The Second Noble Truth is to discover the causes of the problem. Paticca samuppada as the detailed system for the looking at the arising of Craving (tanha) and Dukkha (dissatisfaction, suffering, difficulty) provides the specific tool for applying this Second Noble Truth. Examining consumerism through paticca samuppada will help us to see how we move through the structural forms of consumer delusion. Gaining a clear understanding of this process moves us further along towards the Third and Fourth Noble Truths of the ending of Dukkha, and specifically towards Right View, the first practice of the Noble Eightfold Path in the Fourth Noble Truth.
Paticca samuppada has been called "the heart or the
essence of Buddhism"1 for its penetration of the workings
of our human condition of Dukkha. Indeed, the Buddha said,"Whoever
sees dependent co-origination sees the Dhamma; and whoever sees
the Dhamma sees dependent co-origination."2 During the final
night of contemplation at the end of which the Buddha attained
awakening, his contemplation and subsequent penetration of paticca
samuppada was the cornerstone of this awakening.3 Yet at the
same time, it is a teaching that the Buddha hesitated to teach
due to its profundity and fear that few would understand it.4
When one of his closest disciples Ananda commented that "it
appears to me as clear as clear!", the Buddha admonished
him,"Do not say that! Paticca samuppada is profound
and appears profound. It is through not understanding, not penetrating
this doctrine that this generation has become like a tangled ball
of string, covered as with a blight, tangled like coarse grass,
unable to pass beyond states of woe, the ill destiny, ruin and
the round of birth-and-death."5 Yet abiding in compassion,
the Buddha reconsidered,"It would be troublesome [if] I did
not speak the Dhamma [of dependent co-origination] subtle and
sublime."6 Thus, the Buddha taught paticca samuppada
as a more detailed version if his Second Noble Truth, the cause
of Dukkha.7
Simply, paticca samuppada is a natural system of the way
suffering and delusion rise in the human being which the Buddha
uncovered in his contemplations and observations of the ways things
work. The system marks out 12 important movements in the rising
of the suffering prone ego or "self". We first begin
in a state of unknowing about certain aspects of reality, most
fundamentally the natural truths of Impermanence (anicca),
Dukkha, and Not-self (anatta). This Ignorance then forms
the basis of the ways we view ourselves and the world. These views
then determine the way we interact with the world giving rise
to values, beliefs, personalities, and a whole host of aspects
that make up our identity. When these aspects of our "self",
built on Ignorance, come in contact with the natural law of Impermanence
(annica) in Aging & Dying (jaramarana), there
arise conflicts which express themselves in all the types of difficulties
or Dukkha we experience as humans.
A number of different ways of interpreting and going into paticca
samuppada in detail can be used. The traditional method has
understood the 12 links cosmically over the transmigration of
three lifetimes: past, present and future. Other methods include
understanding the system within the split second of a mental moment.
In order to use it as a tool for better understanding in our daily
lives here and now and the consumer societies we live in, it is
perhaps best to look at the system within observable moments in
our mental process. Once we gain such a basic awareness and begin
to practice in the very real world of our present mind and body,
it will become easier to extend an understanding towards larger
emotional and mental movements which take place over days, weeks,
months and even years. In this way, we can perhaps use paticca
samuppada in the way the Buddha meant, as a practical tool
for understanding ourselves and making our way on the path to
liberation.
Finally, it is essential to stress the dynamic, non-linear nature
of paticca samuppada. As we will see in this investigation,
our minds tend to objectify processes as static containers which
interact in a linear causality. In coming to grips with paticca
samuppada, we will encounter the natural truths of Impermanence,
Dukkha and Not-self which when properly understood release the
mind from objectifications and allow it to see reality as a dynamic
and fluid series of causes and conditions. The 12 links of paticca
samuppada thus should be seen as markers in a flowing river.
The river is not contained within these 12 markers but it's essential
points are designated. Detaching from a strict linear sense of
12 linked factors, we need to envision a causality which includes
not only this linear progression but an interpenetration of all
twelve points.8 This understanding does not espouse a random universe,
but it does challenge linear causalities which create the duality
of subject-object or observer-observed.
