the nidanas with the example of the act of killing. Ignorance leads to the motivation to kill, which is acted on through consciousness, name and form and so on. This leads to mental karma being generated (bhava) which leads to the movement of the hand to kill (birth).[76]

The different interpretations of dependent origination as understood in the northern tradition can be found in the Abhidharmakosa, which outlines three models of the twelve nidanas:[200][194]

  1. Instantaneous – All 12 links "are realized in one and the same moment".[201]
  2. Prolonged – The interdependence and causal relationship of dharmas is seen as arising at different times (across three lifetimes).
  3. Serial – The causal relationship of the twelve links arising and ceasing in a continuous series of mind moments.

Modern interpretations

The interpretation of dependent origination as mainly referring to mental processes has been defended by various modern scholars such as Eviatar Shulman and Collett Cox.[5]

Eviatar Shulman argues that dependent origination only addresses "the way the mind functions in samsara, the processes of mental conditioning that transmigration consists of." He further argues that it "should be understood to be no more than an inquiry into the nature of the self (or better, the lack of a self)."[5] Shulman grants that there are some ontological implications that may be gleaned from dependent origination. However, he argues that at its core dependent origination is concerned with "identifying the different processes of mental conditioning and describing their relations". For Shulman, dependent origination does not "deal with how things exist, but with the processes by which the mind operates."[5]

Shulman argues that the general principle of dependent origination deals exclusively with the processes outlined in the lists of nidanas (not with existence per se, and certainly not with all objects). Shulman writes that seeing dependent origination as referring to the nature of reality in general "means investing the words of the earlier teachings with meanings derived from later Buddhist discourse" which leads to a misrepresentation of early Buddhism.[5]

Sue Hamilton presents a similar interpretation which sees dependent origination as showing how all things and indeed our entire "world" (of experience) are dependently originated through our cognitive apparatus. As such, Hamilton argues that the focus of this teaching is on our subjective experience, not on anything external to it.[202] Collett Cox also sees the theory of dependent origination found in the early Buddhist sources as an analysis of how suffering is produced in our experience. Cox states that it is only in later Abhidharma literature that dependent origination became an abstract theory of causation.[74]

A similar interpretation has been put forth by Bhikkhu Buddhadasa who argues that, in the list of the twelve nidanas, jati and jaramarana refer not to rebirth and physical death, but to the birth and death of our self-concept, the "emergence of the ego". According to Buddhadhasa,

...dependent arising is a phenomenon that lasts an instant; it is impermanent. Therefore, Birth and Death must be explained as phenomena within the process of dependent arising in everyday life of ordinary people. Right Mindfulness is lost during contacts of the Roots and surroundings. Thereafter, when vexation due to greed, anger, and ignorance is experienced, the ego has already been born. It is considered as one 'birth'".[203]

Ñāṇavīra Thera is another modern Theravada Bhikkhu known for rejecting the traditional interpretation and instead explaining the 12 links as a structural schema which does not happen in successive moments in time, but is instead a timeless structure of experience.[99]

Mahāyāna interpretations

Mahāyāna Buddhism, which sees dependent arising as closely connected with the doctrine of emptiness, strongly expresses that all phenomena and experiences are empty of independent identity. This is especially important for the madhyamaka school, one of the most influential traditions of Mahayana thought. The yogacara school meanwhile, understands dependent origination through its idealistic philosophy and sees dependent origination as the process that produces the illusory subject-object duality.

One of the most important and widely cited sutras on dependent origination in the Indian Mahayana tradition was the Śālistamba Sūtra (Rice Seedling Sutra).[204] This sutra introduced the well-known Mahayana simile of a rice seed and its sprout as a way to explain conditionality. It also contains the influential passage: "He who sees dependent arising sees the dharma. He who sees the dharma sees the Buddha."[204] This sutra contains numerous passages which parallel the early Buddhist sources (such as MN 38) and outlines the classic 12 nidanas. It also contains some unique elements such as the figure of Maitreya, the idea of illusion (māyā) and the idea of the dharmaśarīra (dharma-body).[205] Numerous commentaries were written on this sutra, some of which are attributed to Nāgārjuna (but this is questionable).[205]

Non-arising

Some Mahāyāna sūtras contain statements which speak of the "unarisen" or "unproduced" (anutpāda) nature of dharmas. According to Edward Conze, in the Prajñāpāramitā sutras, the ontological status of dharmas can be described as having never been produced (anutpāda), as never been brought forth (anabhinirvritti), as well as unborn (ajata). This is illustrated through various similies such as a dream, an illusion and a mirage. Conze also states that the "patient acceptance of the non-arising of dharmas" (anutpattika-dharmakshanti) is "one of the most distinctive virtues of the Mahāyānistic saint."[206]

Perhaps the earliest of these sutras, the Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā, contains a passage which describes the suchness (tathatā) of dharmas using various terms including shūnyatā, cessation (nirodha) and unarisen (anutpāda).[207] Most famously, the Heart Sutra states:

Sariputra, in that way, all phenomena are empty, that is, without characteristic, unproduced, unceased, stainless, not stainless, undiminished, unfilled.[208]

The Heart Sutra also negates the 12 links of dependent origination: "There is no ignorance, no extinction of ignorance, up to and including no aging and death and no extinction of aging and death."[209]

Some Mahāyāna sūtras present the insight into the non-arisen nature of dharmas as a great achievement of bodhisattvas. The Amitāyurdhyāna Sūtra mentions that Vaidehi had, on listening to the teaching in this sutra, attained "great awakening with clarity of mind and reached the insight into the non-arising of all dharmas."[210] Similarly, the Vimalakirti sutra mentions various bodhisattvas (including Vimalakirti) that have attained "the forbearance of the nonarising of dharmas."[211] The Lotus Sutra states that when the "thought of the highest path" arises in sentient beings "they will become convinced of the nonarising of all dharmas and reside in the stage of non-retrogression."[212]

The Samdhinirmochana Sutra's chapter 7 mentions a teaching which states: "All phenomena are without an essence, unborn, unceasing, primordially in the state of peace, and naturally in the state of nirvāṇa." However, it states that this teaching is that of the "discourses of provisional meaning," and that it should be taught along with the teachings of the third turning of the wheel of Dharma.[213] Similarly, the Lankavatara sutra explains the doctrine of the unborn and unoriginated nature of dharmas through the idealistic philosophy of mind-only. Since all things are illusory manifestations of the mind, they do not really originate or arise.[214]

Madhyamaka

In madhyamaka philosophy, to say that an object dependently originated is synonymous with saying that it is "empty" (shunya). This is directly stated by Nāgārjuna in his Mūlamadhyamakakārikā (MMK):[215]

Whatever arises dependently, is explained as empty. Thus dependent attribution, is the middle way. Since there is nothing whatever, that is not dependently existent. For that reason, there is nothing whatsoever that is not empty. -- MMK, Ch. 24.18-19 [216]

According to Nāgārjuna, all phenomena (dharmas) are empty of svabhāva (variously translated as essence, intrinsic nature, inherent existence, and own being) which refers to a self-sustaining, causally independent and permanent identity.[217][218] Nāgārjuna's philosophical works analyze all phenomena in order to show that nothing at all can exist independently, and yet, they are also not non-existent since they exist conventionally, i.e. as empty dependent arisings.[218] In the very first (dedicatory) verse of the MMK, dependent origination is also described apophatically through "the eight negations" as follows "there is neither cessation nor origination, neither annihilation nor the eternal, neither singularity nor plurality, neither the coming nor the going of any dharma, for the purpose of nirvāṇa characterized by the auspicious cessation of hypostatization [prapañca]."[219]

The first chapter of the MMK focuses on the general idea of causation and attempts to show how it is a process that is empty of any essence. According to Jay Garfield, in the first chapter, Nāgārjuna argues against a reified view of causality which sees dependent origination in terms of substantial powers (kriyā) of causation (hetu) that phenomena have as part of their intrinsic nature (svabhāva). Instead, Nāgārjuna sees dependent origination as a series of conditional relationships (pratyaya) that are merely nominal designations and "explanatorily useful regularities."[218] According to Nāgārjuna, if something could exist inherently or essentially from its own side (and thus have its own inherent causal powers), change and dependent arising would be impossible. Nāgārjuna states that "if things did not exist without essence, the phrase, "when this exists so this will be," would not be acceptable."[218]

Jan Westerhoff notes that Nāgārjuna argues that cause and effect are "neither identical nor different nor related as part and whole, they are neither successive, nor simultaneous, nor overlapping." Westerhoff states that Nāgārjuna thinks all conceptual frameworks of causality that make use of such ideas are based on a mistaken presupposition which is that "cause and effect exist with their own svabhāva".[220] Westerhoff further argues that for Nāgārjuna, causes and effects are both dependent on one another (conceptually and existentially) and neither one can exist independently.[221] As such, he rejects four ways that something could be causally produced: by itself, by something else, by both, by nothing at all.[222] Westerhoff also notes that for Nāgārjuna, cause and effect do not exist objectively, that is to say, they are not independent of a cognizing subject.[223] As such, cause and effect are "not just mutually interdependent, but also mind-dependent." This means that for Nāgārjuna, causality and causally constructed objects are ultimately just conceptual constructs.[224]

Nāgārjuna applies a similar analysis to numerous other kinds of phenomena in the MMK such as motion, the self, and time.[225] Chapter 7 of the MMK attempts to argue against the idea that dependent arising exists either as a conditioned entity or as an unconditioned one.[226] Rejecting both options, Nāgārjuna ends this chapter by stating that dependent arising is like an illusion, a dream or a city of gandharvas (a stock example for a mirage).[227] Chapter 20 tackles the question of whether an assemblage of causes and conditions can produce an effect (it is argued that it cannot).[228] This analysis of dependent arising therefore means that emptiness itself is empty. As Jay Garfield explains, this means that emptiness (and thus dependent origination) "is not a self-existent void standing behind the veil of illusion represented by conventional reality, but merely an aspect of conventional reality."[218]

Yogācāra

The yogācāra school interpreted the doctrine of dependent origination through its central schema of the "three natures" (which are really three ways of looking at one dependently originated reality).[229] In this schema, the constructed or fabricated nature is an illusory appearance (of a dualistic self), while the "dependent nature" refers specifically to the process of dependent origination or as Jonathan Gold puts it "the causal story that brings about this seeming self." Furthermore, as Gold notes, in Yogacara, "this causal story is entirely mental," and so our body, sense bases and so on are illusory appearances.[230] Indeed, D.W. Mitchell writes that yogācāra sees consciousness as "the causal force" behind dependent arising.[231]

Dependent origination is therefore "the causal series according to which the mental seeds planted by previous deeds ripen into the appearance of the sense bases".[230] This "stream of dependent mental processes" as Harvey describes it, is what generates the subject-object split (and thus the idea of a '"self" and "other" things which are not the self).[3] The third nature then, is the fact that dependent origination is empty of a self, the fact that even though self (as well as an "other", that which is apart from the self) appears, it does not exist.[229]

The 12 nidanas in Mahāyāna sutras and tantras

Alex Wayman writes that Mahāyāna texts such as Śrīmālādevī Siṃhanāda Sūtra present an alternative interpretation of the twelve nidanas. According to Wayman, this interpretation holds that arhats, pratyekabuddhas, and bodhisattvas have eliminated the four kinds of clinging (nidana # 9), which are the usual condition for existence (or "gestation", nidana #10) and rebirth (#11) in one of the three realms. Instead of being reborn, they have a "body made of mind" (manōmaya kāya), which is a special consciousness (vijñana). This consciousness is projected by ignorance (nidana #1) and purified by a special kind of samskara (# 2) called "nonfluxional karma" (anāsrava-karma). These mind-made bodies produce a reflected image in the three worlds, and thus they appear to be born.[76]

According to Wayman, this view of dependent origination posits "a dualistic structure of the world, in the manner of heaven and earth, where the "body made of mind" is in heaven and its reflected image, or coarser equivalent, is on earth. Otherwise stated, the early members of Dependent Origination apply to the superior realm, the later members to the inferior realm. But the Śrī-mālā-Sūtra does not clarify how those members are allotted to their respective realms."[76]

According to Wayman, similar interpretations appear in tantric texts, such as the Caṇḍamahāroṣaṇatantra. This tantra contains a passage which appears to suggest that "the first ten terms of dependent origination are prenatal."[76] He also notes that there is a tantric interpretation of dependent origination in the Guhyasamājatantra, "in which the first three members are equivalent to three mystical light stages.[76]

Tibetan interpretations

 
In Tibetan Buddhism, the 12 nidanas are typically shown on the outer rim of a wheel of existence. This is a common genre of art found in Tibetan temples and monasteries.[232] The three poisons (greed, hatred and delusion) sit at the very center of wheel.

Tibetan Buddhist scholars rely on the north Indian works of scholars such as Asanga, Vasubandhu and Nagarjuna in their interpretation of the 12 nidanas. For example, according to Wayman, Tsongkhapa, attempted to harmonize the presentations of the 12 links found in Nagarjuna and in Asanga.[3] Tsongkhapa also explains how the twelve nidanas can be applied to one life of a single person, two lives of a single person, and three lives of a single person.[233]

Discussing the three lifetimes model, Alex Wayman states that the Theravada interpretation is different from the Vajrayana view, because the Vajrayana view places a bardo or an intermediate state (which is denied in Theravada) between death and rebirth.[234] The Tibetan Buddhism tradition allocates the twelve nidanas differently between various lives.[235]

Madhyamaka is interpreted in different ways by different traditions. Some scholars accept a version of the shentong view introduced by Dolpopa (1292–1361), which argues that buddha-nature and buddhahood was not dependently originated and thus not empty of itself (but empty of what is not itself).[236] The Gelug school which follows Tsongkhapa's thought rejects this view, and instead holds that all phenomena are said to lack 'inherent' existence (svabhava) and thus, everything is empty and dependently originated.[237] Other Tibetan madhyamakas like Gorampa argue for a more anti-realist view, negating the very existence of all phenomena and seeing them all as illusions.[238] Meanwhile, scholars of the Nyingma school such as Ju Mipham have also attempted to interpret orthodox madhyamaka in a way that is compatible with the view of dzogchen.[239]

Interdependence

The Huayan school taught the doctrine of the mutual containment and interpenetration of all phenomena (yuánróng, 圓融), as expressed in the metaphor of Indra's net. One thing contains all other existing things, and all existing things contain that one thing. This philosophy is based on the Avatamsaka Sutra and the writings of the patriarchs of Huayan.

Thích Nhất Hạnh explains this concept as follows: "You cannot just be by yourself alone. You have to inter-be with every other thing." He uses the example of a sheet of paper that can only exist due to every other cause and condition (sunshine, rain, trees, people, the mind etc). According to Hanh "this sheet of paper is, because everything else is."[240]

Sogyal Rinpoche states all things, when seen and understood in their true relation, are not independent but interdependent with all other things. A tree, for example, cannot be isolated from anything else. It has no independent existence.[241]

According to Richard Gombrich, the East Asian interpretation of dependent origination as the idea that "all phenomena exert causal influence on each other" does not follow from the early Buddhist understanding of dependent origination.[242] He further argues that this interpretation "would subvert the Buddha’s teaching of karma." This is because "if we were heirs of other people’s deeds, the whole moral edifice would collapse."[198]

Comparison with western philosophy

The concept of pratītyasamutpāda has also been compared to Western metaphysics, the study of reality. Schilbrack states that the doctrine of interdependent origination seems to fit the definition of a metaphysical teaching, by questioning whether there is anything at all.[243] Hoffman disagrees, and asserts that pratītyasamutpāda should not be considered a metaphysical doctrine in the strictest sense, since it does not confirm nor deny specific entities or realities.[quote 3]

The Hellenistic philosophy of Pyrrhonism parallels the Buddhist view of dependent origination, as it does in many other matters (see: similarities between Phyrrhonism and Buddhism).[245][246][247] Aulus Gellius in Attic Nights describes how appearances are produced by relative interactions between mind and body and how there are no self-dependent things.[248] The ancient Commentary on Plato's Theaetetus also defends a kind of relativism which states that nothing has its own intrinsic character.[249]

