Pratītyasamutpāda

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The doctrine of pratītyasamutpāda (Sanskrit: प्रतीत्यसमुत्पाद; Pali: paticcasamuppāda; Tibetan: rten.cing.'brel.bar.'byung.ba; Chinese: 緣起), often translated as "dependent arising", is a cardinal doctrine in Buddhist philosophy.[1][2] It is a name given by the historical Buddha to the arising of dukkha in worldly experience. It is variously rendered into English as "dependent origination", "conditioned genesis", "dependent co-arising", and "interdependent arising".

Dependent origination is not the Buddhist theory of the origin of the world, but is the explanation of the conditions that sustain unsatisfactoriness in samsara. In fact Buddhism does not have any theory of the origin of the world like other world religions, and considers the beginning and end of the world to be inconceivable[3]. The word "origination" here is with regard to the origin of dukkha.

Some scholars believe that pratītyasamutpāda is Buddhist metaphysics[4], but it has no relevance to cosmology (origin and nature of the universe), theology, or an absolutist (absolute soul, self, etc.) or relativistic philosophy[5] and is therefore hardly similar to other branches of Indian philosophy that make many ontological assertions. However, a small part of metaphysics deals with the question of free will and whether worldly phenomena are solely a consequence of other causal factors. Determinists argue that everything is completely deterministic[6][7], based on natural causal laws that can never be changed; others argue that everything is totally up to one's free will[8][9], and still others[10] posit a compatibility of these two positions. (See Compatibilism, Determinism and Libertarianism) In so far as it describes the nature of experiences as consequences of volitions (sankhara or mental fabrications) and resolves the seeming dichotomy between determinism and free will, we can perhaps call pratītyasamutpāda a metaphysic of volitions (or karma).[11][12]

Pratītyasamutpāda is a principle that states those causal relationships between phenomena that sustain the chaos of dukkha in samsara[13]. Despite the determinism built into these phenomena, beings can choose volitions to either continue wandering in samsara, or break the pattern of habitual wandering. Understanding the relationships between the phenomena that sustain dukkha[14] would help understand the natural conditions that can lead to freedom from the process of samsara, (nibbana) the Buddhist ideal[15].

Contents

Overview

The Buddha begins his teaching by specifying the spiritual problem that he has considered, namely dukkha, loosely translated as suffering, stress or unsatisfactoriness. He pointed out that life is unsatisfactory, consisting of both joy and sorrow, but nevertheless a continuous pursuit of happiness, that does not last, and is always just out of reach. "Sometimes this dissatisfaction manifests in the form of grief, despair and disappointment, but usually it hovers at the edge of our awareness as a vague unlocalized sense that things are never quite perfect, never fully adequate to our expectations of what they should be."[16] Life follows a trajectory quite independent of our dreams and desires.

Beings pursue happiness at every stage in life: pursuit of food to satisfy hunger, a partner to satisfy carnal desires, offspring, profession and ambition to satisfy the urge for achievement, words and ideas to satisfy intellectual hunger, all of which are never quite completely satisfactory. In the end these beings have to die, leaving all that they toiled hard to accumulate (possessions, relations and so on), still harboring unsatisfied dreams. But this process of continuous pursuit and vain effort does not stop on death, since life takes root beyond death in another organism. (See Samsara and Rebirth) This was the only spiritual problem the Buddha considered worth solving.

The Buddha did not describe samsara as a physical place or realm where we live, or the universe (as it is understood in modern parlance), but as a process of generating and consuming pleasures and passions[17]. The Buddha's purpose was to provide a solution to this perpetual problem of human condition, of seemingly inescapable unsatisfactoriness[18]. The Pali Canon liken him to a skilled doctor (or psychologist) that diagnoses a disease, its root cause and prescribes a solution, assuring the patient that a definite cure surely exists[19]. The Buddha stated the spiritual problem that he has considered, (dukkha) and how it is sustained (The first two Noble truths). He then assured his listeners that there is a definite solution to dukkha that brings about a complete and final cessation of dukkha (The third Noble truth). Finally, he prescribes the path to be followed to attain this freedom, the Noble eightfold path (The fourth Noble truth).

