Dependent Origination

Namo Tassa Bhagavato Arahato Sammā Sambuddhassa

The subject of this talk is paṭiccasamuppāda, Dependent arising. The Pāli word
paṭiccasamuppāda is a compound of two words. The first, paṭicca means depending on, the
cause of, conditioned by, the other word samuppāda means arising but not a simple arising. The
prefix, some suggests the idea of complexity of the interconnectedness or interrelatedness
characterizing the process of arising. So, for this reason, a really satisfactory translation of the
term would be happy perhaps the dependent co-arising. We follow the more usual translation and
render it dependent arising. Other translators sometimes use dependent origination, condition,
co-production, condition Genesis, and so on. The doctrine of dependent arising is so to speak the
dynamic counterpoint counterpart of the doctrine of anatta of selflessness and the great
importance of this teaching can be seen from several suttas spoken by the buddha. In one sutta,
the Buddha says that one who sees dependent arising sees the dhamma and one who sees the
dhamma sees dependent arising. The dhamma is the truth discovered by the Buddha. The truth
that subsists by itself independent of all other influences and then the statement the Buddha
makes an explicit equation between this profound truth. He’s realized and dependent arising
again it is said in some other suttas in the description of his own quest for enlightenment. The
Buddha says that immediately before his enlightenment when he was sitting in meditation, he
began inquiring into the chain of conditions seeking the causal origination of suffering and this
inquiry led him to the discovery of dependent arising. So from one angle, he can equate the
discovery of dependent arising with the attainment of enlightenment itself. Then the buddha says
after his enlightenment, he sat for several weeks meditating on dependent arising meditating on
the sequence forwards and backwards and when he emerged from his meditation, then he
reflected that this Dhamma that I have discovered is deep, difficult to see, difficult to understand.
It’s sublime, peaceful beyond the range of reasoning, abstruse, to be realized in worldly by the
wise. Then the Buddha thinks that it will be very difficult to teach this doctrine because it will be
hard for people to see and to understand the truth that is dependent arising. Another time, this is
given the mahānidanasutta of the Dīghanikāya, the fifteen sutta of the Dīghanikāya. The
Buddha’s attendant the venerable Ānanda comes to the Buddha and he says one day sir, even
though the doctrine of dependent arising is said to be very deep, to myself, it seems very clear
and very obvious and its appearance also it also appears very very clear and obvious. When this
was said, the buddha replied, he said Ānanda do not speak in this way mā hevaṃ Ānanda, do
not speak in this way this dependent arising is deep in truth and it’s deep in its appearance. It is
true not understanding through, not penetrating this dhamma, dependent arising that all living
beings this generation of living beings has become entangled like a matted ball of thread become
like grasps and rushes unable to pass beyond the woeful states of existence and saṃsāra, the
cycle of existence. So, dependent arising is not only the content that the buddha’s enlightenment
not only the content of the Dhamma but it is also the truth that has to be realized to gain
liberation. It is through not seeing an understanding dependent arising that we have wandered in
Rome from the cycle of birth and dead and it is by penetrating to the truth of dependent arising
that we ought to gain freedom. Liberation from the cycle of birth and death. So we can see that
the essence of the Buddha’s teaching lies precisely in dependent arising the key not only to an
intellectual understanding of the Dhamma but to the attainment of liberation. Now the teaching
of dependent arising, has two aspects. One aspect is an abstract principle where we can call a
structural principle. The second aspect is the application of that principle to the problem which is
the main concern of the Buddha’s teaching the problem of suffering. In its abstract form as the
structural principle dependent arising is the most fundamental law underlying every process and
event that can occur. It is a law that is beginningless and endless a law which has no external
ground and requires no external support. This law which sustains every event that occurs the
structural principle that underlies all phenomena this is the law of conditionality. It is the law that
holds that whatever arises, arises in dependence on condition. Everything that comes into being
comes into being through the force of conditions. Everything that exists, exists in dependence on
conditions and without the support of the appropriate conditions the given phenomena will not be
able to arise and will not be able to remain in existence. The structural principle is expressed by
an ancient Pāli formula which is so basic and so important that we’ve set it out in the sheet in the
Pāli itself. Formula 1. Imasmiṃ sati, idaṃ hoti. Imassa uppādā idaṃ uppajji. Imasmiṃ asati,
idaṃ na hoti, imassa nirodhā idaṃ nirujjati. The meaning when there is this, that comes to be
with the arising of this that arises. When there is not this that does not come to be with the
ceasing of this that ceases. The first part of the formula the positive part explains the conditional
arising of phenomena. It says that in order for any factor B to come into existence its condition A
must exist for the operative that B arises through the contribution of its condition A. To give an
example, the apple tree exists in dependence on the apple seed. If there is an apple seed, the