Jay L. Garfield states that Nagarjuna's Mulamadhyamikakarika uses the causal relation to understand the nature of reality, and of our relation to it. This attempt is similar to the use of causation by Hume, Kant, and Schopenhauer as they present their arguments. Nagarjuna uses causation to present his arguments on how one individualizes objects, orders one's experience of the world, and understands agency in the world.[33]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ The Pratītyasamutpāda doctrine, states Mathieu Boisvert, is a fundamental tenet of Buddhism and it may be considered as "the common denominator of all the Buddhist traditions throughout the world, whether Theravada, Mahayana or Vajrayana".[1]
  2. ^ such as hymns 4.5.14, 7.68.6 of the Rigveda and 19.49.8 of Atharvaveda
  3. ^ The term pratītyasamutpāda been translated into English as conditioned arising,[16] conditioned genesis,[32] dependent arising,[33][quote 1] dependent co-arising,[35] or dependent origination[36]
  4. ^ The general formula can be found in the following discourses in the Pali Canon: MN 79, MN 115, SN12.21, SN 12.22, SN 12.37, SN 12.41, SN 12.49, SN 12.50, SN 12.61, SN 12.62, SN 55.28, AN 10.92, Ud. 1.1 (first two lines), Ud. 1.2 (last two lines), Ud. 1.3, Nd2, Patis. According to Choong (2000) p. 157, the formula also appears in the Saṁyuktāgama (SA 293, 296-302, 349-350, 358, 369).
  5. ^ Choong Mun-keat translates these two as "the dharma of arising by causal condition and the dharmas arisen by causal condition" in his translation of SA 296.[46][14] According to Choong, these terms refer to two ideas: (1) a natural law of phenomena and (2) causal factors respectively.[46][14]
  6. ^ SN 20:7 (SĀ 1258) has the Buddha state that his disciples should study “those discourses taught by the Tathāgata that are profound, profound in meaning, transmundane, connected with emptiness”. According to Hùifēng, in the early sources (SN 6:1, MN 26 and 27:7, as well as DN 15, MĀ 97 and DĀ 13), terms such as “profound” (gambhīra) as well as related terms such as "hard to see", "subtle" and "not within the sphere of reasoning" are used to describe dependent origination (as well as its reversal, dependent cessation).[24]
  7. ^ The early Buddhist texts also list other sets of extreme views that are avoided through insight into the middle teaching of dependent arising:[57][3]
    • The view that “the life-principle (jiva) is the same as the mortal body (sarira)” and the view that holds that “the life-principle is different from the mortal body” (in SN 12.35-36, SA 297, and SA 293). According to dependent origination, the mind and the body are seen as mutually supporting and deeply interconnected processes.
    • Feeling (vedana) is not created by oneself, by another, created by both, or arises without a cause. It is also not non-existent (natthi). Furthermore, the view that the one who acts is the same as the who experiences the karmic result of the action is one extreme, and the view which says that the one who acts and the one who experiences the results are different is another extreme. These ideas are found in SN 12.17-18, SA 302-303, SN 12.46 and SA 300.
    • The view that “all is a unity” (or “all is one”) and the view that “all is a plurality” (or “everything is separate”) are two extremes found in SN.II.77.[3] The first of these ideas is related to the idealistic monism seen in the Upanishads while the second view sees reality as totally separate and independent entities. Dependent origination is instead a network of interconnected processes which are neither the same thing nor totally different.
  8. ^ According to Harvey, what this means is that this teaching avoids the extreme of substantialism "seeing the experienced world as existing here and now in a solid, essential way" as well as believing there are fixed essences (especially an eternal self or soul); as well as avoiding annihilationism and nihilism, that is seeing the world as non-existent or holding that one is annihilated at death.[3] As Harvey writes, dependent origination avoids these two views, instead holding that "no unchanging “being” passes over from one life to another, but the death of a being leads to the continuation of the life process in another context, like the lighting of one lamp from another (Miln. 71)."[3]
  9. ^ Most Suttas follow the order from ignorance to dukkha. But SN 12.20[47] views this as a teaching of the requisite conditions for sustaining dukkha, which is its main application.
  10. ^ Harvey: any action, whether meritorious or harmful, and whether of body, speech or mind, creates karmic imprint on a being.[83] This includes will (cetana) and planning.[83] It leads to transmigratory consciousness.[83]
  11. ^ Bucknell: In the Maha-nidana Sutta, which contains ten links, vijnana and nama-rupa are described as conditioning each other, creating a loop which is absent in the standard version of twelve links.[12]
  12. ^ Here it refers to the function of the mind that cognizes feeling.
  13. ^ This is the faculty of the mind that names (recognizes) a feeling as pleasurable, unpleasurable or neutral, depending on what was its original tendency.
  14. ^ This is the faculty of the mind where volitions arise. It is important to note that volition is noted again in the same sequence as a cause of consciousness.
  15. ^ This is the faculty of the mind that can penetrate something, analyze, and objectively observe.
  16. ^ i.e. mentality or mind.
  17. ^ The earth (property of solidity), water (property of liquity), wind (property of motion, energy and gaseousness), fire (property of heat and cold). See also Mahabhuta. In other places in the Pali Canon (DN 33, MN 140 and SN 27.9) we also see two additional elements - the space property and the consciousness property. Space refers to the idea of space that is occupied by any of the other four elements. For example any physical object occupies space and even though that space is not a property of that object itself, the amount of space it occupies is a property of that object and is therefore a derived property of the elements.
  18. ^ Bucknell: originally, nama-rupa referred to the six classes of sense-objects, which together with the six-senses and the six sense-consciousnesses form phassa, "contact."[12]
  19. ^ Eye-consciousness, ear-consciousness, nose-consciousness, tongue-consciousness, skin-consciousness and mind-consciousness
  20. ^ Mahasi Sayadaw: "...To give another example, it is just like the case of a person in a room who sees many things when he opens the window and looks through it. If it is asked, 'Who is it that sees? Is it the window or the person that actually sees?' the answer is, 'The window does not possess the ability to see; it is only the person who sees.' If it is again asked, 'Will the person be able to see things on the outside without the window (if he is confined to a room without the window or with the window closed)?' the answer will be, 'It is not possible to see things through the wall without the window. One can only see through the window.' Similarly, in the case of seeing, there are two separate realities of the eye and seeing. (So the eye does not have the ability to see without the eye-consciousness. The eye-consciousness itself cannot see anything without the organ.) The eye is not seeing, nor is seeing the eye, yet there cannot be an act of seeing without the eye. In reality, seeing comes into being depending on the eye. It is now evident that in the body there are only two distinct elements of materiality (eye) and mentality (eye-consciousness) at every moment of seeing. There is also a third element of materiality — the visual object. Without the visual object there is nothing to be seen..."[88]
  21. ^ Enjoyment and clinging for music, beauty, sexuality, health, etc.
  22. ^ Clinging for notions and beliefs such as in God, or other cosmological beliefs, political views, economic views, one's own superiority, either due to caste, sex, race, etc., views regarding how things should be, views on being a perfectionist, disciplinarian, libertarian etc.
  23. ^ Clinging for rituals, dressing, rules of cleansing the body etc.
  24. ^ That there is a self consisting of form and is finite, or a self consisting of form but infinite, or a self that is formless but finite, or a self that is formless and infinite.
  25. ^ a b Bhikkhu Bodhi: "Bhava, in MLDB, was translated “being.” In seeking an alternative, I had first experimented with “becoming,” but when the shortcomings in this choice were pointed out to me I decided to return to “existence,” used in my earlier translations. Bhava, however, is not “existence” in the sense of the most universal ontological category, that which is shared by everything from the dishes in the kitchen sink to the numbers in a mathematical equation. Existence in the latter sense is covered by the verb atthi and the abstract noun atthitā. Bhava is concrete sentient existence in one of the three realms of existence posited by Buddhist cosmology, a span of life beginning with conception and ending in death. In the formula of dependent origination it is understood to mean both (i) the active side of life that produces rebirth into a particular mode of sentient existence, in other words rebirth-producing kamma; and (ii) the mode of sentient existence that results from such activity."[93]
  26. ^ getting attracted, mesmerized, disgusted
  27. ^ growing older, tall, healthy, weak, becoming a parent or spouse, rich, etc.
  28. ^ annihilation, destruction, suicide, loss of a position etc.
  29. ^ Thanissaro Bhikkhu :"Nowhere in the suttas does he [the Buddha] define the term becoming, but a survey of how he uses the term in different contexts suggests that it means a sense of identity in a particular world of experience: your sense of what you are, focused on a particular desire, in your personal sense of the world as related to that desire."[96]
  30. ^ Bhikkhu Bodhi: "(i) the active side of life that produces rebirth into a particular mode of sentient existence, in other words rebirth-producing kamma; and (ii) the mode of sentient existence that results from such activity."[citation needed][note 25]
  31. ^ * Payutto: "[T]he entire process of behavior generated to serve craving and clinging (kammabhava).[8]
  32. ^ Analayo: "birth" may refer to (physical) birth; to rebirth; (Since without birth no aging, death, or any of the sorrows and disappointments of life would occur, birth is a requisite cause for dukkha. Thus, the complete cessation of dukkha must imply that there is no further birth for the enlightened) and to the arising of mental phenomena.[98]
  33. ^ The Vibhanga, the second book of the Theravada Abbidhamma, treats both rebirth and the arising of mental phenomena. In the Suttantabhajaniya it is described as rebirth, which is conditioned by becoming (bhava), and gives rise to old age and death (jarāmaraṇa) in a living being. In the Abhidhammabhajaniya it is treated as the arising of mental phenomena.[98]
  34. ^ Nanavira Thera: "...jati is 'birth' and not 'rebirth'. 'Rebirth' is punabbhava bhinibbatti'."[99]
  35. ^ Brahmajala Sutta, verse 3.71. This is identified as the first reference in the Canon in footnote 88 for Sutta 1, verse 3.71's footnotes.
  36. ^ The pre-Buddhist Vedic era theories on causality mention four types of causality, all of which Buddhism rejected.[122][123] The four Vedic era causality theories in vogue were:[122][123]
    • sayam katam (attakatam, self causation): this theory posits that there is no external agent (God) necessary for a phenomenon, there is svadha (inner energy) in nature or beings that lead to creative evolution, the cause and the effect are in the essence of the evolute and inseparable (found in the Vedic and particularly Upanishadic proto-Hindu schools);
    • param katam (external causation): posits that something external (God, fate, past karma or purely natural determinism) causes effects (found in materialistic schools like Charvaka, as well as fate-driven schools such as Ajivika);
    • sayam-param katam (internal and external causation): combination of the first two theories of causation (found in some Jainism, theistic proto-Hindu schools);
    • asayam-aparam katam (neither internal nor external causation): this theory denies direct determinism (ahetu) and posits fortuitous origination, asserting everything is a manifestation of a combination of chance (found in some proto-Hindu [clarification needed] schools).
  37. ^ Shulman refers to Schmitthausen (2000), Zur Zwolfgliedrigen Formel des Entstehens in Abhangigkeit, in Horin: Vergleichende Studien zur Japanischen Kultur, 7
  38. ^ Boisvert correlates vijnana in the twelve nidanas sequence; in the five skandhas, vijnana comes last.[133]
  39. ^ Jurewicz (2000), Playing with fire: the pratityasamutpada from the perspective of Vedic thought. Journal of the Pali Text Society, XXVI, 77-104.
  40. ^ Gombrich: "The six senses, and thence, via 'contact' and 'feeling', to thirst." It is quite plausible, however, that someone failed to notice that once the first four links became part of the chain, its negative version meant that in order to abolish ignorance one first had to abolish consciousness!"[128]
  41. ^ Bucknell: "vinnana: consciousness associated with eye, ear, nose tongue, body, and mind (mano)"[139]
  42. ^ Bucknell: "These observations by Watsuji, Yinshun, and Reat indicate that nama-rupa, far from signifying "mind-and-body" or something similar, is a collective term for the six types of sense object."[146]
  43. ^ a b Compare Grzegorz Polak, who argues that the four upassanā, the "four bases of mindfulness," have been misunderstood by the developing Buddhist tradition, including Theravada, to refer to four different foundations. According to Polak, the four upassanā do not refer to four different foundations, but to the awareness of four different aspects of raising sati, mindfulness:[152]
    • the six sense-bases which one needs to be aware of (kāyānupassanā);
    • contemplation on vedanās, which arise with the contact between the senses and their objects (vedanānupassanā);
    • the altered states of mind to which this practice leads (cittānupassanā);
    • the development from the five hindrances to the seven factors of enlightenment (dhammānupassanā).
  44. ^ Bhikkhu Bodhi: "In addition to giving a clear, explicit account of the conditional structure of the liberative progression, this sutta has the further advantage of bringing the supramundane form of dependent arising into immediate connection with its familiar samsaric counterpart. By making this connection it brings into prominence the comprehensive character of the principle of conditionality — its ability to support and explain both the process of compulsive involvement which is the origin of suffering and the process of disengagement which leads to deliverance from suffering. Thereby it reveals dependent arising to be the key to the unity and coherence of the Buddha's teaching.[75]
  45. ^ The various listings can be found in: DN 2 (repeated at DN 9, 10, 11, 12, 138, DN 34, MN 7 (repeat at MN 40), MN 51, SN 12.23, SN 35.97, SN 42.13, SN 55.40, AN 5.26, AN 6.10, AN 8.81, AN 10.1 (AN 11.1), AN 10.2 (AN 11.2), AN 10.3 (AN 11.3), AN 10.4 (AN 11.4), AN 10.5 (11.5), and AN 11.12.[153]
  46. ^ The fifth century Theravada commentator Buddhaghosa states that dependent arising "means that something can only arise when its conditions are gathered together (Vism.521). Something arises together with its conditions."[3]
  47. ^ Harvey: "This [doctrine] states the principle of conditionality, that all things, mental and physical, arise and exist due to the presence of certain conditions, and cease once their conditions are removed: nothing (except Nibbana) is independent. The doctrine thus complements the teaching that no permanent, independent self can be found."[16]
  48. ^ Bodhi: "it [dependent origination] provides the teaching with its primary ontological principle, its key for understanding the nature of being."[177]
  49. ^ Mazard: "[T]he 12-links formula is unambiguously an ancient tract that was originally written on the subject of the conception and development of the embryo, as a sequence of stages prior to birth; in examining the primary source text, this is as blatant today as it was over two thousand years ago, despite some very interesting misinterpretations that have arisen in the centuries in-between [...] In the Mahānidāna [sutta]’s brief gloss on the term nāmarūpa [...] we have a very explicit reminder that the subject-matter being described in this sequence of stages is the development of the embryo [...] it is indisputably clear that we are reading about something that may (or may not) enter into (okkamissatha) the mother’s womb (mātukucchismiŋ) [...] [T]he passage is wildly incongruent with attempts of many other interpreters to render the whole doctrine in more abstract terms (variously psychological or metaphysical).[188]
  50. ^ Bhikkhi Bodhi briefly explains this interpretation as follows: "Due to ignorance-formally defined as non-knowledge of the Four Noble Truths-a person engages in ethically motivated action, which may be wholesome or unwholesome, bodily, verbal, or mental. These actions, referred to here as volitional formations, constitute kamma. At the time of rebirth kamma conditions the re-arising of consciousness, which comes into being bringing along its psychophysical adjuncts, "mentality-materiality" (niima-nipa). In dependence on the psychophysical adjuncts, the six sense bases develop---the five outer senses and the mind-base. Through these, contact takes place between consciousness and its objects, and contact in turn conditions feeling. In response to feeling craving springs up, and if it grows firm, leads into clinging. Driven by clinging actions are perfonned with the potency to generate new existence. These actions, kamma backed by craving, eventually bring a new existence: birth followed by aging and death.[197]
  51. ^ According to Keown, the first five nidanas of the present life relate to one's present destiny, and condition the present life's existence. The next three dependent originations, namely craving, indulgence and gestation foster the fruits of the present destiny.[193]

Quotes

  1. ^ The Dalai Lama explains: "In Sanskrit the word for dependent-arising is pratityasamutpada. The word pratitya has three different meanings—meeting, relying, and depending—but all three, in terms of their basic import, mean dependence. Samutpada means arising. Hence, the meaning of pratityasamutpada is that which arises in dependence upon conditions, in reliance upon conditions, through the force of conditions."[34]
  2. ^ The Nalanda Translation Committee states: "Pratitya-samutpada is the technical name for the Buddha’s teaching on cause and effect, in which he demonstrated how all situations arise through the coming together of various factors. In the hinayana, it refers in particular to the twelve nidānas, or links in the chain of samsaric becoming."[38]
  3. ^ Hoffman states: "Suffice it to emphasize that the doctrine of dependent origination is not a metaphysical doctrine, in the sense that it does not affirm or deny some super-sensible entities or realities; rather, it is a proposition arrived at through an examination and analysis of the world of phenomena ..."[244]

References

  1. ^ a b Boisvert 1995, pp. 6–7.
  2. ^ a b Fuller, Paul (2004). The Notion of Ditthi in Theravada Buddhism: The Point of View. p. 65. Routledge.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae Harvey, Peter. The Conditioned Co-arising of Mental and Bodily Processes within Life and Between Lives, in Steven M. Emmanuel (ed) (2013). "A Companion to Buddhist Philosophy", pp. 46-69. John Wiley & Sons.
  4. ^ a b c d e f Harvey 2015, pp. 50–59.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Shulman 2008.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Jurewicz 2000.
  7. ^ a b c Robert E. Buswell Jr.; Donald S. Lopez Jr. (2013). The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism. Princeton University Press. p. 583. ISBN 978-1-4008-4805-8.
  8. ^ a b c Payutto, Dependent Origination: the Buddhist Law of Causality
  9. ^ a b c Jones 2009.
  10. ^ a b Frauwallner 1973, pp. 167–168.
  11. ^ Schumann 1997.
  12. ^ a b c d e f g h Bucknell 1999.
  13. ^ a b c d e Gombrich 2009.
  14. ^ a b c Choong, Mun-keat (2000). The Fundamental Teachings of Early Buddhism: A Comparative Study Based on the Sutranga Portion of the Pali Samyutta-Nikaya and the Chinese Samyuktagama, p. 150. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag.
  15. ^ a b David J. Kalupahana (1975). Causality: The Central Philosophy of Buddhism. University of Hawaii Press. pp. 54–60. ISBN 978-0-8248-0298-1.
  16. ^ a b c d e Harvey 1990, p. 54.
  17. ^ a b c d e Williams (2002), p. 64.
  18. ^ a b Gombrich (2009), p. 132.
  19. ^ a b Stephen J. Laumakis (2008). An Introduction to Buddhist Philosophy. Cambridge University Press. pp. 113–115. ISBN 978-1-139-46966-1.
  20. ^ Jeffrey Hopkins (1983). Meditation on Emptiness. Wisdom Publications. pp. 214–219. ISBN 0-86171-014-2.
  21. ^ a b Peter Harvey (2001). Buddhism. Bloomsbury Academic. pp. 242–244. ISBN 978-1-4411-4726-4.
  22. ^ Gary Storhoff (2010). American Buddhism as a Way of Life. State University of New York Press. pp. 74–76. ISBN 978-1-4384-3095-9.
  23. ^ Ray Billington (2002). Understanding Eastern Philosophy. Routledge. pp. 58–59. ISBN 978-1-134-79348-8.
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  25. ^ a b c d Prayudh Payutto. Dependent Origination: the Buddhist Law of Conditionality. Translated by Bruce Evans.
  26. ^ a b Hopkins 1983, p. 163.
  27. ^ ऋग्वेद: सूक्तं ७.६८, Rigveda 7.68.6, Wikisource; Quote: उत त्यद्वां जुरते अश्विना भूच्च्यवानाय प्रतीत्यं हविर्दे । अधि यद्वर्प इतऊति धत्थः ॥६॥
  28. ^ a b Monier Monier-Williams (1872). A Sanskrit-English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. p. 623.
  29. ^ . spokensanskrit.de. Archived from the original on 2 May 2015.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  30. ^ Monier Monier-Williams (1872). A Sanskrit-English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. p. 1078.
  31. ^ Lopez 2001, p. 29, Quote: "Dependent origination has two meanings in Buddhist thought. The first refers to the twelvefold sequence of causation. The second meaning of dependent origination is a more general one, the notion that everything comes into existence in dependence on something else. It is this second meaning that Nagarjuna equates with emptiness and the middle way.".
  32. ^ Walpola Rahula 2007, Kindle Locations 791-809.
  33. ^ a b Garfield 1994.
  34. ^ Dalai Lama 1992, p. 35.
  35. ^ Thanissaro Bhikkhu 2008.
  36. ^ a b "Paticca-samuppada". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 25 February 2011.
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  41. ^ "Assutavā Sutta: Uninstructed (1)". Access to Insight (BCBS Edition). Translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu. 30 November 2013. (SN 12.61).
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  43. ^ a b Gombrich (2009), p. 131.
  44. ^ a b c Bodhi, Bhikkhu (1995). The Great Discourse on Causation - The Mahānidāna Sutta and Its Commentaries (Second Edition), p. 9. Buddhist Publication Society Kandy • Sri Lanka.
  45. ^ a b c Paccayasutta SN 12.20 (SN ii 25) https://suttacentral.net/sn12.20/
  46. ^ a b Saṁyuktāgama 296 - The dharma of arising by causal condition and the dharmas arisen by causal condition (因緣法), translated by Choong Mun-keat. https://suttacentral.net/sa296/en/choong
  47. ^ a b "Paccaya Sutta: Requisite Conditions". Access to Insight (BCBS Edition). Translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu. 30 November 2013. (SN 12.20).
  48. ^ Choong, Mun-keat (2000). The Fundamental Teachings of Early Buddhism: A Comparative Study Based on the Sutranga Portion of the Pali Samyutta-Nikaya and the Chinese Samyuktagama, p. 153. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag.
  49. ^ Choong, Mun-keat (2000). The Fundamental Teachings of Early Buddhism: A Comparative Study Based on the Sutranga Portion of the Pali Samyutta-Nikaya and the Chinese Samyuktagama, p. 154. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag.
  50. ^ SN 12.10 translated by Bhikkhu Sujato, https://suttacentral.net/sn12.10/en/sujato
  51. ^ Mahānidānasutta DN 15 (DN ii 55), translated by Bhikkhu Sujato.https://suttacentral.net/dn15/
  52. ^ Bodhi, Bhikkhu (1995). The Great Discourse on Causation - The Mahānidāna Sutta and Its Commentaries (Second Edition), p. 28. Buddhist Publication Society Kandy • Sri Lanka.
  53. ^ Choong, Mun-keat (2000). The Fundamental Teachings of Early Buddhism: A Comparative Study Based on the Sutranga Portion of 201. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag.
  54. ^ Mahāhatthipadopamasutta MN 28 (MN i 184), translated by Bhikkhu Sujato, https://suttacentral.net/mn28/en/sujato
  55. ^ Williams (2002), p. 67.
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  • Boisvert, Mathieu (1995), The Five Aggregates: Understanding Theravada Psychology and Soteriology, Wilfrid Laurier University Press, ISBN 978-0-88920-257-3
  • Bowker, John, ed. (1997), The Oxford Dictionary of World Religions, Oxford
  • Bucknell, Roderick S. (1999), "Conditioned Arising Evolves: Variation and Change in Textual Accounts of the Paticca-samupadda Doctrine", Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, 22 (2)
  • Buddhaghosa (2010), The Path of Purification (Visuddhimagga), translated by Bhikkhu Ñāṇamoli (4th ed.), Kandy, Sri Lanka: Buddhist Publication Society, ISBN 978-955-24-0023-0
  • Dalai Lama (1992), The Meaning of Life, translated and edited by Jeffrey Hopkins, Wisdom
  • Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse (2011), What Makes You Not a Buddhist, Shambhala, Kindle Edition
  • Edelglass, William; et al. (2009), Buddhist Philosophy: Essential Readings, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-532817-2
  • Frauwallner, Erich (1973), "Chapter 5. The Buddha and the Jina", History of Indian Philosophy: The philosophy of the Veda and of the epic. The Buddha and the Jina. The Sāmkhya and the classical Yoga-system, Motilal Banarsidass
  • Garfield, Jay L. (1994), , Philosophy East and West, Volume 44, Number 2 April 1994, archived from the original on 7 May 2010, retrieved 3 September 2012
  • Geshe Sonam Rinchen (2006), How Karma Works: The Twelve Links of Dependent Arising, Snow Lion
  • Gethin, Rupert (1998), Foundations of Buddhism, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-289223-2
  • Goldstein, Joseph (2002), One Dharma: The Emerging Western Buddhism, HarperCollins
  • Gombrich, Richard (2009), "Chaper 9. Causation and non-random process", What the Buddha Thought, Equinox
  • Goodman, Steven D. (1992), Situational Patterning: Pratītyasamutpāda. Footsteps on the Diamond Path (Crystal Mirror Series; v. 1-3), Dharma Publishing
  • Harvey, Peter (1990), An Introduction to Buddhism, Cambridge University Press
  • Harvey, Peter (2015), "The Conditioned Co-arising of Mental and Bodily Processes within Life and Between Lives", in Emmanuel, Steven M. (ed.), A Companion to Buddhist Philosophy, John Wiley & Sons, ISBN 978-1-119-14466-3
  • Hoffman, Frank J.; et al. (1996), Pāli Buddhism, Routledge, ISBN 978-0-7007-0359-3
  • Hopkins, Jeffrey (1983), Meditation on Emptiness, Wisdom Publications, ISBN 978-0-86171-014-0
  • Jones, Dhivan Thomas (2009), "New Light on the Twelve Nidanas", Contemporary Buddhism, 10 (2): 241–259, doi:10.1080/14639940903239793, S2CID 145413087
  • Jurewicz, Joanna (2000), "Playing with Fire: The pratityasamutpada from the perspective of Vedic thought" (PDF), Journal of the Pali Text Society, 26: 77–103
  • Lama Zopa Rinpoche (2009), How Things Exist: Teachings on Emptiness, Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive, Kindle Edition
  • Lopez, Donald S. (2001), The Story of Buddhism, HarperCollins
  • Mabja Tsondru (2011), Ornament of Reason, Snow Lion
  • McEvilley, Thomas (2002), The Shape of Ancient Thought
  • Polak, Grzegorz (2011), Reexamining Jhana: Towards a Critical Reconstruction of Early Buddhist Soteriology, UMCS
  • Ronkin, Noa (2009), Edelglass; et al. (eds.), "Theravada Metaphysics and Ontology", Buddhist Philosophy: Essential Readings, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-532817-2
  • Schilbrack, Kevin (2002), Thinking through Myths: Philosophical Perspectives, Routledge, ISBN 978-0-415-25461-8
  • Schumann, Hans Wolfgang (1974), Buddhism: an outline of its teachings and schools, Theosophical Pub. House
  • Schumann, Hans Wolfgang (1997) [1976], Boeddhisme. Stichter, scholen, systemen (Buddhismus - Stifter, Schulen und Systemen), Asoka
  • Shulman, Eviatar (2008), (PDF), Journal of Indian Philosophy, 36 (2): 297–317, doi:10.1007/s10781-007-9030-8, S2CID 59132368, archived from the original (PDF) on 10 October 2016
  • Smith, Huston; Novak, Philip (2009), Buddhism: A Concise Introduction, HarperOne, Kindle Edition
  • Sogyal Rinpoche (2009), The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, Harper Collins, Kindle Edition
  • Thanissaro Bhikkhu (2008), (PDF), Metta Forest Monastery, archived from the original (PDF) on 30 May 2013
  • Thich Nhat Hanh (1999), The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching, Three River Press
  • Waldron, William S. (2004), The Buddhist Unconsciousness. The alaya-vijñana in the context of Indian Buddhist thought, RoutledgeCurzon
  • Walpola Rahula (2007), What the Buddha Taught, Grove Press, Kindle Edition
  • Walshe, Maurice (1996), The Long Discourses of the Buddha: a Translation of the Dīgha Nikāya (3rd ed.), Boston: Wisdom Publications, ISBN 978-0-86171-103-1
  • Wayman, Alex (1971), "Buddhist Dependent Origination", History of Religions, 10 (3): 185–203, doi:10.1086/462628, JSTOR 1062009, S2CID 161507469
  • Wayman, Alex (1984a), Dependent Origination - the Indo-Tibetan Vision in Wayman (1984)
  • Wayman, Alex (1984b), The Intermediate-State Dispute in Buddhism in Wayman (1984)
  • Wayman, Alex (1984), George R. Elder (ed.), Budddhist Insight: Essays by Alex Wayman, Motilall Banarsidass, ISBN 978-81-208-0675-7
  • Williams, Paul (2002), Buddhist Thought, Taylor & Francis, Kindle Edition

