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The Kaccayanagotta Sutta

This sutta of the Pali cannon of Theravada Buddhism, the Kaccayanagotta Sutta (or Kaccayana Gotta Sutta), presents at the same time the ultimate meaning of Right View in the Noble Eightfold Path, a fundamental example of the application of the Middle Way, and a description of what is called in other places The Twelve Links of Dependent Origination (a.k.a. The Twelve Links of Dependent Arising, a.k.a. The Twelve Links of Interdependent Co-Arising). It has an equivalent in the Chinese canon—Samyukta Agama 29, also known as The Sutra on the Middle Way.1

The Kaccayanagotta Sutta

The Blessed One was dwelling at Savatthi2... Then Venerable Kaccayana Gotta3 approached the Blessed One and, after prostrating before him, sat to one side. As he was sitting there, he asked the Blessed One: "Right view, right view," it is said, O Lord. But where is there right view?"4

"People in general,5 Kaccayana, tend to believe in one of two views, in existence or in non-existence.6 But for him who, with the highest wisdom, sees the coming-to-be7 of the world as it really is, the 'non-existence of the world' is not appropriate,8 and for him who, with highest wisdom, sees the passing away of the world as it really is, 'existence of the world' is not appropriate.

"People in general, Kaccayana, grasp after theories and are fettered by dogmas. But he who sees phenomena as they really are does not go along with that theory-grasping, that mental fixation and dogmatic supposition, does not cling to it, does not become involved with it, does not affirm 'This is my self.' He is fully certain that whatever arises is merely dukkha (Pali; Skt. duhka) arising, that whatever passes away is merely dukkha passing away,9 and such knowledge is directly his own, not depending on anyone else. This, then, is where there is right view.

"'All exists'—Kaccana, this is one extreme. 'All does not exist'—this is the second extreme.10 Avoiding both extremes, the Tathagata teaches the dhamma by the way of the middle:11 From ignorance12 as a condition come volitional activities.13 From volitional activities as a condition comes consciousness.14 From consciousness as a condition comes mind-and-body.15 From mind-and-body as a condition comes the sixfold base of the senses.16 From the sixfold base of the senses as a condition comes contact.17 From contact as a condition comes sensations.18 From sensations as a condition comes craving.19 From craving as a condition comes grasping.20 From grasping as a condition comes 'coming to be.'21 From 'coming to be' as a condition comes birth.22 From birth as a condition, come aging and death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, and despair.23 Such is the origination of this entire aggregate mass of dukkha.24

"Now from the remainder-less fading and cessation of that very ignorance comes the cessation of volitional activities. From the cessation of volitional formations comes the cessation of consciousness. From the cessation of consciousness comes the cessation of mind-and-body. From the cessation of mind-and-body comes the cessation of the the sixfold base of the senses. From the cessation of the the sixfold base of the senses comes the cessation of contact. From the cessation of contact comes the cessation of sensations. From the cessation of sensations comes the cessation of craving. From the cessation of craving comes the cessation of grasping. From the cessation of grasping comes the cessation of 'coming to be.' From the cessation of 'coming to be' comes the cessation of birth. From the cessation of birth, then aging and death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, and despair all cease. Such is the cessation of this entire aggregate mass of dukkha."25

Footnotes

1 See the bibliography below for translations of both the Pali Kaccayanagotta Sutta and the Chinese Sutra on the Middle Way. Both scriptures obviously stem from the same original source. In general, they can be regarded as being practically identical. But there are some interesting differences between the two in the phrasing—some of these are noted below.

2Savatthi (Skt. Sravasti) was in the kingdom of Kosala. In the Chinese Sutra on the Middle Way (Samyukta Agama 29), the location is Nala in the kingdom of Magadah. (See Thich Nhat Hanh—Dharma talk on the "Sutra on the Middle Way" (Part 1 of 2).)

3Kaccayana Gotta was a high monk in the Buddha's sangha.

4In Thich Nhat Hanh's translation of the Chinese Sutra on the Middle Way (Samyukta Agama 29), Kaccayana Gotta says, "The Tathagata has spoken of right view. What is right view? How would the Tathagata describe right view?"

5The phrase here, "people in general" is my own choice for the words. In AccessToInsight.org—"Kaccaayanagotto Sutta: Kaccaayana" translated from the Pali by Maurice O'Connell Walshe, the phrase is "the world in general"; in AccessToInsight.org—"Kaccayanagotta Sutta: To Kaccayana Gotta (on Right View)" translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu, the phrase is "this world."

6'People in general, Kaccayana, tend to believe in one of two views, in existence or in non-existence.' In Buddhist terminology, these two views are those of eternalism (also called "absolutism" and nihilism (also called "annihilationism"), respectively.