In general, pratītyasamutpāda is the detailed exposition of the second Noble truth, which states that dukkha has a cause. It is due to ignorance of these causal factors that we roam about in samsara deluded, confused, dissatisfied and anxious. By developing factors completely contrary to those that sustain dukkha, and with the complete fading of the causes, one can attain complete liberation from suffering (nibbana).

Pratītyasamutpāda in the Nikayas

To understand the root cause of dukkha, the Buddha analyzed the causality of experience in a manner that broke from the dominant world view of his time. Unlike Aristotle[20] or the dominant Samkhya view[21] of causality, his perspective as recorded in the Pali Nikayas is that every phenomenon has a sustaining cause[22]. Since the cause itself is another phenomenon it should also have something else for its sustenance.

This view of causality stands in stark contrast to the notion of a single primordial cause, for everything in the universe (the prime mover), or a creator God. Instead of questioning the cause of existence, the Buddha looked for the cause of experience—dissatisfaction, fear, and insubstantial happiness. Instead of looking for an escape (more material pleasures), or deluded self-assurance (images of good fortune such as God), or relaxing into the prospect of suffering (pessimism, lack of hope), he taught a way to find the nutriment that dukkha sustains on, and put an end to it.[23] "The dangers of life are real. Our weaknesses are real. If we don't see them clearly, don't take them to heart, and don't try to find a way out, there's no way we can put an end to the causes of our fears."[24]

Phenomena are sustained only so long as their sustaining factors (nutriments) remain.[25] This causal relationship is expressed in its most general form as follows[26]:

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.
— Samyutta Nikaya 12.61

This natural law of this/that causality is independent of being discovered, just like the laws of physics.[27] In particular, the Buddha applied this law of causality to determine the cause of dukkha.[28]

Cause Effect Comments[29]
Birth Aging and death (and this entire mass of dukkha) Birth[30] is any coming-to-be or coming-forth. It refers not just to birth at the beginning of a lifetime, but to birth as new person, acquisition of a new status or position etc.
Becoming Birth These three are becoming: sensual becoming,[31] form becoming,[32] formless becoming[33]
Clinging/sustenance Becoming These four are clingings: sensual clinging,[34] view clinging,[35] practice clinging,[36] and self clinging[37]
Craving Clinging/sustenance There are these six forms of cravings: cravings with respect to forms, sounds, smells, tastes, touch (massage, sex, pain), and ideas.[38]
Feeling (Sensation) Craving Feeling or sensations are of six forms: vision, hearing, olfactory sensation, gustatory sensation, tactile sensation, and intellectual sensation (thought).
Contact Feeling The coming together of the object, the sense medium and the consciousness of that sense medium[39] is called contact.[40]
Six sense media Contact[40] The eye, ear nose, tongue, the body and the mind are the six sense media.
Name-and-form Six sense media Feeling,[41] perception,[42] intention,[43] contact, and attention:[44] This is called name. The four great elements,[45] and the body dependent on the four great elements: This is called form.
Consciousness Name-and-form These six are classes of consciousness: eye-consciousness, ear-consciousness, nose-consciousness, tongue-consciousness, body-consciousness, intellect-consciousness. This is called consciousness[46] As seen earlier[40] consciousness and the organ cannot function without each other.
Fabrications (volitional fabrications) Consciousness These three are fabrications: bodily fabrications, verbal fabrications, mental fabrications. These are called fabrications.
Ignorance Fabrications (volitional tendencies) Not knowing stress, not knowing the origination of stress, not knowing the cessation of stress, not knowing the way of practice leading to the cessation of stress: This is called ignorance.

So working backwards gives us the way to put an end to stress:

From the remainderless fading and cessation of ignorance comes the cessation of (volitional) fabrications. From the cessation of (volitional) fabrications comes the cessation of consciousness. From the cessation of consciousness comes the cessation of name-and-form. From the cessation of name-and-form comes the cessation of the six sense media. From the cessation of the six sense media comes the cessation of contact. From the cessation of contact comes the cessation of feeling. From the cessation of feeling comes the cessation of craving. From the cessation of craving comes the cessation of clinging/sustenance. From the cessation of clinging/sustenance comes the cessation of becoming. From the cessation of becoming 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 mass of stress and suffering.