THE 12 LINK PROCESS OF PATICCA
SAMUPPADA
1. IGNORANCE (avijja)
2. CONCOCTING (sankhara)
3. CONSCIOUSNESS (vinnana)
4. MIND-BODY (namarupa)
5. SENSE EXPERIENCE (salayatana)
6. FULL CONTACT (phassa)
7. FEELING (vedana)
8. CRAVING (tanha)
9. CLINGING (upadana)
10. EXISTENCE (bhava)
11. BIRTH (jati)
12. AGING & DYING (jaramarana)
1. IGNORANCE (avijja)
This is considered the starting point of the 12 link chain
since Ignorance is the most fundamental cause which conditions
human suffering. It must be stressed, however, that even Ignorance
cannot be considered an original cause, but rather it is brought
about by the interplay of all 12 links. As noted, the non-linear
interpenetration of the links makes it so that there is no ultimate
beginning nor end in the cycle. It can be entered at any one of
the 12 links as witnessed by the Buddha's varied renditions. For
convenience purposes then, we begin here.
Simply, Ignorance is the lack of knowledge and understanding about
the true reality of things. Such a basic misunderstanding is the
foundation for all other types of Ignorance. Therefore, any particular
problem or type of suffering can be traced back through the 12
links to its own particular form of Ignorance, which is always
based on this original Ignorance. Some of the fundamental forms
of Ignorance can be understood as:
* In strict Buddhist terms, Ignorance of the Buddha's Four Noble Truths or Ignorance of the fundamental truths of reality: Impermanence (anicca), Dukkha, Not-self (anatta). This kind of Ignorance is related to the false belief in "self" and in propositions about the "self", death and afterlife.
* Ignorance is the attachment to erroneous world views, two of the most principle being belief that things are separate, fixed, enduring, (atthikavada) OR completely lacking any reality.9
* In more psychological terms, Ignorance is confused thinking based on conjecture and imagination, and conditioned by beliefs, fear, and accumulated character traits.10
MENTAL STEWING
2. CONCOCTING11 (sankhara)
3. CONSCIOUSNESS (vinnana)
4. MIND-BODY (namarupa)
5. SENSE EXPERIENCE (salayatana)
The next four links in the system are commonly considered to operate at the subconscious level. As such they involve a very in depth, experiential consideration much of which requires meditative insight. Most of us have not established a practice deep enough to fully come to grips with this area. Therefore, we will look at these links as a single group of mostly subconscious mental experience. In this way, we may best incorporate them into a meaningful practice of paticca samuppada which remains clear and practical. As our practice develops, we should be encouraged to slowly delve into each of these links for deeper understanding.
Concocting (sankhara) is conditioned by Ignorance and is
best understood as a dynamic process of mental stewing which comes
from the misconceptions of Ignorance. Sankhara is the basic
concocting power of the mind and begins the act of conceptualizing,
turning processes into things. This act conditions
Consciousness which emerges from the establishment of an object
or "perch" (arammana) for the concocting power
of the mind to hold onto. With the establishment of such a "perch",
the latent duality which arose in the conceptualizing of phenomena
at Sankhara becomes a little sharper. Concocting (Sankhara) has
now formed a concocted object to contemplate. Mind/Body is subsequently
conditioned. This is where Consciousness bifurcates into the clear
duality of mind and form. With the five basic aggregates (khandhas
) of form, feeling, perception, mental formations and consciousness
now fully present, we can say there is a functioning being which
will come to have Sense Experience (salayatana).12 Since
this level of the mind is not ordinarily experienceable, we cannot
begin to call this being an "I". However, this is where
mental reality begins to break into conceptions of "self"
and other, this and that. There is a growing awareness of the
mind as a fundamental reference point or subject which is using
the senses to experience various referents or objects.13 Sense
Experience (tasting, smelling, seeing, hearing, feeling, and mental
experiencing) are conditioned by Mind/Body. In understanding Sense
Experience, we must not simply consider these six bases as the
actual bodily and mental forms, but rather as the dynamic interplay
between the person who senses and the object which is sensed.14
6. FULL CONTACT (phassa)
This mass of Mental Stewing will condition Full Contact which
begins what is generally a more conscious and directly observable
concocting. As such, it also becomes one of the best places to
apply mindful awareness (sati) to short circuit the chain
reaction leading to Dukkha. We use the word "full" here
to indicate that contact must have meaning in order for it to
become Full Contact. If some form comes into contact with our
senses but our mind does not concoct Craving (tanha) and
onto Birth (jati), we call this Mere Contact. Yet when
some form comes into contact with our senses and our mind concocts
Craving (tanha) on into Birth of self (jati), then
we consider this Full Contact.15 Within a multi-media experience,
certain senses may go through a process of Full Contact while
others may stop at Mere Contact. Concocted from Ignorance, Full
Contact will involve the basic mis-perceptions (sanna)
of permanence (nicca), pleasure (sukha), and "self"
(atta).