Thich Nhat Hanh gives a translation of the Sutra on the Middle Way (Samyukta Agama 29) directly from the original ancient Chinese which contains the lines:

"And he [Venerable Kaccayana] respectfully said to the Buddha, 'The Tathagata has spoken of right view. What is right view? How would the Tathagata, the Blessed One, describe right view?' The World-Honoured One, the Buddha, told the venerable monk Kaccayana, 'People in the world take refuge in two places, are enslaved by two things; either being or not-being because they grasp these things and are caught in them. Because they are caught in grasping, they either take refuge in the idea of "is" or the idea of "is not."'"

Thus it it is saying that the people take refuge in either eternalism or annihilationism (nihilism).

The view of existence, or "eternalism," imagines that fixed entities, independent of conditions and immune from change, can be found underlying the phenomena which do change.* The major Western monotheistic religions are regarded as being eternalistic or absolutist since they involve belief in a personal God whose existence is absolute and eternal—God is generally said to be an absolute self and the very foundation for his own existence as well as for the existence of everything else. And the major Western monotheisms also maintain the belief that each individual has a true self—the soul—which lives at least so long as it is God's will for it to live—and that is usually taken to mean that it will live forever.

But "eternalism" also includes the informal, casual and personal day-to-day unspoken denial of impermanence that goes with the feeling that we can live happily forever. The Buddha's father was trying to maintain such an attitude in his son when he kept the youth away from any sign of the existences of disease, old age, and death. Most of us try at times to dwell in such fantasy. The desire to dwell in a state of euphoric forgetfulness that denies impermanence and suffering can be a major motivation to become intoxicated with alcohol. It can be said that a non-recovering alcoholic takes refuge in a bottle.

The view of non-existence, or "annihilationism," imagines there is no continuity at all within change and the entities which do arise will eventually vanish completely without a trace.** Buddhists regard as annihilationistic the view that a life ends completely at the time of death of the corporal body. Thus modern atheistic materialism is considered to be a form of annihilationism.*** Another form of annihilationism is hedonism, the potentially self-destructive attitude characterized by such sayings as, "Eat, drink, and be merry today—for tomorrow you shall die!", "Where there's life, there's Bud!" and "You only go around once in life—so you grab for all the gusto you can—Schlitz Beer!" But it is usually a very dark and grim side of nihilism that is most prominent in the mind during the later stages of alcoholism.

*"The view of existence, or 'eternalism,' imagines that fixed entities, independent of conditions and immune from change, can be found underlying the phenomena which do change."—NicherensCoffeeHouse—"On Dependent Origination" by Ryuei Michael McCormick.

**"The view of non-existence, or 'annihilationism,' imagines there is no continuity at all within change and the entities which do arise will eventually vanish completely without a trace."—Ibid.

***Actually, most Buddhist teachers and scholars writing in English prefer the term "nihilism" rather than the "annihilationism" for the view or belief that there is no continuity at all within change and the entities which do arise will eventually vanish completely without a trace. See for example: Deshung Rinpoche, The Three Levels of Spiritual Perception (c. 1995), p. 439; Traleg Kyabgon, The Essence of Buddhism: An Introduction to Its Philosophy and Practice (c. 2001), pp. 3, 71; Traleg Kyabgon, The Practice of Lojong, (c. 2007), pp. 44-45; Gampopa (author) and Khenpo Konchong Gyaltsen Rinpoche (trans.) The Jewel Ornament of Liberation (c. 1998), pp. 244, 286, 318; Buddhanet.net—"Eternalism and Nihilism". In Western thought, the term "annihilationism" is most often associated with Christian belief that the souls of the damned are eventually annihilated rather than punished forever in hell. (See Wikipedia—"Annihilationism".) On the other hand, the term "nihilism" in modern Western philosophy most often means either "existential nihilism" or "moral nihilism." Existential nihilism is the belief that life is without objective meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value. Moral nihilism is the belief that morality does not inherently exist, and that any established moral values are merely social conventions. (See Wikipedia—"Nihilism".) Perhaps one reason why Buddhists have a preference for the term "nihilism" when speaking in English is that denial of the cycle of death and rebirth is a denial of karma. In Buddhist cultures, the law of karma is commonly regarded as the basis for conventional morality just as, in the Christian cultures, the punishments of hell and the rewards of heaven were once commonly considered to be a cornerstone of conventional morality.

7I have adopted the term "coming-to-be" from Thich Nhat Hanh's translation of the Chinese Sutra on the Middle Way (Samyukta Agama 29). In O'Connell Walshe's translation of the Kaccayanagotta Sutta, the term used here is "arising;" in Thanissaro Bhikkhu's translation of the same, the term is "origin.".