The Buddha's enlightenment simultaneously comprised his liberation from suffering (Pāli: dukkha; Sanskrit:duhkha) and his insight into the nature of reality[47][48][49] (nature of experience).

Applications

The general formulation has two well-known applications. One applies dependent origination to the concept of suffering, and takes the form of the Four Noble Truths:

  1. Dukkha: There is suffering. Suffering is an intrinsic part of life prior to awakening, also experienced as dissatisfaction, discontent, unhappiness, impermanence.
  2. Samudaya: There is a cause of suffering, which is attachment or desire (tanha).
  3. Nirodha: There is a way out of suffering, which is to eliminate attachment and desire.
  4. Magga: The path that leads out of suffering is called the Noble Eightfold Path.

The other applies dependent origination to the process of rebirth, and is known as the Twelve Nidanas. The nikayas themselves do not give a systematic explanation of the nidana series.[50] As an expository device, the commentarial tradition presented the factors as a linear sequence spanning over three lives; this does not mean that past, present, and future factors are mutually exclusive – in fact, many sutras contend that they are not.[51] The twelve nidanas categorized in this way are:

Former life

Current life

Future life

This twelve-factor formula is the most familiar presentation, though a number of early sutras introduce lesser-known variants which make it clear that the sequence of factors should not be regarded as a linear causal process in which each preceding factor gives rise to its successor through a simple reaction. The relationship among factors is always complex, involving several strands of conditioning.[52] For example, whenever there is ignorance, craving and clinging invariably follow, and craving and clinging themselves indicate ignorance.[51]

With respect to the destinies of human beings and animals, dependent origination has a more specific meaning, as it describes the process by which sentient beings incarnate into any given realm and pursue their various worldly projects and activities with all concomitant suffering. Among these sufferings are aging and death. Aging and death are experienced by us because birth and youth have been experienced. Without birth there is no death. One conditions the other in a mutually dependent relationship. Our becoming in the world, the process of what we call "life", is conditioned by the attachment and clinging to ideas and projects. This attachment and clinging in turn cannot exist without craving as its condition. The Buddha understood that craving comes into being because there is sensation in the body which we experience as pleasant, unpleasant or neutral. When we crave something, it is the sensation induced by contact with the desired object that we crave rather than the object itself. Sensation is caused by contact with such objects of the senses. The contact or impression made upon the senses (manifesting as sensation) is itself dependent upon the six sense organs which themselves are dependent upon the psychophysical entity that a human being is. The whole process is summarized by the Buddha as follows:

English Terms Sanskrit Terms
With Ignorance as condition, Mental Formations arise With Avidyā as condition, Saṃskāra arises
With Mental Formations as condition, Consciousness arises With Saṃskāra as condition, Vijñāna arises
With Consciousness as condition, Name and Form arise With Vijñāna as condition, Nāmarūpa arises
With Name & Form as condition, Sense Gates arise With Nāmarūpa as condition, Ṣaḍāyatana arises
With Sense Gates as condition, Contact arises With Ṣaḍāyatana as condition, Sparśa arises
With Contact as condition, Feeling arises With Sparśa as condition, Vedanā arises
With Feeling as condition, Craving arises With Vedanā as condition, Tṛṣṇā arises
With Craving as condition, Clinging arises With Tṛṣṇā as condition, Upādāna arises
With Clinging as condition, Becoming arises With Upādāna as condition, Bhava arises
With Becoming as a condition, Birth arises With Bhava as condition, Jāti arises
With Birth as condition, Aging and Dying arise With Jāti as condition, Jarāmaraṇa arises

The thrust of the formula is such that when certain conditions are present, they give rise to subsequent conditions, which in turn give rise to other conditions and the cyclical nature of life in Samsara can be seen. This is graphically illustrated in the Bhavacakra (wheel of life).

