Download Week One: The story of the Historical Buddha and its symbolic

Conditionality & The Middle Way
Throughout the Buddhist world the Buddha is recognised as the enlightened teacher. He symbolises the
perfection of human potential. He founded a path over 2,500 years ago that is as potent today as it was
then. His core teaching of conditionality is the foundation stone and source teaching of all that he taught.
The Sanskrit word for this teaching is pratitya samutpada. It is also known as the teaching of
conditionality. In essence, this teaching states that things arise dependent on conditions and cease when
those conditions cease. There is nothing within this teaching to believe in or have faith in. It is there right
before your very eyes in every moment of experience. Despite the simplicity of the word conditionality
and of this summary of what it means, some of the most profound and complex formulations of the
Dharma are applications of this one teaching, including the four noble truths and the twelve links of
conditioned existence as seen in the wheel of life.
The principle of conditionality is the truth that everything arises dependent on certain specific conditions
and ceases when those same conditions cease. Put another way we could say that this is the basic law of
nature. The formula given by the Buddha is as follows: “This being, that becomes; from the arising of this,
that arises; This not being, that does not become; from the ceasing of this, that ceases”. Although this
formulation might sound strange at first when we delve a little deeper into it and align it in a practical
way with our everyday experience it soon becomes clear ie with the rising of the sun, daylight arrives. It
could not happen any other way. Absolutely nothing can materialise independent of a preceding condition.
The principle of conditionality put this way might sound obvious. The reason for this is that modern
scientific knowledge is also based on the working assumption that everything in the universe happens
according to natural laws. At the time of the Buddha of course, the idea that things happen according to
discoverable natural laws was not at all the predominant view, and the principle of conditionality must
have felt very new, perhaps even exhilarating, to those who heard the Buddha teach. Does this mean that
the Buddha was an early scientist, or that the Dharma could be described as a form of science? Being an
expression of the Buddha’s enlightenment experience, the Dharma is not like scientific theory, even if
both the Dharma and science are about how nature works. The main difference, however, is that the
Buddha did not teach conditionality in order to explain how the objective world works. The Buddha
taught the principle of conditionality so that it could be applied solely to the difficulties of the human
situation by way of a remedy for the sickness of mental anguish.
The word Buddhist word dukkha always brings with it problems because there is nothing within the
English language that accurately translates its meaning. It can be used to describe feelings that are
unpleasant and painful but it is also used to describe a primary characteristic of conditioned existence. It
can also be translated as ‘suffering’ but sometimes conditioned existence is not that bad. It can be
translated as unsatisfactoriness, but this is a bit weak. In its broadest sense it could mean unhappiness,
unease or discontentment. According to learned Sanskrit scholars the word dukka is derived from ‘duh’
meaning bad or difficult and ‘kha’ meaning the axle of a cart. So an image for the word dukkha is that life
is a rough and bumpy ride. Perhaps a solution to the problem is just to use the word dukkha un-translated
but that makes it impractical to teach to a new audience so I have adopted the catch all term of mental
anguish because, taking everything into consideration that is exactly what is going on, a sense of anguish
in the mind.
In practice then, the Dharma is concerned with the liberation of the heart, not with scientific
investigations. In fact the Buddha, throughout the Pali cannon, is rarely reported as discussing anything
other than a path that led to the alleviation or eradication of mental anguish . Back then, just as it is today,
people were not, and are not satisfied with the principle of conditionality as being the ultimate answer as
to the nature of existence. In the Pali scriptures there is a story that vividly illustrates this and when you
hear it perhaps you can align it with thoughts you may have had yourself or to questions you have been
seeking answers for. A monk approaches the Buddha and threatens to resign from the Sangha unless the
Buddha answers some questions such as: Is the universe eternal or not eternal? Is it finite or infinite? Is
the soul and the body the same or different? Does a Buddha exist after death etc etc. The Buddha refuses
to answer and tells the monk he is like a man who has been shot in the eye with an arrow smeared with
poison, but who will not allow the doctor to remove the arrow (which represents mental anguish) unless
he is first told who shot the arrow, their name and family, the colour of their hair and so on. The Buddha
tells the monk he doesn’t answer such questions because they are “not connected with the goal, they are
not fundamental to the Dharma life, they do not conduce to disenchantment, to dispassion, to cessation, to
peacefulness, to wisdom, to awakening, or to nirvana”. What I teach is the nature of mental anguish, how
it arises and ceases and the path to its cessation, which is the same as the path to enlightenment. What the
Buddha is telling the monk is that what he teaches is the application of conditionality to the problem of
human unhappiness in the form of mental anguish. There are many references to this throughout the Pali
cannon. In one passage the Buddha says “I teach only mental anguish and the ending of mental anguish”.
