Pratītyasamutpāda

Pratītyasamutpāda
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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

Overview

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]

Pratītyasamutpāda in Theravāda Buddhist sources

The Twelve Nidānas in the Pali Canon

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.

Another account occurred in the discussion of conception and birth:[25]

In the Mahānidāna [sutta]'s brief gloss on the term nāmarūpa... we have a very explicit reminder that the subject-matter being described in this sequence of stages is the development of the embryo... it is indisputably clear that we are reading about something that may (or may not) enter into (okkamissatha) the mother's womb (mātukucchismiŋ). ...[T]he passage is wildly incongruent with attempts of many other interpreters to render the whole doctrine in more abstract terms (variously psychological or metaphysical).

The Twelve Nidānas in the Theravāda commentaries

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]

The causality of dukkha

Phenomena are sustained only so long as their sustaining factors remain.[26] 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[27]
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.[28] 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:

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.

Applications

The Buddha's enlightenment simultaneously comprised his liberation from suffering (Pāli: dukkha; Sanskrit:duhkha) and his insight into the nature of reality[29][30][31] (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:

  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.[32] 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.[33] The twelve nidanas categorized in this way are:

Former life

  • ignorance
  • formations (conditioned things)

Current life

  • consciousness
  • mind and body (personality or identity)
  • the six sense bases (five physical senses and the mind)
  • contact (between objects and the senses)
  • feeling (registering the contact)
  • craving (for continued contact)
  • clinging
  • becoming (similar to formations)

Future life

  • birth
  • old age and death

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.[34] For example, whenever there is ignorance, craving and clinging invariably follow, and craving and clinging themselves indicate ignorance.[33]

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".[35]

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 pratītyasamutpāda

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 [36][clarification needed] , [37][clarification needed].

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,[38] 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."[39] 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.[40]

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."

Pratītyasamutpāda in Dzogchen

In Dzogchen tradition the interdependent origination is considered illusory:[41]

[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." [42]

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".[43] 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[44])
  12. knowledge of destruction of the cankers (āsava-khaye-ñāna)

Interbeing and deep ecology

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.

Notes

  1. ^ "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]
  2. ^ "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].
  3. ^ Determinists argue that everything is completely deterministic, based on natural causal laws that can never be changed; Libertarians argue that everything is totally up to one's free will, and compatibilists posit a compatibility of these two positions.
  4. ^ "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
  5. ^ "Nyanatiloka, for his part in this controversy, sets himself up as the defender of the commentarial tradition that extends the 12-links from a description of a single incarnation into a description of the causes and effects of reincarnation in three separate lifetimes. [...] While I regard the three-lifetimes interpretation (supported by Nyanatiloka) as incorrect, it deserves some credit for remaining thematically related to the original meaning of the primary source text (whereas many modern interpretations have digressed wildly from it). In a lecture on this subject, Nyanatiloka repeatedly refers to the subject-matter of the 12-links discussed as something transpiring inside the womb, also using the term “prenatal”. ..." http://asiapacific.anu.edu.au/newmandala/2011/01/27/unpopular-facts-about-one-of-buddhist-philosophys-most-popular-doctrines/
  6. ^ 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.
  7. ^ "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
  8. ^ 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 its main application.
  9. ^ a b c "...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

Technical notes

  1. ^ 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.
  2. ^ getting attracted, mesmerized, disgusted
  3. ^ growing older, tall, healthy, weak, becoming a parent or spouse, rich, etc.
  4. ^ annihilation, destruction, suicide, loss of a position etc.
  5. ^ Enjoyment and clinging for music, beauty, sexuality, health, etc.
  6. ^ 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.
  7. ^ Clinging for rituals, dressing, rules of cleansing the body etc.
  8. ^ That there is a 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.
  9. ^ 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.
  10. ^ Eye-consciousness, ear-consciousness, nose-consciousness, tongue-consciousness, skin-consciousness and mind-consciousness
  11. ^ Here it refers to the function of the mind that cognizes feeling.
  12. ^ This is the faculty of the mind that names (recognizes) a feeling as pleasurable, unpleasurable or neutral, depending on what was its original tendency.
  13. ^ 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.
  14. ^ This is the faculty of the mind that can penetrate something, analyze, and objectively observe.
  15. ^ 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.

