Nidanavagga: Nidanasamyutta

 

1: The links are:

 

ignorance

volitional formations

consciousness

name-and-form

six sense-bases

contact

feeling

craving

clinging

existence

birth

ageing-and-death (and the rest of the mass of suffering)

 

It is with the remainderless fading away and cessation of ignorance that breaks the cycle.

 

2: The links are listed the same as in #1. However, in the analysis the Buddha proceeds backwards, beginning with ageing-and-death.

 

Notes: the Buddha’s analysis of existence places it within the three realms of kamaloka, rupaloka, and arupaloka.

 

Analysis of clinging: we cling to:

 

1) sensual pleasures

2) views

3) rules and vows

4) a doctrine of self

 

Analysis of craving: we crave the objects of the six senses

 

Analysis of feeling: feeling born of contact with the six senses

 

Analysis of contact: contact with the six senses

 

Analysis of consciousness: one kind of consciousness for each sense-base.

 

3: Lists the same set of links, first with ignorance leading inexorably to suffering, and again in the same order but with the cessation of ignorance leading to the cessation of suffering.

 

4: Examines the links backwards, as the Buddha Vipassi (#6)

5 – 9: The same but concerns other Buddhas: Sikhi, Bessabhu, Kakusandha, Konagamana, Kassapa

 

10: Concerning Shakyamuni. First it moves backwards (ageing-and-death is first), and then quickly forwards from ignorance as a kind of review.

 

The second part repeats this but from the standpoint of cessation.

 

11: The four nutriments are conditioned by craving. Bhikkhu Bodhi helps to cut through some of the complexity of the Abhidhamma analyses by saying:

 

“…it is craving which impels beings into the perpetual struggle to obtain physical and mental nutriment, both in the present life and in future lives.”

 

12: This sutta emphasizes the wrong view of an essential self, as Phagguna keeps asking who is doing this. The Buddha continually responds with answers that reveal the process nature of each link and how the links do not imply the existence of a self. The links are all marked by emptiness; they are not essential things marked by a separate existence, and therefore they do not point to anything other than that which is also marked by emptiness, and not to hings which are marked by a separate existence.

 

13: This begins with the reverse formulation, but does not specify ignorance as the last in the set. This makes sense given the opening line: “Bhikkhus, those ascetics or brahmins who do not understand…” and then on into the listed links.

 

Interesting in the second paragraph, the cessation of each link in turn is described, in reference to those who do understand.

 

So: ignornace of the twelve links starts the whole chain rolling—and a lack of ignorance keeps it from rolling at all.

 

14: Also stated in reverse order, this sutta also defines ignorance as being ignorance of the twelve links, for with the cessation of ignorance comes the cessation of all the rest.

 

15: In describing the non-right view of the “notion of existence” and the “notion of non-existence” the Buddha is not rejecting ontology. Rather, he is warning against mysitcal notions concerning existence, whether they be of an eternalist or annihilationist character.

 

The critical phrases are that one with right view recognizes that which arises—through perception and cognition—is suffering, and that it is therefore suffering that ceases. The Middle Way between the extremes of eternalism and annihilationism is the knowledge of the twelve links: that the arising of ignorance is the arising of suffering, and that when ignorance ceases, suffering ceases.

 

16: This sutta ties in well with my thoughts concerning the Buddhavacana. If one teaches for the purpose of helping the listener reach the cessation of ignorance-through-old-age-and-death, then this is proper practice and has a right to be called Buddhavacana.

 

17: The ascetic Kassapa begins with a question in the form of the tetralemma:

 

Is suffering created by oneself?

Is suffering created by another?

Is it created by both?

Is it created by neither?

 

The Buddha’s answers are difficult. As to them:

 

1) It seems that the first question has pre-supposed an eternalist view in “the one who acts is the same as the one who experiences the result” from the point that in order to experience the result of an act, the act must either preceded or be concurrent with that result. And because every result must be in and or itself an act—i.e., there is nothing that stands apart from cuase and condition, then the cycle of cause and effect, of act and result, is eternal. If the self is both subject and object, this implies an eternal self and thus is an eternalist view.

 

2) In the second view, we must keep the all-or-nothing nature of the argument in mind. By saying that Agent A acts and Agent B experiences the result is taken to mean that Agent A does not experience the result, nor does Agent B act. In karmic terms, this implies that upon the completion of the act, Agent A steps outside or away from karmic influence, given that the act does not result in Agent A’s experiencing the result—even as shared with Agent B. This implies the annihilation of the agent, for as long as the agent exists that agent must be subject to karma—i.e., the resultant of the act of the agent.

 

3) Thus given that both self and other imply the adopting of both eternalism and annihilationism, the third possibility is not valid.

 

4) The fourth possibility—neither self nor other—implies that suffering arises without cause, and that is likewise untenable given that all arises due to causes and conditions.