Contemporary teachers often teach that it can also be seen as a daily cycle occurring from moment to moment throughout each day. There is scriptural support for this as an explanation in the Abhidharmakosa of Vasubandhu, insofar as Vasubandu states that on occasion "the twelve parts are realized in one and the same moment".[53]

For example, in the case of avidyā, the first condition, it is necessary to refer to the three marks of existence for a full understanding of its relation to pratityasamutpada. It is also necessary to understand the Three Fires and how they fit into the scheme. The Three Fires sit at the very center of the schemata in the Bhavacakra and drive the whole edifice. In Himalayan iconographic representations of the Bhavacakra such as within Tibetan Buddhism, the Three Fires are known as the Three Poisons which are often represented as the Gankyil. The Gankyil is also often represented as the hub of the Dharmacakra.

Nirvana is often conceived of as stopping this cycle. By removing the causes for craving, craving ceases. So, with the ceasing of birth, death ceases. With the ceasing of becoming, birth ceases, and so on, until with the ceasing of ignorance no karma is produced, and the whole process of death and rebirth ceases.

Madhyamaka and Pratityasamutpada

Though the formulations above appear might seem to imply that pratityasamutpada is a straightforward causal model, in the hands of the Madhyamaka school, pratityasamutpada is used to demonstrate the very lack of inherent causality, in a manner that appears somewhat similar to the ideas of David Hume. Many scholars have agreed that the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā is one of the earliest interpretations of Buddha's teaching on paramartha originated from Pratītyasamutpāda [54] , [55].

The conclusion of the Madhyamikas is that causation, like being, must be regarded as a merely conventional truth (saṃvṛti), and that to take it as really (or essentially) existing would be both a logical error and a perceptual one, arising from ignorance and a lack of spiritual insight.

This is best illustrated with the wheel of life (Sanskrit:bhavacakra). Depicting the cycle of rebirth,[56] the wheel of life illustrates the fact that nothing in our conventional reality "is brought about ... by any single cause alone, but by concomitance of a number of conditioning factors arising in discernibly repeated patterns."[57] Thus, everything is dependent on and relates to something (and, ultimately, everything) else. "As far as one analyzes, one finds only dependence, relativity, and emptiness, and their dependence, relativity, and emptiness" ad infinitum.[58]

According to the analysis of Nāgārjuna, the most prominent Madhyamika, true causality depends upon the intrinsic existence of the elements of the causal process (causes and effects), which would violate the principle of anatman, but pratītyasamutpāda does not imply that the apparent participants in arising are essentially real.

Because of the interdependence of causes and effects (because a cause depends on its effect to be a cause, as effect depends on cause to be an effect), it is quite meaningless to talk about them as existing separately. However, the strict identity of cause and effect is also refuted, since if the effect were the cause, the process of origination could not have occurred. Thus both monistic and dualistic accounts of causation are rejected.

Therefore Nāgārjuna explains that the śūnyatā (or emptiness) of causality is demonstrated by the interdependence of cause and effect, and likewise that the interdependence (pratītyasamutpāda) of causality itself is demonstrated by its anatta.

In his Entry to the middle way, Candrakirti asserts, "If a cause produces its requisite effect, then, on that very account, it is a cause. If no effect is produced, then, in the absence of that, the cause does not exist."

Pratityasamutpada in Dzogchen

In Dzogchen tradition the interdependent origination is considered illusory:[59]

[One says], "all these (configurations of events and meanings) come about and disappear according to dependent origination." But, like a burnt seed, since a nonexistent (result) does not come about from a nonexistent (cause), cause and effect do not exist.

What appears as a world of apparently external phenomena, is the play of energy of sentient beings. There is nothing external or separate from the individual. Everything that manifests in the individual's field of experience is a continuum. This is the Great Perfection that is discovered in the Dzogchen practice.