Further reading

Theravada
  • Walpola Rahula (1974), What the Buddha Taught
  • P. A. Payutto, Dependent Origination: The Buddhist Law of Conditionality (translation for the fourth chapter of P. A. Payutto's Buddhadhamma)
  • Ajahn Sucitto (2010). Turning the Wheel of Truth: Commentary on the Buddha's First Teaching. Shambhala. (pages 61–76)
  • Jackson, Peter A. (2003), Buddhadasa. Theravada Buddhism and Modernist reform in Thailand, Silkworm Books
  • Ajahn Amaro (2021), Catastrophe/Apostrophe: The Buddha’s Teachings on Dependent Origination/Cessation, Amaravati Publications
Tibetan Buddhism
  • Chogyam Trungpa (1972). "Karma and Rebirth: The Twelve Nidanas, by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche." Karma and the Twelve Nidanas, A Sourcebook for the Shambhala School of Buddhist Studies. Vajradhatu Publications.
  • Dalai Lama (1992). The Meaning of Life, translated and edited by Jeffrey Hopkins, Boston: Wisdom.
  • Geshe Sonam Rinchen (2006). How Karma Works: The Twelve Links of Dependent Arising. Snow Lion
  • Khandro Rinpoche (2003). This Precious Life. Shambala
  • Thrangu Rinpoche (2001). The Twelve Links of Interdependent Origination. Nama Buddha Publications.
Scholarly
  • Frauwallner, Erich (1973), "Chapter 5. The Buddha and the Jina", History of Indian Philosophy: The philosophy of the Veda and of the epic. The Buddha and the Jina. The Sāmkhya and the classical Yoga-system, Motilal Banarsidass
  • Bucknell, Roderick S. (1999), "Conditioned Arising Evolves: Variation and Change in Textual Accounts of the Paticca-samupadda Doctrine", Journal of the Internatopnal Association of Buddhist Studies, 22 (2)
  • Jurewicz, Joanna (2000), "Playing with Fire: The pratityasamutpada from the perspective of Vedic thought", Journal of the Pali Text Society, 26: 77–103
  • Shulman, Eviatar (2008), (PDF), Journal of Indian Philosophy, 36 (2): 297–317, doi:10.1007/s10781-007-9030-8, S2CID 59132368, archived from the original (PDF) on 10 October 2016
  • Gombrich, Richard (2009), "Chaper 9. Causation and non-random process", What the Buddha Thought, Equinox
  • Jones, Dhivan Thomas (2009), "New Light on the Twelve Nidanas", Contemporary Buddhism, 10 (2): 241–259, doi:10.1080/14639940903239793, S2CID 145413087

External links

Suttas
  • DN 15: Maha-nidana Sutta
  • SN 12.1: Paticca-samuppada-vibhanga Sutta
  • SN 12.23: Upanisa Sutta, translation by Bhikkhu Thanissaro
  • , translation and exposition by Bhikkhu Bodhi
Commentaries
  • Dependent Origination: the Buddhist Law of Conditionality, by Prayudh Payutto
  • Paticcasamuppada: Practical Dependent Origination, by Buddhadasa
  • The Doctrine of Paticcasamuppada, U Than Daing
  • A Discourse on Paticcasamuppada, Mahasi Sayadaw
  • The Shape of Suffering: A study of Dependent Co-arising, Bhikkhu Thanissaro (2008)