 

So the Buddha teaches that suffering arises in ignorance, followed by the remaining links. The effect is shown to occur through the causes and to cease with the cessation of the cause, but neither agent nor experiencer is described.

 

18: This sutta is the same as #17, with “pleasure and pain” taking the place of “suffering” and with slightly more telegraphic answers by the Buddha.

 

19: The difference between the wise man and the fool. They are both hindered by ignorance and fettered by craving, but for the wise man, there will be no faring on to another body after this one, unlike the fool.

 

20: The links are followed backwards, but we begin with birth as the condition for aging-and-death.

 

One critical aspect of this sutta rests in the statement that whether or not there are Tathagatas to teach dependent origination, this still persists: that is, dependent origination is not something taught, but discovered: something that is always there, a law of nature—Dhamma.

 

Another important point is that bith will condition aging-and-death. There is no “possibly” here. Conditionality produces phenomena; the same set of conditions produce the same phenomena.

 

21: Here we have several important issues. The first is the impermanence of the five skandhas. The second is the General Theory of Dependent Origination, clearly stated.

 

22: This is a ‘rousing’ sutta, to encourage diligence on the part of the bhikkhus.

 

23: The sutta shows links of liberation as well as links of suffering.

 

Liberation:

knowledge of destruction –

liberation – dispassion – revulsion – knowledge and vision of things as they really are – concentration – happiness – tranquillity – rapture – gladness – faith – suffering (which then leads into the links of suffering.)

 

These are probably best stated in the reverse order, as we see how they can arise out of suffering:

 

suffering – faith – gladness – rapture – tranquillity – happiness – concentration – knowledge and vision of things as they really are – revulsion – dispassion – liberation – knowledge of destruction

 

24: The links here go from the six sense bases through suffering (i.e., old-age-and-death)

 

25: In addition to recaptulating the careful arguments of #17 and identifying contact (of the six sense bases) as the dependence for suffering, this sutra expands volitions to be not only those of mind, but also of body and of speech.

 

These three volitional formations arise with ignorance as the cause. It does not matter whether the rising is intentional or unintentional, deliberate or undeliberate, or whether on one’s own initiative or on the prompting of another. Ignorance is comprised within these three states.

 

With the fading away of ignorance comes the fading away of these volitions—and hence the whole chain of suffering.

 

26: The questions of #17 arise once more, in the tetralemma form. This one appears to be the ‘basic’ version, which gives contact as the condition for sufferint. (Contact with the remainin links, of course, and contact is of course conditioned.)

 

27: Three types of volitional action, as in #25: body, speech, and mind.

 

The sutta also shows that it is the Noble Eightfold Path which leads to the cessation of volitional formations—for it leads to the cessation of ignorance, after all.

 

28: This is essentially a repeat of #27, although it speaks of a ‘bhikkhu’ who understands dependent origination, rather than a ‘noble disciple.’

 

29: This is another sutta which defines ‘ignorance’ as a lack of knowledge of dependent origination. He who sees dependent origination sees the Dhamma; he who sees the Dhamma sees the Buddha.

 

30: Now here’s a very interesting statement. The one who is ignorant:

 

“…it is impossible that they will abide having transcended aging-and-death.”

 

But for those who are not ignorant:

 

“…it is possible that they will abide having transcended aging-and-death.”

 

In short: it isn’t a guarantee, which is all the better. The Buddha taught the way to liberation but there is no cocksure guarantee that you’ll get there by following the teachings. There are just too many causes and conditions for that. You have to do it. However, if you remain in ignorance, you cannot do it.

 

Without wisdom there can be no true compassion: the brahma-viharas do not arise without wisdom.

 

31: This one isn’t really about the twelve links, but it states the aggregates as arising with some condition or another as nutriment.

 

Wonderful line: “…one is liberated by nonclinging.”

 

32: This long sutta is mostly about Sariputta’s claim to arahantship, due to his examination of the internal formations and his subsequent breaking of ignorance.

 

The line he speaks is important:

 

“Friends, through an internal deliverance, through the destruction of all clinging, I dwell mindfully in such a way that the taints do not flow within me and I do not despise myself.”

 

33: Here we have eleven of the twelve links, each presented as having four cases of knowledge:

 

againg-and-death:       origin:              cessation:         way leading to cessation:

 

The origin is the next link down, and the cessation of that link leads to the cessation of the current link. The Noble Eightfold Path is the way leading to its cessation.

 

The actual definitions are at #2.

 

Taken all together, this one makes for a very powerful chanting sutta.

 

34: Also a chanting sutta. It would expand out shorter, although there are 77 cases—each one is short.

 

35: I am especially intrigued here by the section:

 

“If there is the view, ‘the soul and the body are the same,’ then there is no living of the holy life; and if there is the view, ‘The soul is one thing, the body is another,’ there is no living of the holy life.

