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Dear BWB

I received a personal email this morning from a certain bhikkhu, who asked me to compose an essay on my views of Dependent Origination.

Here it is. All comments are welcome.

With metta.




At the request of Bhikkhu H, I am presenting my personal view on Dependent Origination, to an audience I assume has a basic exposure to the twelve link Dependent Origination formula.

In summary, the basic understanding of Dependent Origination I wish to offer for consideration is one saliently connected to impermanence, as follows:

1. the first link is ignorance of impermanence (and other right understandings)

2. the last link is the manifestation of suffering together with the experience of impermanence.

To define the last link accurately is of vital importance.

Many discourses and commentaries give the impression the last link is exclusively ‘aging and death’. This (false) impression Bhikkhu Bodhi has described as “concrete” and “biological”, namely, “aging, decrepitude, brokenness, graying, wrinkling, decline of life-force, weakening of the faculties” (SN 12.2). However, other discourses, notably, the Upanisa Sutta (SN 12.23), simply define the last link as 'suffering'.

In correctness, the last link should be defined in its fullness, namely, “aging & death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair” (SN 12.2). Here, as I have already mentioned, suffering manifests together or in association with the experience of impermanence. That is, not brokenness, graying, wrinkling, etc, in themselves but, instead, sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair due to experiencing brokenness, graying, wrinkling, etc.

The last link, in its completeness, is well described in the Nakulapita Sutta (SN 22.1), as follows:

Now, how is one afflicted in body & afflicted in mind?

He is seized with the idea that 'I am form' or 'Form is mine.' As he is seized with these ideas, his form changes & alters, and he falls into sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair over its change & alteration.

He is seized with the idea that 'I am feeling' or 'Feeling is mine.' As he is seized with these ideas, his feeling changes & alters, and he falls into sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair over its change & alteration.

He is seized with the idea that 'I am perception' or 'Perception is mine.' As he is seized with these ideas, his perception changes & alters, and he falls into sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair over its change & alteration.

He is seized with the idea that 'I am fabrications' or 'Fabrications are mine.' As he is seized with these ideas, his fabrications change & alter, and he falls into sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair over their change & alteration.

He is seized with the idea that 'I am consciousness' or 'Consciousness is mine.' As he is seized with these ideas, his consciousness changes & alters, and he falls into sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair over its change & alteration. Regarding the eleventh link ‘birth’ or “jati”, a search of the internet will find the following definition:

jati - (Hinduism) a Hindu caste or distinctive social group of which there are thousands throughout India; a special characteristic is often the exclusive occupation of its male members (such as barber or potter) Such a definition is not exclusive to Hinduism or foreign to Buddhism. I would speculate this meaning of ‘jati’ was the common meaning of the term in the culture of the Buddha and the meaning he intended to impart.

In his Vissuddhimagga, the Venerable Buddhaghosa explains:

Now this word jati has many meanings. For in the passage 'he recollects one birth, two births, etc', it is becoming. In the passage 'Visakha, there is a kind (jati) of ascetics called Niganthas (Jains)', it is monastic order. In the passage 'birth is includes in two aggregates', it is whatever is formed. In the passage 'his birth is due to the first consciousness in the mother's womb' (Vin.i,93), it is rebirth-linking. In the passage 'as soon as he was born (sampatijata), the Bodhisattva' (M.iii,123) it is parturition [childbirth]. In the passage 'one who is not rejected and despised on the account of birth', it is clan. In the passage 'sister, since i was born with noble birth', it is the Noble One's virtue. This kind of definition of jati is most readily found in MN 98, where it is said:

Men are farmers by their acts;
And by their acts are craftsmen too.
Men are merchants by their acts;
And by their acts are servants too.

Men are robbers by their acts;
And by their acts are soldiers too.
Men are chaplains by their acts;
And by their acts are rulers too.

So that is how the truly wise
See action how it really is,

Seers in Dependent Origination
Skilled in actions and results. On an individual level, rather than on a social level, this 'jati' takes the form of the ‘self identification’ explained in MN 44 and MN 148:

These five aggregates subject to clinging are the self-identification described by the Blessed One. The craving that makes for new becoming — accompanied by passion & delight, relishing now here & now there — i.e., craving for sensual pleasure, craving to be, craving not to be: This, friend Visakha, is the origination of self-identification described by the Blessed One.

This, monks, is the path of practice leading to self-identification. One assumes about the eye that 'This is me, this is my self, this is what I am.' One assumes about forms... One assumes about consciousness at the eye... One assumes about contact at the eye... One assumes about feeling... One assumes about craving that 'This is me, this is my self, this is what I am.' As for the standard definition of jati found in SN 12.2, I personally have doubts as to whether this is being transmitted clearly from the Pali. Whilst having no expertise in Pali, my sense of what the Buddha spoke is as follows:

And what is birth? Whatever birth, taking birth, manifestation, coming-to-be, coming-forth, of the various beings in this or that group of beings; the acquisition of sense spheres and aggregates. By the 'various groups of beings', what is referred to here is what I have already suggested by MN 98 and by the Hinduism definition of jati found on the internet.

By the 'acquisition' of sense spheres and aggregates, what is referred to here is taking “ownership” or “possession” of the aggregates, the sense bases and the objects of the sense bases. In short, this is the manifestation of “self-identification” in relation to regarding or assuming these natural phenomena to be “I” and “mine”.

MN 149 desribes how the five aggregates are accumulated and built up (and diminished), as follows:
For him — infatuated, attached, confused, not remaining focused on their drawbacks — the five clinging-aggregates head toward future accumulation. The craving that makes for further becoming — accompanied by passion & delight, relishing now this & now that — grows within him. His bodily disturbances & mental disturbances grow. His bodily torments & mental torments grow. His bodily distresses & mental distresses grow. He is sensitive both to bodily stress & mental stress.

"For him — uninfatuated, unattached, unconfused, remaining focused on their drawbacks — the five clinging-aggregates head toward future diminution. The craving that makes for further becoming — accompanied by passion & delight, relishing now this & now that — is abandoned by him. His bodily disturbances & mental disturbances are abandoned. His bodily torments & mental torments are abandoned. His bodily distresses & mental distresses are abandoned. He is sensitive both to ease of body & ease of awareness.