Educational Resources

  • What is dependent origination? Buddhism for Beginners

pratītyasamutpāda, sanskrit, रत, यसम, pāli, paṭiccasamuppāda, commonly, translated, dependent, origination, dependent, arising, doctrine, buddhism, shared, schools, buddhism, note, states, that, dharmas, phenomena, arise, dependence, upon, other, dharmas, this. Pratityasamutpada Sanskrit प रत त यसम त प द Pali paṭiccasamuppada commonly translated as dependent origination or dependent arising is a key doctrine in Buddhism shared by all schools of Buddhism 1 note 1 It states that all dharmas phenomena arise in dependence upon other dharmas if this exists that exists if this ceases to exist that also ceases to exist The basic principle is that all things dharmas phenomena principles arise in dependence upon other things Brick inscribed with the Sutra on Dependent Origination Found in Gopalpur Gorakhpur District Uttar Pradesh Dated ca 500 CE Gupta period Ashmolean Museum Translations ofpratityasamutpada paṭiccasamuppadaEnglishdependent origination dependent arising interdependent co arising conditioned arisingSanskritप रत त यसम त प द IAST pratityasamutpada Paliपट च चसम प प द paṭiccasamuppada Bengaliপ রত ত যসম ৎপ দ protityosomutpado Burmeseပဋ စ စ သမ ပ ပ ဒ IPA bedeiʔsa 8emouʔpaʔ Chinese緣起 Pinyin yuanqǐ Japanese縁起 Rōmaji engi Khmerបដ ច ចសម ប ប ទ padecchak samubbat Korean연기 RR yeongi Sinhalaපට ච චසම ප ප දTibetanར ན ཅ ང འབ ལ བར འབ ང བ Wylie rten cing brel bar byung baTHL ten ching drelwar jungwa TagalogPlatityasamutpadaThaipticcsmupbath RTGS patitcha samupabat VietnameseLy duyen khởiGlossary of BuddhismThe doctrine includes depictions of the arising of suffering anuloma paṭiccasamuppada with the grain forward conditionality and depictions of how the chain can be reversed paṭiloma paṭiccasamuppada against the grain reverse conditionality 2 3 These processes are expressed in various lists of dependently originated phenomena the most well known of which is the twelve links or nidanas Pali dvadasanidanani Sanskrit dvadasanidanani The traditional interpretation of these lists is that they describe the process of a sentient being s rebirth in saṃsara and the resultant duḥkha suffering pain unsatisfactoriness 4 and they provide an analysis of rebirth and suffering that avoids positing an atman unchanging self or eternal soul 5 6 The reversal of the causal chain is explained as leading to the cessation of rebirth and thus the cessation of suffering 4 7 Another interpretation regards the lists as describing the arising of mental processes and the resultant notion of I and mine that leads to grasping and suffering 8 9 Several modern western scholars argue that there are inconsistencies in the list of twelve links and regard it to be a later synthesis of several older lists and elements some of which can be traced to the Vedas 9 10 11 12 13 5 The doctrine of dependent origination appears throughout the early Buddhist texts It is the main topic of the Nidana Samyutta of the Theravada school s Saṃyuttanikaya henceforth SN A parallel collection of discourses also exists in the Chinese Saṁyuktagama henceforth SA 14 Contents 1 Overview 2 Etymology 3 Dependent origination in early Buddhism 3 1 The principle of conditionality 3 2 Variable phenomena invariant principle 3 2 1 Invariant principle 3 2 2 Variable phenomena dependently arisen processes 3 3 Conditionality and liberation 3 3 1 The Buddha s discovery of conditionality 3 3 2 Seeing the dharma 3 4 Application 3 4 1 Conditionality as the middle way not self and emptiness 3 4 2 The four noble truths 3 4 3 Lists of nidanas 4 Lists of nidanas 4 1 The twelve nidanas 4 2 Alternative lists in SN SA 4 3 Alternative lists in other Nikayas 4 4 Correlation with the five aggregates 5 Development of the twelve nidanas 5 1 Commentary on Vedic cosmogeny 5 2 Synthesis of older lists 5 2 1 Early synthesis by the Buddha 5 2 2 As a later synthesis by monks 5 2 3 Bucknell s thesis 5 3 The 12 nidanas as an early list 5 4 Comparison of lists 6 Transcendental reverse dependent origination 6 1 Comparison of Lists 7 Interpretations 7 1 Conditionality 7 1 1 Necessary and sufficient conditions 7 1 2 Abhidharma views of conditionality 7 1 3 Conditioned or unconditioned 7 2 Ontological principle 7 2 1 Relations of being becoming existence and ultimate reality 7 2 2 Rebirth 7 2 2 1 Analysis of rebirth without a self 7 2 2 2 Abhidharma three life model 7 3 Mental processes 7 3 1 Abhidharma interpretations 7 3 2 Modern interpretations 7 4 Mahayana interpretations 7 4 1 Non arising 7 4 2 Madhyamaka 7 4 3 Yogacara 7 4 4 The 12 nidanas in Mahayana sutras and tantras 7 4 5 Tibetan interpretations 7 4 6 Interdependence 8 Comparison with western philosophy 9 See also 10 Notes 11 Quotes 12 References 13 Sources 14 Further reading 15 External linksOverview EditDependent origination is a philosophically complex concept subject to a large variety of explanations and interpretations As the interpretations often involve specific aspects of dependent origination they are not necessarily mutually exclusive to each other Dependent origination can be contrasted with the classic Western concept of causation in which an action by one thing is said to cause a change in another thing Dependent origination instead views the change as being caused by many factors not just one or even a few 15 The principle of dependent origination has a variety of philosophical implications As an ontological principle i e as a metaphysical concept about the nature of existence it holds that all phenomena arise from other pre existing phenomena and in turn current phenomena condition future phenomena As such everything in the world has been produced by causes 16 17 18 Traditionally this is also closely connected to the Buddhist doctrine of rebirth and how rebirth occurs without a fixed self or soul but as a process conditioned by various phenomena and their relations 17 As an epistemological principle i e as a theory about knowledge 19 it holds that there are no permanent and stable things though there are classes of permanent phenomena vis space vacuum cessations including nirvana and suchness the absence of self namely anatta 20 21 Because everything is dependently originated nothing is permanent hence the Buddhist concept of impermanence anicca and nothing has any self nature or essence anatta 22 21 23 Consequently all phenomena lack essence 19 In various traditions this is closely associated with the doctrine of emptiness sunyata 24 As a phenomenological or psychological principle it refers to the workings of the mind and how suffering craving and self view arise 5 This can refer to how different mental states condition each other over time or to how different mental phenomena condition each other in a single moment 3 25 Etymology EditPratityasamutpada consists of two terms Pratitya having depended 26 The term appears in the Vedas and Upanishads note 2 in the sense of confirmation dependence acknowledge origin 27 28 The Sanskrit root of the word is prati whose forms appear more extensively in the Vedic literature and it means to go towards go back come back to approach with the connotation of observe learn convince oneself of the truth of anything be certain of believe give credence recognize In other contexts a related term pratiti means going towards approaching insight into anything 28 Samutpada arising 26 rise production origin 29 In Vedic literature it means spring up together arise come to pass occur effect form produce originate 30 Pratityasamutpada has been translated into English as dependent origination dependent arising interdependent co arising conditioned arising and conditioned genesis 31 16 note 3 Jeffrey Hopkins notes that terms synonymous to pratityasamutpada are apekṣhasamutpada and prapyasamutpada 37 The term may also refer to the twelve nidanas Pali dvadasanidanani Sanskrit dvadasanidanani from dvadasa twelve nidanani plural of nidana cause motivation link quote 2 Generally speaking in the Mahayana tradition pratityasamutpada Sanskrit is used to refer to the general principle of interdependent causation whereas in the Theravada tradition paticcasamuppada Pali is used to refer to the twelve nidanas Dependent origination in early Buddhism EditThe principle of conditionality Edit In the early Buddhist texts the basic principle of conditionality is called by different names such as the certainty or law of dhamma dhammaniyamata suchness of dharma 法如 dharmatathata the enduring principle ṭhita dhatu specific conditionality idappaccayata and dhammic nature 法爾 dhammata 24 This principle is expressed in its most general form as follows 3 39 40 note 4 When this exists that comes to be With the arising uppada of this that arises When this does not exist that does not come to be With the cessation nirodha of this that ceases Samyutta Nikaya 12 61 41 According to Paul Williams this is what causation is for early Buddhist thought It is a relationship between events and is what we call it when if X occurs Y follows and when X does not occur Y does not follow 42 Richard Gombrich writes that this basic principle that things happen under certain conditions means that the Buddha understood experiences as processes subject to causation 43 Bhikkhu Bodhi writes that specific conditionality is a relationship of indispensability and dependency the indispensability of the condition e g birth to the arisen state e g aging and death the dependency of the arisen state upon its condition 44 Peter Harvey states this means that nothing except nirvana is independent The doctrine thus complements the teaching that no permanent independent self can be found 3 Ajahn Brahm argues that the grammar of the above passage indicates that one feature of the Buddhist principle of causality is that there can be a substantial time interval between a cause and its effect It is a mistake to assume that the effect follows one moment after its cause or that it appears simultaneously with its cause 39 Variable phenomena invariant principle Edit According to the Paccaya sutta SN 12 20 and its parallel in SA 296 dependent origination is the basic principle of conditionality which is at play in all conditioned phenomena This principle is invariable and stable while the dependently arisen processes paṭiccasamuppanna dhamma are variable and impermanent 40 45 note 5 Pater Harvey argues that there is an overall Basic Pattern that is Dhamma within which specific basic patterns dhammas flow into and nurture each other in complex but set regular patterns 3 Invariant principle Edit According to the Paccaya sutta SN 12 20 and its parallel this natural law of this that conditionality is independent of being discovered by a Buddha a Tathagata just like the laws of physics The Paccaya sutta states that whether or not there are Buddhas who see it this elemental fact dhatu or principle just stands thita this basic pattern stability dhamma tthitata this basic pattern regularity dhamma niyamata specific conditionality idappaccayata 3 40 47 Bhikkhu Sujato translates the basic description of the stability of dependent origination as the fact that this is real not unreal not otherwise 45 The Chinese parallel at SA 296 similarly states that dependent origination is the constancy of dharmas the certainty of dharmas suchness of dharmas no departure from the true no difference from the true actuality truth reality non confusion 48 According to Harvey these passages indicate that conditionality is a principle of causal regularity a Basic Pattern Dhamma of things which can be discovered understood and then transcended 3 Variable phenomena dependently arisen processes Edit The principle of conditionality which is real and stable is contrasted with the dependently arisen processes which are described as impermanent conditioned dependently arisen of a nature to be destroyed of a nature to vanish of a nature to fade away of a nature to cease 40 SA 296 describes them simply as arising thus according to causal condition these are called dharmas arisen by causal condition 49 Conditionality and liberation Edit The Buddha s discovery of conditionality Edit Regarding the arising of suffering SN 12 10 discusses how before the Buddha s awakening he searched for the escape from suffering as follows when what exists is there old age and death What is a condition for old age and death discovering the chain of conditions as expressed in the twelve nidanas and other lists 40 50 MN 26 also reports that after the Buddha s awakening he considered that dependent origination was one of the two principles which were profound gambhira difficult to see difficult to understand peaceful sublime beyond the scope of mere reasoning atakkavacara subtle The other principle which is profound and difficult to see is said to be Nirvana the stopping or transcending of conditioned co arising Harvey 3 note 6 In the Mahanidanasutta DN 15 the Buddha states that dependent origination is deep and appears deep and that it is because of not understanding and not penetrating this teaching that people become tangled like a ball of string in views diṭṭhis samsara rebirth and suffering 51 52 SN 12 70 and its counterpart SA 347 state that knowledge of Dhamma stability dhamma tthiti nanam comes first then comes knowledge of nirvana nibbane nanam 3 53 However while the process which leads to nirvana is conditioned nirvana itself is called unborn unbecome unmade unconstructed Ud 80 1 3 The Milinda Panha compares to how a mountain is not dependent on the path that leads to it Miln 269 3 According to Harvey since it is not co arisen asamuppana It 37 8 nirvana is not something that is conditionally arisen but is the stopping of all such processes 3 Seeing the dharma Edit MN 28 associates knowing dependent origination with knowing the dharma 3 40 54 One who sees dependent origination sees the Dharma One who sees the Dharma sees dependent origination And these five grasping aggregates are indeed dependently originated The desire adherence attraction and attachment for these five grasping aggregates is the origin of suffering Giving up and getting rid of desire and greed for these five grasping aggregates is the cessation of suffering A well known early exposition of the basic principle of causality is said to have led to the stream entry of Sariputta and Moggallana This ye dharma hetu phrase which appears in the Vinaya Vin I 40 and other sources states 3 55 56 Of those dharmas which arise from a cause the Tathagata has stated the cause and also their cessation A similar phrase is uttered by Kondanna the first convert to realize awakening at the end of the first sermon given by the Buddha whatever has the nature to arise samudaya dhamma also has the nature to pass away nirodha dhamma 56 Application Edit Conditionality as the middle way not self and emptiness Edit The early Buddhist texts also associate dependent arising with emptiness and not self The early Buddhist texts outline different ways in which dependent origination is a middle way between different sets of extreme views such as monist and pluralist ontologies or materialist and dualist views of mind body relation note 7 In the Kaccanagottasutta SN 12 15 parallel at SA 301 the Buddha states that this world mostly relies on the dual notions of existence and non existence and then explains the right view as follows 58 But when you truly see the origin of the world with right understanding you won t have the notion of non existence regarding the world And when you truly see the cessation of the world with right understanding you won t have the notion of existence regarding the world 59 The Kaccanagottasutta then places the teaching of dependent origination listing the twelve nidanas in forward and reverse order as a middle way which rejects these two extreme metaphysical views which can be seen as two mistaken conceptions of the self 60 5 note 8 According to Huifeng a recurring theme throughout the Nidanasamyutta SN 12 is the Buddha s rejection of arising from any one or other of the four categories of self other both or neither non causality 24 A related statement can be found in the Paramartha sunyatasutra Dharma Discourse on Ultimate Emptiness SA 335 parallel at EA 37 7 which states that when a sense organ arises it does not come from any location it does not go to any location as such it is said to be unreal yet arises and on having arisen it ends and ceases Furthermore this sutra states that even though there is action karma and result vipaka there no no actor agent karaka It also states that dharmas of dependent origination are classified as conventional 24 The Kaccanagottasutta and its parallel also associates understanding dependent origination with avoiding views of a self atman This text states that if you don t get attracted grasp and commit to the notion my self you ll have no doubt or uncertainty that what arises is just suffering arising and what ceases is just suffering ceasing 58 59 Similarly the Mahanidanasutta DN 15 associates understanding dependent origination with abandoning various wrongs views about a self while failing to understand it is associated becoming entangled in these views 61 Another sutra SA 297 states that dependent origination is the Dharma Discourse on Great Emptiness and then proceeds to refute numerous forms of self view atmadṛṣṭi 24 SN 12 12 parallel at SA 372 the Buddha is asked a series of questions about the self who feels who craves etc the Buddha states that these questions are invalid and instead teaches dependent origination 24 SA 80 also discuss an important meditative attainment called the emptiness concentration sunyata samadhi which in this text is associated contemplating how phenomena arise due to conditions and are subject to cessation 24 The four noble truths Edit According to early suttas like AN 3 61 the second and third noble truths of the four noble truths are directly correlated to the principle of dependent origination 62 63 64 The second truth applies dependent origination in a direct order while the third truth applies it in inverse order 64 Furthermore according to SN 12 28 the noble eight fold path the fourth noble truth is the path which leads to the cessation of the twelve links of dependent origination and as such is the best of all conditioned states AN II 34 3 Therefore according to Harvey the four noble truths can be seen as an application of the principle of conditioned co arising focused particularly on dukkha 3 Lists of nidanas Edit In the early Buddhist texts dependent origination is analyzed and expressed in various lists of dependently originated phenomena dhammas or causes nidanas Nidanas are co dependent principles processes or events which act as links on a chain conditioning and depending on each other 65 66 When certain conditions are present they give rise to subsequent conditions which in turn give rise to other conditions 67 68 69 Phenomena are sustained only so long as their sustaining factors remain 70 The most common one is a list of twelve causes Pali dvadasanidanani Sanskrit dvadasanidanani 71 Bucknell refers to it as the standard list It is found in section 12 of the Samyutta Nikaya and its parallels as well as in other suttas belonging to other Nikayas and Agamas 72 This list also appears in Mahasamghika texts like the Salistamba Sutra and in later works like Abhidharma texts and Mahayana sutras According to Eviatar Shulman the 12 links are paticcasamuppada which is a process of mental conditioning 73 Cox notes that even though the early scriptures contain numerous variations of lists the 12 factor list became the standard list in the later Abhidharma and Mahayana treatises 74 The most common interpretation of the twelve cause list in the traditional exegetical literature is that the list is describing the conditional arising of rebirth in saṃsara and the resultant duḥkha suffering pain unsatisfactoriness 67 68 69 4 65 66 note 9 An alternative Theravada interpretation regards the list as describing the arising of mental formations and the resultant notion of I and mine which are the source of suffering 9 Understanding the relationships between these phenomena is said to lead to nibbana complete freedom from the cyclical rebirth cycles of samsara 75 4 7 Traditionally the reversal of the causal chain is explained as leading to the cessation of mental formations and rebirth 4 7 Alex Wayman notes that according to Buddhist tradition Gautama discovered this formula during the night of Enlightenment and by working backward from old age and death in the reverse of the arising order 76 Wayman also writes that in time the twelve members were depicted on the rim of a wheel representing samsara 76 Lists of nidanas EditThe twelve nidanas Edit The popular listing of twelve nidanas is found in numerous sources In some of the early texts the nidanas themselves are defined and subjected to analysis vibhaṅga The explanations of the nidanas can be found in the Pali SN 12 2 Vibhaṅga Analysis sutta and in its parallel at SA 298 77 Further parallels to SN 12 2 can be found at EA 49 5 some Sanskrit parallels such as the Pratityasamutpadadivibhaṅganirdesanamasutra The Discourse giving the Explanation and Analysis of Conditional Origination from the Beginning and a Tibetan translation of this Sanskrit text at Toh 211 78 79 80 Nidana term Pali Sanskrit Chinese character used in SA 81 Translations 45 82 8 78 80 Analysis vibhaṅga found in the early sourcesAvijja Avidya 無明 Ignorance nescience SN 12 2 Not knowing suffering not knowing the origination of suffering not knowing the cessation of suffering not knowing the way of practice leading to the cessation of suffering This is called ignorance It leads to action or constructing activities 83 72 Parallel sources like SA 298 and the Sanskrit Vibhaṅganirdesa also add lack of knowledge regarding numerous other topics including karma and its results the three jewels moral goodness the internal and the external purity and impurity arising by causal conditions etc 77 Saṅkhara Saṃskara 行 Volitional formations Fabrications 72 constructions 83 choices SN 12 2 These three are fabrications bodily fabrications verbal fabrications mental fabrications These are called fabrications 72 note 10 SA 298 contains the same three types 84 Vinnaṇa Vijnana 識 Consciousness discernment sense consciousness SN 12 2 and SA 298 both agree that there are six types of consciousness eye consciousness ear consciousness nose consciousness tongue consciousness body consciousness intellect or mind consciousness 84 72 note 11 85 Namarupa 名 色 Name and Form mentality and corporeality body and mind SN 12 2 Feeling note 12 perception note 13 intention note 14 contact and attention note 15 This is called name note 16 The four great elements note 17 and the body dependent on the four great elements This is called form SA 298 and the Sanskrit Vibhaṅganirdesa define nama differently as the other four skandhas feeling perception saṃskara consciousness 78 86 note 18 Saḷayatana ṣaḍayatana 六 入 處 Six sense bases sense sources sense media SN 12 2 and SA 298 both agree that this refers to the sense bases of the eye ear nose tongue body and mind intellect 87 72 Phassa Sparsa 觸 Contact 88 sense impression touching SN 12 2 and SA 298 agree that the coming together of the object the sense medium and the consciousness of that sense medium note 19 is called contact As such there are six corresponding forms of contact 87 note 20 Vedana 受 Feeling sensation hedonic tone SN 12 2 defines Vedana as six fold vision hearing olfactory sensation gustatory sensation tactile sensation and intellectual sensation thought Vedana is also explained as pleasant unpleasant and or neutral feelings that occur when our internal sense organs come into contact with external sense objects and the associated consciousness in SA 298 in the Vibhaṅganirdesa and in other Pali suttas These two definitions for feeling are agreed upon by the Pali and Chinese sources 89 Taṇha tṛ ṣṇa 愛 Craving desire greed thirst SN 12 2 These six are classes of craving craving for forms craving for sounds craving for smells craving for tastes craving for tactile sensations craving for ideas This is called craving 72 These six classes of craving also appear in SA 276 SA 298 and the Vibhaṅganirdesa contain three different types of craving craving for sensuality craving for form craving for formlessness These three do not appear in the SN but they do appear in DN 3 90 Elsewhere in the SN three other types of craving appear craving for sensuality kama craving for existence bhava craving for non existence vibhava These do not appear in the Chinese SA but can be found in EA 49 91 Upadana 取 Clinging grasping sustenance attachment SN 12 2 states that there are four main types clinging to sensuality kama note 21 clinging to views ditthi note 22 clinging to ethics and vows silabbata precept and practice note 23 and clinging to a self view attavada SA 298 agrees with the first three but has clinging to self for the fourth instead of clinging to a self view 92 note 24 72 Bhava 有 Existence Becoming continuation note 25 SN 12 2 These three are becoming sensual becoming note 26 form becoming note 27 formless becoming note 28 72 SA 298 agrees completely with SN 12 2 94 A Glossary of Pali and Buddhist Terms Becoming States of being that develop first in the mind and can then be experienced as internal worlds and or as worlds on an external level 95 There are various interpretations of what this term means note 29 note 30 note 31 Jati 生 Birth rebirth SN 12 2 Whatever birth taking birth descent coming to be coming forth appearance of aggregates amp acquisition of sense media of the various beings in this or that group of beings that is called birth 72 SA 298 agrees with SN 12 2 and adds two more items acquiring dhatus and acquiring the life faculty 97 This is interpreted in many different ways by different sources and authors note 32 note 33 note 34 Jaramaraṇa 老 死 Aging or decay and death SN 12 2 Whatever aging decrepitude brokenness graying wrinkling decline of life force weakening of the faculties of the various beings in this or that group of beings that is called aging Whatever deceasing passing away breaking up disappearance dying death completion of time break up of the aggregates casting off of the body interruption in the life faculty of the various beings in this or that group of beings that is called death 72 SA 298 generally agrees adding a few more similar descriptions 97 Alternative lists in SN SA Edit The twelve branched list though popular is just one of the many lists of dependently originated dharmas which appear in the early sources 12 According to Analayo the alternative lists of dependently arisen phenomena are equally valid alternative expressions of the same principle 71 Choong notes that some discourses SN 12 38 40 and SA 359 361 contain only 11 elements omitting ignorance and starting out from willing ceteti SN 12 39 begins with three synonyms for saṅkhara willing intending pakappeti and carrying out anuseti It then states that this becomes an object arammanam for the persistence of consciousness vinnanassa thitiya which leads to the appearance of name and form The standard listing then follows 100 SN 12 38 and the parallel at SA 359 contain a much shorter sequence it begins with willing as above which leads to consciousness then following after consciousness it states there is in the future the becoming of rebirth punabbhavabhinibbatti which leads to coming and going agatigati followed by decease and rebirth cutupapato and following that there arise in the future birth ageing and death grief lamentation pain distress and despair 100 Another short sequence is found at SN 12 66 and SA 291 which contain an analysis of dependent origination with just three factors craving tanha basis upadhi possibly related to upadana and suffering dukkha 101 In SN 12 59 and its counterpart SA 284 there is a chain that starts by saying that for someone who abides in seeing the Chinese has grasping at the flavour in enfettering dharmas sannojaniyesu dhammesu there comes the appearance avakkanti of consciousness There then follows the standard list Then it states that if someone abides by seeing the danger adinavanupassino in the dharmas the Chinese has seeing impermanence there is no appearance of consciousness Chinese has mind 102 SN 12 65 and 67 and SA 287 and 288 begin the chain with both consciousness and name and form conditioning each other in a cyclical relationship It also states that consciousness turns back it goes no further than name and form 103 SN 12 67 also contains a chain with consciousness and name and form being in a reciprocal relationship In this sutta Sariputta states that this relationship is like two sheaves of reeds leaning on each other for support the parallel at SA 288 has three sheaves instead 104 There are also several passages with chains that begin with the six sense spheres ayatana They can be found in SN 12 24 SA 343 SA 352 354 SN 12 13 14 and SN 12 71 81 105 Another one of these is found in SN 35 106 which is termed the branched version by Bucknell because it branches off into six classes of consciousness 106 12 Eye consciousness arises dependent on the eye and sights The meeting of the three is contact Contact is a condition for feeling Feeling is a condition for craving This is the origin of suffering the same formula is repeated with the other six sense bases and six consciousnesses that is ear nose tongue body and mind Other depictions of the chain at SN 12 52 and its parallel at SA 286 begin with seeing the