apple tree can come into existence. If an apple seed comes into being the tree can come into
being but if there is no condition present when the condition A for the occurrence of something
B does not exist then the phenomena B will not exist. That is when B exists in dependence on A
then with the absence of A, B will not occur and if A ceases then B will cease that’s coming back
to the apple tree if there’s no apple seed then there can’t be any tree and if the seed is destroyed
then there can be no growth of the apple tree. For the tree B depends on the seed A. The principle
of dependent arising is the law of the condition arising of phenomena and this law embraces all
existing phenomena. Everything from a particle of dust to a whole world system, from a leading
thought to a whole empire or civilization. Everything that’s put together that’s compounded
comes into existence only through it’s appropriate condition and that the conditions do not exist
then the phenomena will not exist. Now this law of conditionality this is not the creation of the
Buddha. It is a law that’s always operative. In a sutta in the Samyutta Nikāya, the Buddha says
that whether, whether enlightened ones arise or do not arise this law remains this structuring
principle of phenomena that all compounded things come into being in dependence on their
condition. This principle of conditionality the buddha calls actual reality tadattha. He says it is
invariable, unalterable. It’s the fundamental principle that underlies the occurrence of every
event. The principle of conditionality expressed is dependent arising. This differs significantly
from the Western idea of cause and effect. Sometimes the two are equated or at sometimes,
sometimes the term pṭticcasamuppada is translated as causality but that is somewhat misleading
since there are certain important differences between dependent arising and the Western notion
of causality. First of all we should mention that the Buddhist conception of dependent arising
does not recognize a single cause. Phenomena do not arise only from one cause but form many
conditions. The Western conception of causality works with the idea or a succession of events.
One is a cause the other is effect. The effect in turn becomes a cause giving rise to still another
effect. The whole series moves forward in one direction one then after another. The two cause
and effect are depicted as succeeding one another in a straight line but the Buddhist model of
conditionality works with the notion of a complex interrelated network of conditions. Events
linked together somewhat like the ripples of water on a pond or like the fibers of a spider’s web.
They are links in a network rather than point along a straight line and in the Buddhist idea of
conditionality no phenomena arise from a single cause for any phenomena to arise it must arise
from many conditions from many causal factors working together in a functional integration.
And then any phenomena which comes into being through these many conditions itself
conditions the arising of many other phenomena so that each causal factor has not only one effect
but many effects. For example, the apple tree doesn’t arise only from the seed. The seed is the
main condition but it also requires soil, water, sunshine, fertilizer and so on. Then the apple tree
in turn has many effects. It gives rise for one thing to many apples. Those many apples each
contains many seeds and each of these seeds in turn can become the source for another apple tree
which gives rise to still many more apples. Thus, from many causes come many effects each
effect and turn becomes a cause giving rise to many other effects and this whole complex
interlocking net of events has no first course. This is a significant difference from traditional
Western ways of thinking. Usually we think that the chain of cause and effect needs of first cause
and theistic religions identify that first cause with God who create the universe through as well
and thereby sets the whole wheel revolving but from the Buddha standpoint there’s no first cause
to the process of conditionality. No original beginning the succession the causes and conditions
revolves without any conceivable beginning, without any discoverable first point. The process
has been going on through beginningless time without any bounds or limits to its sphere of
operation. Now the Buddha did not teach dependent arising merely as a theory, as a speculative
notion for the purpose of discussion and debate but rather he presents the teaching because it is
central to the aim of his Dhamma that is deliverance from suffering. Suffering in its deepest
aspect is, we saw is the intrinsic unsatisfactoriness of the round of existence of Saṃsāra, the
cycle of birth and death through which we have been wandering through beginningless time. The
aim and goal of the teaching that is the cessation of suffering, liberation from Dukkha, and that
comes by bringing an end to Saṃsāra to the wheel of becoming. Now the Buddha says that a
first point to Saṃsāra cannot be discovered. No matter how far back we might go in time we
always find the possibility of going back further. That’s a first point to the cycle of existence
cannot be discovered. However even though Saṃsāra doesn’t have a beginning in time, it does
have a distinct genetic structure, a causal structure. It is sustained and kept in motion by a precise
set of conditions. These conditions the Buddha sets out in a sequence of twelve factors and these
make up the practical side of his teaching on dependent arising. The twelve factors are given on
the sheet. They are ignorance, volitional formations, consciousness, mentality, materiality, the
six sense faculties, contact, feeling, craving, clinging, existence, birth, and aging, and death.
