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The twelve links of Dependent Origination ⏳

The ultimate purpose of the teaching of the twelve links of dependent origination is to show the conditions that sustain the round of rebirths and thereby show what must be done to gain release from Samsara. To win deliverance is a matter of unraveling the causal pattern that underlies our bondage, and this begins by understanding the causal process itself. The twelve links are expounded in two ways: the way of origination (forward order) and the way of cessation (reverse order). The sequence is as follows:

Becuase of (1) ignorance we engange in wholesome kamma and unwholesome kamma; these are (2) Volitional formation, in other words Kamma. Volitional formation sustain consciousness from one life to the next and determine where it rearises; in this way Volitional formation condition (3) consciousness. Along with consciousness, beginning from the moment of conception, arises Mind-body, the constituents of a sentient organism. The sentient organism is equipped with (5) six sense bases, the five physical sense faculties and the mind as an organ of cognition. The senses allow for (6) sense impression between consciousness and its objects, and sense impression conditions (7) feeling. Called into play by feeling, (8) craving arises, when craving intensefies it gives rise to (9) clinging, a tight attachment to objects of desire through sensuality and Ignorance. Impelled by attachments we engange in kamma pregnant with (10) a new existence. At death this potential for new exitstence is actualized in a new life beginning with (11) birth and ending with (12) aging and death.

From above, we can see that the twelve factors are spread out over a span of three lives, with ignorance and Volitional formation pertaining to the past, birth aging and death to the future, and the intermediate factors to the present. The segment from consciousness through feeling is the resultant phase of the present, the phase resulting from past ignorance and Kamma. The segment from craving to existence is the kammically creative phase of the present, leading to renewed existence in the future. But existence is distinguished into two different into two phases: one called kamma-existence, constitutes the active side of existance and belongs to the causal phase of the present life. The other called rebirth-existence, constitutes the passive side of existance and belongs to the resultant phase of the future life.

The twelve factors are also distributed into three “rounds”: the round of defilements which includes ignorance, craving, and clinging; the round of action includes Volitional formation and kamma-existence; and all other factors belong to the round of results. Defilements give rise to defiled Kamma, Kamma brings forth results, and results serve as the soil for more defilements. In this way, Samsara continues without a discernible beginning.

This method of dividing up the factors into three groups does not mean that the past, present, and future factors are mutually exclusive. the distribution into three lives is only a expository device which, for the sake of cohesion, has to resort to some degree of abstraction. The groups of factors seperated in the formula are inseperably interwoven in their dymanic operation. The formula demonstates how rebirth can occur without there being a substantial self that maintains its identity as it transmigrates from one life to the next. Without a self to hold the sequence together, what connects one life to the next is the principle of conditionality. Conditions in one existance initiate the arising of the conditioned phemomena in the next existance. The whole process ends only when its underlying springs—ignorance, craving, and clinging—are extirpated by insight.

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Type:🔵 Tags: Philosophy / Psychology Status:☀️

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