8The choice of the phrase, "is not appropriate," is my own. O'Connell Walshe's translation has, instead, "does not apply"; Thanissaro Bhikkhu's translation has "does not occur to one."

9Following the example of O'Connell Walshe's translation of the Kaccayanagotta Sutta, I have left the Pali term dukkha in the text untranslated (except to indicate the Sanskrit equivalent, duhka). Walshe's own explanation for leaving the term untranslated is: "The usual translation "suffering," always a makeshift, is inappropriate here. Dukkha in Buddhist usage [such as in the First Noble Truth] refers to the inherent unsatisfactoriness and general insecurity of all conditioned existence." (See O'Connell Walshe's footnote 8 in AccessToInsight.org—"Kaccaayanagotto Sutta: Kaccaayana" translated from the Pali by Maurice O'Connell Walshe.) Thanissaro Bhikku translates dukka here as "stress". In his translation of the Chinese Sutra on the Middle Way (Samyukta Agama 29), Thich Nhat Hanh uses the term "suffering" in place of dukka (or the Chinese equivalent). This is interesting since, in his teachings, Nhat Hanh frequently makes a point of rejecting the notion that "life is suffering" is an absolute truth according to Buddha. (See for example the chapter titled "Is Everything Suffering?" (pp. 19-23) in his book The Heart of Buddha's Teaching.) In his commentary in Thich Nhat Hanh—Dharma talk on the "Sutra on the Middle Way" (Part 1 of 2), Thich Nhat Hanh explains his use of the term "suffering" in his translation of the sutra here: But where, in the Kaccayanagotto Sutta, we have:

'But he who sees phenomena as they really are does not go along with that theory-grasping, that mental fixation and dogmatic supposition, does not cling to it, does not become involved with it, does not affirm "This is my self." He is fully certain that whatever arises is merely dukka arising, that whatever passes away is merely dukka passing away, and such knowledge is directly his own, not depending on anyone else.'

we have in Thich Nhat Hanh's translation of the Sutra on the Middle Way (Samyukta Agama 29):

'Kaccayana, most people are bound to the internal formations of discrimination and preference, grasping and attachment. Those who are not bound to the internal formations of grasping and attachment no longer imagine and cling to the idea of a self. They understand that when suffering comes to be it is because the conditions are favourable, and it fades away when conditions are no longer favourable. They no longer have any doubts, their understanding has not come to them through others; it is their own insight.'

Notice that where, in the the Kaccayanagotto Sutta, what arises and passes away is "whatever", we have instead, in Thich Nhat Hanh's translation of the Sutra on the Middle Way (Samyukta Agama 29), "suffering" specifically, and it then cannot be inferred from this that everything is suffering. Thich Nhat Hahn's commentary on 'They understand that when suffering comes to be it is because the conditions are favourable, and it fades away when conditions are no longer favourable. They no longer have any doubts, their understanding has not come to them through others; it is their own insight.' is:

"The Buddha is talking about suffering. Why is he talking about suffering here? Suffering is a phenomenon, just like a picture, a table. So here talking about suffering is just a talk about a phenomenon, the Buddha is not talking about the Four Noble Truths here. For instance, we have a feeling of suffering, we look deeply, and we see that the suffering comes from different conditions, and that is why it has arisen—just like this flower. This flower, we look deeply at it and we see that there are conditions coming together that make the flower possible. 'They understand, for example, that suffering comes to be when conditions are favourable and that it fades away when conditions are no longer favourable.' The same is true of a flower, a table, when the conditions for them not being there are not there, then they will not be there. The person no longer has any doubts, because if we look deeply and see clearly like that, how can we have any doubts? We see that everything comes to be because of the coming together of favourable conditions, and when those conditions fall apart, that thing can no longer exist. So why should there be anything we should doubt? 'Their understanding has not come to them through others. It is their own insight.' It's not because we hear Buddha say that there is no self, and that this comes to be because of different causes and conditions, that we believe it, but because we have looked deeply and have been able to see. It's not that we accept this because of the words, the teachings, and the ideas of somebody else.