So perhaps we can see that the Dharma, as expressed by the teaching of conditionality is fundamentally a
practical teaching about how to find release from mental anguish or to put it positively, to experience
enlightenment.
There are three general aspects of conditionality that we need to explore so that we can gain a greater
understanding, albeit perhaps intellectually and conceptually at first:
1. Conditionality is broader than causality. In ordinary language, the cause of some event is what
is immediately responsible for its occurrence, whereas a condition is any supporting factor. The
cause of someone’s death might be a heart attack, but there are very many conditions that played a
part in their death, such as diet, habits and lifestyle. Conditionality is therefore a broader concept
than causality. As far as the mental anguish that we experience, there is not just one cause for it.
Mental anguish arises on many connected conditions, each playing their part in supporting the
unhelpful views and unhelpful behaviour that leads to mental anguish. Consequently, the way that
leads from mental anguish to enlightenment consists of changing all of these conditions, one by
one. Needless to say, the human situation is complicated and each of us is uniquely complicated.
Nevertheless, the principle of conditionality is the basic view that allows us all to work out a path
to well being.
2. Conditionality is universal. When the Buddha discovered the principle that enabled him to
answer the questions of the origin of mental anguish, he perceived that it did not apply only to him,
or us, but applied universally, to anyone, anywhere, at any time. It is a universal truth of things.
He set out that that the principle of conditionality is not the case just because enlightened beings
teach it, but it is the principle underlying reality independent of anyone noticing it. The Dharma is
not just the Buddha’s good idea. It’s not only a useful teaching. It is based on the nature of reality,
whether or not any enlightened beings have realised it. Each of us, in following the path of the
Dharma, is in a sense re-discovering for ourselves the ancient road to nirvana which the Buddha
found after it had become lost.
3. To understand conditionality is to understand the Dharma. The word Dharma means not just
the teaching of the Buddha but also truth and reality. Ultimately, the Dharma as reality is beyond
our capacity for thinking – it can only be directly perceived by a concentrated and purified mind.
The principle of conditionality is the most fundamental conceptual expression of the Buddha’s
experience of the Dharma and for this reason he taught: “One who sees conditionality see the
Dharma; one who sees the Dharma sees conditionality” The word Dharma originates in the
Sanskrit ‘to bear’ or to ‘hold up’ therefore the Dharma is what ‘holds up’ existence, in being both
the truth of things and the teaching of how to live well and hence ‘uphold’ positive human values.
To look at human experience from the perspective of conditionality is to encounter a vision of human
existence that is at once challenging and exciting. This human body has arisen dependent on certain
conditions such as conception & growth and is even now sustained by conditions such as food and air and
it will only cease when the conditions that create it no longer exists. Our very sense of who we are, with
our memories, dreams and desires, arises dependent on conditions such as our background, race,
nationality, education etc. According to the law of karma our past actions cast their shadow onto our
present experience. We live at the quivering centre of a web of conditions so complex that while we can
know that it is all dependently arisen, how or why any particular thought or feeling arises is mostly
beyond our capacity to understand. Our bodies affect our moods; our feelings affect our thoughts; we all
affect each other, for better or worse; our individual worlds as so interconnected that we may discover our
truest selves only in solitude. In the midst of all this interconnectedness we discover that there is nothing
we can hold onto that will not change and pass away and we swing across our days on an ever-changing
trapeze.
It’s said that after the Buddha experienced enlightenment under the Bodhi tree at Bodh Gaya he doubted
whether anyone would be able to understand the truth of conditionality that he had realised. His first
audience was made up of five ascetics who had abandoned him when he gave up his austerities, which
had included self-mortification and starvation almost to the point of death. In this first discourse known as
the turning of the wheel of the Dharma he tells his audience that there are two extremes that are not to be
followed by one who has gone forth. “That which is devotion to happiness and pleasure in sense desires,
which is common, vulgar, ignoble and not connected with the goal; and that which is devotion to selfmortification, which is painful, ignoble and not connected with the goal. Avoiding both of these extremes
is the middle way which has been fully understood which makes for knowledge and vision for peace,
realization, awakening and nirvana. And what is this middle way? It is the eightfold path of perfect view,
perfect intention, perfect speech, perfect action, perfect livelihood, perfect effort, perfect mindfulness and
perfect concentration”.