Ageing and death though to a group together as one. These twelve factors, these are the spokes
of the wheel of existence and these factors are all to be found within ourselves, in our own
minds, in our own experience. It is through these factors that we’re evolved over and over in
Saṃsāra. He continued to roam in the round of becoming, meeting with the different forms of
suffering, with sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair and because of our ignorance of
these factors because of our ignorance of dependent arising, we continue to be held and pondered
and by discovering this truth, the truth of dependent arising, it becomes possible to remove the
fundamental links and thereby to reach true and lasting freedom. To bring the whole process of
repeated becoming a birth and death to a standstill, now the 12 factors of dependent arising are
set forth by the Buddha in a series of statements. These statements have as their basic formula in
the order of the rising with A as condition B arises. Then the Buddha fills us in with each of
these factors so that we have wit ignorance as condition the volitional formations arise but
dependent on ignorance the volitional formations arise. Dependent on the volitional formations,
consciousness arises. Dependent on consciousness, mentality, materiality arises. Dependent on
material, on mentality, materiality the six sense faculties arise. Dependent and the sense
faculties, contact arises. In dependence on contact feeling arises. In dependent on feeling,
craving arises. In dependence on craving, clinging arises. In dependence on clinging, existence
arises. In dependence on existence, birth arises. In dependence on both, there rises aging and
death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair such the Buddha says such as the arising of
this whole mass of suffering. Now to clarify the working of the twelve factors the, factors are
usually distributed over three successive lives. They can be applied to any series of three lives
and sequence. Now if we take the main portion from consciousness number three through
existence number 10. If we take this portion is applying to the present life then the first two
lengths first two factors will pertain to the past life to the immediately preceding existence. Then
the middle factors from consciousness to existence belong to the present life and the last two
factors birth and aging in depth those will represent the coming life the future existence. When
we say this though it has to be pointed out as a precaution that the division of the 12 factors into
three lifetimes is made as an expository device for giving a clear explanation of the working of
the factors. We shouldn’t grasp upon this and take it too literally as meaning that ignorant simple
and the volitional formations occurred only in the past and do not occur now or that birth and
aging and death are events that will take place only in the future existence and won’t occur in the
present existence. Of course, ageing and death have to occur in this existence too. As we will see
as we go along there is an interconnection or interlocking of these factors. So, all of them can
actually be found in each single existence but in order to give a clear, neat and precise
explanation of the causal operation of the cycle of becoming. The Buddha has read them out
extended them out and shown how they work over three successive lifetimes. Now we will take
as our own starting point of explanation the present existence in which we are living now. This
starts with the third factor consciousness. Our life is a continuum of cut of experience, a stream
of experience, in which consciousness is the most fundamental factor. Life begins at conception
with a moment of consciousness, a lashing moment of awareness, and consciousness continues
all the ways through the course of our existence right up to the moment of death. Now the
question comes up. What are the conditions that brought us into this present existence? Form
where does consciousness arise? Where have we come from? How have we come into being and
how have we got to be the presents that we are? Have we come into being just by chance as a
result of material processes, combinations of molecules, probably come into birth through the
will of some creator God? Are we emanations from some divine source? Where have we come
from? How will we come into being? This is made clear through the teaching of dependent
arising. The Buddha explains that our present life is the result of our past life. We have come into
being in this present existence on account of our own ignorance and volitions in the past. Then,
in this present life through our carving, our clinging, our attachment, through our actions or
karma, we set rolling the forces that will bring about a new existence in the future. New birth
followed by aging and death. Thus, the process of becoming is something which repeats itself
over and over. It is driven by our ignorance and our craving shaped by our thoughts, our
decisions, our desires, and actions. The Buddha starts the sequence of factors with ignorance
avijjā. In our past life, our minds were obscured by a basic ignorance. No first point can be found
to the ignorance. No matter how far back we go through our past lives, we always find that our
minds have been obscured by ignorance and what is the ignorance? The Buddha defines
ignorance as not knowing and not seeing the Four Noble Truths, truth of suffering, its origin, its
cessation, and the way to its cessation. Ignorance does not mean mere lack of conceptual
knowledge of the Four Noble Truths. Perhaps in the past we were great Buddhist scholars. We
had through knowledge of all the Buddhist scriptures. This doesn’t mean that we had true
understanding of the Four Noble Truths. The liberating knowledge of the truth. Ignorance is a
spiritual blindness concerning the Four Noble Truths. It means not seeing, not titling, not
understanding the four truths in their depth and in their range. It’s usually represented in the
pictures of dependent arising. Represented by a blind old woman’s doubling along with the aid
of a stick. There’s ignorance, it’s a kind of blindness, the spiritual blindness which is covered
over our minds and caused us to see things in a distorted manner. It’s given by to various
conceptual and perceptual distortions which prevent us from understanding things as they really
are. The ignorance is without any conceivable beginning throughout beginningless time our
minds covered by ignorance have led us to see things as being permanent, pleasurable, attractive,
and self. Prevented us from seeing them and their real characteristics of impermanence, suffering
and selflessness and out of those ignorant come all the other defilements, all the other
unwholesome mental states greed, aversion, pride, wrong views, jealousy, selfishness and so on.