"Here the Buddha says we have to experience these things for ourselves. We have to look deeply and see it for ourselves. We are not repeating like a parrot the things that other people have said. We have suffering—who doesn't have suffering? We look deeply into the heart of that suffering and when we look into it, we see the causes and conditions near and far which have brought it about. And we see it on our own. Someone else doesn't say to us, 'You are suffering—you have causes and conditions for your suffering.' It's with our own wisdom that we look into our suffering. We see we have suffering, we look into it, we see the elements near and far which have brought it about. Therefore we have no doubts about our insight; we know that that is so. And that insight comes from ourselves, it's not something we receive from somebody else. 'A person knows, for example, that suffering comes to be when conditions are favourable and that it fades away when conditions are no longer favourable.' We say, 'For example suffering arises when it has conditions...' If we put in the words 'for example', it's clearer, because suffering here is just an example of something, of one of the phenomena.

Notice that if Thich Nhat Hanh is correct in what he says near the end of the last paragraph (and if his translation of the sutra is indeed accurate), then the word "suffering" (or any equivalent word, such as duhka) could be replaced in the translation by the words "any particular phenomenon" without loosing the meaning of the main point. That is to say, it could just as well have been written as "'They understand that when any particular phenomenon comes to be it is because the conditions are favourable [for that particular phenomenon], and it fades away when conditions are no longer favourable [for that particular phenomenon]. They no longer have any doubts, their understanding has not come to them through others; it is their own insight.'"

10See note 6 above.

11See Wikipedia—"Middle Way"
and BuddhaNet.net—"Buddhism-The Middle Path".

12"Ignorance" (Pali avijja, Skt. avidya) here means the basic delusion that involves grasping phenomena as inherently, or independently, existent— as if they exist by some intrinsic essence that makes them what they are. (See The Second Noble Truth: The Origin of Suffering.)

13"Volitional activies" (Pali sankhara, Sanskrit samskara) are volitional actions and are all considered to be karma (Skt.; Pali kamma), and include those which are karmicly positive (moral), negative (immoral), or neutral. All such activities, even positive ones, tend to prolong wandering in samsara (Skt., Pali). Nonetheless, positive ones are necessary to eliminate the ills of the samsara. (See About Karma.) The original word translated as "volitional activities" is sankhara in the Pali text. Sankhara here is sometimes translated as "formations" or "volitional formations." According to the Pali-to-English Buddhist Dictionary by Nyanatiloka (Third Edition, 1970), sankhara most generally means "formation" with the qualifications required by the context—the term may refer either to the act of "forming" or to the passive state of "having been formed" or to both. This dictionary also gives the special case of the second "formula" (or link) of "Dependent Origination"—which is exactly the case we have here. This dictionary says that in this case the term sankhara has the active aspect "forming", and signifies karma. In taking "volitional activities" as the translation of sankhara as the second link in the chain of Dependent Origination or Dependent Arising, I am following the translation in "A Manual of Buddhism" by Narada (c. 1995), p. 113.

14 "Consciousness" (Pali vinnana, Skt., vijnana) here, according to Thich Nhat Hanh in his book The Heart of Buddha's Teaching (c. 1998), p. 227, "means the whole of consciousness—individual and collective, mind consciousness and store consciousness [Skt. alaya vijnana], subject and object. And consciousness here is filled with unwholesome and erroneous tendencies connected with ignorance that are of the nature to bring about suffering."

15"Mind-and-body" here is a translation of the Pali expression nama-rupa (Skt. nama-rupa). Nama (lit. "name") can be taken to mean "mind" or "mentality." In one major Buddhist context, the term is used as collective name for the four mental groups (Pali arupino khanda: feeling (Pali vedana), perception (Pali sanna), mental formations (Pali sankhara), and consciousness (Pali vinnana. However, in the fourth link of the twelve-fold chain of Dependent Origination,it applies only to karma-resultant (Pali vipaka) feeling (Pali vedana) and perception (Pali sanna), and the karma-conditioned mental functions: volition (Pali cetana), impression (Pali phassa), and mental advertence (attention) (Pali manasikara). (See The Pali-to-English Buddhist Dictionary by Nyanatiloka (Third Edition, 1970), p. 103.) Rupa means "(material) form" or "corporealty." Thich Nhat Hanh in his book The Heart of Buddha's Teaching (c. 1998), p. 227, comments, "The fourth link is mind/body, or name and form (nama rupa). "Name" (nama) means the mental element and "form" means the physical element of our being. Both mind and body are objects of our consciousness. When we look at our hand, it is an object of our consciousness. When we touch our anger, sadness, or happiness, these are also objects of our consciousness."

16"The sixfold base of the senses" (Pali salayatana, Skt. sadayatana) means here the five sense organs (eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body (skin)) plus the mind accompanied by their objects—forms, sounds, smells, tastes, tactile objects, and the objects of our consciousness. Thich Nhat Hanh in his book The Heart of Buddha's Teaching (c. 1998), p. 227, writes, "These six ayatanas do not exist seperately from mind/body (the fourth link), but are listed seperately to help us see more clearly. When a sense organ comes into contact (the sixth link) with a sense object, there has to be sense consciousness (which lies within the third link). We are beginning to see how the Twelve Links inter-are, how each link contains all the other links."