See also

References

  1. ^ Dalai Lama. The Middle Way. Wisdom Publications 2009, page 22.
  2. ^ "A key concept in Buddhism...states that all physical and mental manifestations which constitute individual appearances are interdependent and condition or affect one another, in a constant process of arising and ceasing" The Oxford Dictionary of World Religions; 1997, ed. John Bowker
  3. ^ "Buddhist ontology points out that all relative phenomena arise and disappear through processes of cause and effect: this is called "interdependent origination" (Sanskrit: pratityasamutpada; in Chinese yuan ch'i). Accordingly, all such phenomena are dependent on the (temporary) linking of causal factors that bring them into existence and maintain them,and thus they have no stable, absolute identities independent of the web of causation. Lacking absolute independent entities they are said to be inherently empty". To Realize Enlightenment, The Cultivation of Practice by Nan Huai-Chin,ed, J.C.Cleary, 1993, Samuel Weiser, Inc
  4. ^ The Avatamsaka Sutra, regarded by D.T. Suzuki as the crowning achievement of Buddhist philosophy, elaborates in great detail in imagery of unsurpassed beauty this first general conception of dependent origination.
  5. ^ Thich Nhat Hanh calls this reality of mutual interdependence 'Interbeing'.
  6. ^ Bhikku, Thanissaro. "Samsara Divided by Zero". Essays. Access To Insight. http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/thanissaro/resonance.html. Retrieved July 26, 2010. 
  7. ^ Encyclopaedia Britannica. "Buddhism (religion)," http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/83184/Buddhism/68654/The-law-of-dependent-origination. Accessed 25 February 2011.
  8. ^ Buddha Dharma Education Association. "Dependent Origination," http://www.buddhanet.net/funbud12.htm. Accessed 25 February 2011.
  9. ^ Feldman, Christina. "Dependent Origination," http://www.dharma.org/ij/archives/1999a/christina.htm. Accessed 25 February 2011.
  10. ^ Garfield, Jay L. "Dependent Arising and the Emptiness:Why did Nagarjuna start with Causation?Philosophy East and West Volume 44, Number 2 April 1994
  11. ^ Bhikku, Thanissaro (2008). The Shape of Suffering: A study of Dependent Co-arising. Metta Forest Monastery. http://www.dhammatalks.org/Archive/Writings/DependentCo-arising.pdf. 
  12. ^ 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. 
  13. ^ Edelglass, William et al (2009). Buddhist Philosophy: Essential Readings. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-532817-2. http://books.google.com/?id=HjVQB03cVMMC. 
  14. ^ Williams, Paul. Buddhist Thought. Routledge 2000, page 67.
  15. ^ Williams, Paul. Buddhist Thought. Routledge 2000, page 64.
  16. ^ Williams, Paul. Buddhist Thought. Routledge 2000, page 125,135,142,143.
  17. ^ Williams, Paul. Buddhist Thought. Routledge 2000, page 66-72.
  18. ^ 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. 
  19. ^ 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. 
  20. ^ Bodhi, Bhikku. Transcendental Dependent Arising. Buddhist Publication Society, Kandy Sri Lanka,. http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/bodhi/wheel277.html. 
  21. ^ Walshe, Maurice (1996). The Long Discourses of the Buddha: a Translation of the Dīgha Nikāya (3. [Aufl.]. ed.). Boston: Wisdom Publications. pp. 656. ISBN 9780861711031. . This is identified as the first reference in the Canon in footnote 88 for Sutta 1, verse 3.71's footnotes.
  22. ^ Ibid., page 497.
  23. ^ Ibid., page 202.
  24. ^ http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn12/sn12.002.than.html
  25. ^ "...the 12-links formula is unambiguously an ancient tract that was originally written on the subject of the conception and development of the embryo, as a sequence of stages prior to birth; in examining the primary source text, this is as blatant today as it was over two thousand years ago, despite some very interesting misinterpretations that have arisen in the centuries in-between. " http://asiapacific.anu.edu.au/newmandala/2011/01/27/unpopular-facts-about-one-of-buddhist-philosophys-most-popular-doctrines/
  26. ^ 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. 
  27. ^ See SN 12.2 and DN 15
  28. ^ Bhikku, Thanissaro. "Paticca-samuppada-vibhanga Sutta". Translated from Pali. Access To Insight. http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn12/sn12.002.than.html. 
  29. ^ Harvey, Peter, An Introduction to Buddhist Ethics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), p. 3
  30. ^ Waldron, S. William. "The Buddhist Unconscious – The ālaya-vijnāna in the context of Indian Buddhist thought" (Oxon: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003, repr. 2005), p.9
  31. ^ Garfield, Jay L., The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995), p. 294
  32. ^ Bhikkhu Bodhi, In the Buddha's Words. Wisdom Publications, 2005, page 313.
  33. ^ a b Bhikkhu Bodhi, In the Buddha's Words. Wisdom Publications, 2005, page 314.
  34. ^ Bhikkhu Bodhi, In the Buddha's Words. Wisdom Publications, 2005, page 316.
  35. ^ Abhidharmakosa, by Vasubandhu. Translated by Leo Pruden, Vol. II, pgs 404-405.
  36. ^ 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. 
  37. ^ 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. JSTOR 1400035. 
  38. ^ Waldron, S. William, The Buddhist Unconscious – The ālaya-vijnāna in the context of Indian Buddhist thought (Oxon: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003, repr. 2005), p. 13
  39. ^ Waldron, S. William, The Buddhist Unconscious – The ālaya-vijnāna in the context of Indian Buddhist thought (Oxon: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003, repr. 2005), p. 16
  40. ^ Garfield, Jay L., The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995), p. 177
  41. ^ Norbu (1999), pp. 99, 101
  42. ^ From byang chub sems bsgom pa, by Mañjusrîmitra. Primordial experience. An Introduction to rDzogs-chen Meditation, pp. 60, 61
  43. ^ Bhikkhu Bodhi, "Transcendental Dependent Arising: A Translation and Exposition of the Upanisa Sutta." [3].
  44. ^ Paul Williams, Buddhism: The early Buddhist schools and doctrinal history ; Theravāda doctrine. Taylor & Francis, 2005, page 147.

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