What is Dependent Origination?

Posted on July 28, 2007 in Buddhism Concepts

The Law of Dependent Origination, also known as Conditioned Arising, is an important conception of the law of the universe discovered by Shakyamuni Buddha in the course of his enlightenment. The simplest explanation of this law of Dependent Origination is that, all phenomena are dependent upon a number of causal factors, called conditions.

The Law of Dependent Origination is primarily the Buddha’s insight of understanding suffering and the cessation of suffering without which one is stuck in a cycle of birth and death. The Law is associated with twelve links (Nidana). Each link is based on the principle of Cause and Effect which determines one’s condition.

The Twelve Links of Dependent Origination

The twelve links of Dependent Origination providing a detailed description on the problem of suffering and rebirth are given below:

• Ignorance which is an incomplete and imperfect understanding, illusion and unconsciousness, defilement and impurities of the mind is a condition for mental formation.
• Mental formation especially that of mental impurities which is the formulation of habitual energy and actions done in the present life which is generally liable to conform to the patterns established in previous lives is the condition for consciousness.
• Consciousness which literally is the "Mind" (involving the process of perceiving, comprehending, recognizing, and differentiating) is the condition for name and form.
• Name and form which is the combination of spirit and matter, mind and body is the condition for the six senses.
• The six senses comprising the eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and the mind which are the tools to external contacts, awareness, and expressions are the conditions for contact.
• Contact which is the psychological process created by the six senses, the objects and the consciousness is the condition for feeling.
• Feeling which are of three kinds – suffering, pleasure, no-suffering-no-pleasure – is the condition for craving.
• Craving which is the sensuous desire, pursuit for pleasures, attachment to gain and fear of loss is the condition for clinging.
• Clinging which is the desire to keep and possess material things permanently is the condition for becoming.
• Becoming which means, to give birth, create and exist, is the condition for birth.
• Birth which implies life is an effect of all mental activities that make the life to happen; it is the condition for aging and death.
• Aging and death which arises from birth is the condition for ignorance.

The Law of Dependent Origination can be basically understood in three ways:

• Related to Cause and Effect: One reaps what one sows; this is why Buddhism emphasizes in changing fate by changing conditions.
• Related to Inter-dependency: There is no independent existence; nothing has its own nature of existence.
• Related to Profundity: For all phenomena, the existence of the reality of nature is dependent upon a number of causal factors, and also impermanent.

Since all the twelve links are inter-related and dependent upon each other, and since there is neither a starting point nor an ending point, they are cyclic phenomena. This conception of causal interdependence is the most important of all Buddhist principles. It describes the law of nature, which exists as the natural course of things. However, it should not be considered as a description of the evolution of universe.

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