"Being obsessed with entities, one's experiencing itself [sems, citta], which discriminates each cause and effect, appears as if it were cause and condition." [60]

Dependent arising of enlightenment

Pratityasamutpada is most commonly used to explain how suffering arises depending on certain conditions, the implication being that if one or more of the conditions are removed (if the "chain" is broken), suffering will cease. There is also a text, the Upanisa Sutta in the Samyutta Nikaya, in which a discussion of the conditions not for suffering but for enlightenment are given. This application of the principle of dependent arising is referred to in Theravada exegetical literature as "transcendental dependent arising".[61] The chain in this case is:

  1. suffering (dukkha)
  2. faith (saddhā)
  3. joy (pāmojja, pāmujja)
  4. rapture (pīti)
  5. tranquillity (passaddhi)
  6. happiness (sukha)
  7. concentration (samādhi)
  8. knowledge and vision of things as they are (yathābhūta-ñāna-dassana)
  9. disenchantment with worldly life (nibbidā)
  10. dispassion (virāga)
  11. freedom, release, emancipation (vimutti, a synonym for nibbana[62])
  12. knowledge of destruction of the cankers (āsava-khaye-ñāna)

Interbeing and Deep Ecology

Nobel Peace Prize nominee Thich Nhat Hanh, a follower of the Vietnamese Zen tradition, has coined the term Interbeing as a synonym of pratityasamutpada. This phrase expresses the reality of mutual interdependence in human relationship both in the sense of relating one to another and in the wider sense of humanity's relationship to the natural world as a whole. Hanh's presentation of "interbeing" has doctrinal antecedents in the Huayan school of thought,[63] which "is often said to provide a philosophical foundation" for Zen.[64]

The Sramanic religious traditions of India (Theravada Buddhism and Jainism) have been characterised by an unusual sensitivity to living beings. Monks of both traditions are strictly forbidden from harming any life form, including even the smallest insects and vegetation. One of the basic ideas behind the Buddha's teaching of mutual interdependence is that ultimately there is no demarcation between what appears to be an individual creature and its environment. Harming the environment (the nexus of living beings of which one forms but a part) is thus, in a nontrivial sense, harming oneself. This philosophical position lies at the heart of modern-day deep ecology and some representatives of this movement (e.g. Joanna Macy) have shown that Buddhist philosophy provides a rational basis for deep ecological thinking.