7. FEELING (vedana )
Feeling is conditioned by Full Contact. Feeling is broken down
into three basic types: pleasant, painful and neither-pleasant-nor-painful.
The first two Feelings obviously lead the mind towards greed (a
pulling inward) and anger (a pushing outward). The third leads
the mind towards delusion in which the mind wobbles and moves
in uncertain direction. This delusion may move the mind towards
positive ego states (jati) which alleviate uncertainty,
boredom or fear. Yet the very state of delusion in itself can
offer a comfortable, false trasncendent feeling from the tension
of positive and negative feeling. In this process of concocting
Feeling, more detailed perceptions (sanna) of color, taste,
sound, etc. arise as the mind begins to label and categorize experience.
As with Full Contact, Feeling offers an opportune place to discontinue
concocting with meditative awareness (sati). It is generally
considered that when the mind concocts past Feeling, then Clinging
(upadana), Birth (jati) and Dukkha inevitably occur.
8. CRAVING (tanha )
Craving is conditioned by Feeling. Craving concocts in three different
ways. One is Sense Craving (kamatanha). Two is Craving
for Being, states of being, or controlling and indulging in pleasant
feelings (bhavatanha). This manifests often as a desire
to maintain a deeper condition or identity. Third is Craving for
Non-Being or to get away from unpleasant or painful feelings (vibhavatanha).
As we can see, both Craving for Being and Craving for Non-Being
signal the initial identification of the "self" with
states of being. These identifications will develop into more
detailed forms in Clinging (upadana) and in the Maturation
of the "Self" (Existence and Birth).
These kinds of Craving enhance the deep mental conditioning of
viewing the world in terms of positive and negative, the basic
duality which arose in Consciousness-Mind/Body and developed in
Feeling. This process of positive-negative mental ping-pong leaves
the mind constantly agitated and fixated upon desires. We become
unable to sit still in the present moment. The mind constantly
plunges forward grasping at pleasant objects (kamatanha)
and states of being (bhavatanha).
This narrowing of the mind also creates a strong undercurrent
of delusion and unknowing through the mass of phenomena which
are neither positive nor negative and thus go unprocessed as neither-pleasant-nor-painful
Feeling. As we noted previously, the mind may perpetuate this
neither-pleasant-nor-painful Feeling and avoid that which is actually
transcendent. As the very nature of the self is to avoid
its destruction and death (to deny Impermanence and Not-self),
the mind can engage in a form of Craving for Non-Being (vibhavatanha)
by further shutting down, turning off and perpetuating a state
of ignorance as a defense mechanism against less egotistical states
of being which threaten its existence.16
This Craving for Non-Being (vibhavatanha) also tears us
out of the present. As the reality of Impermanence and Not-Self
cut against the concocted Ignorance of "self", the mind
may more actively move away from them into positive identifications
in the future or from the past.17 An experience of lack
is thus concocted in the tension between the constant dissolution
of the present "self" and the hardened objectifications
of a future or past "self". These objectifications of
"self" are a vain attempt to fill in the bottomless
pit of the present "self", which can never be satiated
due to its inherently concocted, insubstantial and void nature
- that is, the truth of Not-self.18 In this way, the concept of
time takes form in the mind as the period between present desire
and past or future satisfaction. This lack also concocts
the sense of space between the craving self and the object of
craving.19 As the mind becomes more imbedded in this pattern of
concocting, reality becomes more objectified and perspective becomes
narrower. The comparing mind arises - as "self" is contrasted
with the hypothetical "self" of desire. The competitive
mind also arises - as "self" is compared with the "selves"
of other individuals. Lack, alienation, separation, comparison,
and competition are therefore key components in this creation
of ego and delusive identity.
