Before he became the Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama1 had practiced extreme austerity for a number of years. But it was not such practice that brought Buddha to enlightenment. Rather, it was first necessary for him to reject such practice. After nearly starving himself to death by restricting his food intake to around a grain seed or nut per day, he came to the conclusion that mortification would not extinguish desire nor afford enlightenment in ecstatic contemplation. After receiving adequate nourishment and restoring himself to health, he finally achieved true and complete enlightenment while sitting in meditation under a fig tree.2
While Siddartha had been practicing extreme aestheticism, he had gained great respect from five other ascetics who admired his dedication and diligence. They became his disciples. When they first saw him after he had renounced the path of extreme mortification, they immediately lost their respect for him and shunned him. When they came upon him again, it was after he had become enlightened. To them, Siddhartha delivered his first sermon. Here is a translation by Peter Harvey of the first part of that sermon, as recorded in one scripture of the Pali canon, the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta:3
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"Thus have I heard. At one time the Blessed One was dwelling at Baranasi in the Deer Park at Isipatana. There the Blessed One addressed the bhikkhus of the group of five thus: "Bhikkhus, these two extremes should not be followed by one gone forth (into the homeless life). What two? That which is this pursuit of sensual happiness in sense pleasures, which is low, vulgar, the way of the ordinary person, ignoble, not connected to the goal; and that which is this pursuit of self-mortification, which is painful, ignoble, not connected to the goal. Bhikkhus, without veering towards either of these two extremes, the One Attuned to Reality has awakened to the middle way, which gives rise to vision, which gives rise to knowledge, which leads to peace, to higher knowledge, to full awakening, to Nibbana.
"'And what, bhikkhus, is that middle way awakened to by the One Attuned to Reality which gives rise to vision, which gives rise to knowledge, which leads to peace, to higher knowledge, to full awakening, to Nibbana? It is just this Noble Eight-factored Path, that is to say, right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right mental unification. This, bhikkhus, is that middle way awakened to by the One Attuned to Reality, which gives rise to vision, which gives rise to knowledge, which leads to peace, to higher knowledge, to full awakening, to Nibbana.'" |
(In the next part of this sermon, the Buddha reveals the Four Noble Truths.)
In the excerpt from the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta quoted above, the Buddha reveals a Middle Way. He first exemplifies this as a middle path between hedonistic self-indulgence and the practice of severe self-denial in which the practitioner nearly starves him or herself to death. But he also exemplifies this as the Noble Eightfold Path: right view, right resolve (right intention), right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness and right mental unification (right mindfulness and concentration).
The Buddha gives a deeper exposition of the Middle Way in the "Sutra on the Middle Way" (Samyukta Agama 29) in the Chinese canon of Buddhist scriptures. The Sutra on the Middle Way is very similar to the Kaccayanagotta Sutta (Samyutta Nikaya 12.15) in the Pali canon.4 But Buddha's explanations are more clear in the "Sutra on the Middle Way." Here is a translation of the "Sutra on the Middle Way" based mostly on one by Thich Nhat Hanh:5
The Sutra on the Middle Way (Samyukta Agama 301)I heard these words of the Buddha one time when the Lord was staying at the guest house in a forest of the district of Nala. At that time, the Venerable Kaccayana came to visit him and asked, when he had made prostrations and sat down to one side, "The Tathagata has spoken of right view. What is right view? How would the Tathagata describe right view?"The Buddha told the venerable monk, "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." "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 favorable, and it fades away when conditions are no longer favorable. They no longer have any doubts, their understanding has not come to them through others; it is their own insight. This insight is called 'right view,' and this is the way the Tathagata would describe right view.""Why is this so? When a person who has correct insight observes the coming-to-be of the world, the idea of non-being does not occur to him. When a person who has correct insight observes the coming-to-be of the world, the idea of non-being does not occur to him and when he observes the fading away of the world, the idea of being does not occur. Kaccayana, viewing the world as being is an extreme; viewing it as non-being is another extreme. The Tathagata avoids these two extremes and teaches the Dharma dwelling in the Middle Way. "Because there is ignorance, there are volitional actions (Pali sankhara, Sanskrit samskara); because there are volitional actions, there is consciousness (Pali vinnana, Skt., vijnana); because there is consciousness, there is the mind/body (Pali nama-rupa, Skt. nama-rupa); because there is the mind/body, there is the six-fold base of the senses (Pali salayatana, Skt. sadayatana); because there is the six-fold base of the senses, there is contact (Pali, phassa, Skt. sparsha); because there is contact, there is sensation (Pali vedana, Skt. vedana); because there is sensation, there is craving (Pali tanha, Skt. trishna); because there is craving, there is grasping (Pali upadana, Skt. upadana); because there is grasping, there is coming to be (Pali bhava, Skt. bhava); because there is coming to be, there is birth (Pali jati, Skt. jati); because there is birth, there are old age (Pali jara, Skt. jara), death (Pali marana, Skt. marana), grief, and sorrow. This is how the entire mass of suffering arises. But with the fading away of ignorance, impulses cease; with the fading away of impulses, consciousness ceases. And finally birth, old age, grief, death, and sorrow will fade away. This is how this entire mass of suffering ceases."After listening to the Buddha, the Venerable Kaccayana was enlightened and liberated from sorrow. He was able to untie all of his internal formations and attain Arhatship. |
Let us now interpret this "Sutra on the Middle Way."