Perhaps using a more modern language we can see these two extremes as hedonism and asceticism. The
middle way between these is the eightfold path, which is the summary of the training in ethics, meditation
and wisdom which Dharma practice involves. The Dharma path relies on giving rise to conditions that
support growth and development. When we create these conditions in our lives, authentic development
takes place according to a natural process of the unfolding of our human potential. For instance, when we
have internalised a sense of ethical living through practicing with the five training principles, we naturally
experience freedom from remorse, which in itself is a source of joy. However, to each side of this middle
way lie lifestyle choices that do not create the conditions for this unfolding.
Within the life story of the historical Buddha we are told that in his early life he wanted for nothing. If we
applied his situation to our own lives today we would have to admit that we have it pretty easy in the
West, no matter how underpaid and overworked we may think we are. The Buddha reflected as to why he
was so knocked sideways by the sight of an old person, a sick person and a dead person and came to the
conclusion that in his pampered lifestyle all he was doing was avoiding what is inevitable by trying to
distract himself from the truth. The middle way that he describes in his teaching encourages us to
recognise and acknowledge mental anguish for what it is and to lean into it with as much awareness as
possible, in order to find the path that leads beyond it. This does not mean that the Dharma path is without
pleasure and nor does it mean that Dharma practitioners should not look for pleasure in their practice.
There is a joy to be found not only in meditation but also in the practice of generosity and ethics, which
comes from knowing that we are living a meaningful life
If hedonism is the common and ordinary way in which human beings try to avoid mental anguish, then
asceticism is a way in which spiritual seekers throughout history have attempted to conquer their
passionate natures in search of freedom. Self-mortification and will-power are the keynotes of this
contrasting extreme and once again the Buddha’s life story is illustrated with such trials. Prior to the
enlightenment he tried amongst others, forcing his mind into submission, stopping his breath and fasting
to the point of death. His conclusion was that all of this just took him further away from the goal.
By describing the eightfold path as a ‘middle way’, the Buddha drew attention to an appropriate attitude
for a Dharma lifestyle. The first part of the eightfold path is perfect view, the way of thinking of the most
appropriate way to formulate general ideas with which we can guide our lives. This leads us to the second
meaning of the Buddha’s middle way – as a philosophical principle: the middle way between existence
and non-existence. To even begin to get a grip on this subject we need to understand first where the
Buddha was coming from in relation to perfect view. In describing perfect view he offered the general
philosophical perspective that perfect view consists in seeing that things, whether in the world or in our
own experience, neither really exist nor are they non-existent – the way things are in reality transcends
our preoccupations about them. In response to a question from a monk about what is perfect view, the
Buddha had this to say. “This world mostly relies on the dichotomy of real existence and real nonexistence. But when one sees the origin of the world as it really is through perfect view, one does not have
the idea of real existence in relation to the world. Seeing the cessation of the world as it really is through
perfect view, one does not have the idea of real existence in relation to the world. While this world is
mostly bound up with attachment, clinging and inclination, if one does not embrace or cling to
attachment, mental fixations, inclinations and tendencies and one is not fixed on thinking about ‘my self’,
then one will not doubt that it is just mental anguish arising and just mental anguish ceasing. In this one’s
knowledge is not dependent on others. To this extent is there perfect view. Everything really exists, is one
extreme; everything is really non-existent is a second extreme. Avoiding both of these extremes is the
middle way that the Buddha teaches”.
The perfect view that the Buddha describes as a middle way between the ideas of existence and nonexistence can be expressed by saying that our conditioned experience is best understood as entirely a
process without fixed existence in it. It’s a matter of becoming rather than being. Bearing the principle of
conditionality in mind we need to attend to our experience with an attitude of not siding with either
extreme. We should notice how things we are obsessed with are in fact dependent for their existence on
other things and that nothing goes away just by our wanting it to.
If our experience is really a dependently arising process, what happens to us at death? At the demise of
the physical body, is there some underlying essence of who we are that continues beyond death, or does
the death of our physical bodies mark the complete end of us? The Buddha’s response is a radical
illustration of the middle way as a subtle philosophical principle. In the India of the Buddha’s day a lively
debate about what happens at death was carried on in terms of the atman or self, the supposedly
imperishable essence of who we are. The great thinkers of the time argued that the atman was the core of
subjective self-awareness – the sense that ‘this is me’ as we experience all the various circumstances of
our lives. They took it that this atman survived the death of the physical body and was eventually reborn
in some other form, be it human, animal or divine. The Buddha called such belief ‘eternalism’ – the view
that consciousness, being imperishable, continues after death. Others promoted the idea that since we are
essentially physical beings, consciousness cannot survive death and there is no atman that continues. The
Buddha called this belief ‘annihilationism – the view that consciousness just ends at death.