9. CLINGING (upadana )
Clinging is conditioned by Craving, its partner in crime. As the
mind deepens its concoctions of "self" and "other"
in Craving, the next level of concocting in Clinging gives rise
to the clearer sense of "I", "me" and "mine".20
This more concrete thinking leads us to form certain values, attitudes,
and mental preoccupations about not just material forms but about
mental states. In such a way, there are four more specific forms
of Clinging coming from this basic Clinging. They are Clinging
to: 1) sense objects (kamupadana); 2) views, ideas, beliefs,
theories, etc. (ditthupadana); 3) rules, practices, methods,
modes of behavior, etc. (silabbatupadana); 4) the "self"
which clings to these above forms (attavadupadana ).
1) Sense Clinging is the preoccupation with related sense objects
and trying to re-affirm enjoyment and possession of them.
2) Attitude Clinging is clinging to views and values. They may
also refer to attitudes associated with Sense Clinging like which
fashion indicates a person's value or intelligence. This relationship
mirrors the one between Sense Craving and Craving for Being. Ultimately,
a view is objectified as "something right" which belongs
to the "self", rather than as a tool for learning about
and responding to reality.
3) Behavioral Clinging, fed by Attitude Clinging, is Clinging
to rules, methods, and modes of behavior associated with an object.
Once a view, value, idea, or attitude is objectified, the methods
and practices associated with it also become hardened into forms
possessed by "me". As Buddhadasa Bhikkhu explains, "Rather
than penetrating the real reasons for these practices, people
simply cling fast to them through tradition. This is a kind of
Clinging (upadana) which is very difficult to redress....
This kind of Clinging fixes on to the actual forms of practice,
its external applications."21 This leads to a loss of true
value and meaning when views and practices which are intended
as means to higher goals become fetischized symbols of that end.
For example, as we saw in Chapter I, wealth has become a value
in itself replacing the higher value of honest and committed endeavor
which makes wealth a wholesome and varied social construct.
4) Self Clinging is Clinging to the "me" which has arisen
through this Clinging to objects as "mine". In the four
subconscious links of Mental Stewing, we saw the birth of duality
with the bifurcation of the mind into subject and object. Here
in Clinging, this concocting has attained quite a complexity with
Clinging to a distinct sense of "I" and "me"
(atta) and a corresponding world of clung to objects like
sensual forms (kama), attitudes (ditthi) and behaviors
(sila).
MATURATION OF THE "SELF"
10. EXISTENCE (bhava)
11. BIRTH (jati)
Once again for the sake of clarity and practicality, we can understand a series of links as one. As with the four links of subconscious Mental Stewing, we are invited to investigate these factors more fully as our practice deepens.
Both Existence and Birth mark the development of the concocted
"self" into a matured entity with its own internal dynamic.
Conditioned by Clinging, this is the place where the hardened
images of "self" begin to consolidate into an identity.
Here the mind engages in a kind of "self" stewing. It
stews (obsessing, dwelling, planning, visualizing, etc.) about
clung to material and mental forms (sense objects, attitudes,
behaviors), and then projects all these material and mental forms
into life situations which contain these factors. Thus, the mind
identifies its "self" with the environments and circumstances
in which these desires are satisfied.22 This stewing, as a mental
event, becomes literally an existence, a world that is lived in.
For example, as the mind stews about obtaining a pair of Nike
basketball shoes, it also begins to identify with places and organizations
which are closely tied to Nike ("I am a Michael Jordan fan.";
"I like the United States, where Nike is headquartered.")