Here again is the first paragraph:
| I heard these words of the Buddha one time when the Lord was staying at the guest house in a forest of the district of Nala. At that time, the Venerable Kaccayana came to visit him and asked, when he had made prostrations and sat down to one side, "The Tathagata has spoken of right view. What is right view? How would the Tathagata describe right view?" |
The district of Nala was in the kingdom of in the kingdom of Magadah. (But according to the Kaccayanagotta Sutta, the dialogue occured at Savatthi (Skt. Sravasti) in the kingdom of Kosala.) Kaccayana was a high monk in the Buddha's sangha. The dialogue must have occurred quite some time after the Buddha's first sermon. "Tathagata" is a special name for the Buddha meaning "the thus-gone one," referring to one who on the way of truth has attained supreme enlightenment.6 Right view" is traditionally listed as the first element in the Noble Eightfold Path. Here in the sutra, Kaccayana is asking the Buddha to tell him what he means by the expression "right view."
The next lines in the "Sutra on the Middle Way" for us to understand are:
| The Buddha told the venerable monk, "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." |
In Buddhist terminology, the view of "is" is the view of eternalism (also called "absolutism"); the view of "is not" is the view of nihilism (also called "annihilationism"). Thus the Buddha is saying here that the people take refuge in either eternalism or nihilism.
The view of existence, or "eternalism," imagines that at least some things, including living beings, have an internal essence by which they exist independently of anything else.7a The view of eternalism includes the formal belief that a living being (at least, a human being) has a soul which exists independently of anything else and which is eternal.7b At the time when the Buddha gave his teaching (and as is still the case today), Hinduism was the most prevalent religion in India. According to mainstream Hindu belief, every living being has an eternal Atman which is the true self of the being. According to the Hindu scriptures known as the Upanishads, the Atman of every living being is identical with Brahman, the most transcendent God, and the Atman is liberated from suffering when it fully realizes its identity with Brahman. Buddha rejected the belief in an Atman.7c
The general term "eternalism" also applies to the informal, casual and personal day-to-day unspoken denial of impermanence that goes with the attitude that we can live happily in this life 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," is a form of nihilism. The view of non-existence regards common objects and living beings as having no real existence at all.8 In Buddhism, the term nihilism also covers the view that the life of a living being ends completely at the time of death of the corporal body. Thus modern atheistic materialism is considered to be a form of annihilationism.9 Another form of nihilism is hedonism, the potentially self-destructive attitude characterized by such sayings as, "Eat, drink, and be merry today—for tomorrow you shall die!"
The next lines in the "Sutra on the Middle Way" for us to comprehend are:
| "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 favorable, and it fades away when conditions are no longer favorable..." |
Due to basic ignorance, most people do not accept that all things are in a constant state of change. Instead, they conceptually reify phenomena, conceiving things to be static, isolated entities—as if they exist by some intrinsic essence that makes them what they are. . Nothing exists as a static, isolated entity. Everything arises and ceases depending on causes and conditions which themselves arise due to causes and conditions. This especially applies to the people, themselves. They conceive of themselves as static, isolated entities.
All phenomena are, in reality, what Buddhists call dependent arisings—their existence is entirely dependent upon other phenomena. They are all caused by other phenomena, and they are all in part the cause of other phenomena. In the Nidanyasamyutta,10 the Buddha says, "When this exists, that comes to be; with the arising of this, that arises. When this does not exist, that does not come to be; with the cessation of this, that ceases."
All objects are in fact transitory phenomena. Mountains are ephemeral just as clouds are ephemeral; mountains just dissipate more slowly than do clouds. All phenomena are caused by other phenomena. When the conditions supporting the existence of a phenomenon disappear, the phenomenon disappears. The most pernicious delusion that most people have is the delusion that their "self", their "I", their "ego" is a static, isolated entity, independent of other phenomena.
Also involved is the way the mind interprets phenomena. Consider a car, for example. The car would never exist if not for all the reasons for which it was first assembled and for all the laws of science by which it continues to appear and function as it does. The car also could not exist without the parts that go together to form it as a whole car. And it is not a "car" except in the minds of people who recognize it as a vehicle with a motor that needs some kind of liquid fuel to run. A person not raised in a modern society might see it as a vehicle, but then he would probably think of it as a rather inefficient carriage that needed horses, mules, or oxen to pull it. Still another person with a different cultural background might see the car as an unusual shelter or as a purposeless aggregate of unusual substances.
The next lines in the "Sutra on the Middle Way":
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"...They no longer have any doubts, their understanding has not come to them through others; it is their own insight. This insight is called 'right view,' and this is the way the Tathagata would describe right view.
"Why is this so? When a person who has correct insight observes the coming-to-be of the world, the idea of non-being does not occur to him. When a person who has correct insight observes the coming-to-be of the world, the idea of non-being does not occur to him and when he observes the fading away of the world, the idea of being does not occur. Kaccayana, viewing the world as being is an extreme; viewing it as non-being is another extreme. The Tathagata avoids these two extremes and teaches the Dharma dwelling in the Middle Way." |
Key phrases here are "their insight has not come to them through others; it is their own insight," and "a person who has correct insight." Ananda was the Buddha's best disciple when it came to remembering exactly what the Buddha said during his discourses. The Mahanidana Sutta begins with the following incident.11 One day Ananda said to the Buddha, "It is wonderful, Lord, it is marvelous how profound this dependent arising is, and how profound it appears! And yet it appears to me as clear as clear!" Ananda was saying that he clearly understood the Buddha's teaching of dependent arising. The Buddha immediately rebuked him, saying, "Do not say that Ananda, do not say that! This dependent origination is profound and appears profound. It is through not understanding, not penetrating this doctrine that this generation has become like a tangled ball of string, covered as with a blight, tangled like coarse grass, unable to pass beyond states of woe, the ill destiny, ruin and the round of birth-and-death."