The Buddha’s own position on this matter is an application of conditionality. Consciousness, like
everything else arises on conditions. Thus consciousness is not an atman or imperishable self that
continues or transmigrates. But neither does this mean that death is the end and that our lives and actions
have no significance or consequence. The middle way is that at death we neither cease existing nor
continue as the same person. If we understand this correctly we will understand that the Buddha didn’t
actually ever answer the question in totality because let’s face it nobody actually knows. The Buddha did
teach something we call re-becoming in accordance with our karma or ethically significant actions and
over time this has been taken to support theories about re-birth. What we can say, however, is that the
Buddha’s teaching is neither eternalism nor annihilationism, but a middle way that suggests that while
conditions exist, consciousness will continue.
Of course there will be many people who will take issue with this failure to give a definitive answer to the
question we all want answered more than anything else. But the implications of the Buddha’s teaching of
the middle way cannot be expressed in terms of self, since it transcends conceptions of real existence and
non-existence. To express this middle way in a provisional form of words, we can say that who or what
we are is not fixed but in process – we are becoming who we are, such that the decision and actions of
this moment are the conditions for what we will become in the next moment. Moment follows moment in
our lives each dependent on what has gone before, in a dependently-arisen process.
The ego is no more than the tendency to absolutize one’s present state of being. It is not a thing but a
faulty interpretation. The individual is there in a process of continuous change and therefore of ever
present potential development, delusion may also be there, in the form of a belief in a fixed unchanging
self or essence or soul. But that fixed unchanging self or essence, soul or ego is not there. It never was
and never will be. And because it isn’t there, one can’t do anything with it - get rid of it, go beyond it, or
whatever. The best thing to do as far as the ego is concerned is just to forget about it.
We have explored the principle of conditionality and the middle way and looked at it within the context
of our lifestyle and the extremes of Hedonism and asceticism. We then explored philosophically within
the context of the extremes of eternalism and annhilationism. We now turn to the middle way in regard to
our ethical orientation. Do we have free will? Or are we determined by our conditions such that we are
not really free? The answer we give to this question will affect how much control we think we have over
our lives, and to what degree we are empowered to make changes.
The question of free will versus determination was not, however, something the Buddha discussed. The
very idea of free will in fact arose in Western culture in relation to the idea of a supremely powerful God
who created human beings. In the theistic world view, the idea that human beings are free to obey or
disobey God was necessary in order to explain our moral autonomy. If we did not have free will,
whatever we did would ultimately be God’s doing. It was supposed to explain how having been created
we can do what we want and we will be rewarded or punished accordingly. From the Buddhist point of
view this kind of freedom is not taken for granted: it is more something to be cultivated through
awareness.
Whether or not we believe in free will, however, we can ask to what degree we are in control of our lives.
Should we believe that we can control what happens to us, exerting our will to shape our lives, being the
active creators of our own destinies? Is it realistic to suppose we have this kind of autonomy in the face of
conditions? The opposite view is determinism, the idea that what happens to us is determined by forces
outside of our control. Scientific explanations of human life, for instance, suggest that everything in the
universe follows natural laws. If human beings are basically material beings, and matter is subject to laws,
then our actions and choices only appear to be free, but in fact are determined by the conditions we are in.
Psychology and anthropology are concerned with the patterns underlying thought, behaviour and society.
In this view, who and what we are, is fixed by forces beyond us, and we are not to blame if things go
wrong.
Let us consider meditation. Suppose that we sit to meditate, with the intention of cultivating a
concentrated and blissful state of mind, for after all the Buddhist texts tell us that once we have attained
concentration we can develop insight and become enlightened. But when we sit we find that our mind is
distracted, constantly worrying about an argument we had last month. Should we try to take control, take
the whip to the untamed mind? Or should we just let the mind do what it wants according to its own
mysterious ways?
In this situation, which for most of us is the situation almost any time we meditate, the middle way is not
to fall into either of these extremes. One extreme is to be so goal-orientated that we experience our
meditation as an uphill struggle against a host of resistances. Such an effort might feel reminiscent of the
Buddha-to-be’s ascetic struggle for freedom from his body’s desires. The other extreme is to take no
decision about how to work in meditation – involved now in this thought, now in that one. The middle
way involves not being so fixed on outcomes that meditation feels like a struggle, while nevertheless
returning to a clear sense of an overall intention. In this way our meditation is a process in which we
participate with awareness, learning from what happens while holding to values like kindness as guides.