17"Contact" (Pali, phassa, Skt. sparsha) here means "sense-impression" and does not necessarily signify physical impact though, in the case of the sense of touch, physical impact may be involved. There are six classes of sense-impression: visual-impression, sound-impression, smell-impression, taste-impression, bodily (tactile) impression, and mental impression.

18"Sensations" (Pali vedana, Skt. vedana) can be pleasant, upleasant, or neutral. Pleasant sensations may give rise to a craving for that sensation. Unpleasant sensations may give rise to dreading or loathing, which can be thought of as the craving for the absence of the unpleasant sensations. Alcohol and drug addictions show both aspects since the presence of the substance the addict craves in the addict's body produces pleasant sensations and the absence of the substance in the addict's body may produce unpleasant withdrawal symptoms. When a person is engaged in a long retreat to perform meditation or other spiritual practices, that person may discover cravings for things he never realized he had attachments to, such as flavorful foods, just plain excitement, or opportunities to criticize people.

19Here the Pali term tanha (Skt. trishna) is translated as "craving." Some English translations use the word "desire" here instead of "craving."

20Here the Pali term upadana (Skt. upadana) is translated as "grasping." Some English translations use the word "clinging" or the word "attachment" here. (In the dynamic context of Dependent Origination, the terms "grasping" and "clinging" seem better than the rather static term, "attachment." On the other hand, in normal everyday speech, it will usually seem more appropriate to say "I have an attachment to my artwork" than it is to say "I cling to my artwork.")

21Here the Pali term bhava (Skt. bhava) is translated as "coming to be." Some English translations use instead the word "being" or "becoming." Thich Nhat Hanh in his book The Heart of Buddha's Teaching (c. 1998), p. 227, comments, "Because we desire something, it comes to be. We have to look deeply to know what we really want."

22Here the Pali term jati (Skt. jati) is translated as "birth" The same word is used for the eleventh link in the twelve-fold chain of Dependent Origination in seemingly all proper English translations. According the Pali-to-English Buddhist Dictionary by Nyanatiloka (Third Edition, 1970), p. 69, the Pali word jati means "birth" but "comprises the entire embryonic process beginning with conception and ending with parturition." The dictionary then gives the following quotation from the Digha Nikaya, Sutta 22:

"The birth of beings belonging to this or that order of beings, their being born, their conception (okkanti) and springing into existence, the manifestation of the Five Aggregates, and the acquiring of their sensitive organs: this is called birth [Pali & Skt. jati]."

It can be confusing at a first reading to understand how the link, "birth" can follow immediately after the preceding twelve links. The preceding ten links might, for example, have to do with an act of theft. How can birth generally result from someone's act of stealing something? We have to remember that we are here dealing with this in the context of karma (Pali kamma, Skt. karma). A volitional act of an individual often has karmic result (Pali vipaka, Skt. vipaka) during a future lifetime of that individual. In particular, the very birth of an individual is conditioned by past karma (past volitional actions) of the individual that had not yet born fruit and had not been neutralized by some other past karma or by the individual becoming completely enlightened like the Buddha.

The Five Aggregates (Skt. skandha; Pali khanda) are: corporeality (Pali & Skt. rupa), sensation (Pali & Skt. vedana), perception (Pali sanna, Skt. samjna), volitional activies (Pali sankhara, Skt. samskara), and consciousness (Pali vinnana, Skt. vijnana).

23In most of the scriptures in the Pali canon where the Buddha specifically identifies each of the twelve links in the chain of Dependent Origination (also called Dependent Arising), the Buddha gives the link following "birth" as "old age and death" (Pali jara-marana, Skt. jara-marana). But all the suffering in life that lies between birth and death is meant to be included in the twelfth link. The expression jara-marana is meant to serve as an abbreviation for this. The additional expression "sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, and despair" used in this sutta, the Kaccayanagotta-Sutta, does not actually contradict any of the other suttas in the Pali canon.

It is also important to realize that the chain of dependent origination is circular, like the drive-chain of a bicycle or a chainsaw. It drives the cycle of birth and death until it is snapped by enlightenment. Strictly speaking, there is no first link and no last last link, just as there is no first point and no last point on a circle.

24Dukkha in Buddhist usage, such as in the First Noble Truth, refers to the inherent unsatisfactoriness and general insecurity of all conditioned existence.