 

The Buddha says that these assertions are identical in meaning, differing only in the phrasing. They are both extremes, and are views of a body and views of a soul, no matter what we add to the mix by thinking of them as the same or as separate.

 

The commentary Spk goes on. One who holds the view that soul and body are the same hold that both soul and body are annihilated at death. Thus follows an annihilationist view, given that one holds that “a being is annihilated.” But if one holds that the soul is one thing, and the body another, then the body alone is annihilated at death, while the soul goes about freely like a bird released from a cage. This view is eternalism.

 

In the annihilationist view, the round of existence ceases without the development of the path—so the development of the path becomes purposeless.

 

In the eternalist view, if there were even one formation that is permament, stable, and eternal, the noble path would not be able to bring the round of existence to an end—so again the development of the path become purposeless.

 

This is an area in which Buddhist thought is in sharp distinction with Greek and monotheistic thinking. Consider the passage in the Phaedo, in which the separation of soul and body (and the view of a being) is very clearly expressed:

 

‘Do we believe there is such a thing as death?’

‘Undoubtedly’, replied Simmias.

‘And by death do we not mean simply the departure of soul from body? Being dead consists, does it not, in the body having been parted from the soul and come to be by itself, and in the soul having been parted from the body, and being by itself. Can death possibly be anything other than that?’

‘No, it can be only that.’ (Phaedo 64C. Hackforth translation, page 44.)

 

It should be mentioned that soul (mind-soul) and body are viewed more as a cohesive whole in earlier dialogues such as the Meno, but the view of a being—animated by an immortal soul—is definitely a legacy of Pythagorean thinking and survived quite solidly in Socrates and Plato.

 

Grube (Plato’s Thought) pages 125-6: “…the soul is thought by Socrates to be that part of man by which he knows or apprehends those eternal objects of knowledge, the Forms or Ideas, and only that part. The soul is here a unity and it does not include anything beyond the reason or intellect. Pitted against it at every burn is the body as the seat of sense-perception, of passions and desires, of pleasure.”

 

37: Solid formulation of the General Theory of Dependent Origination:

 

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.

 

Imasmim sati, idam hoti;

Imass’ uppada, idam uppajjati.

Imasmin asati, idam na hoti;

Imassa nirodha, idam nirujjati.

 

38: This is the first of three suttas that discuss how consciousness gives rise to a new existence.

 

Overall it seems to stress that the production of volitional activities are what establish the new consciousness—which in turn produces name-and-form and the rest of the entire cycle.

 

39: More or less a repeat of #38.

 

40: Sort of a shorthand of the previous two: the maintenance of consciousness supports the establishing of consciousness, which supports “inclination”—which means craving and clinging. We can understand clinging to stand in for the others such as name-and-form and all the rest.

 

41: This is an interesting sutta in that it lays out elements that go into the stream-enterer:

a) Is pure in regards to the five precepts

b) Has four factors of stream-entry: confidence in Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha plus the arahant virtues—also the five precepts.

c) Has clearly seen and penetrated dependent origination.

 

42: Same as #41 except addressed to a group of bhikkhus instead of Anathapindika.

 

43: Clear definition of suffering: the six sense bases each produce contact, which produces feeling, then craving. The full set of links accounts for the origin of the sense bases, of course.

 

44: Here is a very clear definition of “the world” as being the six sense bases and the contact that arises from them.

 

Thus the passing awa—or the end—of the world: it is not the end of the six sense bases, or the contact that arises, or the feeling that arises. Rather, it is the cessation of craving that leads to the end of suffering.

 

45: Similar to the preceding. It brings up another rthought. There are six forms of sense-base consciousness: eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind. The meeting of the sense organ + object + sense-base-consciousness is contact. From this I assume that there is a difference between one kind of contact and another, dependent on the origin of its arising: eye-based contact, ear-based contact, and so forth.

 

If I am correct in interpreting “feeling” as emotions, desires, moods, etc., that arise from the contact, then “feeling” refers to a wide range of responses but is not limited to just one sense base. So while the sixfold sense bases form a sixfold split which also effects contact (sixfold) but feeling and the rest are singlefold.

 

46: This is #17 again, stated a bit differently.

 

47: This again addresses the extremes of eternalism and annihilationism.

 

48: They’re worded differently, but this is again a response to eternalist and annihilationist views.

 

49-50: Both of these sutras identify the instructed noble disciple as one who fully understands dependent origination and the twelve linkes—either the links that lead to suffering or their cessation.

 

51: The sutta begins with reverse traversal through the links, paying special attention to understanding the link, its origin, its cessation, and the way leading to its cessation.