Thich Nhat Hanh comments in his webpage titled Dharma talk on the "Sutra on the Middle Way" (Part 1 of 2):
| "Here [in the Sutra on the Middle Way] 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." |
Another key here is: "This insight is called 'right view,' and this is the way the Tathagata would describe right view." The "correct insight" is exactly what the Buddha means by "right view" in the context of the Noble Eight Fold Path. Right view is one of the eight elements of the Eightfold Path and, reciprocally, the way to cultivate right view is to practice all of the elements of the Eightfold Path. The Buddha says here, "...viewing the world as being is an extreme; viewing it as non-being is another extreme. The Tathagata avoids these two extremes and teaches the Dharma dwelling in the Middle Way." Recall that, in the opening passages of the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta quoted above, the Buddha says: "And what, bhikkhus, is that middle way awakened to by the One Attuned to Reality which gives rise to vision, which gives rise to knowledge, which leads to peace, to higher knowledge, to full awakening, to Nibbana? It is just this Noble Eight-factored Path, that is to say, right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right mental unification."
Next in the "Sutra on the Middle Way":
| "Because there is ignorance, there are volitional activities (Pali sankhara, Sanskrit samskara);..." |
This is the opening sentence in the "Sutra on the Middle Way" (Samyukta Agama 29) of Buddha's description of what is called the "chain of dependent arising" (Pali patichchasamuppada, Skt. pratitya-samutpada), or equivalently, the "chain of dependent co-arising", or the "chain of dependent origination", etc. This chain of inter-dependent phenomena has to do with all the phenomena associated with the functioning of a mind in the state of samsara, which is to say an unenlightened mind. There are twelve links in the chain. In the descriptions of this chain in Buddha's discourses, ignorance is most often the first link described, with "old age and death" being the last. This is indeed the case for the "Sutra on the Middle Way." But in the Paticca-samuppada-vibhanga Sutta (Samyutta Nikaya 12.2, "The Analysis of Dependent Co-arising"), the first element described is "birth." It is important to realize that the chain is circular with no actual beginning and no actual end. Also, each link has influence on all the other links and is influenced by all the other links.
"Ignorance" (Pali avijja, Skt. avidya) here means the basic delusion that involves regarding phenomena as being inherently, independently, existent— as if they exist by some intrinsic essence that makes them what they are. This, with the misconception of the self as being inherently, independently, existent leads to craving and grasping—the very cause of suffering.(See The Second Noble Truth: The Origin of Suffering.) The Buddha says in the Paticca-samuppada-vibhanga Sutta (Samyutta Nikaya 12.2, "The Analysis of Dependent Co-arising"):12
| "And what is ignorance? Not knowing dukkha, not knowing the origination of dukkha, not knowing the cessation of dukkha, not knowing the way of practice leading to the cessation of dukkha: This is called ignorance." |
The Pali term dukkha (Sanskrit duhka) corresponds to a number of terms in English, including: suffering, pain, discontent, unhappiness, sorrow, affliction, anxiety, dissatisfaction, discomfort, anguish, stress, misery, and frustration. Although duhkha/dukkha is often translated as "suffering", its philosophical meaning is more analogous to "disquietude" as in the condition of being disturbed. Most often it is translated into English as "suffering." (See The First Noble Truth and The Second Noble Truth.)
The Buddha says in the Paticca-samuppada-vibhanga Sutta (Samyutta Nikaya 12.2, "The Analysis of Dependent Co-arising"):
| "And what are volitional activies? These three are volitional activities: volitional bodily activities, volitional verbal activities, volitional mental activities. These are called volitional activities." |
"Volitional activies" (Pali sankhara, Sanskrit samskara)13 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.)
Next in the "Sutra on the Middle Way":
| "because there are volitional actions, there is consciousness (Pali vinnana, Skt., vijnana)..." |
The Buddha says in the Paticca-samuppada-vibhanga Sutta (Samyutta Nikaya 12.2, "The Analysis of Dependent Co-arising"):
| "And what is consciousness? These six are classes of consciousness: eye-consciousness, ear-consciousness, nose-consciousness, tongue-consciousness, body-consciousness, intellect-consciousness. This is called consciousness." |
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." |
| —from Footnote to the 2003 Reith Lectures by Professor Michael E. McIntyre FRS, University of Cambridge. |
Note that McEntyre not only reveals experimental evidence that the brain forms decisions before the consciousness of those formations occurs but also discusses how the brain is compartmentalized but normally forms the illusion that it is an indivisible whole independent of everything else whose activities occur just at the very moment that awareness of those activities occurs. The question of free will is raised here to a degree. But let me suggest here that this is another question whose answer lies in the middle way. For myself at least, the absolute denial of free will is a form of nihilism; the absolute affirmation of free will is a form of eternalism. What is freedom? There is freedom when there is right view and the mind is no longer bound by delusions "like a tangled ball of string, covered as with a blight, tangled like coarse grass, unable to pass beyond states of woe...," as the Buddha puts it in the Mahanidana Sutta. It is at this level that the cultivation of right view and right mindfulness and right concentration through Buddhist meditation is most significant.