All of these are grounded in ignorance. Ignorance is not the first cause of things; this has to be
emphasized. Ignorance too has conditions. It arises through conditions. It arises as a factor in the
minds of living beings and as a mental factor depends on the minds and bodies of things and
internally it’s the rearising that those being. Thus, the process of becoming turns as a wheel
around and around but ignorance though it arises through conditions. Ignorant is always itself
the most fundamental condition, the most basic condition of all the others and therefore the
Buddha takes it as the starting point of explanation and though ignorance was active in the past
and brought us into the present. We shouldn’t think that ignorance was left behind in the past as
long as we lacked perfect insight into the Four Noble Truths, into the Dhamma, then ignorance
remains in our mind. It continues to lurk in our mind leading us into actions which bring about
the new birth in the future. Now the course of this ignorance, we engage in action and this brings
us to the first proposition which connects together the first two factors. In Pali ,avijjā paccayā
saṅkhārā, independence upon ignorance volitional formations arise. That is independence upon
the mental blindness, spiritual blindness. We engage in actions, actions grounded on our illusions
and our wrong views. We activate our will. We form determinations of will. We engage in
occasions of action. All of these volitional actions, these volitional formations, these are called
saṅkhārā. The word saṅkhārā means forming, constructing, creating, putting together and here
it refers specifically to the mental formation, formations of will that arise in a mind that’s
covered over by avijjā by ignorance. The factor of saṅkhārā this is equivalent to karma. The
word karma means volitional action. Acts of will which might be expressed outwardly through
the body as when we perform finally actions which might be expressed verbally as speech that is
verbal karma or actions which might remain in the mind. When we make decisions, form, plans
aroused, desires bring different thoughts and so on. All of these activities of volition whether
they’re expressed outwardly through body or speech or whether they remain inwardly in the
mind these are the volitional formations the saṅkhārā. Now when the mind of a person is
encompassed by ignorance and when he performs some volitional action then that action gives
rise to formation and it gets the positive in the mind as a kind of seed with a potency a power of
germinating in the future and the producing results they might germinate in this in the future in
this present life where they might germinate in the next life, where they might germinate in some
future existence after that even after many aeons but whenever there’s a volitional action that
arises in our mind and compass by ignorance then that action leaves an imprint on the mind a
formation with the capacity to mature to fructify in the future. Now in the present context of
dependent arising the most important aspect of the volitional formation is their power to cross
over the gap created by death and to generate a new existence in the future that is the volitional
formations underlay by ignorance have a power to bring about rebirth. These volitional
formations that produce rebirth these can be of two kinds they can be wholesome Volitions or
unwholesome volitions kusala or akusala. the wholesome Volitions are morally pure or good
volition. The unwholesome Volitions are the morally blameworthy, bad or harmful volition.
Each kind of volition brings about a different type of rebirth the wholesome Volitions been a
good rebirth, the unwholesome ones bring a bad rebirth. But both types of volitions the
wholesome and the unwholesome ones are both conditioned by ignorance. They both arise out of
ignorance and both sustain the wheel of becoming. They both keep the wheel of existence in
motion. Now we come to the next link in the series saṅkhārā paccayā viññānaṃ. Others with
the volitional formations as condition consciousness arises. Now when the volitional formations
are accumulated in the mind and ignorance is still present then when death occurs a new moment
of consciousness will be generated right after death, the first moment of consciousness of the
new life. From the Buddhist perspective consciousness is not regarded as a single persisting
entity, a self or a soul which continues unchanged. Consciousness is seen rather as a series of
acts of consciousness. Each one arising and breaking up like the waves of the ocean. When death
comes the last act of consciousness of that life arises and passes away but through the force of
ignorance and the force of the volitional formation the final process of consciousness generates
out of itself a new act of consciousness which springs up in the mother’s womb links up with the
fertilized ovum and starts the new existence. This act of consciousness the first act of
consciousness of the present life, the act of consciousness which occurs at the moment of
conception. This first act of consciousness is conditioned by the past volitional formation is
given its form or its shape by those volitional formation. This first moment of consciousness
occurring at the moment of conception, this is called the paṭisandhicitta which means the real
linking consciousness and is called the real linking consciousness because it links together the
old existence with the new one. The past life with the present life, the new being, new person,
with entire past that is this rebirth consciousness functioned as the vehicle for the transmission of
all the past experience, all the past karma and the reason why this rebirth consciousness brings
up is because of the wholesome and the unwholesome volitions that were performed and stored
up in the past life. If the karma or volitions that determines rebirth is a wholesome one, then they
will follow a favorable state of rebirth with a superior type of real linking cut consciousness. If
the rebirth determine volition is unwholesome one, then they will take place a lower type of
rebirth with an inferior type of relinking consciousness but whether it be a high or low rebirth
that rebirth will be determined or conditioned by the volitional formations that are underlaid by
ignorance, by the spiritual blindness. One brief moment then it breaks up and stops but
immediately after the rebirth consciousness the same basic type of consciousness continues to
flow in as a series or sequence of mental acts throughout the entire lifetime. It flows as a series of
subliminal acts of consciousness, a passive flow of consciousness, underlying all of our active
states of mind, continuing all the ways from the moments following rebirth through to the
moment of death. This passive flow of consciousness is called the bhavaṅga, the stream of
existence or the life continuum and this bhavaṅga, consciousness this also is determined by the
volitional formations of the past life. Now we come to the next link in the series viññāna
paccayā nāmarūpaṃ, with consciousness as conditioned mentality and materiality arises.