The example of meditation allows us to understand how conditionality is more generally a middle way
between free will and determination. Things arise dependent on conditions; because of our past actions
and conditioning we find ourselves predisposed to respond to situations in certain ways, and not always
as creatively as we would like. Indeed, there are some things that may not be in our power to change, like
our physical health or the behaviour of those we engage with. But nevertheless we can recognise that we
are not obliged to respond to situations in accordance with our familiar reactions. There is much room for
reflection and change in our lives as there is awareness around our experience, and this awareness is
something we can cultivate and develop. Dependent on something we can investigate in our own
experience; in this sense it is a middle way between extreme views that is not just halfway between them
but a different way of seeing.
The teaching of conditionality is the core doctrine of the Buddha. It is the source teaching. In this sense is
at the heart of conceptual formulations of the Dharma. Everything he ever taught can be traced back to
this single insight into the true nature of reality. Having seen and understood the true nature of reality he
suggests that we should adopt a middle way, a path of non-extremism and this is the path we undertake
when we formalise our commitment to the Dharma path.
In order to see how the principle of conditionality can be usefully understood in our everyday life, let’s
take as an example a form of mental anguish with which probably all of us are familiar – the experience
of stress. By stress we mean the painful mental and emotional tension that arises, possibly manifesting as
physical pain, muscular tension or perhaps even headaches. First, let’s consider some conditions on which
such experience of stress arises. There’s tiredness, lack of control, insomnia, lack of sunshine, being
unwell, lack of exercise, too much to do, I’m sure you can think of others. If we were to use the general
formula of conditionality to express how stress arises, we would say; when there is too much to do, when
there is tiredness, lack of control and so on, I get stressed. From the effect of these factors stress arises.
The Buddha’s general formula of conditionality is a form of words that allows us to describe our
experience in this way.
In reality, however, things are a little more complicated. Most of these factors that cause stress are
themselves affected when one is stressed. If you feel tired, that might contribute to your feeling stressed,
but the stress itself might then cause you to feel more tired. Feeling unwell might stress you a bit, but then
stress itself makes you feel worse. Our experience is not something that, once it arises, stays the same
until some condition changes, but it is something in constant change, with factors influencing each other
in a complex process. For instance, if you are unwell, you are less likely to take any exercise, and lack of
exercise might cause you to be more unwell. Even such an apparently isolated aspect of our experience as
stress turns out to exist in a complex interdependent web of conditions and dependent arising. The very
complexity no doubt partly explains why we become so stressed – because it is not easy for us to
understand how all the conditions operate whereby our particular bodies and minds begin to experience
stress.
So stress arises. Stress is mental anguish. How can we stop it? According to the Buddha’s teaching of
conditionality, stress ceases when the conditions on which it arises cease. If we are to enjoy some relief
from stress and to find a sense of relaxation and openness in life again, then it is necessary for us to
identify and remove those conditions that are most significant for the arising of stress. Once we take
action to remove these conditions, perhaps lessen our workload, have some sleep, take some exercise, the
stress that arises dependent on condition of these factors will cease. When there is not too much to do,
when you aren’t so tired, when you feel a little more in control, then there is less stress. From the ceasing
of these factors, stress ceases.
While the dynamic tangle of conditions on which stress arises is complex, the good news is that we might
only have to change one crucial factor to affect all the rest. Just taking a little more exercise, for instance,
might help us to sleep better, so we feel less tired, we feel more able to do what needs to be done, and our
stress dips down beneath the threshold of discomfort so that we find ourselves moving back into a more
effective and enjoyable experience.
If we keep the teaching of conditionality at the forefront of our minds and bring this particular teaching to
any experience in our daily lives it will provide us with the tools to deal with any situation. Sometimes
that will mean making bold decisions such as changing our jobs, downsizing our lifestyles, maybe even
leaving our long-term partners because if any of these things are the conditioning factors in the arising of
mental anguish for us then that mental anguish will not cease until the conditions that brought it into
being cease. Just bear in mind the middle way!
So far we have examined how conditionality is the central principle of the Dharma. How it amounts to a
vision of human existence, our experience at every moment, arising dependent on what has gone before.
We have discovered that it is a practical teaching concerned with the liberation from mental anguish and
have seen how, when considered as a middle way, the teaching of conditionality encourages us to
understand our experience as a continual process of becoming which we can influence in a helpful way
the application of Buddhist training principles.
Now we turn to the wider scope of conditionality to discover there are two modes of conditionality,
cyclical and progressive. For this we can use two well known images to assist us. The first is the wheel
and the second is the spiral. The idea of a human life as going round on a wheel is illustrated in the
teaching of the wheel of life. This complex traditional illustration of our everyday mundane existence or
the relative reality of the world we perceive to be a part of, can be seen in almost every Buddhist temple
and although it is understood to have been developed several centuries after the time of the Buddha, it
encapsulates many of the Buddha’s teaching in one visual representation.