Next in the "Sutra on the Middle Way":
| "...because there is consciousness, there is the mind/body (Pali nama-rupa, Skt. nama-rupa);..." |
In the Paticca-samuppada-vibhanga Sutta (Samyutta Nikaya 12.2, "The Analysis of Dependent Co-arising"), the Buddha says:
| "And what is nama-rupa? Feeling, perception, intention, contact, and attention: This is called nama. The four great elements, and the form dependent on the four great elements: This is called rupa. This nama plus this rupa are called nama-rupa." |
"Mind/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 (sensation) (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." It is important here to realize that, in Buddhist terminology, "perception" includes the perception of our own mind. 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."
Here are some relevant excerpts from Buddha's Brain: The practical neuroscience of happiness, love, & wisdom by Rick Hanson, Ph.D. with Richard Mendius, M.D.:14
| When your mind changes, your brain changes, too. In the saying from the work of the psychologist Donald Hebb: when neurons fire together, they wire together—mental activity actually creates new neural structures (Hebb 1949;15 LeDoux 200316). As a result, even fleeting thoughts and feelings can leave lasting marks on your brain, much like a spring shower can leave little trails on a hillside. | For example, taxi drivers in London—whose job requires remembering lots of twisty streets—develop a larger hippocampus (a key brain region for making visual-spatial memories), since that part of the brain gets an extra workout (Maguire et al 200017). As you become a happier person, the left frontal region of your brain becomes more active (Davidson 200418). |
| What flows through your mind sculpts your brain. Thus, you can use your mind to change your brain for the better—which will benefit your whole being, and every other person whose life you touch. | |
—Rick Hanson, Ph.D. with Richard Mendius, M.D., Buddha's Brain, pp. 5-6. |
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Next in the "Sutra on the Middle Way":
| "...because there is the mind/body, there is the sixfold base of the senses (Pali salayatana, Skt. sadayatana);..." |
In the Paticca-samuppada-vibhanga Sutta (Samyutta Nikaya 12.2, "The Analysis of Dependent Co-arising"), the Buddha says:
| "And what is the sixfold base of the senses? These six are the sense organs accompanied by their objects: the eye accompanied by images, the ear accompanied by sounds, the nose accompanied by smells, the tongue accompanied by tastes, the body accompanied by feelings of touch, and the conscious mind accompanied by its objects. These are called the six sense organs and their objects." |
"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 separately from mind/body (the fourth link), but are listed separately 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."
Next in the "Sutra on the Middle Way":
| "...because there is the six-fold base of the senses, there is contact (Pali, phassa, Skt. sparsha);..." |
In the Paticca-samuppada-vibhanga Sutta (Samyutta Nikaya 12.2, "The Analysis of Dependent Co-arising"), the Buddha says:
| "And what is contact? These six are classes of contact: eye-contact, ear-contact, nose-contact, tongue-contact, body-contact, mind-contact. This is called contact." |
"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.
Next in the "Sutra on the Middle Way":
| "...because there is contact, there is sensation (Pali vedana, Skt. vedana);..." |
In the Paticca-samuppada-vibhanga Sutta (Samyutta Nikaya 12.2, "The Analysis of Dependent Co-arising"), the Buddha says:
| "And what is sensation? These six are classes of sensation: sensation born from eye-contact, sensation born from ear-contact, sensation born from nose-contact, sensation born from tongue-contact, sensation born from body-contact, sensation born from mind-contact. This is called sensation." |
A "sensation" (Pali vedana, Skt. vedana) can be pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral.
Next in the "Sutra on the Middle Way":
| "...because there is sensation, there is craving (Pali tanha, Skt. trishna);...quot; |
In the Paticca-samuppada-vibhanga Sutta (Samyutta Nikaya 12.2, "The Analysis of Dependent Co-arising"), the Buddha says:
| "And what is craving? These six are classes of craving: craving for forms, craving for sounds, craving for smells, craving for tastes, craving for tactile sensations, craving for ideas. This is called craving." |
Recall the Second Noble Truth:
| "There is the Noble Truth of the Origin of Suffering (Pali dukkha, Skt. duhka) results from certain causes—it is craving (Pali tanha, Skt. trishna), which produces renewal of being, is accompanied by relish and lust, relishing this and that; in other words, craving for sensual pleasure, craving for being, craving for nonbeing." |
The Pali word tanha and the equivalent Sanskrit word trishna have often been translated simply as "desire" in this context, rather than as "craving," "obsessive desire," or something else fully equivalent to craving. This can be very misleading.