Mentality materiality nāmarūpa that is equivalent to the psychophysical organism. Now when
the rebirth consciousness brings up at the moment of conception in doesn’t arise an isolation. It
occurs in association with the totality of the psychophysical organism that also comes into being
at the moment of conception. That psychophysical organism is what is intended by nāmarūpa.
Nāma we translate as mentality, the mental factors and rūpa as materiality, the material or
physical factors. Now we’ve explained previously that a being, a living being is a compound of
the five aggregates pañcakkhandhā, material form, feeling, perception, mental formations and
consciousness. These five aggregates are always present on every occasion of experience. In fact,
these five aggregates constitute the experience itself. Now among the five aggregates, at the
moment of conception the rebirth consciousness is present as the aggregate of consciousness and
when that rebirth consciousness brings up it is associated with the other four aggregates. The
material form aggregate is represented by materiality rūpa, the body of the newborn it organism
in the case of a human rebirth by the single fertilized and it is just this one fertilized self and now
that cell is functioning as the physical basis of a living organism. Then on the mental side
associated with the rebirth consciousness the other three aggregates are found” feeling,
perception, and the mental formation. These make up Nāma, mentality. So, it’s a very moment
of rebirth. It will be present even in that one self-fertilized egg. It will be a distinct feeling, a
perception and several mental formations and this complex of the five aggregates of
consciousness and “Nāmarūpa”, consciousness and the rest of the psychophysical organism this
continues as an organized totality all the way through till death, inseparable all the factors
dependent and one another. That’s the moment of conception there comes into being a living
being complete with all five aggregates then we come to the next link Nāmarūpapaccayā
saḷāyatanaṃ that is what mentality, materiality as condition the six sense faculties arrive. Now
as the psychophysical organism grows and evolved as it matures there come into being the sense
faculties. The sense faculties are six in number. There’s the five physical sense organs; the eye,
ear, nose, tongue and body then there’s the mind faculty that is consciousness considered as the
organ of thought of ideas of conceptualization. In order to cognize images, ideas, concepts as
well as the other sense data the mind functions as a faculty of cognition. So we have the six sense
faculties which come into being conditioned by Nāmarūpa by the psychophysical organism. At
the moment of conception itself, there’s present the body faculty, the body as a sense faculty, and
the mind base, the mind faculty is also present functioning as the rebirth consciousness. Then as
the organism evolves in the embryonic period. The other four sense faculties begin to take shape
as the cell multiplies and divided and takes on more specialized functions then the eye, ear, nose,
and tongue emerge and as they emerge, they make possible sense experience through those
faculties. The body itself also becomes more complex and differentiated in this period. And then
coming to the next sequence the next link saḷāyatanapaccayā phasso that is conditioned by the
sixth sense faculties, contact arises. Now to explain contact we first have to say a few more
words about the six sense faculties. The sense faculties serve as the mean for gathering
information about the world, information which enables us to survive to function to fulfil our
purposes. Each faculty can receive the type of sense data appropriate to itself. The eye receives
forms, the ear sounds, the nose smells, the tongue tastes, the body tangible, the mind can deal
with the objects of the other senses, and also with its own kind of objects; ideas, concepts,
abstracts, notions, and so on. Now conditioned by the sixth sense faculties contact arises and
what is meant by this contact? Contact is the coming together of the particular type of
consciousness with the appropriate sense object through the sense faculty independence and the
eye and form visual consciousness arises. In dependence on the ear and sounds hearing
consciousness arises and so forth and dependent on the mind and mind objects, mind or thought
consciousness arises. The coming together of consciousness with the sense objects through the
sense faculty that is contact. Contact is the conjunction or a union of consciousness object and
organ, through the eye consciousness contacts , through the ear contact sound, through the nose
contact smells, through the tongue contacts tastes, through the body tangibles, through the mind
faculty of contacts ideas. Thus, there are these six kinds of contact corresponding to the sixth
sense faculty, then phassapaccayā vedanā in dependence on contact, feeling arises. Feeling
arises conditioned by contact. Now feeling vedanā that is the effective tone by which the mind
experiences the object and there can be six kinds of feeling as determined by the organs for
which the feeling arises. There’s feeling born of eye contact, feeling born of ear contact, feeling
born of nose contact, feeling born of tongue contact, feeling born of body contact, feeling born of
mind contact. By way of its effective quality, the feeling can be of three kinds. There’s pleasant
feeling, agreeable feeling, then there’s painful feeling or disagreeable feeling, then there’s
indifferent feeling or neutral feelings. Why do these feelings arise? They arise because we have
this psycho physical organism with a sixth sense faculties through which our minds contact the
six kinds of sense objects and some feeling is present on every occasion of experience whenever
we see a sight, hear a sound etc. Some feelings present colouring our experience of the object.