assada taste enjoyment satisfaction which leads to craving and the rest of the list of nidanas 107 Meanwhile in SN 12 62 and SA 290 dependent origination is depicted with just two nidanas contact phassa and feeling vedana SN 12 62 says that when one becomes disenchanted with contact and feeling desire fades away 108 Alternative lists in other Nikayas EditThe Kalahavivada Sutta of the Sutta Nipata Sn 862 872 has the following chain of causes as summarized by Doug Smith name and form conditions contact contact conditions feeling feeling conditions desire desire conditions clinging and clinging conditions quarrels disputes lamentations and grief 109 110 Digha Nikaya Sutta 1 the Brahmajala Sutta verse 3 71 describes six nidanas They experience these feelings by repeated contact through the six sense bases feeling conditions craving craving conditions clinging clinging conditions becoming becoming conditions birth birth conditions aging and death sorrow lamentation sadness and distress 111 note 35 Similarly the Madhupiṇḍikasutta MN 18 also contains the following passage 112 Eye consciousness arises dependent on the eye and sights The meeting of the three is contact Contact is a condition for feeling What you feel you perceive What you perceive you think about What you think about you proliferate papanca What you proliferate about is the source from which a person is beset by concepts of identity that emerge from the proliferation of perceptions This occurs with respect to sights known by the eye in the past future and present The same process is then repeated with the other six sense bases The Mahanidanasutta DN 15 and its Chinese parallels such as DA 13 describe a unique version which is dubbed the looped version by Bucknell DN 14 also has a similar looped chain but it adds the six sense fields after name and form 113 12 114 Name and form are conditions for consciousness Consciousness is a condition for name and form Name and form are conditions for contact Contact is a condition for feeling Feeling is a condition for craving Craving is a condition for grasping Grasping is a condition for continued existence Continued existence is a condition for rebirth Rebirth is a condition for old age and death sorrow lamentation pain sadness and distress to come to be That is how this entire mass of suffering originates The Mahahatthipadopama sutta M 28 contains another short explanation of dependent origination 5 115 these five grasping aggregates are indeed dependently originated The desire adherence attraction and attachment for these five grasping aggregates is the origin of suffering Giving up and getting rid of desire and greed for these five grasping aggregates is the cessation of suffering Correlation with the five aggregates Edit Mathieu Boisvert correlates the middle nidanas 3 10 with the five aggregates 116 According to Boisvert the consciousness and feeling aggregates correlate directly with the corresponding nidana while the rupa aggregate correlates with the six sense objects and contact The samskara aggregate meanwhile correlates with nidana 2 as well as craving clinging and bhava existence becoming 116 Boisvert notes that while sanna perception or recognition is not explicitly found in the twelvefold chain it would fit in between feeling and craving This is because unwholesome perceptions such as delighting in pleasurable feelings are responsible for the arising of unwholesome samskaras like craving Likewise skillful perceptions such as focusing on the three marks of existence lead to wholesome samskaras 117 According to Analayo each of the twelve nidanas re quires all five aggregates to be in existence concurrently Furthermore 71 The teaching on dependent arising does not posit the existence of any of the links in the abstract but instead show how a particular link as an aspect of the continuity of the five aggregates has a conditioning influence on another link It does not imply that any of these links exist apart from the five aggregates 71 Development of the twelve nidanas EditCommentary on Vedic cosmogeny Edit Wayman 118 Brhadaranyaka Pratityasamutpada by death indeed was this covered nescience avidya or by hunger for hunger is death motivation samskara He created the mind thinking Let me have a Self perception vijnana Then he moved about worshipping From him thus worshipping water was produced name and form nama rupa vijnana in the womb Alex Wayman has argued that the ideas found in the dependent origination doctrine may precede the birth of the Buddha noting that the first four causal links starting with avidya in the Twelve Nidanas are found in the cosmic development theory of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad and other older Vedic texts 119 118 120 According to Kalupahana the concept of causality and causal efficacy where a cause produces an effect because a property or svadha energy is inherent in something along with alternative ideas of causality appear extensively in the Vedic literature of the 2nd millennium BCE such as the 10th mandala of the Rigveda and the Brahmanas layer of the Vedas 121 note 36 JurewiczHymn of Creation RigVeda X 129 13 Twelve Nidanas 13 Skandhas 13 Commentary 6 13 at first there was nothing not even existence or nonexistence 124 Avijja ignorance a volitional impulse kama desire initiates the process of creation or evolution 124 Samkhara volitions 125 Samkhara 4th skandha In Buddhism d esire the process which keeps us in samsara is one of the constituents of this skandha 125 Kamma is the seed of consciousness Vijnana Vijnana 5th skandha In the Hymn of Creation consciousness is a singular consciousness Jurewicz non dual consciousness Gombrich reflexive cognizing itself Gombrich 125 In Buddhism Vijnana is consciousness of not consciousness itself 125 Pure consciousness manifests itself in the created world name and form with which it mistakenly identifies losing sight of its real identity 126 Nama Rupa name and form According to Jurewicz the Buddha may have picked at this point the term nama rupa because the division of consciousness into name and form has only the negative value of an act which hinders cognition 6 The first four links in this way describe a chain of events which drive a human being into deeper and deeper ignorance about himself 6 According to Gombrich the Buddhist tradition soon lost sight of this connection with the Vedic worldview equating nama rupa with the five skandhas 125 denying a self atman separate from these skandhas 127 A similar resemblance has been noted by Joanna Jurewicz who argues that the first four nidanas resemble the Hymn of Creation RigVeda X 12 and other Vedic sources which describe the creation of the cosmos 126 6 Jurewicz argues that dependent origination is a polemic against the Vedic creation myth and that paradoxically the Buddha extracted the essence of Vedic cosmogony and expressed in explicit language Richard Gombrich agrees with this view and argues that the first four elements of dependent origination are the Buddha s attempt to ironize and criticize Vedic cosmogony 128 According to Gombrich while in the Vedic creation theory the universe is considered to be grounded on a primordial essence which is endowed with consciousness the Buddha s theory avoids this essence atman Bahman 124 Jurewicz and Gombrich compare the first nidana ignorance avijja with the stage before creation that is described in the Rigveda s Hymn of Creation 124 6 While the term avidya does not actually appear in this Hymn the pre creation stage is seen as unknowable and characterized by darkness 6 According to Gombrich at this stage consciousness is non dual which is to say that it is the ability to cognize but not yet consciousness of anything for there is no split yet into subject and object This is different from the Buddha s point of view in which consciousness is always consciousness of something 125 Jurewicz then compares the Vedic creator s desire and hunger to create the atman or his second self with volitional impulses samskara 6 According to Jurewicz the third nidana vijnana can be compared to the atman s vijnanamaya kosha in Vedic literature which is the consciousness of the creator and his subjective manifestations 6 According to Jurewicz in Vedic cosmogony the act of giving a name and a form marks the final formation of the creator s atman This may go back to the Vedic birth ceremony in which a father gives a name to his son 6 In Vedic creation pure consciousness creates the world as name and form nama rupa and then enters it However in this process consciousness also hides from itself losing sight of its real identity 126 The Buddhist view of consciousness entering name and form depicts a similar chain of events leading to deeper ignorance and entanglement with the world 6 Jurewizc further argues that the rest of the twelve nidanas show similarities with the terms and ideas found in Vedic cosmogeny especially as it relates to the sacrificial fire as a metaphor for desire and existence These Vedic terms may have been adopted by the Buddha to communicate his message of not self because his audience often educated in Vedic thought would understand their basic meaning 6 According to Jurewizc dependent origination replicates the general Vedic creation model but negates its metaphysics and its morals Furthermore Jurewizc argues that 6 This deprives the Vedic cosmogony of its positive meaning as the successful activity of the Absolute and presents it as a chain of absurd meaningless changes which could only result in the repeated death of anyone who would reproduce this cosmogonic process in ritual activity and everyday life According to Gombrich the Buddhist tradition soon lost sight of their connection with the Vedic worldview that the Buddha was critiquing in the first four links of dependent origination Though it was aware that at the fourth link there should be an appearance of an individual person the Buddhist tradition equated rupa with the first skandha and nama with the other four skandhas Yet as Gombrich notes samkhara vijnana and vedana also appear as separate links in the twelvefold list so this equation can t be correct for this nidana 126 Synthesis of older lists Edit Early synthesis by the Buddha Edit According to Erich Frauwallner the twelvefold chain resulted from the Buddha s combination of two lists Originally the Buddha explained the appearance of dukkha from tanha thirst craving Later on the Buddha incorporated avijja ignorance as a cause of suffering into his system This is described in the first part of dependent origination 10 Frauwallner saw this purely mechanical mixing as enigmatical contradictory and a deficiency in systematization 129 Paul Williams discusses Frauwallner s idea that the 12 links may be a composite However he ultimately concludes that it may be impossible at our present stage of scholarship to work out very satisfactorily what the original logic of the full twelvefold formula was intended to be if there ever was one intention at all 130 As a later synthesis by monks Edit Hajime Nakamura has argued that we should search the Sutta Nipata for the earliest form of dependent origination since it is the most ancient source According to Nakamura the main framework of later theories of Dependent Origination can be reconstructed from the Sutta Nipata as follows avidya tanha upadana bhava jaramarana 131 Lambert Schmitthausen has also argued that the twelve fold list is a synthesis from three previous lists arguing that the three lifetimes interpretation is an unintended consequence of this synthesis 132 note 37 BoisvertSkandha NidanaVijnana mere consciousness note 38 Vijnana consciousness Rupa matter form Saḷayatana six sense bases phassa contact includessense objects mental organ mano Vedana feeling Vedana feeling Sanna perception Sanna prevents the arising of Samkharas mental formations Tanha thirst craving Upadana clinging Bhava becoming According to Mathieu Boisvert nidana 3 10 correlate with the five skandhas 134 Boisvert notes that while sanna perception is not found in the twelvefold chain it does play a role in the processes described by the chain particularly between feeling and the arising of samskaras 135 Likewise Waldron notes that the anusaya underlying tendencies are the link between the cognitive processes of phassa contact and vedana feeling and the afflictive responses of tanha craving and upadana grasping 136 SchumannThe 12 fold chain the 5 skhandhasFirst existence1 Body2 Sensation3 Perception1 Ignorance2 Formations 4 Formations3 Consciousness 5 ConsciousnessSecond existence4 Nama rupa 1 Body5 The six senses6 Touch7 Sensation 2 Sensation3 Perception4 Formations5 Consciousness8 Craving9 ClingingThird existence10 Becoming1 Body11 Birth2 Sensation3 Perception4 Formations5 Consciousness12 Old age and deathHans Wolfgang Schumann argues that a comparison of the twelve nidanas with the five skhandhas shows that the 12 link chain contains logical inconsistencies which can be explained when the chain is considered to be a later elaboration 137 Schumann thus concluded that the twelvefold chain was a later synthesis composed by Buddhist monks consisting of three shorter lists These lists may have encompassed nidana 1 4 5 8 and 8 12 138 Schumann also proposes that the 12 nidanas are extended over three existences and illustrates the succession of rebirths While Buddhaghosa and Vasubandhu maintain a 2 8 2 schema Schumann maintains a 3 6 3 scheme 137 According to Richard Gombrich the twelve fold list is a combination of two previous lists the second list beginning with tanha thirst the cause of suffering as described in the second noble truth 128 The first list consists of the first four nidanas which reference Vedic cosmogony as described by Jurewicz note 39 According to Gombrich the two lists were combined resulting in contradictions in its reverse version 128 note 40 Bucknell s thesis Edit Ancestor versionsalayana sixfold sense base nama rupa name and form phassa contact avijja ignorance sankhara volitional action vijnana consciousness vedana feeling etc Roderick S Bucknell analysed four versions of the twelve nidanas to explain the existence of various versions of the pratitya samutpada sequence The twevefold version is the standard version in which vijnana refers to sensual consciousness note 41 According to Bucknell the standard version of the twelve nidanas developed out of an ancestor version which in turn was derived two different versions that understand consciousness vijnana and name and form namarupa differently 12 Branched versionsalayana sixfold sense base nama rupa six sense objects vijnana consciousness phassa contact vedana feeling etc According to Bucknell SN 35 106 describes a non linear branched version of dependent origination in which consciousness is derived from the coming together of the sense organs and the sense objects and thus represents sense perception The Mahanidanasutta DN 15 describes a looped version in which consciousness and nama rupa condition each other It also describes consciousness descending into the womb 140 According to Bucknell some accounts of the looped version state explicitly that the chain of causation goes no further back than the loop 141 Waldron also mentions idea that in early Buddhism consciousness may have been understood as having these two different aspects basic consciousness or sentience and cognitive sense consciousness 142 While these two aspects were largely undifferentiated in early Buddhist thought these two aspects and their relation was explicated in later Buddhist thought giving rise to the concept of alaya vijnana 143 In yet another linear version dubbed the Sutta nipata version consciousness is derived from avijja ignorance and saṅkhara activities also translated as volitional formations 144 Looped versionvijnana consciousness nama rupa name and form salayana sixfold sense base phassa contact vedana feeling etc According to Bucknell while the branched version refers directly to the six sense objects the looped version and the standard version instead use the term nama rupa as a collective term for the six types of sense object He cites various passages from the early sources and the scholarship of Yinshun Reat and Watsuji in support 140 Bucknell thinks that name and form was eventually misinterpreted as referring to mind and body causing discrepancies in the 12 fold series and making it possible to interpret the beginning of the chain as referring to rebirth 145 note 42 According to Bucknell the linear list with its distortions and changed meaning for consciousness and name and form may have developed when the list came to be recited in reverse order 147 Bucknell further notes that the branched version corresponds with the interpretation of the twelve nidanas as mental processes while the looped version which sees consciousness as the rebirth consciousness corresponds with the three lives interpretation 148 The 12 nidanas as an early list Edit Against the view that the 12 link chain is later Alex Wayman writes I am convinced that the full twelve members have been in Buddhism since earliest times just as it is certain that a natural division into the first seven and last five was also known 76 Bhikkhu Bodhi writes that the suggestions of some scholars the twelvefold formula is a later expansion of a shorter list remain purely conjectural misleading and objectionable on doctrinal and textual grounds 71 Choong in his comparative study of SN and SA also writes that the different accounts of dependent origination existed at an early stage and that they are simply different ways of presenting the same teaching which would have been used for different times and with audiences Choong writes that the various versions of dependent arising are unlikely to represent a progressive development with some being earlier and others later and that the comparative data revealed here do not provide evidence to support the speculative suggestion that there was just one original or relatively early account of the series from which the other attested accounts developed later 149 Comparison of lists Edit The following chart compares different lists of nidanas from the early sources with other similar lists Comparison of lists12 Nidanas Bucknell s hypothetical reconstruction 12 Rigveda s Hymn of Creation 6 126 DN 15Mahanidana sutra 85 MN 148 28 150 Tanha list 62 Boisvert s mapping to the skandhas 134 Four Noble TruthsAvijja Ignorance AvijjaSaṅkhara Activities KammaVinnaṇa Sensual consciousness Vijnana Consciousness Eye consciousness Vijnana Dukkha Five skandhas Namarupa Sense objects Identification of vijnana with the manifest world name and form Name and form Visible objects RupaSaḷayatana Six fold sense bases EyePhassa Contact Contact ContactVedana Feeling sensation Feeling Feeling Vedana Anusaya underlying tendencies Sanna perception prevents arising of note 43 Taṇha Craving Craving Craving thirst Samkharas see also kleshas Upadana Clinging attachment Clinging ClingingBhava kammabhava Becoming Becoming BecomingJati Birth Birth Birth Dukkha Birth aging and death Jaramaraṇa Aging and death Aging and death Aging death and this entire mass of dukkhaTranscendental reverse dependent origination EditUnderstanding dependent origination is indispensable for realizing nirvana since it leads to insight into how the process of dependent arising can be brought to an end i e nirvana Since the process of dependent origination always produces suffering the reversal or deactivation of the sequence is seen by Buddhists as the way to stop the entire process 151 3 Traditionally the reversal of the sequence of the twelve nidanas is explained as leading to the cessation of rebirth and suffering 4 69 36 The early Buddhist texts state that on the arising of wisdom or insight into the true nature of things dependent origination ceases Some suttas state that from the fading and cessation of ignorance without remainder comes the cessation of saṅkharas et cetera this is said to lead to the cessation of the entire twelve fold chain in reverse order note 43 According to Jayarava Atwood while some dependent origination passages termed lokiya worldly model beings trapped in cycles of craving and grasping birth and death other passages termed lokuttara beyond the world model the process and dynamics of liberation from those same cycles 153 According to Bodhi these are also classified as exposition of the round vaṭṭakatha and the ending of the round vivaṭṭakatha 154 Beni Barua called these two different kinds of dependent origination cyclic and progressive 153 Various early Buddhist texts present different sequences of transcendental dependent origination lokuttara paṭicca samuppada or reverse dependent origination paṭiloma paṭiccasamuppada 2 153 75 note 44 The Upanisa Sutta and its Chinese parallel at MA 55 is the only text in which both types of dependent origination appear side by side and therefore it has become the main source used to teach reverse dependent origination in English language sources 153 Jayarava cites numerous other Pali suttas which contain various lists of dependently originated phenomena that lead to liberation each one being a precondition upanisa for the next one in the sequence note 45 According to Jayarava AN 11 2 which has a parallel at MA 43 is a better representative of transcendental dependent origination passages and better conforms to the general outline of the Buddhist path as consisting of ethics meditation and wisdom 153 AN 11 2 states that once someone has fulfilled one element of the path it naturally leads to the next one 153 Therefore there is no need to will or wish Pali cetana intention volition for one thing to lead to the other one since this happens effortlessly 153 Therefore the sutta states that good qualities flow on and fill up from one to the other for going from the near shore to the far shore 155 The process begins with the cultivation of ethics using the following formula which is then applied to each further factor sequentially Mendicants an ethical person who has fulfilled ethical conduct need not make a wish May I have no regrets It s only natural that an ethical person has no regrets etc 155 Comparison of Lists Edit The following chart compares various transcendental dependent arising sequences found in Pali and Chinese sources Transcendental Dependent Arising in various sources 156 153 SN 12 23 157 MA 55 Parallel to SN 12 23 AN 11 1 5 and AN 10 1 5 MA 42 and 43 AN 7 65 8 81 6 50 5 24 MA 45 parallel to AN 8 81 Comments 153 75 Suffering Dukkha Suffering 苦 Skt Duḥkha B Bodhi comments Suffering spurs the awakening of the religious consciousness it shatters our naive optimism and unquestioned trust in the goodness of the given order of things and tears us out of our blind absorption in the immediacy of temporal being and sets us in search of a way to its transcendence Shame 慚 and scruple 愧 Equivalent to the Pali hiri shame Skt hri or remorse at bad conduct and ottappa Skt apatrapya moral dread or fear of our own bad conduct Love and respect 愛恭敬 The Sanskrit for respect is gaurava Mindfulness and Full Awareness sati sampajanna In MN 10 mindfulness is cultivated by being attentive upassana to four domains the body feelings vedana the mind citta and principles phenomena dhammas In MN 10 sampajanna is a situational awareness trans Sujato regarding all bodily activities 158 Shame and moral concern hiri and ottapa Bhikkhu Bodhi Hiri the sense of shame has an internal reference it is rooted in self respect and induces us to shrink from wrongdoing out of a feeling of personal honor Ottappa fear of wrongdoing has an external orientation It is the voice of conscience that warns us of the dire consequences of moral transgression blame and punishment by others the painful kammic results of evil deeds the impediment to our desire for liberation from suffering 159 Sense Restraint indriya saṃvara MN 38 When they see a sight with their eyes they don t get caught up in the features and details If the faculty of sight were left unrestrained bad unskillful qualities of desire and aversion would become overwhelming For this reason they practice restraint protecting the faculty of sight and achieving its restraint The same passage is repeated for each of the other sense bases including thoughts in the mind 160 Fulfilling ethical conduct sila Sila The early sources contain various teachings on basic ethical conduct such as the five precepts and the ten courses of wholesome action Clear conscience avippaṭisara AN 10 1 Lack of regrets AN 11 1 Faith saddha Faith 信 Faith 信 Skt sraddha An attitude of trust directed at ultimate liberation and the three jewels SN 12 23 states that suffering is the supporting condition for faith thereby linking it with the last nidana in the 12 nidana chain Faith also comes about through the hearing of the exposition of true Dhamma teaching Faith also leads to the practice of morality sila Wise Attention 正思惟 Wise Attention 正思惟 Skt yoniso manasikara Right mindfulness 正念 Right mindfulness amp attentiveness 正念正智 Skt smṛti and samprajana Guarding the sense faculties 護諸根 Guarding the senses 護諸根 Skt indriyasaṃvara Ethics 護戒 Ethics 護戒 Skt sila Non regret 不悔 Non regret 不悔 Joy pamojja Joy 歡悅 Skt pramodhya Joy Joy 歡悅 From confidence in the sources of refuge and contemplation on them a sense of joy arisesRapture piti Rapture 喜 Skt priti Rapture Rapture 喜 Generally the application of meditation is needed for the arising of rapture though some rare individuals might experience rapture simply from the joy which arises from faith and a clear conscience arising from moral living The meditative states called jhanas are states of elevated rapture Tranquillity passaddhi Calming down 止 Skt prasabdha Tranquility Calming down 止 In the higher states of meditation rapture gives way to a calm sense of tranquility Happiness sukha Happiness 樂 Happiness Happiness 樂 A subtler state than rapture a pleasant feeling Samadhi Samadhi 定 Samadhi Samadhi AN 8 81 has samma right samadhi Samadhi 定 Bodhi The wholesome unification of the mind totally free from distractions and unsteadiness Knowledge and vision of things as they really are yathabhuta nanadassana To see reality and know things as they are 見如實知如真 Skt yathabhuta jnanadarsana Knowledge and vision of things as they really are Knowledge and vision of things as they really are To see reality and know things as they are 見如實知如真 With a peaceful and concentrated mind insight vipassana can be developed the first phase of which is insight into the nature of the five aggregates Only panna the wisdom which penetrates the true nature of phenomena can destroy the defilements which keep beings bound to samsara This wisdom is not mere conceptual understanding but a kind of direct experience akin to visual perception which sees the impermanence unsatisfactoriness and selflessness of all phenomena In Northern Buddhist traditions and Mahayana works insight into emptiness is further emphasized Disenchantment nibbida Disenchantment 厭 Disenchantment Disenchantment Disenchantment 厭 Skt nirveda Noticing the passing away of phenomena the fact that nothing is stable reliable or permanent gives rise to a sense of disenchantment towards them B Bodhi a conscious act of detachment resulting from a profound noetic discovery Nibbida signifies in short the serene dignified withdrawal from phenomena that supervenes when the illusion of their permanence pleasure and selfhood has been shattered by the light of correct knowledge and vision of things as they are Dispassion viraga Dispassion 無欲 Dispassion Dispassion Dispassion 無欲 Skt viraga The first truly transmundane lokuttara stage in the progression B Bodhi Whatever tends to provoke grasping and adherence is immediately abandoned whatever tends to create new involvement is left behind The old urges towards outer extension and accumulation give way to a new urge towards relinquishment as the one clearly perceived way to release Liberation vimutti Liberation MA 42 ends the sequence here Liberation AN 8 81 skips this stage Liberation 解脱 Skt vimokṣa Having a twofold aspect the emancipation from ignorance pannavimutti and defilements cetovimutti experienced in life the other is the emancipation from repeated existence attained when passing away Knowledge of destruction of the asavas defiled influences asava khaye nana Nirvaṇa 涅槃 Knowledge and vision of liberation Vimutti nanadassana Knowledge and vision of liberation Nirvaṇa 涅槃 Different sources finish the sequence with different terms indicating spiritual liberation B Bodhi commenting on SN 12 23 The retrospective cognition of release involves two acts of ascertainment The first called the knowledge of destruction khaya nana ascertains that all defilements have been abandoned at the root the second the knowledge of non arising anuppade nana ascertains that no defilement can ever arise again Interpretations EditThere are numerous interpretations of the doctrine of dependent origination across the different Buddhist traditions and within them as well Various systematizations of the doctrine were developed by the Abhidharma traditions which arose after the death of the Buddha Modern scholars have also interpreted the teaching in different ways According to Ajahn Brahm a fully correct understanding of dependent origination can only be known by awakened being or ariyas Brahm notes that this goes a long way to answering the question why there is so much difference of opinion on the meaning of dependent origination 161 Collett Cox writes that the majority of