Part II: THE DEPENDENT ORIGINATION
(THE DOCTRINE OF PATICCA
SAMUPPADA)
1. AN EFFECT
DEPENDS ON A CAUSE
Natural Law of the Universe
provides that cause and effect are related to one another. If there is cause
there must be effect. Without a cause there cannot be an effect. The effect
again becomes a cause, which, in turn, produces its effect and thus the cycle
of cause and effect goes on ad infinitum.
The central theme of this
doctrine of Paticca Samuppada is that every phenomenon is produced
depending on cause and conditions. All mental and physical states are being
produced depending on other state of mind and matter, which, in turn, are
produced depending on still other states. In reality, there is nothing that can
arise of its own accord or lead an isolated life, quite independent of
everything else.
The doctrine of Paticca
Samuppada is the real foundation on which the entire philosophy of Buddhism
is built up. Paticca Samuppada is a combination of Pali words.
Paticca meaning "depending upon", Sam meaning
"well" and Uppada meaning "arising of effect', hence it
is known in English as the Law of Dependent Origination or Cycle of Birth and
Death of a being.
It is to be borne in mind
that Paticca Samuppada pertains to nothing but your own self, your own
aggregate (Khandha )of Mind and Body (Nama and Rupa). It shows
the casual continuum of your so-called self, the process of arising and passing
away of Mind and Matter. In other words, the series of sufferings since
indefinite time and space.
Paticca Samuppada
actually is in itself the cyclic order of arising and passing away of the
aggregate of Mind and Body. One phenomenon gives rise to another in an endless
continuum. This process is therefore only the arising and passing away of Mind
and Matter, or Law of Casualty, in which there is no semblance that can be
taken for I, you, he, she, man, woman, self or ego, etc.
In the Digha Nikaya, the
Buddha Himself has said, "O Bhikkhus, one who
understand Paticca Samuppada does understand the Dhamma, and who understands
the Dhamma understands Paticca Samuppada". And, soon after His
Enlightenment, the Buddha meditated on the Wheel of Life and proclaimed to the
world of beings how He had realized the actual stratum of the links of life,
the Buddha therefore uttered a Paean of Joy (Udana) on this very
Doctrine of Paticca Samuppada.
In this chain, we see one
incident depends upon another one previous to it, and gives rise to one after
it. Everything that we find in the world can be brought under a chain of cause
and effect; nothing can originate without depending on something else previous
to it, and no originated thing can be conceived of which does not give rise to
something else in its turn.
2. THE LINKS
BETWEEN CAUSE AND EFFECT
Thus the process is going
on, yet, anything can be traced upwards to where it originated and downwards to
that which has origin depending on it, for nature is governed by the Law of
Paticca Samuppada or depending on that, this originates. There is no break in
the process. The events flow continuously in a series, one giving rise to
another. As one ripple in a stream causes another, and that, also still
another, so the causation goes on.
In reality, Paticca
Samuppada is nothing but the ceaseless process of one's own Khandhas,
i.e. perishing of the old ones giving place to the new, in other words,
Paticca Samuppada is the Causal Continuum of arising and vanishing of physical
and mental phenomena.
3. TWO ROOT
DEFILEMENTS
Samsara is
unmeasurable in that the beginning of it is inconceivable. Being shrouded in
ignorance (Avijja)and bound up by craving (Tanha) the beginning
of beings who are undergoing round of rebirths from one existence to another is
incomprehensible. The first predominant factor of the potential force of
Samsara is ignorance (Avijja) which binds the beings so he cannot see
the Truth as it really is, and the second, its ally is craving or lust
(Tanha), which binds or fetters oneself, to one's own family, property,
possessions, wealth and all animate and inanimate objects.
4. THREE ROUNDS
IN THE PROCESS OF EXISTENCE
Due to ignorance
(Avijja) and craving (Tanha), a man does all sorts of good and
bad actions, and thereby having gathered new Kammas at every instance of
action is thus reborn after death. And again he goes on doing the same actions
with his ignorance and craving and continues being born and reborn. These two
predominant factors are indeed the origins of life which cause the being
tremendously miserable in the cycle of lives in Samsara. Until and
unless they are totally uprooted and annihilated the cycle of life
(Bhavacakkara) or the Law of Cause and Effect or the Dependent
Origination will be repeated continually round and round in the following
twelve links.
5. LINKS IN
NATURAL ORDER
1. Depending on ignorance
there arise volitional Activities (Sankhara):
2. Depending on the
Volitional Activities there arises Rebirth Consciousness (Vinnana);
3. Depending on Rebirth
Consciousness there arise the Mental and Physical States of a being
(Nama-rupa);
4. Depending on the Mental
and Physical States there develop the Six Senses (eye, ear, nose, tongue, body
and mind) (Salayatana);
5. Depending on the Six
Senses there arises Contact (with sense objects) (Phassa);
6. Depending on the Contact
there arises Feelings (e.g. pleasant, unpleasant and neutral) (Vedana);
7. Depending on Feelings
there arises Craving for the objects (Tanha);
8. Depending on Craving
there arises Grasping or Clinging (Updadna):
9. Depending on Clinging
there arises the Process of Life (Bhava);
10. The Process of life
flaws into another rebirth (Jati);
11. The present birth is
followed by,
12. Decay, Death, Sorrow,
Lamentation, Suffering, Intense Grief and Mental Distress.