Conversely, there may be identification with what one is not ("I
am not a Lakers fan."). The initial identifications we saw
in Craving are attempts to bridge the fundamental subject-object
duality concocted at the subconscious level. These identifications,
however, only deepen the gap through heightening the sense of
lack, separation and comparison. Here in the Maturation
of the "Self", we witness more mature and increasingly
futile attempts since such identity building merely exacerbates
the gap it is trying to eliminate.23
This Birth is, of course, not a physical one but a mental and
spiritual one in which "the sense of 'I' has grown and developed
until it is born into a complete sense of self, of 'I', and now
dominates the mind in all of its actions, and with it everything
that is 'mine'."24 In the creation, reinforcement and attachment
to mental objects, attitudes and behaviors, the mind constructs
or "gives birth" to what it perceives as an identity
or a "self". "This spiritual birth happens every
time there is Craving. This can happen many times a day - dozens
of times, maybe even a hundred times, if we have a lot of Craving.
Every time there is Craving, there will be this Birth."25
The maturation of such a "self" is most clearly seen
in times of crisis, when confronted with Aging & Dying.26
When our identity or sense of "self" is directly challenged,
we often become angry, depressed, afraid and defensive. Such emotions
are defense mechanisms which this "self" uses to avoid
the reality of its Impermanence (anicca). This is a critical
point to see. In the way that the "self" seeks out safe
environments with which to identify, once the "self"
is born it truly becomes like a being which will seek to preserve
itself just as an animal will fight to preserve its own life.
This is the tragedy of the Birth of "self" since there
develops a self-preserving energy. It is very much like a virus
with Ignorance serving as its DNA. Consequently, if we are successful
in cutting out various constructed "selves" inside of
us, there may be quite a lot of grief, like when a close friend
dies.
12. AGING & DYING (jaramarana)
This maturation of the "self" will naturally condition
Aging & Dying. Aging & Dying are also spiritual and mental
states rather than merely physical ones. Here, the "self"
concocted by misconceptions, ignorance and defilement runs into
the fundamental nature of reality. We should not get confused
here that this critique of "self" is a blanket condemnation
of any human construction of identity. This sort of clinging to
the complete denial of "self" is an annihilationism,
the partner of egoism, which the Buddha also refuted. Rather,
it must be emphasized that this is an identity built on the faulty
structures of selfishness and an arrogant independence. Thus when
we meet one natural truth of Impermanence (annica), we
suffer pain at the dissolution of what is pleasurable and has
been held on to. When we meet a second natural truth of Not-self
(anatta) and Voidness (sunnata), we suffer pain
at our dependency on others and other factors for this pleasure.
When we meet a third natural truth of Dukkha, we suffer pain at
these failed efforts to hold onto pleasure.
This "self" also experiences limitation, decay and suffering
in the states of boredom, fear and depression. We often experience
boredom with sense objects or states of being which have already
been attained. Such boredom leads us on to crave some new sort
of sense object or state of being. Fear often arises when one
worries that a state of enjoyment cannot be continued or that
the sensual object may run out or diminish. Such a negative ego
state often leads to even more intense Craving for that sense
(kama) or state of being (bhava) which is denied
or requires sustaining. Finally, depression, despair, self-hatred
or self-pity arise from boredom and fear as well as when we are
deprived of the thing we crave or the state of being which allows
us to control these things.27
This spiritual death is one which occurs everyday when the mind
breaks into concocted pieces in an attempt to manipulate reality
towards its own satisfaction merely to be foiled or to have its
satisfactions fade like the sun on the horizon. Built on Ignorance,
developed through Concocting and manifested through Craving, the
"self" is a construction with its own downfall built
in. It is inherently unstable due to its co-dependency on various
causes and conditions. To build one's life upon it is to build
castles made of sand.
NOTES:
1 Buddhadasa Bhikkhu, Paticca Samuppada: Practical Dependent
Origination (Nonthaburi, Thailand: Vuddhidhamma Fund, 1992),
3.
2 Majjhima Nikaya, Mahahatthipadopama Sutta : The Simile of the
Elephant's Footprint [Greater] 28:28 (I.191).