Here is a relevant excerpt from Buddha's Brain: The practical neuroscience of happiness, love, & wisdom by Rick Hanson, Ph.D. with Richard Mendius, M.D.:
| "It is sometimes said that desire leads to suffering, but is that true? The territory of desire is far-reaching, and it includes wishes, intentions, hopes, and cravings. Whether a desire leads to suffering depends on two factors: Is craving—the sense that you need something—involved? And what is the desire for? |
| "Regarding the first of these, desire per se is not the root of suffering, craving is. You can wish for or intend something without craving the results; for example, you can decide to get eggs from the refrigerator without craving them—without getting upset if there are none left. |
| "Regarding the second factor, intentions are a double-edged sword at can either hurt or help. For example, the Three Poisons-greed, hatred, and delusion-are a kind of intention: to grab pleasure and hold on tight, resist pain and anything else you don't like, and ignore or distort things you'd rather not know about. |
| "Harmful intentions operate at all levels of the brain, from rage and fear released by the hypothalamus to subtle plans for payback constructed by the PFC [prefrontal cortex]. But the same is also true of wholesome inclinations toward generosity, kindness, and insight: they ripple up and down the neuroaxis, from visceral brain stem energy for good causes to abstract ideals sustained by the PFC. As you weave positive inclinations more deeply into the different levels of your brain, you increasingly push the Three Poisons to the margins. It's important to nurture good intentions at all levels of the neuroaxis—and to cultivate the strength to carry them out." |
—Rick Hanson, Ph.D. with Richard Mendius, M.D., Buddha's Brain, p. 103. |
Next in the "Sutra on the Middle Way":
| "...because there is craving, there is grasping (Pali upadana, Skt. upadana);..." |
The term upadana can be translated as "clinging" or "attachment" as well as "grasping."
In the Paticca-samuppada-vibhanga Sutta (Samyutta Nikaya 12.2, "The Analysis of Dependent Co-arising"), the Buddha says:
| "And what, monks, is clinging? There are these four kinds of clinging: clinging to sensual pleasures, clinging to views, clinging to rules and vows, clinging to a doctrine of self. This is called clinging." |
"Grasping" clearly follows after craving—when we obtain what we crave, we of course want just as much to hold onto it, and we suffer when we lose it. That kind of attachment is, of course, to things that one considers to be external to his or her "self." More subtle, but more fundamental and pernicious, is one's clinging to one's "self." This is the result of what the Buddha calls "the craving for being." There actually is no independent, self-existent entity of any kind anywhere, and the belief in a self that is such an entity is a delusion. But we tend to put a lot of our time and energy into maintaining that illusion.
In his book The Myth of Freedom, the Tibetan Buddhist teacher Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche writes:19
| "The effort to secure our happiness, to maintain ourselves in relation to something else, is the process of ego. But this effort is futile because there are continual gaps in our seemingly solid world, continual cycles of death and rebirth, constant change. The sense of continuity and solidity of self is an illusion. There is really no such thing as ego, soul or atman. It is a succession of confusions that create ego. The process which is ego actually consists of a flicker of contusion, a flicker of aggression, a flicker of grasping-all of which exists only in the moment. Since we cannot hold on to the present, we cannot hold on to me and mine and make them solid things.
" The experience of oneself relating to other things is actually a momentary discrimination, a fleeting thought. If we generate these fleeting thoughts fast enough. we can create the illusion of continuity and solidity. It is like watching a movie, the individual film frames are played so quickly that they generate the illusion of continual movement. So we build up an idea, a preconception, that self and other are solid and continuous. And once we have this idea, we manipulate our thoughts to confirm it, and are afraid of any contrary evidence. It is this fear of exposure, this denial of impermanence that imprisons us. It is only by acknowledging impermanence that there is the chance to die and the space to be reborn and the possibility of appreciating life as a creative process. |
Next in the "Sutra on the Middle Way":
| "...because there is grasping, there is coming to be (Pali bhava, Skt. bhava);..." |
The term bhava can be translated as "becoming" as well as "coming to be."
In the Paticca-samuppada-vibhanga Sutta (Samyutta Nikaya 12.2, "The Analysis of Dependent Co-arising"), the Buddha says:
| "And what is becoming? These three are becomings: sensual becoming, form becoming, and formless becoming. This is called becoming." |
Ryuei Michael McCormick writes in his webpage "On Dependent Origination":
| "This ['clinging'] results in 'becoming,' which is a way of summarizing the way in which we 'become' hell-dwellers, hungry ghosts, animals, fighting demons, humans, and heavenly beings in the three realms. The three realms consist of the realms of desire (which takes in all existence up to the lower six heavens), form (the more refined heavens), and the formless (the most refined heavens). 'Becoming' refers to the constant struggle for identity and happiness which characterizes the day to day life of most people. |
Here, "sensual becoming" refers to living in the desire realm, "form becoming" refers to living in the form realm, and "formless becoming" refers to living in the formless realm. For a sentient being (i.e., a being capable of being conscious), living is a continuous process of becoming. There cannot be an independent, self-existent entity that is this sentient being, the sentient being never "is"—the sentient being is always dependently arising, always in a dynamic state of "becoming." An unenlightened sentient being is said to be in the state of samsara. Samsara can be divided into substates or "realms." One way is to divide samsara into three realms: the desire realm, the form realm, and the formless realm. Samsara can also be divided into six realms: the realm of the hell-beings, the realm of the hungry ghosts, the animal realm, the human realm, the realm of the realm of the jealous gods, and the realm of the peaceful gods. The desire realm is composed of the the realm of the hell-beings, the realm of the hungry ghosts, the animal realm, the human realm, the realm of the realm of the jealous gods, and the lowest of the three levels of the realm of the peaceful gods. The form realm is the second level of the peaceful gods. The formless realm is the highest level of the peaceful gods.