Sometimes the feeling might be faint and indistinct but it is present all the same at every
moment. It’s through those feelings especially that our past Karma’s worked themselves out that
they bring their fruits. Now with feeling as condition we come here. Now to the next link vedanā
paccayā taṇhā with feeling as conditioned, craving arises and what this link we take a major step
forward. In the movement of the wheel of existence for all the factors that we’ve mentioned from
consciousness through feeling. Consciousness Nāmarūpa the six sense fact, the contact and
feeling these represent the results of past Karmas. The maturation of our past volitional
formation which we performed and accumulated in the past life and which are now germinating
in the present and producing their fruit. As a result of our past ignorance and volitions we’ve
taken birth to acquire this body with its sense organs and experience the different kinds of
feelings. All this comes about as a result of causes sown in the past but now with the arising of
craving we make a move from the resultant sequence of the past having its effects in the present
to the causes operating in the present generating a new existence in the future. In dependence on
feeling there arises craving. When our minds are covered by ignorance and we experience
pleasurable feeling. We become attached to those feelings. We enjoy them, relish them, and we
crave for a continuation of this experience. Before a repetition of it they renewal of it. That’s
craving, arising, desiring, holding on to pleasure into the future. When we experience painful
feeling, this pain awakens an aversion, a desire to eradicate the source of pain, to run away from
it, to smother it by indulging in more pleasurable sensation and so with the mind covered over by
ignorance the deluded person gets caught in the pattern of running away from pain and running
in pursuit of pleasure. The pattern spelled out by craving but this pattern by which feeling leads
into craving. This does not occur as a matter of strict necessity. This is a very very important
point that we come to. Between feeling and craving there is a space. A space which can become
the battlefield with a round of existence Saṃsāra can be brought to an end. It is here in this
space between feeling and craving that the battle will be fought which will determine whether
bondage will continue indefinitely into the future or whether it will be replaced by enlightenment
and liberation. For if instead of yielding to craving to the driving thirst for pleasure, if a person
contemplates with mindfulness and awareness the nature of feeling and understand these feelings
as they are then he can prevent craving from crystallizing and solidified. He can prevent crazing,
craving, from arising and from sustaining renewed existence in the future. By employing wisdom
we can stop the process of becoming right at that point where feeling arises, preventing it from
issuing and further craving and in renewed existence. So the link between feeling and craving
that is the vital meeting ground of the present sequence rooted in the past and the present cause
of sequence leading into the future and it’s here that the work of achieving liberation has to take
place. This is the battleground where the defilements, the enemy will be met by the army of the
enlightenment factors but now we’re dealing with the forward movement of the round and so we
continue. Craving has arisen. Now is the next step we have taṇhāpaccayā upādānaṃ that is
independence upon craving, clinging arises. What is this clinging? Clinging upādāna is an
intensification of craving and the text distinguish four types of clinging. One is clinging to sense
pleasure. That is we cling to the pleasurable feelings that arise and we cling to the objects that
give rise to these pleasures. The second type of clinging is clinging to views. We cling to our
theories, to our opinions, to our conception, to our beliefs. We set up a scheme of categories
through which we try to interpret reality to ourselves, to make things intelligible to ourselves.
We hold and grasp that scheme. The third type of clinging is clinging to rules and observances.