3 Majjhima Nikaya, Mahasaccaka Sutta : The Greater Discourse to
Saccaka 36 (I.237-51). It has been noted that the Suttas skip
over this core experience and emphasize others aspects of the
Buddha's enlightenment while the Vinaya texts bring this experience
more directly to light. Phra Prayudh Payutto, Buddhadhamma:
Natural Laws and Values for Life, trans. Grant A. Olson (Albany,NY:
State University of New York SUNY Press, 1995), 160.
4 "It is hard for such a generation to see this truth (this
Dhamma that I have attained), namely, specific conditionality,
dependent orgination." Majjhima Nikaya, Ariyapariyesana Sutta
: The Noble Search, 26:19 (I.167).
5 Digha Nikaya, Mahanidana Sutta : The Great Discourse on Origination
15:1 (II.55).
6 Majjhima Nikaya, Ariyapariyesana Sutta : The Noble Search, 26:19
(I.168).
7 Samyutta Nikaya, Nidanavagga - the Book of Causation (II), Nidanasamyutta
- the Connected Discourses on Causation (12), The Householder
(V), Suffering 43 (3) [72].
8 The Mahayana simile of Indra's Net aptly describes this reality.
Imagine a spider's web in which at each node appears a mirror
which reflects all the other mirrors and vice versa infinitely.
In this way, each infintesimal part of the universe encodes all
of the universe within it.
9 Samyutta Nikaya, Nidanavagga - the Book of Causation (II), Nidanasamyutta
- the Connected Discourses on Causation (12), Nutrtiment (II),
Kaccanagotta (15) [17], Digha Nikaya, Brahmajala Sutta : The Supreme
Net - What the Teaching Is Not 1 (I.1-46).
10 Payutto, P.A., Dependent Origination: The Buddhist Law of
Conditionality, trans. Bruce Evans, (Bangkok: Buddhadhamma
Foundation, 1994), 45.
11 Buddhadasa Bhikkhu, "Buddhism In All Aspects Lecture Series
: Talk 3 The Arising of Paticca Samuppada" December, 1988,
Trans. Santikaro Bhikkhu, unpublished.
12 Buddhadasa Bhikkhu, from a private interview with his student
and personal translator, Santikaro Bhikkhu, September 17, 1998.
& Payutto, Dependent Origination, 30.
13 Bhikkhu Nanananda, The Magic of the Mind: An Exposition
of the Kalakarama Sutta (Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society,
1974/85), 31.
14 Buddhadasa "Buddhism In All Aspects: Talk 4 Controlling
Paticca-Samuppada" and Interview with Santikaro Bhikkhu September
14, 1997.
15 Buddhadasa "Buddhism In All Aspects: Talk 4 Controlling
Paticca-Samuppada".
16 Becker, Ernest, The Denial of Death (New York: Free
Press, 1973).
17 Payutto, Dependent Origination, 63-65.
18 for a detailed discussion of this issue of lack, see
Loy, David, Lack and Transcendence: The Problem of Death and
Life in Psychotherapy, Existentialism, and Buddhism. (Atlantic-Highlands,
NJ: Humanities Press, 1996)
19 According to Buddhadasa Bhikkhu, our sense of time and space
arises at Craving (tanha). Interview with Santikaro Bhikkhu
September 14, 1997.
20 Buddhadasa Bhikkhu, "Buddhism In All Aspects: Talk 3 The
Arising of Paticca Samuppada".
21 Phra Ariyanandamuni (Buddhadasa Bhikkhu), Luk Phra Buddhasasana
(Suvijahn, 1956), 60.
22 Payutto, Dependent Origination, 53-54.
23 Nanananda, The Magic of the Mind, 33.
24 Buddhadasa Bhikkhu, "Buddhism In All Aspects: Talk 3 The
Arising of Paticca Samuppada"
25 Buddhadasa Bhikkhu, "Buddhism In All Aspects: Talk 3 The
Arising of Paticca Samuppada"
26 Payutto, Dependent Origination, 54.
27 Payutto, Dependent Origination, 32.