| Part of a series on Buddhism Outline · Portal |
| Dharma or concepts Four Noble Truths |
| Practices Three Jewels |
|
Traditions · Canons |
Dependent origination or dependent arising (from Sanskrit: प्रतीत्यसमुत्पाद, pratītyasamutpāda; Pali: paticcasamuppāda; Tibetan: རྟེན་ཅིང་འབྲེལ་བར་འབྱུང་བ་, Wylie: rten cing 'brel bar 'byung ba; Chinese: 緣起; pinyin: yuánqǐ) is a cardinal doctrine of Buddhism, and arguably the only thing that holds every Buddhist teaching together from Theravada to Dzogchen to the extinct schools.[1] As a concept and a doctrine it has a general and a specific application, both being integral to Buddhist philosophy. The first, which may be considered the general or universal definition - which is emphasised in Mahayana Buddhism (particularly the Hua Yen school) - states that all phenomena are arising together in a mutually interdependent web of cause and effect.[2][3][4][5] The interdependence and mutual conditioning of phenomena is, according to Buddhist philosophy, a critical dimension of the universal natural law which makes liberation possible. The Buddha applied this general truth of causal interdependence to the problem of human suffering and formulated a twelve part chain showing the causal relations between the psychophysical phenomena that sustain dukkha (dissatisfaction) in worldly experience.[6] This specific application of the universal truth of mutual interdependence is an analysis and explication of the second Noble Truth. It is variously rendered into English as "dependent origination",[7][8][9] "dependent arising",[10] "conditioned genesis", "dependent co-arising",[11][12] and "interdependent arising"[13]
Contents |
Causal dependence provides structure to the universe in Buddhism. Effects automatically proceed from their causes in an impersonal lawlike manner.[14] Thus an intelligent agent, like a Creator, is not necessary. In fact it is impossible for such an uncaused principle to interact with our universe which runs on causal dependence.[15] Due to the lawlike behavior of causation, Pratītyasamutpāda gives rise to every other doctrine in Buddhism including rebirth, samsara, dukkha, sunyata etc. Dependent origination provides that sentient beings are mere conceptual constructs designated upon bundles of causes and conditions, that is aggregates.[16] It is important to note that the root cause of dukkha in the famous Twelve Nidānas is ignorance (Avijjā) of dependent origination, and not craving (Taṇhā).[17]
Some scholars believe that pratītyasamutpāda is Buddhist metaphysics,[n 1] but it has no relevance to cosmology (origin and nature of the universe), theology, or an absolutist (absolute soul, self, etc.) or relativistic philosophy.[n 2] However, a small part of metaphysics deals with the apparent contradiction, or paradox, between free will and the position that worldly phenomena are solely a consequence of natural causal factors.[n 3] In so far as it resolves this paradox, we can perhaps call pratītyasamutpāda a metaphysic of volitions (or karma).[18][n 4] Understanding the relationships between the phenomena that sustain dukkha[19] is said to lead to complete freedom from samsara, (nibbana).[20]
In the Pali Suttapitaka (the most ancient canon of Buddhist writing preserved by Theravāda tradition) the first (partial) exposition of the twelve nidānas appears in the Dīgha Nikāya (Long Discourses), Brahmajāla Sutta, verse 3.71.[21] The reference is partial because it does not cover all twelve links:[22]" In this same Nikāya, Sutta 14 describes ten links instead of twelve, and in Sutta 15 the links are described, but without the six sense-bases (for a total of nine links in that Sutta).[23]
...they experience these feelings by repeated contact through the six sense-bases; feeling conditions craving; craving conditions clinging; clinging conditions becoming; becoming conditions birth; birth conditions aging and death, sorrow, lamentation, sadness and distress.
Descriptions of the full sequence of twelve links can be found elsewhere in the Pali canon, for instance in section 12 of the Samyutta Nikaya:[24]
Now from the remainderless fading and cessation of that very ignorance comes the cessation of fabrications ... From the cessation of birth, then aging and death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair all cease. Such is the cessation of this entire mass of stress and suffering.