We cling to various precepts. We cling to rituals to aesthetic practices whatever with the notion
that just following these rules blindly performing these rituals finally that’s going to lead us to
salvation. Of course, the rules might be important. The precepts necessary. The rituals might be
helpful. The mistake lies in clinging to them with wrong views with misunderstanding. Then the
fourth type of clinging, the most fundamental type of clinging, this is the clinging to the notion
of an ego entity. Clinging to our mind and body as being a self or the belongings of a self.
They’re clinging arises out of craving and the difference between craving and clinging this is
illustrated by a simile. Craving, they say craving is like a thief extending his hand to grasp some
objects that he intends to steal. Clinging that is like the thief taking hold of the object, taking
possession of the object, so at the stage of craving the person is reaching out to the enjoyable
object. Well, for the idea or notion that he demands and need. At the stage of clinging he grasps,
holds of that object or that set of ideas and he’s appropriating it for himself. Then we come to the
next sequence, upādānapaccayā bhavo that is in dependence upon clinging, existence arises.
Existence comes into being conditioned by clinging. What is meant here by existence bhava is
the karmically accumulative side of existence. The phase of life in which we act, in which we
accumulate Karma, in which we generate more volitional formation wholesome and
unwholesome. The phase in which we build up these formations accumulate them and the flow
of consciousness, store them away in the ongoing flow of consciousness. When these Karmas are
accumulated through craving and clinging then after that these karmas bring about a new
existence in the future, that is Bhavapaccayā Jāti, in dependence upon existence, birth takes
place through the Karmiccaly accumulative side of existence through our stored up Karma’s
driven by craving and clinging out to death we reappear for the stream of becoming goes on,
taking a new birth but new existence in the future begins with birth that is given here as the 11 th
factor jāti. This future birth is to be brought about by the present craving, clinging and the
karmic accumulation and birth in the strip philosophical sense consists in the future
manifestation of the five aggregates. A rebirth consciousness together with Nāmarūpa, the
mental and material factors then in dependence on birth than we have Jāti paccayā jarāmarana
in dependence on birth, there rises aging and death that is because we take birth in the future then
we have to pay the inevitable price. We have to undergo aging and death and some of the texts
mention not only aging and death but sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief and despair and despair.
So those are the twelve factors of dependent arising and now we have some having set out and
explained the 12 factors. There are some additional considerations to be given to them. First
there is what is called the three links, these are quite obvious from what we’ve already said and
need not be discussed at length we can see them in the diagram. First there is the link between
the past causes and the present effects that is the link between volitional formation and
consciousness. Second, there is the link between the present effects and the present causes this is
the link between seven and eight feeling and craving and thirdly there is the link between the
present causes and the future effects between ten and eleven existence and birth. The most
important of these as we mentioned is the connection between the 7 th and the 8th between feeling
and craving. Then the 12 factors are arranged into four groups with 20 modes. We saw that the
causal factors of the past are ignorance and volitional formation but when there is ignorance
present there is also craving and clinging. Craving and clinging don’t belong only to the present
life but when in the past life when our mind was covered over by ignorance, we also had craving
and clinging and so and so along with ignorance in the past we also had craving and clinging.
Then the volitional formations in effect are the same thing as existence. Existence indicates the
karmically accumulative side of life and the predominant aspect of this side of life is the
formation of Karma through volition. So the two items, volitional formations, and existence
these are really the same thing shown under different names and assigned to different life but
when one is mentioned the other is also employed. So then we get as causes in the past along
with the ignorance and the volitional formations, we have craving, clinging and existence. These
are the five causes in the past then in the present life with the present effects we have five
consciousness mentality, materiality, the sense faculties, contact and feeling. Those are subject to
birth, aging and death. So, birth, aging and death, they are implicitly included. Then in the
present causal section when we have craving and clinging what lies behind these? Ignorance!
The reason we crave and cling to things is because we are ignorant about the true nature of things
and so when craving and clinging are mentioned, then ignorance is also employed. Then as we
said existence is equivalent to the volitional formation so thus along with the three in the present,
we have up to other causes that is ignorance and volitional formation. Thus, we have five causes
in the present. Then birth aging and death are events pertaining to consciousness to the factors
consciousness through feeling that is its consciousness and the mental and material factors that
are born, there’s these that grow up, these that mature, these that grow old and these that die. So
when we speak of birth, aging and death, we’re referring to the factors consciousness and the
material and mental state including the senses contacts and feeling. In that way we get five
effects in the future. Thus we have these four groups the five past causes which give rise to the
present effects then the present five causes which give rise to form or two which give rise to five
more effects in the future thus we get four groups with twenty modes and this whole sequence
can be seen as repeating itself over and over again. You can apply it to any sequence of life. To
twelve factors are again subdivided in another way into the three phases of the round. First, we
have the phase of defilements kilesavatta that is ignorance, craving and clinging, the defiling
mental factors then from this defiling phase because the mind is ignorant craves and clings the
person engages in actions that bring about an accumulation of karma. Act, karma which is
productive of more existence in the future. Thus this phase of karma functions as the cause for
the third phase of the round, the phase of results, the phase of karma that includes the volitional
formations in existence numbers 2 to 10 that issues and the phase of results which includes the
other 7 factors as shown on the sheet. All the resultant factors from consciousness through to
feeling and birth aging and death. All of this comes about as the effect or result of karma, built
up in the previous existence the nat karma is motivated by the defilement. These three phases of
the round function in a cyclical pattern, defilements issue in karma, and karma issues in results.
