Mark Cooper

Writing about mindfulness and meditation

A primer on dependent arising

Here's a talk I gave recently as a short introduction to the 12-link model of dependent arising. It carries an example throughout each stage, something I've borrowed from the insight meditation teacher, John Peacock. Soon, I want to write about a different model of dependent arising that I have found very helpful and insightful.

Introduction

I'm going to talk about dependent arising today, also known as dependent origination. That's quite a mouthful, isn't it? This can be quite a daunting topic but today we're just going to breeze through the traditional 12-link model to get an overview.

  • If there's nothing else that you take away from this, the key idea here is conditionality. This is the idea that our experience is shaped by events and mind states. Don't worry if it doesn't click this time. Just keep that idea of conditionality in mind.

The example of the red jumper

To keep this simple, we're going to be using the example of walking down the high street and seeing a red pair of trousers in a shop window.

Background

Let's take a look at the twelve links. As we move through these, be aware that there are connections between all of the links. It isn't just a linear process of A determines B determines C, although those connections are strong, too. Some of them happen in clusters, simultaneously, and very quickly.

In the early Buddhist tradition, it's important to note that this list was not given as cyclical, and it didn't always include twelve links. What's important is the notion of conditionality itself, and the general dynamics between elements of mind that we see here.

We'll do questions at the end, just to ensure there is time to complete a first pass through the list.

1. Ignorance (avijjā)

The first link in this chain is said to be ignorance. Ignorance of what? One way we can understand this is as an ignorance of conditionality.

  • It's kind of the opposite of Right View in the 8FP. We don't understand dependent arising. We don't understand how certain mental states or actions influence our wellbeing and those of others.
  • Or we may understand but we don't walk the walk. We're not mindful. We think that external things are solid, dependable, lasting, and the answer to our problems if we could just get things the way we want them.

In terms of our example, let's say that there is an absence of wisdom into the impermanent, unsatisfactory, and impersonal nature of phenomena. Craving or aversion towards red trousers could arise in such a mindset!

2. Volitions, habits, mental conditioning (sankhāras)

There is conditioning in the mind that is dormant but ready to be activated by certain experiences and situations. These are predilections, habit patterns, psychological structures.

I feel like we don’t have to get too hung up on the order of the next few links.

  • When we are ignorant, we are more likely to act from an automatic place of habit. Those tendencies that we are predisposed to come to the fore. This lays the groundwork for how we perceive a situation.

Example: you might have a habit of impulse purchasing. Or a penchant for brightly coloured trousers!

3. Consciousness (viññāna)

This is typically defined as sense consciousness, meaning the knowing that happens in conjunction with seeing a form, hearing a sound.

  • The next few links all work together to describe how we build a self around sensory experiences.

Example: when the eye makes contact with photons reflected by a pair of red trousers in a shop window, there is a consciousness which registers this sensation.

4. Name and form (nāmarūpa)

This refers to mental objects and the physical forms that we perceive. There is a kind of feedback loop between name and form and consciousness where they feed each other. We see a form, perhaps a family member, and a self comes into being in relation to that form.

Example: seeing the red trousers, we construct a mental representation of the trousers and ourselves in relation to the red trousers.

5. The six sense spheres (salāyatana)

These are our six senses: sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste, and the mind.

  • The mind is traditionally seen as a sensory organ, one which perceives thoughts and mental experiences as well as being the place where the other senses are registered.
  • These senses mediate between consciousness and the forms we contact through the senses.

Example: the eye is a sense organ that can detect the colour red and the form "trousers" in shop windows!

6. Contact (phassa)

This is simply the contact that our senses make with forms. It is the sound wave of birdsong hitting the eardrum.

  • Importantly, this is the first major leverage point where we can make a difference before suffering arises. We can be mindful of our senses, and so this is a very early place at which we might be able to bring in awareness and wisdom, and so preempt craving.

Example: When the eye meets the red trouser photons, there is contact!

7. Feeling tone (vedanā)

Every sensory contact is accompanied by an immediate categorisation as pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral. By default, we tend to want more of the pleasant, less of the unpleasant, and we don't give a blind bit of notice to the neutral. That leads us to wander through the world trying to satisfy our preferences and the requirements of our self image.

  • Being mindful of feeling tone is one of the most famously effective leverage points where we can apply mindfulness. If we aren't mindful at this point, it is still possible to turn the ship around later but this becomes increasingly difficult.

Example: depending on our conditioning around red trousers, there will either be a pleasant sensation, an unpleasant sensation, or an absence of these.

8. Craving (tanhā)

Dependent on feeling tone a subtle or strong insistence arises. We want that. We don't want that. Left unchecked, this craving will shape the mind, create attachment, and a sense of self that will lead to problems. Besides which, the feeling of craving itself isn't fun.

  • But, we can turn things around. We can be mindful of craving and let go of it.

Example: if a pleasant sensation has arisen in connection with the red trousers, we may begin to crave the red trousers. If unpleasant, we may become aversive towards them. If neither of these have arisen, we will probably be indifferent to the fate of the red trousers.

9. Clinging (upādānda)

This is the last chance saloon. The craving has solidified into clinging, which is sometimes described as involving a lot of repetitive thinking. This object, this wish, whatever it is, now dominates your thoughts. You are building a self image around it in your mind. You're obsessed. It is difficult to let go and be mindful. You keep diving back in. But there is still the possibility of letting go until...

Example: Left unchecked, craving for the red trousers becomes clinging. We can't stop thinking about them. We need to go into that shop right away! What if they sell out of red trousers!?

10. Becoming (bhava)

Now we've bought the ticket and we have to take the ride. We now see ourselves in terms that have been shaped by clinging. We are moving towards the actualisation of our clinging.

We have the red trousers and we're walking towards the till, credit card in hand!

11. Birth (jāti)

Oops. Now you've done it. You bought the expensive graphics card. You said the naughty words to the well-meaning person. You've agreed to the thing that in hindsight was not the right thing. You're thinking of yourself as someone who... and the consequences of this action, good or bad, are now in train. Something new is coming into being, and will have its effects.

Example: This is the moment where the credit card is charged and we are now in possession of red trousers.

12. Decline and death, dukkha (jarāmarana)

What goes up must come down. What is born must die. When the conditions supporting that which has been brought into being falter, that which has been brought into being will fade.

  • If we are still attached to things remaining a certain way, we will suffer. That great project we set in motion is subject to conditions and, if we insist on it working out in a certain way, disappointment will follow.

We may feel somewhat deflated. Owning red trousers may not be all that we promised ourselves it would be. And even if we like them, the red soon fades, we soon no longer find any thrill in wearing them. They are just red trousers. But what about green trousers? Green trousers would be incredible! And so we move on to the next thing.

An upward spiral?

This may not be the end of the story, though. As there is a cluster of teachings that speak of transcendent dependent arising, also known as the spiral path. Here, the experience of decline and dukkha gives rise to faith and a search that leads through beautiful states of mind to dispassion and letting go. But that's for another time.