The human realm is usually thought of as the realm in which a sentient being exists in as an embodied human being while the other five of the six realms (from the realm of the hell-beings to the realm of the peaceful gods) are realms into which the sentient being may be reborn into after the being's current body dies in the human realm or whichever realm the sentient being is living in since its last rebirth. (Not even the "gods" in the realm of the peaceful gods or in the realm of the jealous gods are immortal." But the mentality of a human being dwelling bodily in the human realm with a human body can have a style for maintaining the illusion of self that is characteristic of a being in one of the other realms. Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche writes:20
| "The six realms are: the realm of the [peaceful] gods, the realm of the jealous gods, the human realm, the animal realm, the realm of the hungry ghosts and the hell realm. The realms are predominantly emotional attitudes toward ourselves and our surroundings, emotional attitudes colored and reinforced by conceptual explanations and rationalizations. As human beings we may, during the rationalizations. As human beings we may, during the realms, from the pride of the god realm to the hatred and paranoia of the hell realm. Nonetheless, a person's psychology is usually firmly rooted in one realm. This realm provides us with a style of confusion, a way of entertaining and occupying ourselves so as not to have to face our fundamental uncertainty, our ultimate fear that we may not exist." |
Each of the following excerpts contains a description of the mentality associated with one of one of the six realms.
THE REALM OF THE PEACEFUL GODS
|
"Self-absorption is the key to the human experience of the realm of the [peaceful] gods. On the lower levels, the world of desire, it appears as indulgence or dwelling on the enjoyment of such things as health, wealth, beauty, education, and all kinds of pleasures. Many of the normal aspirations of human beings could be considered expressions of the god realm or 'heaven on earth.' But to be in that realm psychologically means that one is not simply enjoying them, but using them as a means of maintaining one's sense of self. Life is seen as a search for happiness and fulfillment; when that search becomes the whole purpose of life, it can easily develop into an obsessive concern with youth and beauty, healthy living, self-improvement, emotional growth, and so on. There is always a certain amount of self-consciousness and self-congratulation in these endeavors. The notion of spirituality may be mentioned frequently, but this spirituality is really based on ego.
It is a way of trying to manufacture love, light, and peace by shutting out all darkness and unpleasantness...
"The feeling of being immortal is a very powerful godlike characteristic that we, as human beings, secretly have within us most of the time. Again and again, great teachers have reminded us that only your awareness of the inevitability of death can wake us from our complacency. And corresponding to our feeling of immortality during life, there is a longing for eternity after death: eternal heaven, eternal peace, or even eternal nonexistence. As Trungpa Rinpoche said in discussing this realm, 'ego's ultimate dream is eternity, particularly when eternity presents itself as meditation experience.' "In the higher god realms, the worlds of form and formlessness, we become entirely absorbed in states of meditation, so the sense of self becomes much more subtle, beguiling, and dangerous. It is only natural, from the point of view of ego, that once we have reached such a wonderful place we would like to stay in it forever. But if we have no vision of vast emptiness and cannot dissolve in the open space of meditation, there will always be the little voice of ego thinking, 'I am experiencing this awareness, this peace, this bliss.'" |
—Francesca Fremantle, Luminous Emptiness, pp. 170-171. |
THE REALM OF THE JEALOUS GODS
| "The dominant characteristic of the next realm, the jealous god or asura realm, is paranoia. If you are trying to help someone who has an asura mentality, they interpret your action as an attempt to oppress them or infiltrate their territory. But if you decide not to help hem, they interpret that as a selfish act: you are seeking comfort for yourself. If you present both alternatives to them, then they think you are playing games with them. The asura mentality is quite intelligent: it sees all the hidden corners. You think that you are communicating with an asura face to face, but in actual fact he is looking at you from behind your back. This intense paranoia is combined with an extreme efficiency and accuracy , which inspires a defensive form of pride. The asura mentality is associated with wind, speeding about, trying to achieve everything on the spot, avoiding all possibilities of being attacked. It is trying constantly to attain something higher and greater. To do so one must watch out for very possible pitfall. There is no time to prepare, to ready to put your action into practice. You just act without preparation. A false kind of spontaneity, a sense of freedom to act develops." |
—Chogyam Trungpa, The Myth of Freedom, p. 28. |
THE HUMAN REALM
| "Passion is the major occupation in the human realm. Passion in this sense is an intelligent kind of grasping in which the logical reasoning mind is always geared toward the creation of happiness. There is an acute sense of the separateness of pleasurable objects from the experiencer resulting in a sense of loss, poverty, often accompanied by nostalgia. You feel that only pleasurable objects can bring you comfort and happiness, but you feel inadequate, not strong or magnetic enough for the objects of pleasure to be drawn naturally into your territory. Nevertheless, you try actively to draw them in. This often leads to a critical attitude towards other people. You want to magnetize the best qualities, the most pleasurable, most sophisticated, most civilized situations." |
—Chogyam Trungpa, The Myth of Freedom, pp. 29-30. |
THE ANIMAL REALM
| "Blindness to our style, to how others see us, is most acute in the animal realm. I am not speaking of literally being reborn as an animal but of the animal quality of mind, a mentality which stubbornly pushes forward toward predetermined goals. The animal mentality is very serious. It even makes humor into a serious occupation—consciously trying to create a friendly environment, a person will crack jokes or try to be funny, intimate or clever. However, animals do not really smile or laugh; they just behave. They may play, but it is unusual for animals to actually laugh. They might make friendly noises or gestures, but the subtleties of a sense of humor are absent. The animal mentality looks directly ahead, as if wearing blinders. It never looks to the right or left but very sincerely goes straight ahead, trying to reach the next available situation, continually trying to adjust situations to make them conform to its expectations." |