Thus a being, composed of
Mind, and Body, is endlessly suffering from the worldly ills of life in
circling around these links.
6. LINKS IN
REVERSE ORDER
Just as the Dependent
Origination evolves and "chains" from link to link through depending
on the first predominant Cause, Ignorance , so also this Dependent Origination
ceases through depending on the extinction of this very Ignorance as follows:
1. Depending on the
extinction of Ignorance, Volitional Activities become extinct;
2. Depending on the
extinction of Volitional Activities, Rebirth Consciousness becomes extinct;
3. Depending on the
extinction of Rebirth Consciousness, the Mental and Physical States of a being
became extinct;
4. Depending on the
extinction of the Mental and Physical States of a being, Six Senses become
extinct;
5. Depending on the
extinction of Six Senses, Contact becomes extinct;
6. Depending on the
extinction of the Contact, Feelings become extinct;
7. Depending on the
extinction of the Feelings, Craving becomes extinct;
8. Depending on the
extinction of the Craving, Grasping becomes extinct;
9. Depending on the
extinction of the Grasping, the Process of Life becomes extinct;
10. Depending on the
extinction of the Process of Life, Rebirth becomes extinct;
11. Depending on the
extinction of Rebirth,
12. Decay, Death, Sorrow,
Lamentation, Suffering, Intense Grief and Mental Distress became extinct.
Thus the whole mass of
suffering in Samsara is ultimately exhausted and annihilated.
Here Avijja means
not comprehensively understanding the Four Noble Truths, the past, the future
and both the past and the future existences, the Cycle of Dependent Origination
of all phenomena of existence, as they are in reality. Due to this
Avijja, all the physical, verbal and mental activities were done, good or
bad in a previous life, called atitakamma bhava, i.e. the process of
active life in one's former birth.
In other words, a being
deluded with ignorance has done:
(a) Wholesome actions for
which rebirth takes place in pleasant abodes, such as human or lesser Gods
(Deva );
(b) Unwholesome actions for
which rebirth takes place in lower woeful miserable abodes, such as hell,
animal kingdom, the kingdom of ghosts (Peta , or ghost-like beings whose
life is partly pleasant and partly hellish;
(c) Higher mental actions
for which rebirth takes place in the planes of higher Gods (Arupa Brahma
) enjoying a limited period of continual bliss of ecstasy.
All moral and immoral
thoughts, words and deeds are included in Sankhara. Actions good or bad, which
are directly rooted in or indirectly tainted with ignorance, must necessarily
produce their due effect and tend to prolong in Samsara. Even in moral
activities, still conjoined with ignorance and craving for something, they too
produce their due good or bad result, and nevertheless, are necessary to reduce
or get rid of these ills of life. Ignorance, indeed, is more predominant in
immoral activities, while it is latent in moral activities,
Thus dependent on past
conditioning activities arises relinking or rebirth consciousness
(patisandhi vinnana) in a subsequent birth. For instance, the foetus in
the mother's womb is formed by the combination of this relinking-consciousness
with the fertilized sperm-ovum cells of the parents. In this consciousness are
latent all the past impressions, characteristics and tendencies of the
particular individual life-flux. Simultaneous with the arising of the
relinking-consciousness there appear physical and menial states or mind and
matter (Nama Rupa) or the "corporeal organism".
Here Nama means the
three aggregates:- feeling ( Vedana ), perception ( Sanna ) and
mental formation (Sankhara) - that arise simultaneously with the
relinking-consciousness. Rupa means the three combinations - body (Kaya
), sex (Bhava ) and seat of consciousness (Vatthu) - that
also arise simultaneously with the relinking-consciousness, conditioned by
past Kamma.
Then depending on these
psycho-physical phenomena, there evolve the six sense-bases (salayatana).
All the six senses - eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and mind have their
respective objects and functions. Again, the six sense-objects, such as forms;
sounds, odours, tastes, tangibles and mental objects collide with their
respective sense-organs giving rise to six types of consciousness. The
conjunction of the sense-bases, sense-objects and the resultant consciousness
is contact (phassa ) which is purely subjective and impersonal.
When the objects come in
contact with the senses, there appear feelings (Vedana) that experience
desirable or undesirable fruits of an action done in this or in previous
births. Chiefly there are three kinds of feelings, namely, pleasurable
(Somanassa), unpleasurable (Domanassa), and neutral (Upekkha}
This is the process of the present life as a result of the previous Kamma,
I called (Paccupanna upapatti-bhava), i.e. the process at the time of
taking birth.