Defilements of the general cause been renewed existence karma, the specific cause. This new
existence becomes the basis for more defilements because of which we generate still more karma
and produced still another existence in the future. That is the basic genetic pattern, the
reproductive pattern of saṃsāra. That’s why it continues over and over but now there is one
catch to this whole process of repeated existence. There is a way to bring this whole saṃsāra to
an end. The process of repeated existence doesn’t have to continue it all hinges upon a single
underlying root, that root is ignorant. It was the discovery of the Buddha. The most discovered,
striking discovery of his enlightenment. That ignorance can be eliminated. That ignorance can be
overcome. It is possible to generate a kind of knowledge and understanding of the true nature of
phenomena, and understanding which breaks through all the screens of delusions and distortions.
A knowledge which sees phenomena as they really are and by arousing this knowledge this
realization, the wisdom of enlightenment, ignorance can be eradicated. Ignorance can be eclipsed
and annihilated. Then with the cessation of ignorance, volitional formations come to an end. The
liberated person, the arahant acts, he’s not completely passive, he uses his will, he decides things,
uses, performs action but his acts of volition do not harden and solidify into the volitional
formations. They remain as mere functions or activities of the will without getting deposited in
the mind as accumulations, as hardened formation. His volition lose their potency of bringing
about renewed existence in the future. The volitions of an ordinary person, of an unenlightened
person, these can be compared to footprints left in wet cement. When the cement hardens the
footprints are retained but the volitions of the liberated one the arahant, these are like the tracks
of birds flying through the sky. No trace remains. His volitions don’t harden into formation. In
the Dhammapada, the Buddha says of the Arahant. He says those who do not accumulate, who
have understood the nature of root, whose object is the void and unconditioned liberation, their
track is hard to trace like that of birds in the sky because he has aroused the wisdom of
enlightenment. The Arahant, the liberated one, is eliminated ignorance and no longer forms
volitional formation. That’s with the cessation of ignorance, the volitional formations cease and
the courses reached enlightenment he no longer has any craving for renewed existence and so
when he reaches the end of his lifetime there is no precipitation of a rebirth consciousness with
the cessation of the volitional formation the process of consciousness ceases. With the cessation
of consciousness there is no new mentality, materiality, no psychophysical organism coming into
being in the future. With the cessation of the psychophysical organism there’s no more sense
faculties, no more contact, no more feelings, since there’s no more feeling, there’s no more
craving, no more clinging, no more accumulations of karma, no birth and with the ending of
birth there’s no more aging and death. All the Dukkha, the suffering of the round comes to an
end. That is the cessation of suffering, the ending of the round. Now turning to the practical
implications of this teaching for our own practice as we said the most important factor is the link
between feeling and craving. That is why the Buddha singles out craving as the origin of
suffering in the Four Noble Truths and so in terms of our own practice what we have to do is to
prevent feeling, the feeling that we undergo from leading us into craving and what is needed to
do this to prevent feeling from leading into craving is mindfulness and clear comprehension of
the feeling. We have to be mindful and clearly aware of the feelings that arise associated with
our sense experience and not buy into them, hold to them and cling to them. If we lack the
mindfulness and understanding then when pleasant feeling arises, they will issue in craving. We
relish the object become attached to it and desire more of the pleasure it gives but if we have
mindfulness then we become aware a pleasant feeling has arisen. We stopped at the awareness of
the pleasant feeling without succumbing to it without allowing the defilement to cluster around
it. Then applying wisdom to our mindfulness we understand the feeling is impermanent
unsatisfactory without a self in substantial merely an impersonal egoless process. These
measures prevent the feeling from giving rise to craving. Then, as we go on cultivating wisdom,
wisdom grows sharper and sharper deeper and deeper until it cuts off the basic ignorance, what
cuts off layer after layer of ignorance and when all the ignorance is eliminated then the state of
liberation can be achieved.