Thich Nhat Hanh in his book The Heart of Buddha's Teaching (c. 1998), p. 229, writes:

"Ignorance conditions volitional actions. Volitional actions condition consciousness. Consciousness conditions mind/body. And so on. As soon as ignorance is present, all the other links — volitional actions, consciousness, mind/body and so on — are already there. Each link contains all the other links. Because there is ignorance, there are volitional actions, there is consciousness. Because there is consciousness, there is mind/body. And so on.

"In the Five Aggregates††, there is nothing that we can call a self. Ignorance is the inability to see this truth. Consciousness, mind/body, the six senses and their objects, contact, and feeling are the effect of ignorance and volitional actions. Because of craving, grasping, and coming to be, there will be birth and death, which means the continuation of this wheel, or chain, again and again."

In summary, here is an ordered listing of the twelve links of Dependent Origination:

  1. Ignorance (Pali avijja, Skt. avidya)
  2. Volitional activies (mental formations) (Pali sankhara, Sanskrit samskara)
  3. Consciousness (Pali vinnana, Skt., vijnana)
  4. "Mind&Body" (name-form) (Pali nama-rupa, Skt. nama-rupa
  5. Sixfold base of the senses (Pali salayatana, Skt. sadayatana)
  6. Contact (Pali, phassa, Skt. sparsha)
  7. Sensations (feelings) (Pali & Skt. vedana)
  8. Craving (desire) (Pali tanha, Skt. trishna)
  9. Grasping (clinging, attachment) (Pali upadana, Skt. upadana)
  10. "Coming-To-Be" (becoming, being) (Pali bhava, Skt. bhava)
  11. Birth (re-birth) (Pali jati, Skt. jati)
  12. "Old Age and Death" (Pali jara-marana, Skt. jara-marana)

It may seem contradictory to our way of thinking about ourselves and our actions to have in this list voluntary mental activity preceding consciousness. I, for example, usually think that "I" am consciously directing "my" mental activity. Should we not say that consciousness precedes mental activity? Actual experiments conducted by modern psychologists and neurophysiologists show otherwise. Here is an excerpt from the webpage Footnote to the 2003 Reith Lectures by Professor Michael E. McIntyre FRS, University of Cambridge:

"The biological need to grasp space and time together includes the need to coordinate internal decisions with external events. So, again not surprisingly, there is a second kind of acausality illusion, which concerns the perceived time of taking a decision to act. This point has been overlooked in some of the debates about consciousness and free will.

"Perhaps the most striking example, with the clearest experimental evidence, is the acausality illusion evoked in the slide-projector experiment of Grey Walter. This was first described in 1963 in an unpublished report. Neurosurgical patients were invited to entertain themselves to a slide show by pressing a button to advance the slide projector, at times of their choosing. But the projector was wired not to the button but directly to a certain part of the patient's motor cortex; and the subjective effect -- startling and disconcerting to the patients, who must have wondered whether they were going crazy -- was that the projector seemed to behave acausally, to anticipate their decisions. The projector seemed to advance itself just before they decided or, rather, perceived themselves as deciding, to press the button.

"This too is easily accommodated by the model-fitting hypothesis, which says that perceived times, including perceived times of taking decisions, and perceived times of pressing buttons, are properties of the brain's internal models rather than the physical times of any associated cortical activity. It also underlines the point about free will. The existence of acausality illusions implies that questions about the perceived times of decisions are entirely separate from questions about whether the decisions were taken freely or not. There was no reason, in this experiment, to doubt the patients' freedom to decide to press the button, where freedom is understood in the ordinary, everyday sense related to personal responsibility. The experiments add to our knowledge about perceived times and acausality illusions, but say nothing at all about personal freedom of choice, and personal reponsibility for our actions. They do not say, in other words, that free will is illusory. What is illusory is the perceived time of willing the action.

"In principle, the experiment could be repeated with a gun instead of a slide projector. The point is that questions about whether the patient intended to murder someone are separate from -- are nothing to do with -- questions about the precise timing of the murder, about whether the bullet struck the victim a fraction of a second earlier than intended.

"The model-fitting hypothesis says that the conscious self, the perceived self that I experience as having intentionality, as being free to make choices, as planning things and taking decisions, must, like any other percept, arise from an internal model: the single internal model that my brain fits to my real, biologically diverse, multi-component, multifariously subtle self. As Jack Cohen and Ian Stewart have aptly put it, the brain viewed from outside looks more like a committee, composed of different parts that evolved at different times for different purposes, echoed in common experience: 'something tells me that....', 'my head says one thing but my heart another', and so on. Yet 'I am utterly convinced that there is only one me... not some kind of committee.' The model-fitting hypothesis makes sense of this paradox: the brain has multifarious parts, but only one self-model.