When we look at the traditional image, we see that the wheel itself is held in the grasp of Yama, the Lord
of Death. Yama symbolises impermanence and the wheel itself represents a mirror in which we see the
situation we are all in. Reflected in the mirror is our world of experience in the form of an endlessly
revolving wheel. At its centre is a cockerel, representing the varying degrees of greed. It chases the tail of
a snake which represents the varying degrees of hatred. It chases the tail of a pig which represents the
ignorant human state. These animals represent the three root defilements, the largely unconscious forces
that dominate human life and lead to ever-renewed mental anguish. Around the hub of the wheel are two
segments, white and black. In the white segments, beings move upwards, their positive and helpful
actions accompanied by happy and rewarding states of existence. In the black segment, beings fall
downwards, their negative and unhelpful actions dragging them into a miserable state of existence.
Surrounding the centre of the wheel are representations of the six realms of re-birth as taught in the more
traditional and cultural institutions of religious Buddhism, or representations of the psychological mind
states of the moment by moment process of re-becoming that is taught by those who seek to teach the
Dharma without all of the accrued cultural and religious baggage of the past 2,5000 years. We see, in the
traditional sense, the heavenly realm of long-lived gods or devas, the titanic realm of the competitive
demons or asuras, the frustrating realm of the hungry ghosts or pretas, the terrible realm of the punishing
hells, the repetitive realm of the instinctual animal and the realm of human beings. In the more modern
approach what we are seeing is mind states and resultant experiences. Around the outside of the wheel are
the twelve pictures that represent the twelve links of conditionality. This is the detailed process by which
beings take re-birth or re-become psychologically in ever changing realms or mind states as a
consequence of the ethical quality of their motivations and resultant actions.
There is no doubt that traditional Buddhists have believed the wheel of life to represent reality quite
literally. To this day, huge images of the wheel are to be found in the entrance halls of Tibetan Buddhist
temples, presenting devotees with a vivid reminder of the world of relative reality. Even sceptical
Western Buddhists should be able to appreciate, however, the power of this symbol in illustrating a basic
mode of conditionality that actions have consequences, helpful actions leading to positive outcomes and
unhelpful actions leading to the opposite. This mode of conditionality is cyclical in that outcomes of
actions create the conditions for new actions, new decisions, new situations; and these in turn result in
outcomes that are the conditions for yet more experience. The human world is, in this sense, a relentless
cycle of experiencing the results of what we have done and creating the conditions for what we will
experience in the next moment.
It needs to be stressed that the cyclical kind of conditionality illustrated in the wheel is not productive
only of pain and misery. Dependent on helpful motivations and helpful actions arise all sorts of positive
consequences which may experience now or in the future moment. Happiness is part of the cycle, which
is an encouragement for us to live in as helpful a way as possible. However, even ourbest intentions and
actions may be subtly bound up with emotional confusion; our generosity, for instance might be
accompanied by the desire for recognition and approval. While this is no raeson not to be generous, it
does lead us to consider a different mode of conditionality that leads beyond the cycle of becoming,
beyond mental anguish.
Is it conceivable that we could put an end to those forces of greed, hatred and delusion at the hub of
relative reality? Since the defilements and confusions in our experience arise dependent on conditions, the
cessation of those same conditions is the way to freedom. Cessation then, is one way to talk about the
path to enlightenment. In fact, in early Buddhist scriptures, the language of cessation is the usual way in
which the Dharma path is described. Over and over again we can read how the Buddha recommends the
extinguishing of the passions, the destruction of the defilements, the putting an end to wanting things to
be different than they are. This can give the unfortunate impression that the Dharma path is mainly
concerned with a life-denying negation of human passion. But, there is another way of understanding this
which is an entirely positive way of describing the path to enlightenment and this rel;ates to the
progressive spiral mode of conditionality.
Beginning from a clear-sighted awareness of our situation, the Dharma path involves the cultivation of
personal qualities that augment and enhance the individual. In the image of the spiral path we can see that
it begins with ‘trust’ the heart-felt response to the teaching of the Buddha, which leads us to jou at having
found the Dharma path. The spiral path is also said to begin with ethics, the mindful practice of ethics
which leads to a clear and blameless conscience. The path continues through stages of rapture and
tranquillity and happiness connected with meditation. The systematic development of the mind through
meditation leads to clarity and concentration, and reflection upon the truths of the Dharma leads to
liberating insight.