scholarly investigations of dependent origination adopt two main interpretations of dependent origination they either see it as a generalized and logical principle of abstract conditioning applicable to all phenomena or they see it as a descriptive model for the operation of action karman and the process of rebirth 74 According to Bhikkhu Analayo there are two main interpretative models of the 12 nidanas in the later Buddhist exegetical literature a model which sees the 12 links as working across three lives the past life the present life the future life and a model which analyzes how the 12 links are mental processes working in the present moment Analayo argues that these are not mutually exclusive but instead are complementary interpretations 71 Alex Wayman has argued that understanding the dependent origination formula requires understanding its two main interpretations According to Wayman these two are 1 the general principle of dependent origination itself its nidanas and their relationships and 2 how it deals with the particular process of the rebirth of sentient beings 162 Conditionality Edit The general principle of conditionality is expressed in numerous early sources as When this is that is This arising that arises When this is not that is not This ceasing that ceases 163 164 According to Rupert Gethin this basic principle is neither a direct Newtonian like causality nor a singular form of causality Rather it asserts an indirect and plural conditionality which is somewhat different from classic European views on causation 165 166 167 168 The Buddhist concept of dependence is referring to conditions created by a plurality of causes that necessarily co originate phenomena within and across lifetimes such as karma in one life creating conditions that lead to rebirth in a certain realm of existence for another lifetime 15 169 170 note 46 Bhikkhu Bodhi writes that the Buddhist principle of conditionality shows that the texture of being is through and through relational 164 Furthermore he notes that dependent arising goes further than just presenting a general theory about conditionality it also teaches a specific conditionality idappaccayata which explains change in terms of specific conditions Dependent arising therefore also explains the structure of relationships between specific types of phenomena in various interlocking sequences which lead to suffering as well as the ending of suffering 164 Necessary and sufficient conditions Edit Ajahn Brahm has argued that the Buddhist doctrine of conditionality includes two main elements of the logical concepts of conditionality necessity and sufficiency According to Brahm when this is that is from the arising of this that arises refers to a sufficient condition while when this is not that is not from the ceasing of this that ceases refers to a necessary condition 39 Like Brahm Bodhi also argues that there are two main characterizations of conditionality in the early sources One is positive indicating a contributory influence passing from the condition to the dependent state while the other is negative indicating the impossibility of the dependent state appearing in the absence of its condition He compares these two with the first and second phrases of the general principle definition respectively Regarding the second positive characterization other early sources also state that a condition originates samudaya the dependent state provides it with a source nidana generates it jatika gives it being pabhava nourishes it ahara acts as its foundation upanisa causes it to surge upayapeti see SN 12 11 23 27 66 69 44 However according to Harvey and Brahm while the 12 nidanas are necessary conditions for each other not all of them are necessary and sufficient conditions some are some are not As Harvey notes if this was the case when a buddha or arahat experienced feeling they would inevitably experience craving but they do not As such feeling is only one of the conditions for craving another one is ignorance Therefore in this Buddhist view of causality nothing has a single cause 3 Bodhi agrees with this stating that not all conditional relations in dependent arising are based on direct causal necessitation While in some cases there is a direct necessary relationship between the phenomena outlined in the lists birth will always lead to death in other cases there is not 44 This is an important point because as Bodhi notes if dependent arising described a series in which each factor necessitated the next the series could never be broken and liberation would be impossible 171 Abhidharma views of conditionality Edit The Buddhist abhidharma traditions developed a more complex schematization of conditionality than that found in the early sources These systems outlined different kinds of conditional relationships According to K L Dhammajoti vaibhaṣika abhidharma developed two major schemes to explain conditional relations the four conditions pratyaya and the six causes hetu 172 The vaibhaṣika system also defended a theory of simultaneous causation 173 While simultaneous causation was rejected by the sautrantika school it was later adopted by yogacara 174 The Theravada abhidhamma also developed a complex analysis of conditional relations which can be found in the Paṭṭhana 175 A key element of this system is that nothing arises from a single cause or as a solitary phenomenon instead there are always a plurality of conditions giving rise to clusters of dhammas phenomena 161 The Theravada abhidhamma outlines twenty four kinds of conditional relations 176 Conditioned or unconditioned Edit As a result of their doctrinal development the various sectarian Buddhist schools eventually became divided over the question of whether or not the very principle of dependent origination was itself conditioned saṃskṛta or unconditioned asaṃskṛta This debate also included other terms such as stability of dharma dharmasthitita and suchness tathata which were not always seen as synonymous with dependent origination by all schools 24 The Theravada vatsiputriya and sarvastivada school generally affirmed that dependent origination itself was conditioned The mahasaṃghikas and mahisasakas accepted the conditioned nature of the stability of dharma but both held that dependent origination itself was unconditioned The Dharmaguptaka s Sariputrabhidharma also held that dependent origination was unconditioned 24 Ontological principle Edit Relations of being becoming existence and ultimate reality Edit According to Bhikkhu Bodhi Peter Harvey and Paul Williams dependent arising can be understood as an ontological principle that is a theory to explain the nature and relations of being becoming existence and ultimate reality Theravada Buddhism asserts that there is nothing independent except nirvana 177 16 17 note 47 note 48 This ontology holds that all physical and mental states depend on and arise from other pre existing states and in turn from them arise other dependent states while they cease 178 These dependent arisings are causally conditioned and thus pratityasamutpada is the Buddhist belief that causality is the basis of ontology As Williams explains all elements of samsara exist in some sense or another relative to their causes and conditions That is why they are impermanent for if the cause is impermanent then so too will be the effect 17 Gombrich describes dependent origination as the idea that nothing accessible to our reason or our normal experience exists without a cause Furthermore this can be seen as a metaphysical middle way which does not see phenomena as existing essentially nor as not existing at all Instead it sees the world as a world of flux and process a world of verbs not nouns 18 According to Rupert Gethin the ontological principle of dependent origination is applied not only to explain the nature and existence of matter and empirically observed phenomenon but also to the causally conditioned nature and existence of life 179 Indeed according to Williams the goal of this analysis is to understand how suffering arises for sentient beings through an impersonal law and thus how it can also be brought to an end by reversing its causes 180 Understood in this way dependent origination has no place for a creator God nor the ontological Vedic concept called universal Self Brahman nor any other transcendent creative principle 181 182 In this worldview there is no first cause from which all beings arose instead every thing arises in dependence on something else 183 43 Though Eviatar Shulman sees dependent origination as mainly being concerned with mental processes he also states that it possessed important ontological implications which suggest that rather than things being conditioned by other things they are actually conditioned by consciousness This is implied by the fact that form rupa is said to be conditioned by consciousness and willed activities saṇkhara as well as by how grasping is said to condition existence bhava 5 For Shulman these forms of conditioning undermine the realistic ontology normally attributed to early Buddhism and furthermore suggest that the mind has power over objects beyond what we normally believe as well as implying that ontology is secondary to experience 5 While some scholars have argued that the Buddha put aside all metaphysical questions Noa Ronkin argues that while he rejected certain metaphysical questions he was not an anti metaphysician nothing in the texts suggests that metaphysical questions are completely meaningless Instead the Buddha taught that sentient experience is dependently originated and that whatever is dependently originated is conditioned impermanent subject to change and lacking independent selfhood 184 Rebirth Edit Analysis of rebirth without a self Edit The view that the application of dependent origination in the twelve nidanas is closely connected with rebirth is supported by passages from the early sources Both the Sammadiṭṭhisutta and the Mahanidanasutta specifically mention the factors of dependent origination as being related to the process of conception in the womb 109 185 Bhikkhu Bodhi affirms the centrality of rebirth for dependent origination Bodhi writes that the primary purpose as seen in the most archaic Buddhist texts is to show the causal origination of suffering which is sustained precisely by our bondage to rebirth 186 Ajahn Brahm agrees writing that the main purpose of dependent origination is to explain how there can be rebirth without a soul and why there is suffering and where suffering comes to an end Brahm cites the definitions of the nidanas in the Vibhaṅgasutta SN 12 2 which clearly indicate that birth and death is meant literally 39 According to Brahm Paṭicca samuppada shows the empty process empty of a soul that is which flows within a life and overflows into another life It also shows the forces at work in the process which drive it this way and that even exercising sway in a subsequent life Dependent origination also reveals the answer to how kamma done in a previous life can affect a person in this life 39 Brahm argues that there are two parallel processes at work in dependent origination which are really one process looked at from different angles one is delusion and kamma leading to rebirth consciousness nidanas 1 3 and the other is craving and clinging leading to existence and rebirth 8 11 Brahm describes this as follows deluded kamma and craving produce the fuel which generates existence and rebirth into that existence thereby giving rise to the start of the stream of consciousness that is at the heart of the new life 39 Furthermore dependent origination explains rebirth without appeal to an unchanging self or soul atman Paul Williams sees dependent origination as closely connected with the doctrine of not self anatman which rejects the idea there is a unchanging essence that moves across lives Williams cites the Mahatanhasankhaya Sutta as showing how dependent origination is to be seen as an alternative theory to such views 17 According to Williams dependent origination allows the Buddha to replace a view of the world based on unchanging selves with an appeal to what he sees as being its essentially dynamic nature a dynamism of experiences based on the centrality of causal conditioning 187 Bhikkhu Analayo writes that dependent arising is the other side of the coin of emptiness in the sense of the absence of a substantial and unchanging entity anywhere in subjective experience Experience or existence is nothing but conditions This leaves no room for positing a self of any type 71 According to Eisel Mazard the twelve Nidanas are a description of a sequence of stages prior to birth as an orthodox defense against any doctrine of a supernal self or soul of any kind excluding an un mentioned life force jiva that followers could presume to be additional to the birth of the body the arising of consciousness and the other aspects mentioned in the 12 links formula 188 note 49 According to Mazard many later sources have digressed from the basic theme and subject matter of the original text knowingly or unknowingly 188 Abhidharma three life model Edit A circular schema of the 12 nidanas as understood in Theravada Buddhist scholasticism In the Buddhist Abhidharma traditions like the Theravada more systematized explanations of the twelve nidanas developed 179 189 As an expository device the commentarial traditions of the Theravada sarvastivada vaibhasika and sautrantika schools defended an interpretation which saw the 12 factors as a sequence that spanned three lives 3 76 This is sometimes referred to as the prolonged explanation of dependent origination 190 3 The three life interpretation can first be seen in the Paṭisambhidamagga I 275 circa 2nd or 3rd c BCE 191 It is also defended by the Theravada scholar Buddhaghosa c fifth century CE in his influential Visuddhimagga Vism 578 8I and it became standard in Theravada 192 193 194 The three lives model with its embryological interpretation which links dependent origination with rebirth was also promoted by the Sarvastivada school as evidenced by the Abhidharmakosa AKB III 21 4 of Vasubandhu fl 4th to 5th century CE and the Jnanaprasthana 194 3 76 Wayman notes that this model is also present in Asanga s Abhidharmasamuccaya and is commented on by Nagarjuna 76 The three lives interpretation can be broken down as follows 76 193 195 196 note 50 The previous life the first two nidanas namely ignorance and mental fabrications They are basis for the events in the present Nyanatiloka writing from a traditional Theravada perspective calls these karma process kamma bhava The present life The third to the tenth nidanas consciousness nama rupa the sense bases contact feeling craving clinging becoming relate to the present life This begins with the descent of vijnana consciousness perception into the womb Nyanatiloka notes that nidanas 3 7 are part of the rebirth process uppatti bhava and nidanas are 8 10 are karma process note 51 The future life The last two nidanas birth old age and death represent the future lives conditioned by the present causes Nyanatiloka states these last two nidanas are a rebirth process Bhikkhu Bodhi notes that this distribution of the 12 nidanas into three lives is an expository device employed for the purpose of exhibiting the inner dynamics of the round It should not be read as implying hard and fast divisions for in lived experience the factors are always intertwined 71 Furthermore Bodhi argues that these twelve causes are not something hidden but are the fundamental pattern of experience which always present always potentially accessible to our awareness 71 Nagarjuna s Pratityasamutpada hrdaya karika also outlines the 12 nidanas as a rebirth process According to Wayman Nagarjuna s explanation is as follows the three defilements nescience craving and indulgence give rise to the two karmas motivations and gestation and that these two give rise to the seven sufferings perception name and form six sense bases contact feelings re birth and old age and death 76 Vasubandhu s presentation is fully consistent with Nagarjuna s nescience craving and indulgence are defilement motivations and gestations are karma the remaining seven are the basis asraya as well as the fruit phala 76 As outlined by Wayman Asanga s Abhidharma samuccaya divides the nidanas into the following groups 76 Nidanas 1 2 and 3 which cast beings downward into the whirl of transmigration Nidanas 4 to 7 represent what undergoes transmigration the aspects of the person undergoing phenomenal life Wayman Nidanas 8 9 10 produce new karma Nidanas 11 and 12 are the fruits or results of karma produced previouslyAccording to Gombrich the contorted three lives interpretation is rendered unnecessary by the analysis provided by Jurewicz and other scholars which show that the 12 link chain is a composite list 198 Mental processes Edit The twelve nidanas have also been interpreted within various Buddhist traditions as explaining the arising of psychological or phenomenological processes in the present moment or across a series of moments 3 25 Abhidharma interpretations Edit Prayudh Payutto notes that in Buddhaghosa s Sammohavinodani a commentary to the Vibhaṅga the principle of dependent origination is explained as occurring entirely within the space of one mind moment 25 Furthermore according to Payutto there is material in the Vibhaṅga which discusses both models the three lifetimes model at Vibh 147 and the one mind moment model 3 25 199 Similarly Cox notes that the Sarvastivadin Vijnanakaya contains two interpretations of dependent origination one which explains the 12 nidanas as functioning in a single moment as a way to account for ordinary experience and another interpretation that understands the 12 nidanas as arising sequentially emphasizing their role in the functioning of rebirth and karma 74 Wayman notes that an interpretation referring to mental processes referred to as dependent origination with a transient character can also be found in northern sources such as the Jnanaprasthana the Arthaviniscaya tika and the Abhidharmakosa AKB III 24d 76 3 The Jnanaprasthana explains the nidanas with the example of the act of killing Ignorance leads to the motivation to kill which is acted on through consciousness name and form and so on This leads to mental karma being generated bhava which leads to the movement of the hand to kill birth 76 The different interpretations of dependent origination as understood in the northern tradition can be found in the Abhidharmakosa which outlines three models of the twelve nidanas 200 194 Instantaneous All 12 links are realized in one and the same moment 201 Prolonged The interdependence and causal relationship of dharmas is seen as arising at different times across three lifetimes Serial The causal relationship of the twelve links arising and ceasing in a continuous series of mind moments Modern interpretations Edit The interpretation of dependent origination as mainly referring to mental processes has been defended by various modern scholars such as Eviatar Shulman and Collett Cox 5 Eviatar Shulman argues that dependent origination only addresses the way the mind functions in samsara the processes of mental conditioning that transmigration consists of He further argues that it should be understood to be no more than an inquiry into the nature of the self or better the lack of a self 5 Shulman grants that there are some ontological implications that may be gleaned from dependent origination However he argues that at its core dependent origination is concerned with identifying the different processes of mental conditioning and describing their relations For Shulman dependent origination does not deal with how things exist but with the processes by which the mind operates 5 Shulman argues that the general principle of dependent origination deals exclusively with the processes outlined in the lists of nidanas not with existence per se and certainly not with all objects Shulman writes that seeing dependent origination as referring to the nature of reality in general means investing the words of the earlier teachings with meanings derived from later Buddhist discourse which leads to a misrepresentation of early Buddhism 5 Sue Hamilton presents a similar interpretation which sees dependent origination as showing how all things and indeed our entire world of experience are dependently originated through our cognitive apparatus As such Hamilton argues that the focus of this teaching is on our subjective experience not on anything external to it 202 Collett Cox also sees the theory of dependent origination found in the early Buddhist sources as an analysis of how suffering is produced in our experience Cox states that it is only in later Abhidharma literature that dependent origination became an abstract theory of causation 74 A similar interpretation has been put forth by Bhikkhu Buddhadasa who argues that in the list of the twelve nidanas jati and jaramarana refer not to rebirth and physical death but to the birth and death of our self concept the emergence of the ego According to Buddhadhasa dependent arising is a phenomenon that lasts an instant it is impermanent Therefore Birth and Death must be explained as phenomena within the process of dependent arising in everyday life of ordinary people Right Mindfulness is lost during contacts of the Roots and surroundings Thereafter when vexation due to greed anger and ignorance is experienced the ego has already been born It is considered as one birth 203 Naṇavira Thera is another modern Theravada Bhikkhu known for rejecting the traditional interpretation and instead explaining the 12 links as a structural schema which does not happen in successive moments in time but is instead a timeless structure of experience 99 Mahayana interpretations Edit Mahayana Buddhism which sees dependent arising as closely connected with the doctrine of emptiness strongly expresses that all phenomena and experiences are empty of independent identity This is especially important for the madhyamaka school one of the most influential traditions of Mahayana thought The yogacara school meanwhile understands dependent origination through its idealistic philosophy and sees dependent origination as the process that produces the illusory subject object duality One of the most important and widely cited sutras on dependent origination in the Indian Mahayana tradition was the Salistamba Sutra Rice Seedling Sutra 204 This sutra introduced the well known Mahayana simile of a rice seed and its sprout as a way to explain conditionality It also contains the influential passage He who sees dependent arising sees the dharma He who sees the dharma sees the Buddha 204 This sutra contains numerous passages which parallel the early Buddhist sources such as MN 38 and outlines the classic 12 nidanas It also contains some unique elements such as the figure of Maitreya the idea of illusion maya and the idea of the dharmasarira dharma body 205 Numerous commentaries were written on this sutra some of which are attributed to Nagarjuna but this is questionable 205 Non arising Edit Some Mahayana sutras contain statements which speak of the unarisen or unproduced anutpada nature of dharmas According to Edward Conze in the Prajnaparamita sutras the ontological status of dharmas can be described as having never been produced anutpada as never been brought forth anabhinirvritti as well as unborn ajata This is illustrated through various similies such as a dream an illusion and a mirage Conze also states that the patient acceptance of the non arising of dharmas anutpattika dharmakshanti is one of the most distinctive virtues of the Mahayanistic saint 206 Perhaps the earliest of these sutras the Aṣṭasahasrika Prajnaparamita contains a passage which describes the suchness tathata of dharmas using various terms including shunyata cessation nirodha and unarisen anutpada 207 Most famously the Heart Sutra states Sariputra in that way all phenomena are empty that is without characteristic unproduced unceased stainless not stainless undiminished unfilled 208 The Heart Sutra also negates the 12 links of dependent origination There is no ignorance no extinction of ignorance up to and including no aging and death and no extinction of aging and death 209 Some Mahayana sutras present the insight into the non arisen nature of dharmas as a great achievement of bodhisattvas The Amitayurdhyana Sutra mentions that Vaidehi had on listening to the teaching in this sutra attained great awakening with clarity of mind and reached the insight into the non arising of all dharmas 210 Similarly the Vimalakirti sutra mentions various bodhisattvas including Vimalakirti that have attained the forbearance of the nonarising of dharmas 211 The Lotus Sutra states that when the thought of the highest path arises in sentient beings they will become convinced of the nonarising of all dharmas and reside in the stage of non retrogression 212 The Samdhinirmochana Sutra s chapter 7 mentions a teaching which states All phenomena are without an essence unborn unceasing primordially in the state of peace and naturally in the state of nirvaṇa However it states that this teaching is that of the discourses of provisional meaning and that it should be taught along with the teachings of the third turning of the wheel of Dharma 213 Similarly the Lankavatara sutra explains the doctrine of the unborn and unoriginated nature of dharmas through the idealistic philosophy of mind only Since all things are illusory manifestations of the mind they do not really originate or arise 214 Madhyamaka Edit Main article MadhyamakaIn madhyamaka philosophy to say that an object dependently originated is synonymous with saying that it is empty shunya This is directly stated by Nagarjuna in his Mulamadhyamakakarika MMK 215 Whatever arises dependently is explained as empty Thus dependent attribution is the middle way Since there is nothing whatever that is not dependently existent For that reason there is nothing whatsoever that is not empty MMK Ch 24 18 19 216 According to Nagarjuna all phenomena dharmas are empty of svabhava variously translated as essence intrinsic nature inherent existence and own being which refers to a self sustaining causally independent and permanent identity 217 218 Nagarjuna s philosophical works analyze all phenomena in order to show that nothing at all can exist independently and yet they are also not non existent since they exist conventionally i e as empty dependent arisings 218 In the very first dedicatory verse of the MMK dependent origination is also described apophatically through the eight negations as follows there is neither cessation nor origination neither annihilation nor the eternal neither singularity nor plurality neither the coming nor the going of any dharma for the purpose of nirvaṇa characterized by the auspicious cessation of hypostatization prapanca 219 The first chapter of the MMK focuses on the general idea of causation and attempts to show how it is a process that is empty of any essence According to Jay Garfield in the first chapter Nagarjuna argues against a reified view of causality which sees dependent origination in terms of substantial powers kriya of causation hetu that phenomena have as part of their intrinsic nature svabhava Instead Nagarjuna sees dependent origination as a series of conditional relationships pratyaya that are merely nominal designations and explanatorily useful regularities 218 According to Nagarjuna if something could exist inherently or essentially from its own side and thus have its own inherent causal powers change and dependent arising would be impossible Nagarjuna states that if things did not exist without essence the phrase when this exists so this will be would not be acceptable 218 Jan Westerhoff notes that Nagarjuna argues that cause and effect are neither identical nor different nor related as part and whole they are neither successive nor simultaneous nor overlapping Westerhoff states that Nagarjuna thinks all conceptual frameworks of causality that make use of such ideas are based on a mistaken presupposition which is that cause and effect exist with their own svabhava 220 Westerhoff further argues that for Nagarjuna causes and effects are both dependent on one another conceptually and existentially and neither one can exist independently 221 As such he rejects four ways that something could be causally produced by itself by something else by both by nothing at all 222 Westerhoff also notes that for Nagarjuna cause and effect do not exist objectively that is to say they are not independent of a cognizing subject 223 As such cause and effect are not just mutually interdependent but also mind dependent This means that for Nagarjuna causality and causally constructed objects are ultimately just conceptual constructs 224 Nagarjuna applies a similar analysis to numerous other kinds of phenomena in the MMK such as motion the self and time 225 Chapter 7 of the MMK attempts to argue against the idea that dependent arising exists either as a conditioned entity or as an unconditioned one 226 Rejecting both options Nagarjuna ends this chapter by stating that dependent arising is like an illusion a dream or a city of gandharvas a stock example for a mirage 227 Chapter 20 tackles the question of whether an assemblage of causes and conditions can produce an effect it is argued that it cannot 228 This analysis of dependent arising therefore means that emptiness itself is empty As Jay Garfield explains