In the commentarial literature of the Theravada tradition (attributed, at least mythically, to the author Buddhaghosa, and written many centuries subsequent to the Suttapitaka passages described above) the same doctrine is instead interpreted as a sequence of three lives, thus shifting the theme from a single conception (and birth) to a sequence of "incarnations" (roughly speaking).[n 5]
Phenomena are sustained only so long as their sustaining factors remain.[25] This causal relationship is expressed in its most general form as follows:[n 6]
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.
This natural law of this/that causality is independent of being discovered, just like the laws of physics.[n 7] In particular, the Buddha applied this law of causality to determine the cause of dukkha.[n 8]
| Cause | Effect | Comments[26] |
|---|---|---|
| Birth - (Jāti) | Aging, death, and this entire mass of dukkha) - (Jarāmaraṇa) | Birth[t 1] 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 - (Bhava) | Birth - (Jāti) | These three are becoming: sensual becoming,[t 2] form becoming,[t 3] formless becoming[t 4] |
| Clinging/sustenance - (Upādāna) | Becoming (Bhava) | These four are clingings: sensual clinging,[t 5] view clinging,[t 6] practice clinging,[t 7] and self clinging[t 8] |
| Craving - (Taṇhā) | Clinging/sustenance - (Upādāna) | There are these six forms of cravings: cravings with respect to forms, sounds, smells, tastes, touch (massage, sex, pain), and ideas.[t 9] |
| Feeling (Sensation) - (Vedanā) | Craving - (Taṇhā) | Feeling or sensations are of six forms: vision, hearing, olfactory sensation, gustatory sensation, tactile sensation, and intellectual sensation (thought). |
| Contact - (Phassa) | Feeling - (Vedanā) | The coming together of the object, the sense medium and the consciousness of that sense medium[t 10] is called contact.[n 9] |
| Six sense media - (Saḷāyatana) | Contact[n 9] - (Phassa) | The eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind are the six sense media. |
| Name-and-form - (Nāmarūpa) | Six sense media - (Saḷāyatana) | Feeling,[t 11] perception,[t 12] intention,[t 13] contact, and attention:[t 14] This is called name. The four great elements,[t 15] and the body dependent on the four great elements: This is called form. |
| Consciousness - (Viññāṇa) | Name-and-form - (Nāmarūpa) | These six are classes of consciousness: eye-consciousness, ear-consciousness, nose-consciousness, tongue-consciousness, body-consciousness, intellect-consciousness. This is called consciousness.[27] As seen earlier,[n 9] consciousness and the organ cannot function without each other. |
| Fabrications (volitional fabrications) - (Saṅkhāra) | Consciousness - (Viññāṇa) | These three are fabrications: bodily fabrications, verbal fabrications, mental fabrications. These are called fabrications. |
| Ignorance - (Avijjā) | Fabrications (volitional tendencies) - (Saṅkhāra) | Not knowing suffering, not knowing the origination of suffering, not knowing the cessation of suffering, not knowing the way of practice leading to the cessation of suffering: This is called ignorance. |
So working backwards gives us the way to put an end to stress:
The Buddha's enlightenment simultaneously comprised his liberation from suffering (Pāli: dukkha; Sanskrit:duhkha) and his insight into the nature of reality[28][29][30] (nature of experience). 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:
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.[31] 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.[32] 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.[33] For example, whenever there is ignorance, craving and clinging invariably follow, and craving and clinging themselves indicate ignorance.[32]
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 by way of sensations 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, Mind and Matter arise | With Vijñāna as condition, Nāmarūpa arises |
| With Mind and Matter 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".[34]
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.
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 that the principle of causality itself is dependently originated (empty), 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 [35] , [36].
The conclusion of the Madhyamikas is that causation is dependently originated (i.e. empty) like everything else. Therefore, like everything else, causation is designated as a mere conceptual label upon its causes and conditions.
This is best illustrated with the wheel of life (Sanskrit:bhavacakra). Depicting the cycle of rebirth,[37] 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."[38] 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.[39]
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 intrinsically existing causality is demonstrated by the interdependence of cause and effect, and likewise that the interdependence (pratītyasamutpāda) of causality itself is demonstrated by its lacking of any intrinsic existence.
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."
In Dzogchen tradition the interdependent origination is considered illusory:[40]
[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." [41]
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".[42] The chain in this case is:
The Shramanic 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 basis for deep ecological thinking.