The principle of conditionality therefore includes within it two modes or trends, a cyclical one that
continually produces fresh pleasure and pain in the endless cycles of life, and a spiral one that builds and
expands on enlightened human qualities that liberate us from mental anguish. Most of us, most of the
time, naturally believe the solution to life’s problems consist in having more of what gives us pleasure
and les of what gives us pain. This reactive strategy to the situation evidently has its root in what we
would these days regard as evolutionary necessity; rejecting pain and seeking pleasure keeps us alive and
keeps us going. But, for conscious beings in search of a satisfactory solution to the problems of existence,
our evolutionary strategy serves us poorly. It keeps us relentlessly seeking pleasure in a world where
actually nothing stops changing. We mistake moments of pleasure for happiness time and time again
because we have a deluded notion of what true happiness is or where it can be found and of course it can
never be found in anything that has a degree of impermanence.
The Dharma path offers a completely different and lateral way of finding a more satisfying life. The idea
that e stop being caught up in the endless business of seeking pleasure and avoiding pain, and that we step
back to examine the whole matter will take some time to embrace fully. Most of us take some time to
appreciate how the practice of awareness and the cultivation of ethics, meditation and reflection might
help us, because the truth of conditionality is hard to see and to understand. One explanation for this is the
reason why, within the West, Buddhism has never been hugely popular. Our conditioning has always
been defined on systems of blind faith and belief and having something or someone to blame when things
go wrong. The idea that we can actually have the freedom to take full responsibility for everything we
think say and do seems too much for most people to contemplate. If we could only come to see that our
moment by moment experience is governed only by what we think do and say and nothing else perhaps
more people would be drawn to search for their own liberation. It’s sad to say that in many of the more
traditional and culturally religious Buddhist areas of the world the idea of seeking individual liberation
has also been long-forgotten in favour of relying on the Buddhist system, tradition or culture so in many
ways things have come full circle as Western conditioning factors and lifestyles have spread around the
globe.
Throughout the Buddhist world the teaching of the four noble truths is taught as the first teaching of the
Buddha. As a result, many have come to see this as the central principle of Buddhism. There seems little
doubt that this was the first teaching he gave but even so, the teaching itself is clearly an application of
the principle of conditionality which is the thing that underpins all of the Buddha’s teachings. These
truths are called noble because they are taught by the Buddha, who is known as the noble one and also
because they are enobling for the individual who hears them. This first discourse was given in the deer
park in Sarnath to a group of five ascetics who were his former travelling companions.
We should be able to see the principle of conditionality in the formula of the four truths: mental anguish
arises on the condition of craving and it ceases with the cessation of just that craving. However, this
formula may also derive from the Indian medical tradition. The implication is that the Buddha’s Dharma
is a medicine to heal the disease of mental anguish. The first truth states the problem, the disease, the
symptom – it is mental anguish, all the difficulty, pain and unsatisfactoriness that we experience. The
second truth states the origin of mental anguish, the diagnosis of it – it is craving. That is to say,
dependent on the condition of craving arises mental anguish. But since this mental anguish has a
condition on which it depends, then with the cessation of that condition, the mental anguish will cease.
Hence the third truth states the solution or prognosis - that there is a cessation of mental anguish. The
fourth truth states the cure for mental anguish, the way to bring about the cessation of craving – it is the
noble eightfold path.
Craving here translates the word tanha, which literally means thirst. The Buddha deliberately uses a
concrete metaphor to sum up the whole affective dimension of human experience, our nearly unconscious,
sometimes bodily desire to have things our way. Thirst is something tangible. We know what it’s like to
be thirsty and we know how we can alleviate it. This mental anguish that we experience and which we
rarely escape is much harder to alleviate. Sadly, as we no doubt recognise, our strategies for satisfaction
are rarely as successful as we might like. Instead they often lead us around familiar cycles of actions,
emotions and thoughts, and to this extent we can consider ourselves to be involved in the cyclical mode
of experience.
No doubt we are also familiar with a different kind of experience, when we do not do what we usually do,
when we have enough creativity and presence of mind to try something new and more helpful. It is at
such moments in our lives that we might have a glimpse of the spiral mode of conditionality. We see,
then, that the teaching of the four noble truths is the way in which the Buddha applied the principle of
conditionality to the actual problem of human mental anguish. In this first discourse, the Buddha tells his
first audience that each of the four truths requires a particular response 1. Mental anguish is to be
understood 2. Its origin, craving, is to be abandoned 3. The cessation off craving is to be realised 4. The
path is to be cultivated. In terms of conditionality, we could say that it is through understanding
something of the cyclical mode of conditionality that we can start to abandon it and through starting to
realise that there is also another mode of conditionality that we can truly cultivate and develop the path
that leads to the end of mental anguish.