—Chogyam Trungpa, The Myth of Freedom, p. 33. |
THE HUNGRY GHOST REALM
| "In the preta or hungry ghost realm one is preoccupied with the process of expanding, becoming rich, consuming. Fundamentally, you feel poor. You are unable to keep up the pretense of being what you would like to be. Whatever you have is used as proof of the validity of your pride, but it is never enough, there is always some sense of inadequacy. The poverty mentality is traditionally symbolized by a hungry ghost who has a tiny mouth, the size of the eye of a needle, a thin neck and throat, skinny arms and legs and a gigantic belly. His mouth and neck are too small to let enough food pass through them to fill his immense belly, so he is always hungry. And the struggle to satisfy his hunger is very painful since it is so hard to swallow what he eats. Food, of course, symbolizes anything you may want-friendship, wealth, clothes, sex, power, whatever." |
—Chogyam Trungpa, The Myth of Freedom, pp. 35-36. |
| "The basic subjective feeling of this is overwhelming deprivation, a sense of poverty combined with greed. Paradoxically, the hungry ghosts are surrounded by an environment of richness and abundance; ghosts are surrounded by an environment of richness and abundance; everything they want is already there, but their hunger prevents them from enjoying it. Self-preservation is very strong, so there is little sense of openness or relaxation. They are totally obsessed with trying to satisfy their own needs, so they cannot afford to feel the pain of others or arouse the slightest generous impulse. Birth in this condition of existence is the result of extreme avarice, meanness, and stinginess.
"It is easy to find hungry ghost characteristics in all areas of human life: material, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual. It has nothing to do with external conditions; even a billionaire can have the mentality of a hungry ghost. People who have made fortunes by scrimping and saving are often unable to enjoy their wealth properly; they are always trying to increase it and afraid of losing it. Conspicuous consumption and addictive collecting are other manifestations of this tendency in the material world. At first, buying a desirable object gives pleasure, but after a while, the activity of shopping or collecting becomes an end in itself. It no longer brings real satisfaction, but actually arouses even greater hunger. Clothes are kept in the wardrobe and never worn; collections of beautiful objects are locked away and never enjoyed or shared with others. |
—Francesca Fremantle, Luminous Emptiness, pp. 152-153. |
THE HELL REALM
| "of hell-beings is the lowest of the six realms and is caused by extreme aggression. It is the most intense, the most confined, and claustrophobic. All the emotional poisons are addictive; when we control their grip, they appear absolutely necessary to keep us going, and they provide a reason for our very existence. In some ways, aggression is the most difficult to let go of, because it makes us feel so strongly that we are in the right. The problem is always someone else's fault, and there seems to be nothing we can do except react with hatred or anger. Acting seems to be nothing we can do except react with hatred or anger. Acting out our aggression may provide a little short-term relief, but it does not really produce the desired result. We want to destroy the world around us, which is causing us so much pain, but instead we find that the world is a mirror filled with our own reflections. Our own aggression bounces back at us from every angle, magnified and transformed into terrifying hallucinations. It develops into a situation of extreme claustrophobia with no space to open out into and no time for relaxation. That is why, in all traditions, hell is the underworld: it lies deep beneath the earth, crushed down and enclosed on all sides, offering no hope of escape." |
—Francesca Fremantle, Luminous Emptiness, pp. 145-146. |
Next in the "Sutra on the Middle Way":
| "...because there is coming to be, there is birth (Pali jati, Skt. jati);..." |
In the Paticca-samuppada-vibhanga Sutta (Samyutta Nikaya 12.2, "The Analysis of Dependent Co-arising"), the Buddha says:
| "And what, monks, is birth? The birth of the various beings into the various orders of beings, their being born, their descent into the womb, production, the manifestation of the aggregates, the obtaining of the sense bases. This is called birth." |
The Tibetan Buddhist scholar Francesca Fremantle writes in her book Luminous Emptiness: Understanding the Tibetan Book of the Dead:21
| "Although this link in the chain known as birth, it does not mean lust the event of being born, but the life that has come into being; it encompasses the whole lifetime of that particular embodiment. It can refer to the birth of a living being or the physical appearance of something in the external world, or it may be interpreted as the arising of a thought or a mood in the mind." |
Next in the "Sutra on the Middle Way":
| "...because there is birth, there are old age (Pali jara, Skt. jara), death (Pali marana, Skt. marana), grief, and sorrow." |
In the Paticca-samuppada-vibhanga Sutta (Samyutta Nikaya 12.2, "The Analysis of Dependent Co-arising"), the Buddha says:
| "And what, monks, is aging-and-death (jara-marana)? The aging of the various beings in the various orders of beings, their growing old, brokenness of teeth, greyness of hair, wrinkling of the skin, decline of vitality, degeneration of the faculties: this is called aging. The passing away of the various beings from the various orders of beings, their perishing, breakup, disappearance, mortality, death, completion of time, the breakup of the aggregates, the laying down of the carcass: this is called death. Thus this aging and this death are together called aging-and-death." |
In Buddhist iconography, the "Wheel of Life" symbolizes the Chain of Dependent Arising as a circle of twelve images representing the twelve links. The image for "old age and death" (jara-marana is usually that of a corpse being carried to the cremation ground. Francesca Fremantle comments about this image in the Wheel in Luminous Emptiness:22