Notes and references

  1. ↑ Garfield, Jay L. "Dependent Arising and the Emptiness:Why did Nagarjuna start with Causation? Philosophy East and West Volume 44, Number 2 April 1994
  2. ↑ Edelglass, William et al (2009). Buddhist Philosophy: Essential Readings. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-532817-2. http://books.google.com/?id=HjVQB03cVMMC. 
  3. ↑ Dhammananda, Ven. Mahathera. "The Origin of the World". What Buddhists Believe. Buddhatnet.net. http://www.buddhanet.net/budsas/ebud/whatbudbeliev/297.htm. Retrieved July 24, 2010. 
  4. ↑ "Is the doctrine of interdependent origination a metaphysical teaching? The answer depends on one's definition of metaphysics. In this paper, metaphysics describes the character that anything has insofar as it is anything at all. Interdependent origination seems to fit this description." Thinking through Myths: Philosophical Perspectives, by Kevin Schilbrack. Routledge: 2002. ISBN 0415254612[1]
  5. ↑ "Suffice it to emphasize that the doctrine of dependent origination is not a metaphysical doctrine, in the sense that it does not affirm or deny some super-sensible entities or realities; rather, it is a proposition arrived at through an examination and analysis of the world of phenomena ..." Frank J. Hoffman, Deegalle Mahinda, Pāli Buddhism. Routledge, 1996, page 177. [2].
  6. ↑ Chiesa, Mecca (2004). Radical Behaviorism: The Philosophy & Science. 
  7. ↑ Smilansky, Saul (2000). Free Will and Illusion. Oxford University Press. 
  8. ↑ Inwagen, Peter van (1983). Essay on Free Will. p.v. 
  9. ↑ Dennett, Daniel (2003). Freedom Evolves. Viking Books. ISBN 0-670-03186-0. 
  10. ↑ Thomas Hobbes, David Hume and many others. Most philosophers tend to favor Compatibilism.
  11. ↑ Bhikku, Thanissaro (1996, (1998)). Wings to Awakening: Part I. Metta Forest Monastery, Valley Center, CA. pp. 45–49. http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/thanissaro/wings.pdf. 
  12. ↑ "Nevertheless, while it is true that the Buddha suspends all views regarding certain metaphysical questions, he is not an antimetaphysician: nothing in the texts suggests that metaphysical questions are completely meaningless, or that the Buddha denies the soundness of metaphysics per se...A framework of thought that hinges on the idea that sentient experience is dependently originated and that whatever is dependently originated is conditioned (sankhata), impermanent, subject to change, and lacking independent selfhood" by Noa Ronkin, Theravada Metaphysics and Ontology, "Buddhist Philosophy: Essential Readings", Edelglass, Garfield and Garfield. ISBN 978-0-19-532817-2
  13. ↑ Bhikku, Thanissaro. "Samsara Divided by Zero". Essays. Access To Insight. http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/thanissaro/resonance.html. Retrieved July 26, 2010. 
  14. ↑ Bhikku, Thanissaro. "Paticca-samuppada-vibhanga Sutta". Translated from Pali. Access To Insight. http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn12/sn12.002.than.html. Retrieved July 26, 2010. 
  15. ↑ Bodhi, Bhikku. Transcendental Dependent Arising. Buddhist Publication Society, Kandy Sri Lanka,. http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/bodhi/wheel277.html. 
  16. ↑ Bodhi, Bhikku (1999). The Noble Eightfold Path: The Way to the End of Suffering. Buddhist Publication Society, Kandy, Sri Lanka, The Wheel Publication No. 308/311. pp. 6. http://www.buddhanet.net/pdf_file/noble8path6.pdf. 
  17. ↑ Bhikku, Thanissaro. "Samsara". The Karma of Questions. Access To Insight. http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/thanissaro/samsara.html. Retrieved July 24, 2010. 
  18. ↑ Bhikku, Thanissaro. "Nibbedhika Sutta". , translated from Pali, Anguttara Nikaya 6.63. Access To Insight. http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an06/an06.063.than.html. Retrieved July 24, 2010. 
  19. ↑ Bhikku, Thanissaro (1999). Beyond Coping. Metta Forest Monastery, CA, USA. pp. Part I (The Buddha as doctor, the Dhamma as Medicine). http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/study/aids/medicine.html. 
  20. ↑ Aristotle's view of causality is that "causes are beginnings" (Metaphysics, Book V, Part 1), "we have scientific knowledge when we know the cause" (Posterior Analytics, Book II, Part 11) and "to know a thing's nature is to know why it exists" (Posterior Analytics, Book II, Part 2). This view of causality leads to the following type of questions: "What is the beginning, the root cause, the substratum?", "Due to what natural law, does this phenomenon occur?", or "Why do I exist? Why is there the world? What is the purpose of life?" (Metaphysics, Book I) But all these views assume (or at least seek to speculate) that there is either a primordial beginning (a material or efficient cause) or a purpose (a final cause) to everything.