 

If a person still immersed in ignorance generates meritorious volitional formation, that gives rise to meritorious consciousness—and thus on through the links. If the formations are demeritorious, then so is consciousness and so on.

 

But if ignorance itself is abandoned in favor of true knowledge, there are no volitional formations at all—the chain never arises.

 

The following passage is a clear description of vipassana, mindfulness.

 

52: Starts the chain at clinging and works up from there—a.k.a. the Second Noble Truth.

 

The metaphor that is given here is of a fire that is not fed—eventually it dies out. The practice helps us to stop feeding the craving.

 

53: This is similar to #52, except that the metaphor is an oil lamp—by not giving it oil, by not trimming the wick, eventually it goes out.

 

54: Same as #53.

 

55: Also the same except here the metaphor is that of a tree with an extensive root system. The roots must be destroyed or else the tree will grow back, even if we chop it down.

 

56: Same as #55.

 

57: This is again similar but this time the tree is a sapling.

 

58: “…a descent of name-and-form” seems to refer to that which sustains rebirth—i.e., clinging, things that fetter (ignorance.) The metaphor is that of #55.

 

59: Same as #58, but a descent of consciousness instead of name-and-form.

 

60: Here Ananda talks about how clear dependent origination seems to him, despite its being so deep and so deep in inclinations. The Buddha is quick to point out that dependent origination is much deeper than Ananda thinks.

 

The metaphors: this generation being like tangled strings, matted reeds, a knotted ball of thread. Then comes the tree, which must have its roots completely cut out and destroyed in order to ensure that it does not grow again.

 

61: One may be able to become dispassionate towards the body, but it is much less likely in regards to the mind-sphere (consciousness, intelection, feeling, and emotion) given that we tend to think of ourselves as being our minds. “I think, therefore I am.”

 

It is the instruction which is able to change this. The action of the mind is likened to a monkey swinging from branch to branch, letting go of one thing and grabbing another, then yet another, and so forth.

 

It is the understanding of dependent origination—both the General Theory and the twelve links—that brings us to training, to the slow dawning of understanding.

 

62: Continues the preceding sutta, but adds that “feeling” can be pleasant, painful, or neutral, depending on the contact:

 

		pleasant	feeling
contact		painful	feeling
		neutral	feeling

 

It is the cessation of contact which leads to the cessation of feeling. From the standpoint of the cessation of suffering, it doesn’t matter whether the feeling is pleasant, painful, or neutral—it’s all feeling which gives rise to craving, clinging, existence, birth, old-age-and-death.

 

63: This sutta is very vivid in its wording and imagery and likely would not play well with a Western audience. The four requisites of food, contact, mental volition, and consciousness are each presented in a sharply negative light.

 

The first two—food and contact—impress me as concerning the generation of karma through the wanting of and clinging to sensual pleasures.

 

The second two—mental volition and consciousness—are more like the actions of karma, being thrown into the fiery pit (mental volition) or being stabbed repeated by spears (consciousness.)

 

64: The metaphor of a painter creating a figure is that of karma. If the painter creates and ugly or deformed figure, then when we view it we have the reactions that would be associated with such a figure. If the figure is attractive, then we have those reactions.

 

Another metaphor is that of a house that has no windows on one wall. If light enters the house, it becomes established on that one wall. If the wall weren’t there, then the light would be established on the earth.

 

I will admit to finding this sutta very difficult; I don’t quite ‘get’ this idea of consciousness being ‘established.’

 

65: This begins with a reverse listing, but it stops at name-and-form and consciousness, which are viewed as being mutually dependent.

 

Thus it is the breaking of either consciousness or name-and-form that breaks all of the links of suffering.

 

The parable of the ancient city helps to understand that the Buddha did not invent the Path; he merely (!) rediscovered it, and helped it to become successful and prosperous.

 

66: Here the links are somewhat different:

 

aging-and-death

acquisition

craving

what is pleasant: determined by the six sense bases.

 

So by regarding that which is pleasurable as happiness, craving arises, then acquisition and suffering.

 

The metaphor given is simple and powerful. A highly appealing drink is offered, but also the knowledge that it is poison. Many would drink anyway. (Consider booze, drugs, cigarettes in physical terms. There remain many mental pollutions—how about greed?) But the knowledge of the path teaches us that there are alternatives that are not poison. We may need to wait a bit to find them, do without immediate pleasure. Avoid rationalizing.

 

67: Here the links are described as a sheath of reeds leaning against each other and being mutually supported. Remove the first supporting reed and all the rest follow.

 

68: The statements about “apart from faith…etc” resonate back to the Kalama Sutta.

 

I love the ‘well’ metaphor: you may have the knowledge that there is water down there, you still need a rope and bucket in order to make contact with the water.

 

69: Another nice metaphor: the surging of the ocean causing other bodies to surge. Thus the twelve links causing each other to surge.