Download Dependent Origination Presentation

• Dependent Origination (pratītyasamutpadā/ paṭiccasmuppāda)
is the Buddhist doctrine of causality.
• This system of thought maintains that everything has been
caused into existence. Nothing has been created ex nihilo.
• This is useful in understanding how there can be rebirth
without a belief in a soul. When a person is alive they generate
karma, this does not simply disappear at death. Instead, due
to the remaining karmic seeds a new being is caused into
existence so that remaining karmic results may take place.
• In relation to rebirth, the Buddha taught a twelvefold formula
for Dependent Origination in many suttas such as the
Mahānidāna Sutta (which can be viewed here)
• Dependent Origination is linked to other Buddhist
ideas such as the Middle Way, saṃsāra and
karma.
• Before looking at Dependent Origination in depth
it is worth having a quick look at saṃsāra and
karma as it will make it easier to understand.
• Saṃsāra is not a place, instead it is the type of existence
experienced by all unenlightened beings.
• Unenlightened beings are caught in perpetual cycle of
life, death and rebirth.
• Saṃsāric existence is conditioned by three marks:
impermanence (anitya/ anicca), not-Self (anātman/
anattā), and dis-ease (duḥkha/dukkha).
• As there is no permanence there is no stability. Saṃsāric
existence is in a constant state of flux and change.
• The teaching of anātman outlines that there is nothing
that has a permanent Self, there is no underlying
consciousness or sense of person that is carried from life
to life.
• There is no being that can be classed as immortal, even
the gods (devas) that are found in Buddhist thought will
one day die.
Within saṃsāra there
is nothing that is
immortal. Everything
is impermanent. This
photo is of a coffin
being prepared for a
funeral in Laos
(2007). Beings will
have many lives and
deaths.
• Karma or kamma can be translated as ‘action’.
• In the brahmanical society it was initially understood in
terms of ritual action. If one performed a certain ritual
action correctly, it would have a specific desired result. If
the conditions were not right, no result would occur.
• Ideas concerning karma evolved and in the Upanishads
we find the beginnings of an ethicisation of karma. All
intentional actions (good or bad) were understood to
cause an effect (good or bad). Actions performed by an
individual would cause some sort of effect on the
individual in this life, or even in a later life.
• In Buddhist thought karma has a causative nature. The
actions that are intentionally performed by the individual
will have a particular karmic result. Well-intentioned good
deeds will result in a pleasant and favourable karmic
result whilst malicious and hurtful misdeeds will result in
a poor and unfavourable karmic result.
• Karma does not always have immediate results, but can
take many lifetimes to have an effect.
Listening to a
dharma talk, like
these lay people
in Myanmar
(2009), can help
generate good
karma.
• Dependent Origination is a system of causality.
• This means that within saṃsāra everything exists
because of a prior cause.
• An example of this would be the link between milk and
curd. Milk, due to a certain cause, is turned into curds.
Milk and curd are not the same, but they have a causal
link.
• Saṃsāra is a ceaseless series of cause and effect.
Although there might be the appearance of stability this
is not the case.
• As everything has been caused to some condition it
means that there is nothing eternal. Likewise it shows
that things do have an existence meaning that Buddhist
doctrine is not nihilistic. It is evidence that Buddhism is
the Middle Way between two extremes.
• It also points the way towards the cessation of saṃsāra.
New existents only arise if there is a cause. If there are
no causes then nothing will arise.
• It also provides an explanation as to why there can be
rebirth without a permanent self, an ātman.
The Buddha,
through his
enlightenment,
stopped generating
the kind of karma
that would lead to
another rebirth.
(Hong Kong, 2011).
• When a person dies the reborn being is not the same as
the deceased but at the same time is not completely
different.
• The two beings (A and B) are linked through a causal
process. The now deceased A had performed karmic
actions and these past actions are factors in the cause
that created B.
• As A and B are connected by a shared karmic causality
they cannot be completely different from each other.
• There is a twelvefold formula for Dependent Origination
which explains rebirth.
Offerings of food
left for the dead in
Laos (2007). By
giving food and
generating merit
the families of the
dead hope to
improve the next
life of their
deceased relative.
• “conditioned by ignorance are formations, conditioned by
formations is consciousness, conditioned by consciousness
is mind-and-body, conditioned by mind-and-body are the six
senses, conditioned by the six-senses is sense contact,
conditioned by sense contact is feeling, conditioned by feeling
is craving , conditioned by craving is attachment, conditioned
by attachment is becoming, conditioned by becoming is birth,
conditioned by birth is old age and death”
Saṃyutta Nikāya II 2
Translation from Rupert Gethin, Foundations of Buddhism (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1998), pp 141-142
(full text of Paticcasamuppadavibhanga Sutta can be found here)
• The twelvefold formula of dependent origination appears to be in
chronological order, but is actually seen as taking place over three
lifetimes.
• The first two links represent a past life. The actions of a previous life
set in motion the causation of a new life.
• The next eight links represent the present life. It starts with the
arising of a new being in the mother’s womb, the physical body and
mind. Then there are sense experiences and the resultant
sensations of pain and pleasure. This leads to craving and clinging
which lead to the creation of habits.
• The last two links represent a future life. The acts of the present life
time mean that there will be future births and deaths.
• Edward Conze argues that the formula was originally used to show
basic mental functions. This can be seen the Abhidharmakośa which
is a treatise on the Abhidharma by Vasubandhu. They do not follow a
chronological order but instead they occur simultaneously.
Twelvefold Formula
3 Lifetimes Scheme
Mental Process Scheme
Ignorance
First Life
Ignorance
Formations
First Life
Volition
Consciousness
Second Life
Discriminating Consciousness
Mind and Body
Second Life
The four skandhas co-existing with
consciousness
Six Senses
Second Life
Activity of sense organs
Sense Contact
Second Life
Contacts involved in their activity
Feeling
Second Life
Experience of the contact
Craving
Second Life
Greed
Grasping
Second Life
Obsessions associated with greed
Becoming
Second Life
The physical and vocal acts that
proceed
Birth
Third Life
The production of all of the above
dhammas
Death and Old Age
Third Life
The maturity and breaking up of the
dhammas
Please see Edward Conze, Buddhist Thought in India (London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd., 1962), p157.
• The teaching of Dependent Origination shows that
saṃsāric existence is governed by a system of causality.
Everything is caused into being and in turn causes more
existents to arise.
• The Buddha’s teaching of Dependent Origination also
highlights that there is a way to stop further arising from
occurring. This is done by reversing the causes of
arising. One must not be guided by ignorance, but
instead cultivate wisdom. One must not cling and crave,
they should be aware of impermanence and act
accordingly.
• Understanding Dependent Origination is to understand
the true reality, how things really are.
• This is perhaps most succinctly put in the following verse:
‘this existing, that exists; this arises, that
arises; this not existing, that does not exist;
this ceasing , that ceases’.
Majjhima Nikāya iii 63.
Translation from Rupert Gethin, Foundations of Buddhism (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1998), p 141.