"However diverse our internal makeup may be, in order to survive we need, continually, to make sense of our surroundings and our own location and orientation in those surroundings. So the repertoire of internal models and sub-models that are used to construct the perceived world, with its stationary and moving objects, has to include a self-model. Simultaneously with other models, this has to be fitted to the incoming sensory data including, now, internal data from one's own body, such as proprioceptive data about limb positions. The end result is a single spatiotemporal model of oneself in one's surroundings. If this model-fitting process fails, one may become `disoriented'. Because of the need to coordinate internal decisions with external events in fast-moving situations, the model property called perceived time must be a single property, defined consistently, of the entire model of oneself in one's surroundings. It is this single model property that represents not only the 'when' of when a ball is hit, or a piano key struck, but also the 'when' of taking decisions or initiating action. Because cortical processing is necessary to arrive at even a snap decision, the perceived `when' of such a decision must, inevitably, be preceded by cortical activity, such as that causing Grey Walter's slide projector to advance.

"In summary, then, the model-fitting hypothesis predicts that perceived times of internal decisions must be later than, and perceived times of outside-world events earlier than, at least some of the associated physical events in the nervous system. Only thus can the brain, with its finite rate of information processing, typically taking hundreds of milliseconds, consistently represent both sets of times in its internal model of the self in its surroundings at the far finer, millisecond, accuracies needed for survival. Free will and intentionality are properties of the self-model."

Note

††The Five Aggregates (Skt. skandha; Pali khanda) are: corporeality (Pali & Skt. rupa), sensation (Pali & Skt. vedana), perception (Pali sanna, Skt. samjna), volitional activies (Pali sankhara, Skt. samskara), and consciousness (Pali vinnana, Skt. vijnana).

25The Buddha elaborates, in a more positive light, on liberation from the chain of Dependent Origination in Samyutta Nikaya II, 12 [the Nidanasamyutta ("Connected Discourses on Causation")]:†††

"Thus, monks, with ignorance as proximate cause, volitional formations [come to be]; with volitional formations as proximate cause, consciousness; with consciousness as proximate cause, name-and-form; with name-and-form as proximate cause, the six sense bases; with the six sense bases as proximate cause, contact; with contact as proximate cause, feeling; with feeling as proximate cause, craving; with craving as proximate cause, clinging; with clinging as proximate cause, becoming; with becoming as proximate cause, birth; with birth as proximate cause, suffering; with suffering as proximate cause, faith; with faith as proximate cause, gladness; with gladness as proximate cause, rapture; with rapture as proximate cause, tranquility; with tranquility as proximate cause, happiness; with happiness as proximate cause, concentration; with concentration as proximate cause, the knowledge and vision of things as they really are; with the knowledge and vision of things as they really are as proximate cause, revulsion; with revulsion as proximate cause, dispassion; with dispassion as proximate cause, liberation; with liberation as proximate cause, the knowledge of destruction.

"Just as, monks, when rain pours down in thick droplets on a mountain top, the water flows down along the slope and fills the cleft, gullies, and creeks; these being full fill up the pools; these being full fill up the lakes; these being full fill up the streams; these being full fill up the rivers; and these being full fill up the great ocean; so too, with ignorance as proximate cause, volitional formations [come to be]; with volitional formations as proximate cause, consciousness ... with liberation as proximate cause, the knowledge of destruction."

Notice that, in addition to the usual twelve links forming the chain of Dependent Origination, there are an additional twelve links that apply to an individual who has taken the Dharma to heart and successfully treads the Noble Eightfold Path. These latter twelve links form what is sometimes called the "Twelve Stages of Transcendent Dependent Origination:"

  1. suffering
  2. faith
  3. gladness (or joy)
  4. rapture
  5. tranquility
  6. happiness
  7. concentration
  8. knowledge and vision of things as they really (Right View).
  9. revulsion (or disenchantment)
  10. dispassion
  11. liberation (or emancipation)
  12. the knowledge of the destruction of the defilements

At the webpage NicherensCoffeeHouse—"On Dependent Origination", its author, Ryuei Michael McCormick, gives a compelling interpretation of "Transcendent Dependent Origination":

"Transcendent dependent origination begins with suffering because it is the pervasive nature of suffering which the twelvefold chain of dependent origination is attempting to point out. When caught up in the chain, the link of feeling seems to hold out the promise of acquiring pleasurable experiences and avoiding unpleasurable experiences. This false promise keeps us entangled in the process of endless birth and death, which is so full of suffering. The vicious circle of suffering can be broken, however, once the link of feeling can be discerned for what it truly is, either as outright suffering or as another moment of subtle disquiet, agitation or outright distraction which keeps us from discerning the truth about life. When we see through the illusion of satisfaction in transient sensations and cease to seek outside ourselves for answers, we have entered the spiritual path in which we seek a more profound truth.