| "It is often translated as old age and death, but since many people die young and do not reach old age, here "age" really refers to the whole process of aging and decay, which actually begins as soon as we are born. All pain, whether it is physical or mental, arises from some aspect of loss, destruction, or decay, so this image represents all the sufferings of existence." |
Next in the "Sutra on the Middle Way":
| "But with the fading away of ignorance, impulses cease; with the fading away of impulses, consciousness ceases. And finally birth, old age, grief, death, and sorrow will fade away. This is how this entire mass of suffering (Pali dukkha, Skt. duhka) ceases." |
In the Paticca-samuppada-vibhanga Sutta (Samyutta Nikaya 12.2, "The Analysis of Dependent Co-arising"), the Buddha says essentially the same thing but in more detail:
| "But with the remainderless fading away and cessation of ignorance comes cessation of volitional formations; with the cessation of volitional formations, cessation of consciousness; with the cessation of consciousness, cessation of name-and-form; with the cessation of name-and-form, cessation of the six sense bases; with the cessation of the six sense bases, cessation of contact; with the cessation of contact, cessation of feeling; with the cessation of feeling, cessation of craving; with the cessation of craving, cessation of clinging; with the cessation of clinging, cessation of becoming; with the cessation of becoming, cessation of birth; with the cessation of birth, cessation of aging-and-death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, displeasure, and despair cease. Such is the cessation of this whole mass of suffering." |
The chain of dependent arising forms a full circle, after death, ignorance normally arises again and the whole cycle of life-and-death, of samsara, is repeated. But ignorance is the master link. When ignorance is annihilated by enlightenment, there is complete liberation from the chain of dependent origination.
Early in the chapter "Liberation Uncoiling in Space" in her book Luminous Emptiness, Francesca Fremantle writes:23
| "The state of liberation is the ultimate goal. It has been given many names and has been described in many different ways, although it is essentially inexpressible. It is our true, innate nature, our inalienable birthright, yet we do not recognize it. We seem to be imprisoned in a condition of unknowing. This unknowing, ignorance, or delusion is the cause of all evil and pain, but it is not intrinsic to our being; it is like clouds obscuring the clear sky or dust that has accumulated on a mirror. Instead of having a concept of original sin, Buddhism speaks of basic goodness, for buddha-nature dwells within us as our hidden essence. Liberation is synonymous with the Sanskrit word bodhi, which means awakening, understanding, or enlightenment, and with nirvana, which means blowing out or extinction: the extinction of illusion." |
Later in the same chapter, Fremantle describes the Wheel of Life and the corresponding chain of dependent origination, which she calls the "chain of cause and effect." We have already given above some of what she wrote about the imagery for, and meaning of, the link that is "birth and death." Regarding the symbolism and meaning of "ignorance" in the wheel and in the chain, she writes:24
| But why does conditioning [karma, volitional actions (Pali sankhara, Sanskrit samskara), the link between ignorance and consciousness] arise in the first place? How did the whole process ever start? The Buddha traced the root cause back to ignorance, the mind's ignorance of its own awakened nature—the final and original link in the chain. This the farthest back we can go within the circle of samsara; this is where everything begins. Indeed, we can say that this whole cycle really has no beginning and no end, because our very notions of past, present, and future are part of samsara. Ignorance is symbolized by an old blind woman, tottering about with the aid of a stick. Trungpa Rinpoche referred to her as a blind grandmother. She has given birth to generations of samsaric existence, endlessly proliferating and re-producing. Ignorance means ignoring the truth of reality, shutting one's eyes to the awakened state. Although the light of reality is ever-present, ignorance chooses to remain blind. The nature of this blindness is to believe in the existence of a separate, independent self. Trungpa Rinpoche also used to say that ignorance is very intelligent. It is actually the intelligence of samsara, which is fighting a continual battle for survival and constantly looking for ways of keeping up its own illusion, its own self-deception. |
In summary, here is an ordered listing of the twelve links of Dependent Origination:
|
The 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")]:25
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"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:"26
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At the webpage NicherensCoffeeHouse—"On Dependent Origination", its author, Ryuei Michael McCormick, gives a compelling interpretation of "Transcendent Dependent Origination":
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"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:
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When Conditioned by Deluded Mind |
When Transformed by Enlightened Mind |
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Ignorance (avidya) |
Clear Understanding (vidya) |
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Volitional Actions (samskara) |
Great Aspiration (mahapranidhana) |
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Consciousness (vijnana):
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Four Wisdoms:
|
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Mind & Body (Nama-rupa) |
Transformation Body Nirmanakaya |
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The Six Sense Bases (adayatana) |
Result Body Samboghakaya |
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Contact (sparsha) |
Mindfulness of Contact | ||
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Sensation (vedana) |
Mindfulness of Sensation | ||
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Craving (trishna) |
Four Immeasurable Minds (Brahmaviharas) |
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Grasping (upadana) |
Freedom (apranahita) |
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Coming to Be (bhava) |
Wondrous Being | ||
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Birth (jati) |
Wisdom of No-Birth | ||
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Old Age and Death (jara-marana) |
Wisdom of No-Death |