Then, dependent on feeling
arises craving (Tanha) which, like ignorance, is the other predominant
factor in the Dependent Origination. Craving is threefold, namely craving for
sensual pleasures ( Kamatanha ), craving for existence ( Bhavatanha)
and craving for non existence (Vibbavatanha). There are also twelve
kinds of craving corresponding to internal six senses and external
sense-objects. When they are viewed as past, present and future, there are 36,
and again when multiplied by three kinds of craving they all amount to 108.
After that, dependent on
craving, there appears grasping or clinging (Upadana). Here Tanha is
something like the love of a mother to her son, whereas Upadana is akin to much
attachment for her husband. Grasping is caused by both attachment and false
view. There are four kinds of grasping namely, Sensuality, False Views,
Adherence to rites and rituals and Theory of Soul or Self-illusive View.
Again, dependent on
grasping, there arises the Process of Life (Bhava) which literally means
becoming. Thus a being or person keeps on the struggle of life, doing all kinds
of good and bad actions. This is the active part of the present life called
Paccupanna "Kammabhava", i.e. the process of his or her
activities in the course of his or her present span of life. These yield
results in the form of "patisandhi" conception of Rebirth, in
the following life accordingly, which is again followed by decay, death and all
other miserable evils. This future resultant of the present is called
"anagata upapatti bhava', i.e. the process of life in the future as
a result of the present.
Thus the cycle of
Paticca Samuppada, meaning the "Wheel of Life' or the
"Dependent Origination" takes into consideration as follows;
a. two root bases (mula
), i.e. ignorance and craving;
b. two Noble Truths
(Sacca), i.e. Suffering and the Cause of Suffering;
c. three tenses (kala
), i.e. Past, Present and Future;
d. three junctions
(Samadhi), i.e. First, Second and Third;
e. three rounds of
defilements (vatta ), i.e. Sensuality, its Result and Defilement;
f. four sections (
Sankhepa), i.e. First, Second, Third and Fourth;
g. twelve parts ( Anga
), i.e. Ignorance, Volitional Activity, Consciousness, etc.;
h. twenty constituents or
modes (Akara ), i.e. five modes in each section,
The cycle of Paticca
Samuppada lengthens so long as the aggregate of grasping is apparent in
one's life-process. So we must be mindfully aware of how this aggregate of
grasping takes place in the Dependent Origination. In the act of seeing,
hearing, smelling, tasting, touching and thinking, the psycho-physical
phenomena become apparent at every moment one sees, hears, smells, tastes,
touches and thinks. In every act of thus seeing when the eye-base comes in
contact (Phassa) with the visible object, the phenomenon of
seeing-consciousness indelibly becomes apparent.
7. GRASPING ON
THE AGGREGATES
Along with this seeing
consciousness, the perception ( sanna ) of what is seen, the feeling
(Vedana) whether pleasant or unpleasant or neutral at the sight seen,
the encouragement of the active volition to see (sankhara) and attention
(manasikara), all these become apparent. Of these, the eye-base and the
object constitute the aggregate of material qualities (rupakkhandha ).
And if these material qualities are considered as existent, permanent and
pleasing as a living entity and clung to, both of the eye and the object are
called (rupupadanakkhandha ). Due to the similar attachment, the eye
consciousness is called (vinnanaupadanakkhandha).
8. A BEING -
MERELY MIND AND MATTER
In brief, the eye and the
sight are only material qualities (rupa ) and the consciousness of the
sight is mental quality (nama ). In reality, there are only these two
phenomena. i.e. mental and material (nama-rupa ), which constitute a
being.
If we scrutinise them, we
will discern that they are momentarily arising and passing away for ever and
ever. During such a moment of seeing, unless we meditate on the phenomena of
Mind and Matter and their arising and passing away, the defilements of
ignorance (Avijja) and craving (Tanha) do arise in our eyes. Then
due to this, there arises grasping which again gives rise to the process of new
birth (bhava) and it lengthens the Cyclic Chain of Paticca
Samuppada, widening the scope of Samsara.
9. CUTTING OFF
THE WHEEL OF LIVES
Here, in order to cut off
the stratum of Paticca Samuppada, we must meditate on every link of the wheel
and should be fully aware of the eye-base and visible objects as the material
qualities and · the eye- consciousness too as the mental quality, but
not I or he or she or yours or mine or hers.
In the like manner, we
should be fully aware of the pleasant feeling as pleasant feeling, the
unpleasant feeling as unpleasant feeling and the neutral feeling as neutral
feeling, in their own intrinsic nature, bur not I or he or she or mine or yours
or his or hers, and in fact, they also are arising and passing away all the
time.
As a result, the feeling
can produce non-craving, which, in turn, gives rise to no-grasping,
no-new-life- process, no-rebirth, no-old age and no-death.
Thus you will be liberated
from all the cyclic endless sufferings of Paticca Samuppada and it is called in
Buddhism the Most Supreme Happiness of Nibbana.
Note — See Appendix for "Dependent Origination
Diagram".
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