this means that emptiness and thus dependent origination is not a self existent void standing behind the veil of illusion represented by conventional reality but merely an aspect of conventional reality 218 Yogacara Edit The yogacara school interpreted the doctrine of dependent origination through its central schema of the three natures which are really three ways of looking at one dependently originated reality 229 In this schema the constructed or fabricated nature is an illusory appearance of a dualistic self while the dependent nature refers specifically to the process of dependent origination or as Jonathan Gold puts it the causal story that brings about this seeming self Furthermore as Gold notes in Yogacara this causal story is entirely mental and so our body sense bases and so on are illusory appearances 230 Indeed D W Mitchell writes that yogacara sees consciousness as the causal force behind dependent arising 231 Dependent origination is therefore the causal series according to which the mental seeds planted by previous deeds ripen into the appearance of the sense bases 230 This stream of dependent mental processes as Harvey describes it is what generates the subject object split and thus the idea of a self and other things which are not the self 3 The third nature then is the fact that dependent origination is empty of a self the fact that even though self as well as an other that which is apart from the self appears it does not exist 229 The 12 nidanas in Mahayana sutras and tantras Edit Alex Wayman writes that Mahayana texts such as Srimaladevi Siṃhanada Sutra present an alternative interpretation of the twelve nidanas According to Wayman this interpretation holds that arhats pratyekabuddhas and bodhisattvas have eliminated the four kinds of clinging nidana 9 which are the usual condition for existence or gestation nidana 10 and rebirth 11 in one of the three realms Instead of being reborn they have a body made of mind manōmaya kaya which is a special consciousness vijnana This consciousness is projected by ignorance nidana 1 and purified by a special kind of samskara 2 called nonfluxional karma anasrava karma These mind made bodies produce a reflected image in the three worlds and thus they appear to be born 76 According to Wayman this view of dependent origination posits a dualistic structure of the world in the manner of heaven and earth where the body made of mind is in heaven and its reflected image or coarser equivalent is on earth Otherwise stated the early members of Dependent Origination apply to the superior realm the later members to the inferior realm But the Sri mala Sutra does not clarify how those members are allotted to their respective realms 76 According to Wayman similar interpretations appear in tantric texts such as the Caṇḍamaharoṣaṇatantra This tantra contains a passage which appears to suggest that the first ten terms of dependent origination are prenatal 76 He also notes that there is a tantric interpretation of dependent origination in the Guhyasamajatantra in which the first three members are equivalent to three mystical light stages 76 Tibetan interpretations Edit In Tibetan Buddhism the 12 nidanas are typically shown on the outer rim of a wheel of existence This is a common genre of art found in Tibetan temples and monasteries 232 The three poisons greed hatred and delusion sit at the very center of wheel Tibetan Buddhist scholars rely on the north Indian works of scholars such as Asanga Vasubandhu and Nagarjuna in their interpretation of the 12 nidanas For example according to Wayman Tsongkhapa attempted to harmonize the presentations of the 12 links found in Nagarjuna and in Asanga 3 Tsongkhapa also explains how the twelve nidanas can be applied to one life of a single person two lives of a single person and three lives of a single person 233 Discussing the three lifetimes model Alex Wayman states that the Theravada interpretation is different from the Vajrayana view because the Vajrayana view places a bardo or an intermediate state which is denied in Theravada between death and rebirth 234 The Tibetan Buddhism tradition allocates the twelve nidanas differently between various lives 235 Madhyamaka is interpreted in different ways by different traditions Some scholars accept a version of the shentong view introduced by Dolpopa 1292 1361 which argues that buddha nature and buddhahood was not dependently originated and thus not empty of itself but empty of what is not itself 236 The Gelug school which follows Tsongkhapa s thought rejects this view and instead holds that all phenomena are said to lack inherent existence svabhava and thus everything is empty and dependently originated 237 Other Tibetan madhyamakas like Gorampa argue for a more anti realist view negating the very existence of all phenomena and seeing them all as illusions 238 Meanwhile scholars of the Nyingma school such as Ju Mipham have also attempted to interpret orthodox madhyamaka in a way that is compatible with the view of dzogchen 239 Interdependence Edit The Huayan school taught the doctrine of the mutual containment and interpenetration of all phenomena yuanrong 圓融 as expressed in the metaphor of Indra s net One thing contains all other existing things and all existing things contain that one thing This philosophy is based on the Avatamsaka Sutra and the writings of the patriarchs of Huayan Thich Nhất Hạnh explains this concept as follows You cannot just be by yourself alone You have to inter be with every other thing He uses the example of a sheet of paper that can only exist due to every other cause and condition sunshine rain trees people the mind etc According to Hanh this sheet of paper is because everything else is 240 Sogyal Rinpoche states all things when seen and understood in their true relation are not independent but interdependent with all other things A tree for example cannot be isolated from anything else It has no independent existence 241 According to Richard Gombrich the East Asian interpretation of dependent origination as the idea that all phenomena exert causal influence on each other does not follow from the early Buddhist understanding of dependent origination 242 He further argues that this interpretation would subvert the Buddha s teaching of karma This is because if we were heirs of other people s deeds the whole moral edifice would collapse 198 Comparison with western philosophy EditThe concept of pratityasamutpada has also been compared to Western metaphysics the study of reality Schilbrack states that the doctrine of interdependent origination seems to fit the definition of a metaphysical teaching by questioning whether there is anything at all 243 Hoffman disagrees and asserts that pratityasamutpada should not be considered a metaphysical doctrine in the strictest sense since it does not confirm nor deny specific entities or realities quote 3 The Hellenistic philosophy of Pyrrhonism parallels the Buddhist view of dependent origination as it does in many other matters see similarities between Phyrrhonism and Buddhism 245 246 247 Aulus Gellius in Attic Nights describes how appearances are produced by relative interactions between mind and body and how there are no self dependent things 248 The ancient Commentary on Plato s Theaetetus also defends a kind of relativism which states that nothing has its own intrinsic character 249 Jay L Garfield states that Nagarjuna s Mulamadhyamikakarika uses the causal relation to understand the nature of reality and of our relation to it This attempt is similar to the use of causation by Hume Kant and Schopenhauer as they present their arguments Nagarjuna uses causation to present his arguments on how one individualizes objects orders one s experience of the world and understands agency in the world 33 See also EditAnatta Anutpada Paṭṭhana Abhidharma an analytical part of the Tripiṭaka the Buddhist canon Reality in Buddhism Three marks of existence Ye Dharma HetuNotes Edit The Pratityasamutpada doctrine states Mathieu Boisvert is a fundamental tenet of Buddhism and it may be considered as the common denominator of all the Buddhist traditions throughout the world whether Theravada Mahayana or Vajrayana 1 such as hymns 4 5 14 7 68 6 of the Rigveda and 19 49 8 of Atharvaveda The term pratityasamutpada been translated into English as conditioned arising 16 conditioned genesis 32 dependent arising 33 quote 1 dependent co arising 35 or dependent origination 36 The general formula can be found in the following discourses in the Pali Canon MN 79 MN 115 SN12 21 SN 12 22 SN 12 37 SN 12 41 SN 12 49 SN 12 50 SN 12 61 SN 12 62 SN 55 28 AN 10 92 Ud 1 1 first two lines Ud 1 2 last two lines Ud 1 3 Nd2 Patis According to Choong 2000 p 157 the formula also appears in the Saṁyuktagama SA 293 296 302 349 350 358 369 Choong Mun keat translates these two as the dharma of arising by causal condition and the dharmas arisen by causal condition in his translation of SA 296 46 14 According to Choong these terms refer to two ideas 1 a natural law of phenomena and 2 causal factors respectively 46 14 SN 20 7 SA 1258 has the Buddha state that his disciples should study those discourses taught by the Tathagata that are profound profound in meaning transmundane connected with emptiness According to Huifeng in the early sources SN 6 1 MN 26 and 27 7 as well as DN 15 MA 97 and DA 13 terms such as profound gambhira as well as related terms such as hard to see subtle and not within the sphere of reasoning are used to describe dependent origination as well as its reversal dependent cessation 24 The early Buddhist texts also list other sets of extreme views that are avoided through insight into the middle teaching of dependent arising 57 3 The view that the life principle jiva is the same as the mortal body sarira and the view that holds that the life principle is different from the mortal body in SN 12 35 36 SA 297 and SA 293 According to dependent origination the mind and the body are seen as mutually supporting and deeply interconnected processes Feeling vedana is not created by oneself by another created by both or arises without a cause It is also not non existent natthi Furthermore the view that the one who acts is the same as the who experiences the karmic result of the action is one extreme and the view which says that the one who acts and the one who experiences the results are different is another extreme These ideas are found in SN 12 17 18 SA 302 303 SN 12 46 and SA 300 The view that all is a unity or all is one and the view that all is a plurality or everything is separate are two extremes found in SN II 77 3 The first of these ideas is related to the idealistic monism seen in the Upanishads while the second view sees reality as totally separate and independent entities Dependent origination is instead a network of interconnected processes which are neither the same thing nor totally different According to Harvey what this means is that this teaching avoids the extreme of substantialism seeing the experienced world as existing here and now in a solid essential way as well as believing there are fixed essences especially an eternal self or soul as well as avoiding annihilationism and nihilism that is seeing the world as non existent or holding that one is annihilated at death 3 As Harvey writes dependent origination avoids these two views instead holding that no unchanging being passes over from one life to another but the death of a being leads to the continuation of the life process in another context like the lighting of one lamp from another Miln 71 3 Most Suttas follow the order from ignorance to dukkha But SN 12 20 47 views this as a teaching of the requisite conditions for sustaining dukkha which is its main application Harvey any action whether meritorious or harmful and whether of body speech or mind creates karmic imprint on a being 83 This includes will cetana and planning 83 It leads to transmigratory consciousness 83 Bucknell In the Maha nidana Sutta which contains ten links vijnana and nama rupa are described as conditioning each other creating a loop which is absent in the standard version of twelve links 12 Here it refers to the function of the mind that cognizes feeling This is the faculty of the mind that names recognizes a feeling as pleasurable unpleasurable or neutral depending on what was its original tendency This is the faculty of the mind where volitions arise It is important to note that volition is noted again in the same sequence as a cause of consciousness This is the faculty of the mind that can penetrate something analyze and objectively observe i e mentality or mind The earth property of solidity water property of liquity wind property of motion energy and gaseousness fire property of heat and cold See also Mahabhuta In other places in the Pali Canon DN 33 MN 140 and SN 27 9 we also see two additional elements the space property and the consciousness property Space refers to the idea of space that is occupied by any of the other four elements For example any physical object occupies space and even though that space is not a property of that object itself the amount of space it occupies is a property of that object and is therefore a derived property of the elements Bucknell originally nama rupa referred to the six classes of sense objects which together with the six senses and the six sense consciousnesses form phassa contact 12 Eye consciousness ear consciousness nose consciousness tongue consciousness skin consciousness and mind consciousness Mahasi Sayadaw To give another example it is just like the case of a person in a room who sees many things when he opens the window and looks through it If it is asked Who is it that sees Is it the window or the person that actually sees the answer is The window does not possess the ability to see it is only the person who sees If it is again asked Will the person be able to see things on the outside without the window if he is confined to a room without the window or with the window closed the answer will be It is not possible to see things through the wall without the window One can only see through the window Similarly in the case of seeing there are two separate realities of the eye and seeing So the eye does not have the ability to see without the eye consciousness The eye consciousness itself cannot see anything without the organ The eye is not seeing nor is seeing the eye yet there cannot be an act of seeing without the eye In reality seeing comes into being depending on the eye It is now evident that in the body there are only two distinct elements of materiality eye and mentality eye consciousness at every moment of seeing There is also a third element of materiality the visual object Without the visual object there is nothing to be seen 88 Enjoyment and clinging for music beauty sexuality health etc Clinging for notions and beliefs such as in God or other cosmological beliefs political views economic views one s own superiority either due to caste sex race etc views regarding how things should be views on being a perfectionist disciplinarian libertarian etc Clinging for rituals dressing rules of cleansing the body etc That there is a self consisting of form and is finite or a self consisting of form but infinite or a self that is formless but finite or a self that is formless and infinite a b Bhikkhu Bodhi Bhava in MLDB was translated being In seeking an alternative I had first experimented with becoming but when the shortcomings in this choice were pointed out to me I decided to return to existence used in my earlier translations Bhava however is not existence in the sense of the most universal ontological category that which is shared by everything from the dishes in the kitchen sink to the numbers in a mathematical equation Existence in the latter sense is covered by the verb atthi and the abstract noun atthita Bhava is concrete sentient existence in one of the three realms of existence posited by Buddhist cosmology a span of life beginning with conception and ending in death In the formula of dependent origination it is understood to mean both i the active side of life that produces rebirth into a particular mode of sentient existence in other words rebirth producing kamma and ii the mode of sentient existence that results from such activity 93 getting attracted mesmerized disgusted growing older tall healthy weak becoming a parent or spouse rich etc annihilation destruction suicide loss of a position etc Thanissaro Bhikkhu Nowhere in the suttas does he the Buddha define the term becoming but a survey of how he uses the term in different contexts suggests that it means a sense of identity in a particular world of experience your sense of what you are focused on a particular desire in your personal sense of the world as related to that desire 96 Bhikkhu Bodhi i the active side of life that produces rebirth into a particular mode of sentient existence in other words rebirth producing kamma and ii the mode of sentient existence that results from such activity citation needed note 25 Payutto T he entire process of behavior generated to serve craving and clinging kammabhava 8 Analayo birth may refer to physical birth to rebirth Since without birth no aging death or any of the sorrows and disappointments of life would occur birth is a requisite cause for dukkha Thus the complete cessation of dukkha must imply that there is no further birth for the enlightened and to the arising of mental phenomena 98 The Vibhanga the second book of the Theravada Abbidhamma treats both rebirth and the arising of mental phenomena In the Suttantabhajaniya it is described as rebirth which is conditioned by becoming bhava and gives rise to old age and death jaramaraṇa in a living being In the Abhidhammabhajaniya it is treated as the arising of mental phenomena 98 Nanavira Thera jati is birth and not rebirth Rebirth is punabbhava bhinibbatti 99 Brahmajala Sutta verse 3 71 This is identified as the first reference in the Canon in footnote 88 for Sutta 1 verse 3 71 s footnotes The pre Buddhist Vedic era theories on causality mention four types of causality all of which Buddhism rejected 122 123 The four Vedic era causality theories in vogue were 122 123 sayam katam attakatam self causation this theory posits that there is no external agent God necessary for a phenomenon there is svadha inner energy in nature or beings that lead to creative evolution the cause and the effect are in the essence of the evolute and inseparable found in the Vedic and particularly Upanishadic proto Hindu schools param katam external causation posits that something external God fate past karma or purely natural determinism causes effects found in materialistic schools like Charvaka as well as fate driven schools such as Ajivika sayam param katam internal and external causation combination of the first two theories of causation found in some Jainism theistic proto Hindu schools asayam aparam katam neither internal nor external causation this theory denies direct determinism ahetu and posits fortuitous origination asserting everything is a manifestation of a combination of chance found in some proto Hindu clarification needed schools Shulman refers to Schmitthausen 2000 Zur Zwolfgliedrigen Formel des Entstehens in Abhangigkeit in Horin Vergleichende Studien zur Japanischen Kultur 7 Boisvert correlates vijnana in the twelve nidanas sequence in the five skandhas vijnana comes last 133 Jurewicz 2000 Playing with fire the pratityasamutpada from the perspective of Vedic thought Journal of the Pali Text Society XXVI 77 104 Gombrich The six senses and thence via contact and feeling to thirst It is quite plausible however that someone failed to notice that once the first four links became part of the chain its negative version meant that in order to abolish ignorance one first had to abolish consciousness 128 Bucknell vinnana consciousness associated with eye ear nose tongue body and mind mano 139 Bucknell These observations by Watsuji Yinshun and Reat indicate that nama rupa far from signifying mind and body or something similar is a collective term for the six types of sense object 146 a b Compare Grzegorz Polak who argues that the four upassana the four bases of mindfulness have been misunderstood by the developing Buddhist tradition including Theravada to refer to four different foundations According to Polak the four upassana do not refer to four different foundations but to the awareness of four different aspects of raising sati mindfulness 152 the six sense bases which one needs to be aware of kayanupassana contemplation on vedanas which arise with the contact between the senses and their objects vedananupassana the altered states of mind to which this practice leads cittanupassana the development from the five hindrances to the seven factors of enlightenment dhammanupassana Bhikkhu Bodhi In addition to giving a clear explicit account of the conditional structure of the liberative progression this sutta has the further advantage of bringing the supramundane form of dependent arising into immediate connection with its familiar samsaric counterpart By making this connection it brings into prominence the comprehensive character of the principle of conditionality its ability to support and explain both the process of compulsive involvement which is the origin of suffering and the process of disengagement which leads to deliverance from suffering Thereby it reveals dependent arising to be the key to the unity and coherence of the Buddha s teaching 75 The various listings can be found in DN 2 repeated at DN 9 10 11 12 138 DN 34 MN 7 repeat at MN 40 MN 51 SN 12 23 SN 35 97 SN 42 13 SN 55 40 AN 5 26 AN 6 10 AN 8 81 AN 10 1 AN 11 1 AN 10 2 AN 11 2 AN 10 3 AN 11 3 AN 10 4 AN 11 4 AN 10 5 11 5 and AN 11 12 153 The fifth century Theravada commentator Buddhaghosa states that dependent arising means that something can only arise when its conditions are gathered together Vism 521 Something arises together with its conditions 3 Harvey This doctrine states the principle of conditionality that all things mental and physical arise and exist due to the presence of certain conditions and cease once their conditions are removed nothing except Nibbana is independent The doctrine thus complements the teaching that no permanent independent self can be found 16 Bodhi it dependent origination provides the teaching with its primary ontological principle its key for understanding the nature of being 177 Mazard T he 12 links formula is unambiguously an ancient tract that was originally written on the subject of the conception and development of the embryo as a sequence of stages prior to birth in examining the primary source text this is as blatant today as it was over two thousand years ago despite some very interesting misinterpretations that have arisen in the centuries in between In the Mahanidana sutta s brief gloss on the term namarupa we have a very explicit reminder that the subject matter being described in this sequence of stages is the development of the embryo it is indisputably clear that we are reading about something that may or may not enter into okkamissatha the mother s womb matukucchismiŋ T he passage is wildly incongruent with attempts of many other interpreters to render the whole doctrine in more abstract terms variously psychological or metaphysical 188 Bhikkhi Bodhi briefly explains this interpretation as follows Due to ignorance formally defined as non knowledge of the Four Noble Truths a person engages in ethically motivated action which may be wholesome or unwholesome bodily verbal or mental These actions referred to here as volitional formations constitute kamma At the time of rebirth kamma conditions the re arising of consciousness which comes into being bringing along its psychophysical adjuncts mentality materiality niima nipa In dependence on the psychophysical adjuncts the six sense bases develop the five outer senses and the mind base Through these contact takes place between consciousness and its objects and contact in turn conditions feeling In response to feeling craving springs up and if it grows firm leads into clinging Driven by clinging actions are perfonned with the potency to generate new existence These actions kamma backed by craving eventually bring a new existence birth followed by aging and death 197 According to Keown the first five nidanas of the present life relate to one s present destiny and condition the present life s existence The next three dependent originations namely craving indulgence and gestation foster the fruits of the present destiny 193 Quotes Edit The Dalai Lama explains In Sanskrit the word for dependent arising is pratityasamutpada The word pratitya has three different meanings meeting relying and depending but all three in terms of their basic import mean dependence Samutpada means arising Hence the meaning of pratityasamutpada is that which arises in dependence upon conditions in reliance upon conditions through the force of conditions 34 The Nalanda Translation Committee states Pratitya samutpada is the technical name for the Buddha s teaching on cause and effect in which he demonstrated how all situations arise through the coming together of various factors In the hinayana it refers in particular to the twelve nidanas or links in the chain of samsaric becoming 38 Hoffman states Suffice it to emphasize that the doctrine of dependent origination is not a metaphysical doctrine in the sense that it does not affirm or deny some super sensible entities or realities rather it is a proposition arrived at through an examination and analysis of the world of phenomena 244 References Edit a b Boisvert 1995 pp 6 7 a b Fuller Paul 2004 The Notion of Ditthi in Theravada Buddhism The Point of View p 65 Routledge a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae Harvey Peter The Conditioned Co arising of Mental and Bodily Processes within Life and Between Lives in Steven M Emmanuel ed 2013 A Companion to Buddhist Philosophy pp 46 69 John Wiley amp Sons a b c d e f Harvey 2015 pp 50 59 a b c d e f g h i j k Shulman 2008 a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Jurewicz 2000 a b c Robert E Buswell Jr Donald S Lopez Jr 2013 The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism Princeton University Press p 583 ISBN 978 1 4008 4805 8 a b c Payutto Dependent Origination the Buddhist Law of Causality a b c Jones 2009 a b Frauwallner 1973 pp 167 168 Schumann 1997 a b c d e f g h Bucknell 1999 a b c d e Gombrich 2009 a b c Choong Mun keat 2000 The Fundamental Teachings of Early Buddhism A Comparative Study Based on the Sutranga Portion of the Pali Samyutta Nikaya and the Chinese Samyuktagama p 150 Otto Harrassowitz Verlag a b David J Kalupahana 1975 Causality The Central Philosophy of Buddhism University of Hawaii Press pp 54 60 ISBN 978 0 8248 0298 1 a b c d e Harvey 1990 p 54 a b c d e Williams 2002 p 64 a b Gombrich 2009 p 132 a b Stephen J Laumakis 2008 An Introduction to Buddhist Philosophy Cambridge University Press pp 113 115 ISBN 978 1 139 46966 1 Jeffrey Hopkins 1983 Meditation on Emptiness Wisdom Publications pp 214 219 ISBN 0 86171 014 2 a b Peter Harvey 2001 Buddhism Bloomsbury Academic pp 242 244 ISBN 978 1 4411 4726 4 Gary Storhoff 2010 American Buddhism as a Way of Life State University of New York Press pp 74 76 ISBN 978 1 4384 3095 9 Ray Billington 2002 Understanding Eastern Philosophy Routledge pp 58 59 ISBN 978 1 134 79348 8 a b c d e f g h i j Shi huifeng Dependent Origination Emptiness Nagarjuna s Innovation An Examination of the Early and Mainstream Sectarian Textual Sources JCBSSL VOL XI pp 175 228 a b c d Prayudh Payutto Dependent Origination the Buddhist Law of Conditionality Translated by Bruce Evans a b Hopkins 1983 p 163 ऋग व द स क त ७ ६८ Rigveda 7 68 6 Wikisource Quote उत त यद व ज रत अश व न भ च च यव न य प रत त य हव र द अध यद वर प इतऊत धत थ ६ a b Monier Monier Williams 1872 A Sanskrit English Dictionary Oxford University Press p 623 samutpada spokensanskrit de Archived from the original on 2 May 2015 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint unfit URL link Monier Monier Williams 1872 A Sanskrit English Dictionary Oxford University Press p 1078 Lopez 2001 p 29 Quote Dependent origination has two meanings in Buddhist thought The first refers to the twelvefold sequence of causation The second meaning of dependent origination is a more general one the notion that everything comes into existence in dependence on something else It is this second meaning that Nagarjuna equates with emptiness and the middle way Walpola Rahula 2007 Kindle Locations 791 809 a b Garfield 1994 Dalai Lama 1992 p 35 Thanissaro Bhikkhu 2008 a b Paticca samuppada Encyclopaedia Britannica Retrieved 25 February 2011 Jeffrey Hopkins 2014 Meditation on Emptiness Wisdom Publications pp 148 149 ISBN 978 0 86171 705 7 Dependent Arising Tendrel Nalanda Translation Committee a b c d e f Brahm 2002 Dependent Origination Bodhinyana Monastery a b c d e f Bhikkhu Analayo 2020 Dependent Arising Insight Journal 46 1 8 Assutava Sutta Uninstructed 1 Access to Insight BCBS Edition Translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu 30 November 2013 SN 12 61 Williams 2002 pp 65 66 a b Gombrich 2009 p 131 a b c Bodhi Bhikkhu 1995 The Great Discourse on Causation The Mahanidana Sutta and Its Commentaries Second Edition p 9 Buddhist Publication Society Kandy Sri Lanka a b c Paccayasutta SN 12 20 SN ii 25 https suttacentral net sn12 20 a b Saṁyuktagama 296 The dharma of arising by causal condition and