Let’s explore the principle of conditionality with its two modes as a teaching using a practical example
such as anger. Most of us will be familiar with varying levels of this most destructive emotion which at
any level does us no good. When we include in our consideration the milder emotions of annoyance and
irritability that cause us to speak harshly to those whom we in fact like and love, then anger is no doubt a
universal human defilement. From the Buddhist perspective, anger is a problem not in itself or because
emotions are bad, but because when we become angry we harm others, we speak harshly, we pollute our
own minds with ill-will and in general because we do and say things which we later regret.
It can be difficult to identify the conditions upon which this experience of anger arises. There is probably
rarely just one cause. Anger arises dependent upon some conditions. But how does the fire start to burn?
To generalise, we could say in order for anger to arise there has to be an event of some kind which acts as
a trigger, at least in the angry person’s mind, and the person who gets angry has to be in an irritable or
sensitive state which can be triggered. When these conditions are present, the anger flares up. On a
smaller scale, we might snort with annoyance, snap back at our partner or angrily ignore someone. Once
the emotion has run its course, we calm down, return to normal and perhaps survey the damage. We
might feel some regret, or at least embarrassment. But the next time we are tired, or busy, or in a bad
mood, and the same event triggers our irritation, the anger happens again. In the blind ignorance of our
defiled minds we have not understood the processes whereby unconscious forces act themselves out, so
we are condemned to cyclical patterns of thought, speech and conduct.
For some of us, anger might not be a problem in this way, but we might experience some kind of
automatic self-censoring processes instead, which can be draining and debilitating. The anger might be
felt and experienced somewhere inside us, but the experience of self-blame keeps the anger from
manifesting overtly. Instead, the more internal experience of irritation is much more problematic. In this
type of scenario, there is just as much a blind cyclical process going on, even if the self-censoring
mechanism makes it appear that there is less negative emotion. Now, let’s enquire into the conditions
necessary for some release from the pain of anger or self-blame. There is a difference to be drawn here
between doing something different with our anger and letting go of defiling emotions. If we are prone to
self-blame and we tend to repress our anger, it might seem that we are making progress when we do
something different, like actually expressing our anger instead of bottling it up. But we will probably
soon find out that expressing anger brings its own problems and it is not in itself helpful even if it feels
like progress.
The single most important condition, which puts us on the path to less mental anguish, is to introduce
awareness into our experience. With a degree of awareness in place, a gap as it were opens up in the flow
of experience. With the benefit of awareness we can do several things. In order of difficulty we can 1.
Help ourselves by removing the trigger for our irritation, for instance by leaving the room. 2. Bring to
mind the Buddhist ethical training principles 3. Consider the painful consequences of an angry response.
4. Bring to mind a heart of loving kindness. Bringing awareness into the experience like this has a radical
effect. The cycle of conditions that leads from irritability to anger has a brake put on it. Awareness has the
quality of allowing hot, energy to release in a harmless way. We can breathe deeply, feel the anger, let it
flow; but we need not be ruled by it. When this happens we can reassess our normal habits and revise our
views and expectations. We no longer need to feel obliged to act out fixed patterns of thought, speech or
conduct. There is room to manoeuvre, to experiment, to be creative. The path from mental anguish is like
this. Conditions on the path lead to further opening out, more freedom and to less constriction and
suffering.
The two modes of conditionality of the wheel and the spiral can also be understood as two mind states –
reactive and creative. It is the transition from reactive mind to creative mind that probably marks the start
of the Dharma life. By reactive mind I mean the sense-based mentality that reacts to stimuli, that has been
conditioned by its upbringing, its culture, its education, its surroundings, but which is unaware of all this
except in a superficial way. Such a mind is metaphorically speaking asleep. The reactive mind is aligned
with the patterns of behaviour that is symptomatic of the wheel of life. In contrast, the creative mind
refers not only to the artistic impulse but to a mind that responds in a free way to its experience. It is not
entirely conditioned, but is also capable of positive emotion, in personal relationships especially. The
creative mind is above all the aware mind. The creative person, as one in whom the creative mind
manifests may be termed, is not only more aware than the reactive person but possessed of far greater
vitality. This vitality is not just animal high spirits or emotional exuberance, much less still mere
intellectual energy or the compulsive urgency of egoistic volition. We could say that it is the spirit of life
itself, rising like a fountain from the infinite depths of existence and affecting all with whom it comes into
contact.
The development of awareness is a completely natural process. The Dharma path is, in this sense, natural
and does not involve any negation or denial of life. The development of helpful qualities on the Dharma
path is just as much an unfolding of nature as our greedy reaching out for pleasure – or angry rejection of
what we do not like – is part of our natural instinctual life. The choice of what to cultivate and promote in
our experience is up to us.