  21. ↑ The dominant Indian philosophical view was that "the effect pre-exists in the cause" (Satkaryavada, see Samkhya) or that the effect lies latent in the cause. This is the prakriti-parinama vada or that the effect is a real transformation of the cause. Thus the universe is seen as a real transformation of a primordial cause (mula-prakriti) evolving itself successively into twenty-four tattvas. This is a view that nature is the material cause for the universe, the ground of all being.
  22. ↑ The Buddha did not view the question of causality as a question of predicting results of actions or as the prediction of events. He did not even look at causality as a material composition, a principle that governs everything or even as counterfactual or probabilistic causality. He viewed causality as a question of sustenance or dependence. A sustaining cause is not a permanent one. The Buddha's imagery for this was that of food or nutriment. The cause gets consumed while it provides nutriment for the sustenance of the effect. He did not say that the cause produces an effect, but that the effect is sustained by the cause.
  23. ↑ Bodhi, Bhikku. "The Quest for Meaning". Essay. Buddhist Publication Society, Kandy, Sri Lanka. http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/bodhi/bps-essay_14.html. Retrieved July 29, 2010. 
  24. ↑ Bhikku, Thanissaro. "Freedom from Fear". Essays. Access To Insight. http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/thanissaro/fear.html. Retrieved July 29, 2010. 
  25. ↑ Thera, Nyanaponika (2006). The Four Nutriments of Life: An Anthology of Buddhist Texts. Buddhist Publication Society, Kandy, Sri Lanka, The Wheel Publication No. 105. http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/nyanaponika/wheel105.html. 
  26. ↑ The general formula can be found in the following discourses in the Pali Canon: MN 79, MN 115, SN12.21, SN 12.22, SN 12.37, SN 12.41, SN 12.49, SN 12.50, SN 12.61, SN 12.62, SN 55.28, AN 10.92, Ud. 1.1 (first two lines), Ud. 1.2 (last two lines), Ud. 1.3, Nd2, Patis.
  27. ↑ "Whether or not there is the arising of Tathagatas, this property stands — this regularity of the Dhamma, this orderliness of the Dhamma, this this/that conditionality." SN 12.20
  28. ↑ Most Suttas follow the order from ignorance to dukkha. But SN 12.20 views this as a teaching of the requisite conditions for sustaining dukkha, which is it's main application.
  29. ↑ See SN 12.2 and DN 15
  30. ↑ Since without birth no aging, death, or any of the sorrows and disappointments of life would occur, birth is a requisite cause for dukkha. Thus, the complete cessation of dukkha must imply that there is no further birth for the enlightened.
  31. ↑ getting attracted, mesmerized, disgusted
  32. ↑ growing older, tall, healthy, weak, becoming a parent or spouse, rich, etc.
  33. ↑ annihilation, destruction, suicide, loss of a position etc.
  34. ↑ Enjoyment and clinging for music, beauty, sexuality, health, etc.
  35. ↑ Clinging for notions and beliefs such as in God, or other cosmological beliefs, political views, economic views, one's own superiority, either due to caste, sex, race, etc., views regarding how things should be, views on being a perfectionist, disciplinarian, libertarian etc.
  36. ↑ Clinging for rituals, dressing, rules of cleansing the body etc.
  37. ↑ That there is an self consisting of form and is finite, or a self consisting of form but infinite, or a self that is formless but finite, or a self that is formless and infinite. All notions of self are included here ranging from the then extant views contained in the Upanishads, to the later views. Even notions that the body or the ego are not the self and that there is a higher, more refined self, whether as the Supreme Self of Vedanta or as the womb of the Tathagata of the Mahayana are essentially notions of self that fall under one of these categories. For example, the Vedantic notion is that of a formless and infinite self. The Mahayana notion is that of a formless but finite self. Some Mahayana traditions don't explicitly consider the womb of the Tathagata to be a self, but nevertheless, the consider it a persisting entity in all beings and in this sense it therefore is a clinging to self-view (sakkaya ditthi).
  38. ↑ As can be seen, sensual cravings result only in sensual clinging, but craving for ideas results in view clinging, practice clinging and self clinging, all of which eventually lead to suffering.
  39. ↑ Eye-consciousness, ear-consciousness, nose-consciousness, tongue-consciousness, skin-consciousness and mind-consciousness