the dharmas arisen by causal condition 因緣法 translated by Choong Mun keat https suttacentral net sa296 en choong a b Paccaya Sutta Requisite Conditions Access to Insight BCBS Edition Translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu 30 November 2013 SN 12 20 Choong Mun keat 2000 The Fundamental Teachings of Early Buddhism A Comparative Study Based on the Sutranga Portion of the Pali Samyutta Nikaya and the Chinese Samyuktagama p 153 Otto Harrassowitz Verlag Choong Mun keat 2000 The Fundamental Teachings of Early Buddhism A Comparative Study Based on the Sutranga Portion of the Pali Samyutta Nikaya and the Chinese Samyuktagama p 154 Otto Harrassowitz Verlag SN 12 10 translated by Bhikkhu Sujato https suttacentral net sn12 10 en sujato Mahanidanasutta DN 15 DN ii 55 translated by Bhikkhu Sujato https suttacentral net dn15 Bodhi Bhikkhu 1995 The Great Discourse on Causation The Mahanidana Sutta and Its Commentaries Second Edition p 28 Buddhist Publication Society Kandy Sri Lanka Choong Mun keat 2000 The Fundamental Teachings of Early Buddhism A Comparative Study Based on the Sutranga Portion of 201 Otto Harrassowitz Verlag Mahahatthipadopamasutta MN 28 MN i 184 translated by Bhikkhu Sujato https suttacentral net mn28 en sujato Williams 2002 p 67 a b Gombrich 2009 p 130 Choong Mun keat 2000 The Fundamental Teachings of Early Buddhism A Comparative Study Based on the Sutranga Portion of the Pali Samyutta Nikaya and the Chinese Samyuktagama pp 195 197 Otto Harrassowitz Verlag a b Choong Mun keat 2000 The Fundamental Teachings of Early Buddhism A Comparative Study Based on the Sutranga Portion of the Pali Samyutta Nikaya and the Chinese Samyuktagama p 192 Otto Harrassowitz Verlag a b Kaccanagottasutta SN 12 15 SN ii 16 translated by Bhikkhu Sujato https suttacentral net sn12 15 en sujato Kaccayanagotta Sutta To Kaccayana Gotta on Right View SN 12 15 PTS S ii 16 translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu c 1997 Bodhi Bhikkhu 1995 The Great Discourse on Causation The Mahanidana Sutta and Its Commentaries Second Edition pp 28 29 Buddhist Publication Society Kandy Sri Lanka a b Frauwallner 1973 Gethin 1998 p 74 Quote Dependent arising states Rupert Gethin is to be understood as in certain respects an elaboration of the truth of the origin of suffering a b Ian Charles Harris 1991 The Continuity of Madhyamaka and Yogacara in Indian Mahayana Buddhism BRILL Academic pp 135 138 ISBN 978 90 04 09448 2 a b Ian Charles Harris 1991 The Continuity of Madhyamaka and Yogacara in Indian Mahayana Buddhism BRILL Academic pp 135 137 ISBN 978 90 04 09448 2 a b Paticca samuppada Encyclopaedia Britannica Retrieved 25 February 2011 a b Peter Harvey 2012 An Introduction to Buddhism Teachings History and Practices Cambridge University Press pp 71 72 ISBN 978 0 521 85942 4 a b Marco Pallis 2003 A Buddhist Spectrum World Wisdom p 180 ISBN 978 0 941532 40 2 a b c Steven M Emmanuel 2015 A Companion to Buddhist Philosophy John Wiley p 60 ISBN 978 1 119 14466 3 The Four Nutriments of Life An Anthology of Buddhist Texts Access to Insight BCBS Edition Translated by Nyanaponika Thera 30 November 2013 a b c d e f g h i Bodhi Bhikkhu 1995 The Great Discourse on Causation The Mahanidana Sutta and Its Commentaries Second Edition p 5 Buddhist Publication Society Kandy Sri Lanka a b c d e f g h i j k Paticca samuppada vibhanga Sutta Analysis of Dependent Co arising Access to Insight BCBS Edition Translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu 30 November 2013 SN 12 2 Shulman 2008 p 307 a b c d Cox C 1993 Dependent origination Its elaboration in early Sarvastiva din Abhidharma texts In R K Sharma Ed Researches in Indian and Buddhist philosophy Essays in honour of Professor Alex Wayman Delhi Motilal Banarsidass a b c d Bhikkhu Bodhi 1 December 2013 Transcendental Dependent Arising A Translation and Exposition of the Upanisa Sutta Access to Insight BCBS Edition a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Wayman Alex Buddhist Dependent Origination History of Religions Vol 10 No 3 Feb 1971 pp 185 203 The University of Chicago Press a b Choong Mun keat 2000 The Fundamental Teachings of Early Buddhism A Comparative Study Based on the Sutranga Portion of the Pali Samyutta Nikaya and the Chinese Samyuktagama p 161 Otto Harrassowitz Verlag a b c Pratityasamutpadadivibhaṅganirdesasutram Text edited by P L Vaidya Paḷi Parallels and English Translation by Anandajoti Bhikkhu Vibhaṅgasutta SN 12 2 SN ii 2 https suttacentral net sn12 2 a b Teaching the Fundamental Exposition and Detailed Analysis of Dependent Arising Pratityasamutpadadivibhaṅganirdesa Toh 211 Dege Kangyur vol 62 mdo sde tsha folios 123 a 125 b Translated by Annie Bien 2020 https read 84000 co translation toh211 html Choong Mun keat 2000 The Fundamental Teachings of Early Buddhism A Comparative Study Based on the Sutranga Portion of the Pali Samyutta Nikaya and the Chinese Samyuktagama pp 161 168 Otto Harrassowitz Verlag Requisite Conditions Paccaya Sutta SN 12 20 translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu a b c d e Harvey 2015 pp 52 53 a b Choong Mun keat 2000 The Fundamental Teachings of Early Buddhism A Comparative Study Based on the Sutranga Portion of the Pali Samyutta Nikaya and the Chinese Samyuktagama p 162 Otto Harrassowitz Verlag a b Maha nidana Sutta The Great Causes Discourse Access to Insight BCBS Edition Translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu 30 November 2013 DN 15 Choong Mun keat 2000 The Fundamental Teachings of Early Buddhism A Comparative Study Based on the Sutranga Portion of the Pali Samyutta Nikaya and the Chinese Samyuktagama p 163 Otto Harrassowitz Verlag a b Choong Mun keat 2000 The Fundamental Teachings of Early Buddhism A Comparative Study Based on the Sutranga Portion of the Pali Samyutta Nikaya and the Chinese Samyuktagama p 164 Otto Harrassowitz Verlag a b Mahasi Sayadaw 7 June 2010 Satipatthana Vipassana Access to Insight BCBS Edition Choong Mun keat 2000 The Fundamental Teachings of Early Buddhism A Comparative Study Based on the Sutranga Portion of the Pali Samyutta Nikaya and the Chinese Samyuktagama pp 164 165 Otto Harrassowitz Verlag Choong Mun keat 2000 The Fundamental Teachings of Early Buddhism A Comparative Study Based on the Sutranga Portion of the Pali Samyutta Nikaya and the Chinese Samyuktagama pp 165 166 Otto Harrassowitz Verlag Choong Mun keat 2000 The Fundamental Teachings of Early Buddhism A Comparative Study Based on the Sutranga Portion of the Pali Samyutta Nikaya and the Chinese Samyuktagama p 166 Otto Harrassowitz Verlag Choong Mun keat 2000 The Fundamental Teachings of Early Buddhism A Comparative Study Based on the Sutranga Portion of the Pali Samyutta Nikaya and the Chinese Samyuktagama p 167 Otto Harrassowitz Verlag Bhikkhu Bodhi 2000 General introduction to the Samyutta Nikaya Wisdom Publications pp 52 53 Choong Mun keat 2000 The Fundamental Teachings of Early Buddhism A Comparative Study Based on the Sutranga Portion of the Pali Samyutta Nikaya and the Chinese Samyuktagama pp 167 168 Otto Harrassowitz Verlag A Glossary of Pali and Buddhist Terms bhava Access to Insight BCBS Edition 17 December 2013 Bhava Sutta Becoming 1 Access to Insight BCBS Edition Translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu 30 November 2013 note 1 AN 3 76 a b Choong Mun keat 2000 The Fundamental Teachings of Early Buddhism A Comparative Study Based on the Sutranga Portion of the Pali Samyutta Nikaya and the Chinese Samyuktagama p 168 Otto Harrassowitz Verlag a b Analayo 2007 pp 93 94 a b Nanavira Thera A note on paticcasamuppadda In Clearing the Path p 20 a b Choong Mun keat 2000 The Fundamental Teachings of Early Buddhism A Comparative Study Based on the Sutranga Portion of the Pali Samyutta Nikaya and the Chinese Samyuktagama p 169 Otto Harrassowitz Verlag Choong Mun keat 2000 The Fundamental Teachings of Early Buddhism A Comparative Study Based on the Sutranga Portion of the Pali Samyutta Nikaya and the Chinese Samyuktagama p 183 Otto Harrassowitz Verlag Choong Mun keat 2000 The Fundamental Teachings of Early Buddhism A Comparative Study Based on the Sutranga Portion of the Pali Samyutta Nikaya and the Chinese Samyuktagama pp 173 174 Otto Harrassowitz Verlag Choong Mun keat 2000 The Fundamental Teachings of Early Buddhism A Comparative Study Based on the Sutranga Portion of the Pali Samyutta Nikaya and the Chinese Samyuktagama p 176 Otto Harrassowitz Verlag Choong Mun keat 2000 The Fundamental Teachings of Early Buddhism A Comparative Study Based on the Sutranga Portion of the Pali Samyutta Nikaya and the Chinese Samyuktagama p 178 Otto Harrassowitz Verlag Choong Mun keat 2000 The Fundamental Teachings of Early Buddhism A Comparative Study Based on the Sutranga Portion of the Pali Samyutta Nikaya and the Chinese Samyuktagama pp 179 180 Otto Harrassowitz Verlag Dukkhasamudayasutta SN 35 106 SN iv 86 translated by Bhikkhu Sujato https suttacentral net sn35 106 en sujato Choong Mun keat 2000 The Fundamental Teachings of Early Buddhism A Comparative Study Based on the Sutranga Portion of the Pali Samyutta Nikaya and the Chinese Samyuktagama p 181 Otto Harrassowitz Verlag Choong Mun keat 2000 The Fundamental Teachings of Early Buddhism A Comparative Study Based on the Sutranga Portion of the Pali Samyutta Nikaya and the Chinese Samyuktagama pp 188 189 Otto Harrassowitz Verlag a b Smith Doug 2016 Can Dependent Origination Be Saved https secularbuddhism org can dependent origination be saved Kalahavivadasutta Snp 4 11 Snp 168 translated by Laurence Khantipalo Mills https suttacentral net snp4 11 en mills Walshe 1996 pp 497 656 Madhupiṇḍikasutta MN 18 MN i 108 translated by Bhikkhu Sujato https suttacentral net mn18 The Great Discourse on Causation Mahanidanasutta DN 15 DN ii 55 https suttacentral net dn15 Mahanidanasutta DN 15 DN ii 55 translated by Bhikkhu Sujato https suttacentral net dn15 en sujato Mahahatthipadopamasutta MN 28 MN i 184 https suttacentral net mn28 a b Boisvert 1995 pp 132 136 Boisvert 1995 pp 137 140 a b Wayman 1984b p 256 Wayman 1984a p 173 with note 16 Wayman 1971 David J Kalupahana 1975 Causality The Central Philosophy of Buddhism University of Hawaii Press pp 6 7 ISBN 978 0 8248 0298 1 a b Florin G Sutton 1991 Existence and Enlightenment in the Lankavatara Sutra A Study in the Ontology and the Epistemology of the Yogacara School of Mahayana Buddhism State University of New York Press pp 270 271 ISBN 978 1 4384 2162 9 a b David J Kalupahana 1975 Causality The Central Philosophy of Buddhism University of Hawaii Press pp 1 53 ISBN 978 0 8248 0298 1 a b c d Gombrich 2009 p 134 a b c d e f Gombrich 2009 p 135 a b c d e Gombrich 2009 pp 135 136 Jones 2009 p 255 a b c d Gombrich 2009 p 138 Frauwallner 1973 p 168 Williams 2002 p 72 Hajime Nakamura The Theory of Dependent Origination in its Incipient Stage in Somaratana Balasooriya Andre Bareau Richard Gombrich Siri Gunasingha Udaya Mallawarachchi Edmund Perry Editors 1980 Buddhist Studies in Honor of Walpola Rahula London Shulman 2008 p 305 note 19 Boisvert 1995 p 149 note 1 a b Boisvert 1995 pp 147 150 Boisvert 1995 p page needed Waldron 2004 p 34 a b Schumann 1974 Schumann 1997 p 92 Bucknell 1999 p 313 a b Bucknell 1999 p 327 Bucknell 1999 p 316 Waldron 2004 p 20 Waldron 2004 pp 20 21 Bucknell 1999 p 335 Bucknell 1999 p 339 Bucknell 1999 p 325 Bucknell 1999 p 332 Bucknell 1999 pp 327 328 note 46 Choong Mun keat 2000 The Fundamental Teachings of Early Buddhism A Comparative Study Based on the Sutranga Portion of the Pali Samyutta Nikaya and the Chinese Samyuktagama pp 204 205 Otto Harrassowitz Verlag Waldron 2004 pp 34 35 Boisvert 1995 pp 142 143 Polak 2011 a b c d e f g h i j Jayarava Attwood The Spiral Path or Lokuttara Paṭicca samuppada Western Buddhist Review 2013 6 1 34 Bodhi Bhikkhu 1995 The Great Discourse on Causation The Mahanidana Sutta and Its Commentaries Second Edition p 8 Buddhist Publication Society Kandy Sri Lanka a b Cetanakaraṇiyasutta AN 10 2 AN v 2 translated by Bhikkhu Sujato https suttacentral net an10 2 en sujato Jayarava 2012 Chinese Spiral Path Texts from the Madhyagama http www jayarava org texts Chinese 20Spiral 20Path 20Texts pdf Upanisasutta SN 12 23 SN ii 29 https suttacentral net sn12 23 Mahasatipaṭṭhanasutta MN 10 MN i 55 https suttacentral net mn10 en sujato Bodhi Bhikkhu The Guardians of the World Access to Insight BCBS Edition 5 June 2010 Mahataṇhasaṅkhayasutta MN 38 MN i 256 https suttacentral net mn38 en sujato a b Karunadasa 2010 p 263 Wayman Alex Dependent Origination The Indo Tibetan Tradition Journal of Chinese Philosophy V 7 1980 pp 275 300 Thich Nhat Hanh 1999 pp 221 222 a b c Bodhi Bhikkhu 1995 The Great Discourse on Causation The Mahanidana Sutta and Its Commentaries Second Edition pp 2 3 Buddhist Publication Society Kandy Sri Lanka Gethin 1998 p 153 Ben Ami Scharfstein 1998 A Comparative History of World Philosophy From the Upanishads to Kant State University of New York Press pp 512 514 ISBN 978 0 7914 3683 7 Guy Debrock 2012 Paul B Scheurer ed Newton s Scientific and Philosophical Legacy G Debrock Springer p 376 with note 12 ISBN 978 94 009 2809 1 Gethin 1998 pp 153 155 Genjun Sasaki 1986 Linguistic Approach to Buddhist Thought Motilal Banarsidass pp 67 69 ISBN 978 81 208 0038 0 Gethin 1998 pp 151 152 Bodhi Bhikkhu 1995 The Great Discourse on Causation The Mahanidana Sutta and Its Commentaries Second Edition p 10 Buddhist Publication Society Kandy Sri Lanka Dhammajoti Bhikkhu K L 2009 Sarvastivada Abhidharma p 143 Centre of Buddhist Studies The University of Hong Kong Dhammajoti Bhikkhu K L 2009 Sarvastivada Abhidharma pp 162 163 Centre of Buddhist Studies The University of Hong Kong Dhammajoti Bhikkhu K L 2009 Sarvastivada Abhidharma pp 159 161 Centre of Buddhist Studies The University of Hong Kong Karunadasa Y 2010 The Theravada Abhidhamma Its Inquiry into the Nature of Conditioned Reality p 262 Centre of Buddhist Studies The University of Hong Kong ISBN 978 988 99296 6 4 Karunadasa Y 2010 The Theravada Abhidhamma Its Inquiry into the Nature of Conditioned Reality pp 264 265 Centre of Buddhist Studies The University of Hong Kong ISBN 978 988 99296 6 4 a b Bodhi Bhikkhu 1995 The Great Discourse on Causation The Mahanidana Sutta and Its Commentaries Second Edition p 1 Buddhist Publication Society Kandy Sri Lanka Bowker 1997 a b Gethin 1998 p 141 Williams 2002 pp 64 65 Williams 2002 p 64 In the Mahatanhasankhaya Sutta the Buddha stresses that things originate in dependence upon causal conditioning and this emphasis on causality describes the central feature of Buddhist ontology All elements of samsara exist in some sense or another relative to their causes and conditions Robert Neville 2004 Jeremiah Hackett ed Philosophy of Religion for a New Century Essays in Honor of Eugene Thomas Long Jerald Wallulis Springer p 257 ISBN 978 1 4020 2073 5 Buddhism s ontological hypotheses that nothing in reality has its own being and that all phenomena reduce to the relativities of pratitya samutpada The Buddhist ontological hypothesese deny that there is any ontologically ultimate object such a God Brahman the Dao or any transcendent creative source or principle Robert S Ellwood Gregory D Alles 2007 The Encyclopedia of World Religions Infobase Publishing p 64 ISBN 978 1 4381 1038 7 Ronkin 2009 Sammadiṭṭhisutta MN 9 MN i 46 translated by Bhikkhu Bodhi https suttacentral net mn9 en bodhi Bhikkhu Brahmali 2013 Dependent Origination foreword Williams 2002 p 63 a b c Eisel Mazard Unpopular facts about one of buddhist philosophys most popular doctrines Bhikkhu Bodhi In the Buddha s Words Wisdom Publications 2005 p 313 Bhikkhu Bodhi In the Buddha s Words Wisdom Publications 2005 p 314 AK Warder 2000 Indian Buddhism 3rd Ed p 299 Delhi Motilal Banarsidass Buddhadhamma Natural Laws and Values for Life Translated by Grant Olson State University of New York Press 1995 pp 112 115 171 172 with footnote 86 ISBN 978 0 7914 2631 9 a b c Damien Keown Charles S Prebish 2013 Encyclopedia of Buddhism Routledge pp 269 270 ISBN 978 1 136 98588 1 a b c Hirakawa Groner 1993 A History of Indian Buddhism From Sakyamuni to Early Mahayana p 178 Buddhaghosa 2010 pp 607 608 794 Boisvert 1995 pp 9 11 Bodhi Bhikkhu 1995 The Great Discourse on Causation The Mahanidana Sutta and Its Commentaries Second Edition p 4 Buddhist Publication Society Kandy Sri Lanka a b Gombrich 2009 p 142 Jackson 2003 Buddhadasa Theravada Buddhism and Modernist Reform in Thailand pp 90 91 Gold Jonathan 2014 Paving the Great Way Vasubandhu s Unifying Buddhist Philosophy pp 191 193 Columbia University Press Abhidharmakosa by Vasubandhu Translated by Leo Pruden Vol II pp 404 405 Hamilton Sue 2000 Early Buddhism A New Approach the I of the Beholder pp 91 100 Psychology press Buddhadasa Bhikkhu Paticcasamuppada Practical Dependent Origination DhammaTalks net a b Tatz Mark Reviewed work s The Salistamba Sutra and Its Indian Commentaries by Jeffrey D Schoening in Journal of the American Oriental Society volume 118 1998 p 546 a b Reat N Ross The Salistamba sutra Tibetan original Sanskrit reconstruction English translation critical notes including Pali parallels Chinese version and ancient Tibetan fragments Delhi Motilal Banarsidass Publishers 1993 pp 2 31 Conze Edward The Ontology of the Prajnaparamita Philosophy East and West Vol 3 1953 pp 117 129 University of Hawaii Press Orsborn Matthew Bryan 2012 Chiasmus in the Early Prajnaparamita Literary Parallelism Connecting Criticism amp Hermeneutics in an Early Mahayana Sutra p 233 University of Hong Kong Lopez Donald S 1988 The Heart Sutra Explained Indian and Tibetan Commentaries p 19 SUNY Press Lopez Donald S 1988 The Heart Sutra Explained Indian and Tibetan Commentaries p 20 SUNY Press Hisao Inagaki 1995 The Three Pure Land Sutras A Study and Translation from Chinese p 349 Nagata Bunshodo McRae John Paul Diana 2004 The Sutra of Queen Srimala of the Lion s Roar and The Vimalakirti Sutra p 69 BDK America Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research Kubo Tsugunari Yuyama Akira 2007 The Lotus Sutra Taishō Volume 9 Number 262 Translated from the Chinese of Kumarajiva p 181 Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research Unraveling the Intent Saṃdhinirmocana Toh 106 Dege Kangyur vol 49 mdo sde tsha folios 1 b 55 b Translated by the Buddhavacana Translation Group Vienna 2020 https read 84000 co translation toh106 html Suzuki Daisetz Teitarō 1999 Studies in the Laṅkavatara Sutra pp 122 124 Delhi Motilal Banarsidass Mabja Tsondru 2011 pp 67 71 447 477 Geshe Sonam Rinchen 2006 p 21 Westerhoff Jan 2009 Nagarjuna s Madhyamaka A Philosophical Introduction pp 12 25 Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 19 970511 5 a b c d e Garfield Jay L Dependent Arising and the Emptiness of Emptiness Why Did Nagarjuna Start with Causation Philosophy East and West Vol 44 No 2 Apr 1994 pp 219 250 University of Hawai i Press Stable URL https www jstor org stable 1399593 Siderits Mark Katsura Shoryu 2013 Nagarjuna s Middle Way Mulamadhyamakakarika p 13 Simon and Schuster Westerhoff Jan 2009 Nagarjuna s Madhyamaka A Philosophical Introduction pp 93 94 Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 19 970511 5 Westerhoff Jan 2009 Nagarjuna s Madhyamaka A Philosophical Introduction pp 96 98 Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 19 970511 5 Westerhoff Jan 2009 Nagarjuna s Madhyamaka A Philosophical Introduction p 99 Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 19 970511 5 Westerhoff Jan 2009 Nagarjuna s Madhyamaka A Philosophical Introduction p 94 Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 19 970511 5 Westerhoff Jan 2009 Nagarjuna s Madhyamaka A Philosophical Introduction pp 123 124 Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 19 970511 5 Westerhoff Jan 2009 Nagarjuna s Madhyamaka A Philosophical Introduction p 91 Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 19 970511 5 Siderits Mark Katsura Shoryu 2013 Nagarjuna s Middle Way Mulamadhyamakakarika pp 72 214 Simon and Schuster Siderits Mark Katsura Shoryu 2013 Nagarjuna s Middle Way Mulamadhyamakakarika p 88 Simon and Schuster Siderits Mark Katsura Shoryu 2013 Nagarjuna s Middle Way Mulamadhyamakakarika pp 214 215 Simon and Schuster a b Gold Jonathan 2014 Paving the Great Way Vasubandhu s Unifying Buddhist Philosophy p 150 Columbia University Press a b Gold Jonathan 2014 Paving the Great Way Vasubandhu s Unifying Buddhist Philosophy p 149 Columbia University Press Mitchell Donald William 2009 Buddhism Introducing the Buddhist Experience p 151 Oxford University Press Samuel Brandon 1965 History Time and Deity A Historical and Comparative Study of the Conception of Time in Religious Thought and Practice Manchester University Press pp 100 101 Wayman 1984 pp 180 187 Wayman 1984 pp 186 187 Wayman 1984 pp 184 186 Stearns Cyrus 1999 The Buddha from Dolpo A Study of the Life and Thought of the Tibetan Master Dolpopa Sherab Gyaltsen State University of New York Press p 82 Mula by Jay Garfield PDF Cowherds 2010 Moonshadows Conventional Truth in Buddhist Philosophy pp 75 76 Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 19 982650 6 Duckworth 2011 Jamgon Mipam His life and teachings p 81 Thich Nhat Hanh 2012 The Heart Sutra the Fullness of Emptiness Lion s Roar Sogyal Rinpoche 2009 Kindle Locations 849 863 Gombrich 2009 pp 142 143 Schilbrack 2002 Hoffman 1996 p 177 Adrian Kuzminski Pyrrhonism How the Ancient Greeks Reinvented Buddhism 2008 McEvilley 2002 chapter 17 Matthew Neale Madhyamaka and Pyrrhonism 2014 Aulus Gellius 1927 Book XI Chapter 5 Sections 6 7 Attic Nights Loeb Classical Library ed anon 2019 Commentary on Plato sTheaetetus translated by George Boys Stones p 21Sources EditAnalayo 2007 Rebirth and the Gandhabba PDF Journal of Buddhist Studies 1 91 105 Anyen Rinpoche 2012 Journey to Certainty Wisdom Publications Boisvert Mathieu 1995 The Five Aggregates Understanding Theravada Psychology and Soteriology Wilfrid Laurier University Press ISBN 978 0 88920 257 3 Bowker John ed 1997 The Oxford Dictionary of World Religions Oxford Bucknell Roderick S 1999 Conditioned Arising Evolves Variation and Change in Textual Accounts of the Paticca samupadda Doctrine Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 22 2 Buddhaghosa 2010 The Path of Purification Visuddhimagga translated by Bhikkhu Naṇamoli 4th ed Kandy Sri Lanka Buddhist Publication Society ISBN 978 955 24 0023 0 Dalai Lama 1992 The Meaning of Life translated and edited by Jeffrey Hopkins Wisdom Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse 2011 What Makes You Not a Buddhist Shambhala Kindle Edition Edelglass William et al 2009 Buddhist Philosophy Essential Readings Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 19 532817 2 Frauwallner Erich 1973 Chapter 5 The Buddha and the Jina History of Indian Philosophy The philosophy of the Veda and of the epic The Buddha and the Jina The Samkhya and the classical Yoga system Motilal Banarsidass Garfield Jay L 1994 Dependent Arising and the Emptiness of Emptiness Why did Nagarjuna start with Causation Philosophy East and West Volume 44 Number 2 April 1994 archived from the original on 7 May 2010 retrieved 3 September 2012 Geshe Sonam Rinchen 2006 How Karma Works The Twelve Links of Dependent Arising Snow Lion Gethin Rupert 1998 Foundations of Buddhism Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 19 289223 2 Goldstein Joseph 2002 One Dharma The Emerging Western Buddhism HarperCollins Gombrich Richard 2009 Chaper 9 Causation and non random process What the Buddha Thought Equinox Goodman Steven D 1992 Situational Patterning Pratityasamutpada Footsteps on the Diamond Path Crystal Mirror Series v 1 3 Dharma Publishing Harvey Peter 1990 An Introduction to Buddhism Cambridge University Press Harvey Peter 2015 The Conditioned Co arising of Mental and Bodily Processes within Life and Between Lives in Emmanuel Steven M ed A Companion to Buddhist Philosophy John Wiley amp Sons ISBN 978 1 119 14466 3 Hoffman Frank J et al 1996 Pali Buddhism Routledge ISBN 978 0 7007 0359 3 Hopkins Jeffrey 1983 Meditation on Emptiness Wisdom Publications ISBN 978 0 86171 014 0 Jones Dhivan Thomas 2009 New Light on the Twelve Nidanas Contemporary Buddhism 10 2 241 259 doi 10 1080 14639940903239793 S2CID 145413087 Jurewicz Joanna 2000 Playing with Fire The pratityasamutpada from the perspective of Vedic thought PDF Journal of the Pali Text Society 26 77 103 Lama Zopa Rinpoche 2009 How Things Exist Teachings on Emptiness Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive Kindle Edition Lopez Donald S 2001 The Story of Buddhism HarperCollins Mabja Tsondru 2011 Ornament of Reason Snow Lion McEvilley Thomas 2002 The Shape of Ancient Thought Polak Grzegorz 2011 Reexamining Jhana Towards a Critical Reconstruction of Early Buddhist Soteriology UMCS Ronkin Noa 2009 Edelglass et al eds Theravada Metaphysics and Ontology Buddhist Philosophy Essential Readings Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 19 532817 2 Schilbrack Kevin 2002 Thinking through Myths Philosophical Perspectives Routledge ISBN 978 0 415 25461 8 Schumann Hans Wolfgang 1974 Buddhism an outline of its teachings and schools Theosophical Pub House Schumann Hans Wolfgang 1997 1976 Boeddhisme Stichter scholen systemen Buddhismus Stifter Schulen und Systemen Asoka Shulman Eviatar 2008 Early Meanings of Dependent Origination PDF Journal of Indian Philosophy 36 2 297 317 doi 10 1007 s10781 007 9030 8 S2CID 59132368 archived from the original PDF on 10 October 2016 Smith Huston Novak Philip 2009 Buddhism A Concise Introduction HarperOne Kindle Edition Sogyal Rinpoche 2009 The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying Harper Collins Kindle Edition Thanissaro Bhikkhu 2008 The Shape of Suffering A study of Dependent Co arising PDF Metta Forest Monastery archived from the original PDF on 30 May 2013 Thich Nhat Hanh 1999 The Heart of the Buddha s Teaching Three River Press Waldron William S 2004 The Buddhist Unconsciousness The alaya vijnana in the context of Indian Buddhist thought RoutledgeCurzon Walpola Rahula 2007 What the Buddha Taught Grove Press Kindle Edition Walshe Maurice 1996 The Long Discourses of the Buddha a Translation of the Digha Nikaya 3rd ed Boston Wisdom Publications ISBN 978 0 86171 103 1 Wayman Alex 1971 Buddhist Dependent Origination History of Religions 10 3 185 203 doi 10 1086 462628 JSTOR 1062009 S2CID 161507469 Wayman Alex 1984a Dependent Origination the Indo Tibetan Vision in Wayman 1984 Wayman Alex 1984b The Intermediate State Dispute in Buddhism in Wayman 1984 Wayman Alex 1984 George R Elder ed Budddhist Insight Essays by Alex Wayman Motilall Banarsidass ISBN 978 81 208 0675 7 Williams Paul 2002 Buddhist Thought Taylor amp Francis Kindle EditionFurther reading EditTheravadaWalpola Rahula 1974 What the Buddha Taught P A Payutto Dependent Origination The Buddhist Law of Conditionality translation for the fourth chapter of P A Payutto s Buddhadhamma Ajahn Sucitto 2010 Turning the Wheel of Truth Commentary on the Buddha s First Teaching Shambhala pages 61 76 Jackson Peter A 2003 Buddhadasa Theravada Buddhism and Modernist reform in Thailand Silkworm Books Ajahn Amaro 2021 Catastrophe Apostrophe The Buddha s Teachings on Dependent Origination Cessation Amaravati PublicationsTibetan BuddhismChogyam Trungpa 1972 Karma and Rebirth The Twelve Nidanas by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche Karma and the Twelve Nidanas A Sourcebook for the Shambhala School of Buddhist Studies Vajradhatu Publications Dalai Lama 1992 The Meaning of Life translated and edited by Jeffrey Hopkins Boston Wisdom Geshe Sonam Rinchen 2006 How Karma Works The Twelve Links of Dependent Arising Snow Lion Khandro Rinpoche 2003 This Precious Life Shambala Thrangu Rinpoche 2001 The Twelve Links of Interdependent Origination Nama Buddha Publications ScholarlyFrauwallner Erich 1973 Chapter 5 The Buddha and the Jina History of Indian Philosophy The philosophy of the Veda and of the epic The Buddha and the Jina The Samkhya and the classical Yoga system Motilal Banarsidass Bucknell Roderick S 1999 Conditioned Arising Evolves Variation and Change in Textual Accounts of the Paticca samupadda Doctrine Journal of the Internatopnal Association of Buddhist Studies 22 2 Jurewicz Joanna 2000 Playing with Fire The pratityasamutpada from the perspective of Vedic thought Journal of the Pali Text Society 26 77 103 Shulman Eviatar 2008 Early Meanings of Dependent Origination PDF Journal of Indian Philosophy 36 2 297 317 doi 10 1007 s10781 007 9030 8 S2CID 59132368 archived from the original PDF on 10 October 2016 Gombrich Richard 2009 Chaper 9 Causation and non random process What the Buddha Thought Equinox Jones Dhivan Thomas 2009 New Light on the Twelve Nidanas Contemporary Buddhism 10 2 241 259 doi 10 1080 14639940903239793 S2CID 145413087External links EditSuttasDN 15 Maha nidana Sutta SN 12 1 Paticca samuppada vibhanga Sutta SN 12 23 Upanisa Sutta translation by Bhikkhu Thanissaro SN 12 23 Upanisa Sutta translation and exposition by Bhikkhu BodhiCommentariesDependent Origination the Buddhist Law of Conditionality by Prayudh Payutto Paticcasamuppada Practical Dependent Origination by Buddhadasa The Doctrine of Paticcasamuppada U Than Daing A Discourse on Paticcasamuppada Mahasi Sayadaw The Shape of Suffering A study of Dependent Co arising Bhikkhu Thanissaro 2008 Educational Resources What is dependent origination Buddhism for Beginners Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Pratityasamutpada amp oldid 1154048339, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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