"At this point, faith arises. Whereas the link of feeling in the twelvefold chain led to the response of craving, the response to suffering is to take faith in the means to escape suffering. It is important to note that in Buddhism faith does not imply blind belief. Instead, it means confidence in the Buddha Dharma. In other words, instead of ignoring suffering or giving up in despair or apathy, we trust that there is a way to put an end to suffering. In this way, we liberate ourselves and others from the suffering to which we have awakened.

"Through genuine faith, we are able to reorient our lives away from anxiety, suffering, and despair. Faith gives a renewed sense of hope, energy, and enthusiasm. This is the stage of joy, the initial response that we feel upon encountering the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha.

"Joy based on faith becomes the motivation for wholehearted practice which in turn leads to rapture. Rapture in this sense is a state of heightened enthusiasm and exaltation. It is one of the factors which are said to be present in the initial stages of meditation. The other factors which follow from this one are also involved in the cultivation of 'tranquility and insight' meditation practice. Calm follows rapture as one becomes more stable and focused on the subject of meditation, whether it is the breath, visualization practice, mindfulness of the transcendent qualities of the Buddha, or some other subject among the many the Buddha taught as conducive to mental cultivation. Peaceful reflection then gives rise to happiness or bliss, which in turn leads to a state of 'samadhi' or deep unshakeable concentration.

"With concentration, the cognitive and emotional factors fall away and the mind is in a state of clear undistracted awareness. At this point, the mind is a sharp tool that can be directed towards the attainment of genuine insight. This clear awareness makes possible the knowledge and vision of things as they really are. Without the usual distraction, confusion, and projections of the uncultivated mind, one is able to finally discern the impermanent, unsatisfactory, and contingent nature of all things. Once all phenomena are revealed for what they are in the light of clear awareness, one becomes disenchanted or even revolted by them. One no longer sees any objects or things worth clinging to, because one has awakened to their inability to bring lasting satisfaction. Dispassion follows this realization, and with dispassion one becomes free of all compulsion, frustration, anxiety, and confusion. With that freedom comes the knowledge of the destruction of the defilements, as one knows that the greed, anger, and ignorance have all been rooted out for good."

Thich Nhat Hanh in his book The Heart of Buddha's Teaching (c. 1998), pp. 238-249 develops another positive system of dependent origination. This begins by replacing ignorance with "clear understanding" which he identifies as being equivalent to the Sanskrit term vidya. The meaning of vidya is the opposite of that of avidya, the Sanskrit term for "ignorance." The Pali word for ignorance is avijja. The Pali-to-English Buddhist Dictionary by Nyanatiloka (Third Edition, 1970) defines vijja as "'(Higher) Knowledge', Gnosis." What Nhat Hanh actually does for the links in the ordinary Twelve-fold chain of Dependent Origination which sustains the cycle of samsara is to replace each such link with an element that corresponds to its transformation into an element of an enlightened Buddha. Replacing avidya with vidya is a clear example of this. The following table show the results according to Nhat Hanh for all of the links:

When Conditioned
by
Deluded Mind
When Transformed
by
Enlightened Mind
Ignorance
(avidya)
Clear
Understanding
(vidya)
Volitional
Actions
(samskara)
Great
Aspiration
(mahapranidhana)
    Consciousness
       (vijnana):
  • First Five Consciusnesses
  • Manovijnana
  • Manas
  • Alayavijnana
    Four Wisdoms:
  • Wisdom of Wonderful Realization
  • Wonderful Observation Wisdom
  • Wisdom of Equality
  • Great Mirror Wisdom
Mind & Body
(Nama-rupa)
Transformation Body
Nirmanakaya
The Six
Sense Bases
(adayatana)
Result Body
Samboghakaya
Contact
(sparsha)
Mindfulness of Contact
Sensation
(vedana)
Mindfulness of Sensation
Craving
(trishna)
Four Immeasurable Minds
(Brahmaviharas)
Grasping
(upadana)
Freedom
(apranahita)
Coming to Be
(bhava)
Wondrous Being
Birth
(jati)
Wisdom of No-Birth
Old Age and Death
(jara-marana)
Wisdom of No-Death

†††The translation here is from Bikkhu Bodhi, Connected Discourses - A translation of the Samyutta Nikaya (c. 2000), pp. 555-556.

See NicherensCoffeeHouse—"On Dependent Origination" by Ryuei Michael McCormick.

Bibliography

On the Web