  40. ↑ 40.0 40.1 40.2 "...To give another example, it is just like the case of a person in a room who sees many things when he opens the window and looks through it. If it is asked, 'Who is it that sees? Is it the window or the person that actually sees?' the answer is, 'The window does not possess the ability to see; it is only the person who sees.' If it is again asked, 'Will the person be able to see things on the outside without the window (if he is confined to a room without the window or with the window closed)?' the answer will be, 'It is not possible to see things through the wall without the window. One can only see through the window.' Similarly, in the case of seeing, there are two separate realities of the eye and seeing. (So the eye does not have the ability to see without the eye-consciousness. The eye-consciousness itself cannot see anything without the organ.) The eye is not seeing, nor is seeing the eye, yet there cannot be an act of seeing without the eye. In reality, seeing comes into being depending on the eye. It is now evident that in the body there are only two distinct elements of materiality (eye) and mentality (eye-consciousness) at every moment of seeing. In addition, there is also a third element of materiality — the visual object. Without the visual object there is nothing to be seen..." Ven. Mahasi Sayadaw, Satipatthana Vipassana, 1995, Buddhist Publication Society, Kandy, Sri Lanka, The Wheel Publication No. 370/371
  41. ↑ Here it refers to the function of the mind that cognizes feeling.
  42. ↑ This is the faculty of the mind that names (recognizes) a feeling as pleasurable, unpleasurable or neutral, depending on what was its original tendency.
  43. ↑ This is the faculty of the mind where volitions arise. It is important to note that volition is noted again in the same sequence as a cause of consciousness.
  44. ↑ This is the faculty of the mind that can penetrate something, analyze, and objectively observe.
  45. ↑ The earth (property of solidity), water (property of liquity), wind (property of motion, energy and gaseousness), fire (property of heat and cold). See also Mahabhuta. In other places in the Pali Canon (DN 33, MN 140 and SN 27.9) we also see two additional elements - the space property and the consciousness property. Space refers to the idea of space that is occupied by any of the other four elements. For example any physical object occupies space and even though that space is not a property of that object itself, the amount of space it occupies is a property of that object and is therefore a derived property of the elements.
  46. ↑ Bhikku, Thanissaro. "Paticca-samuppada-vibhanga Sutta". Translated from Pali. Access To Insight. http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn12/sn12.002.than.html. 
  47. ↑ Harvey, Peter, An Introduction to Buddhist Ethics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), p. 3
  48. ↑ Waldron, S. William. "The Buddhist Unconscious – The ālaya-vijnāna in the context of Indian Buddhist thought" (Oxon: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003, repr. 2005), p.9
  49. ↑ Garfield, Jay L., The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995), p. 294
  50. ↑ Bhikkhu Bodhi, In the Buddha's Words. Wisdom Publications, 2005, page 313.
  51. ↑ 51.0 51.1 Bhikkhu Bodhi, In the Buddha's Words. Wisdom Publications, 2005, page 314.
  52. ↑ Bhikkhu Bodhi, In the Buddha's Words. Wisdom Publications, 2005, page 316.
  53. ↑ Abhidharmakosa, by Vasubandhu. Translated by Leo Pruden, Vol. II, pgs 404-405.
  54. ↑ Magiliola, Robert (2004). "Nagarjuna and Chi-Tsang on the Value of This World: A Reply to Kuang-Ming Wu's Critique of indian and Chinese Madhyamika Buddhism". Journal of Chinese Philosophy (John Wiley & Sons) 31 (4): 505–516. doi:10.1111/j.1540-6253.2004.00168.x. 
  55. ↑ Chinn, Ewing (2001). "Nāgārjuna's Fundamental Doctrine of Pratītyasamutpāda". Philosophy East and West (University of Hawai'i Press) 51 (1): 54–72. doi:10.1353/pew.2001.0005. http://www.jstor.org/pss/1400035. Retrieved 20 August 2009. 
  56. ↑ Waldron, S. William, The Buddhist Unconscious – The ālaya-vijnāna in the context of Indian Buddhist thought (Oxon: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003, repr. 2005), p. 13
  57. ↑ Waldron, S. William, The Buddhist Unconscious – The ālaya-vijnāna in the context of Indian Buddhist thought (Oxon: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003, repr. 2005), p. 16
  58. ↑ Garfield, Jay L., The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995), p. 177
  59. ↑ Norbu (1999), pp. 99, 101
  60. ↑ From byang chub sems bsgom pa, by Mañjusrîmitra. Primordial experience. An Introduction to rDzogs-chen Meditation, pp. 60, 61
  61. ↑ Bhikkhu Bodhi, "Transcendental Dependent Arising: A Translation and Exposition of the Upanisa Sutta." [3].
  62. ↑ Paul Williams, Buddhism: The early Buddhist schools and doctrinal history ; Theravāda doctrine. Taylor & Francis, 2005, page 147.
  63. ↑ McMahan, David L. The Making of Buddhist Modernism. Oxford University Press: 2008 ISBN 9780195183276 pg 158
  64. ↑ Williams,Paul. Mahāyāna Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations 2nd ed.Taylor & Francis, 1989, page 144

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