Dependent Origination

Dependent
Origination

bhikkhu brahmali
Published in 2013.
This work is released under CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0)
Public Domain Dedication. No rights reserved.
Typeset in Gentium Plus using LuATEX.
The following essay is an edited transcript of a talk
given at the Buddhist Society of W.A. on 17th April 2009.
Foreword
Bhikkhu Bodhi

Dependent origination is often said to be the central

pillar of the Buddha’s teaching, and the Nikāyas them-
selves show the Buddha identifying dependent origina-
tion as one of the two aspects of the “deep Dhamma”
that he discovered on the occasion of his enlighten-
ment, the other being nibbāna (see MN I 167). Because
of its critical importance, the compilers of the original
texts devoted an entire chapter of the Saṃyutta Nikāya
to this teaching. Further, in the Mahānidāna Suttanta
of the Dīgha Nikāya (no. 15), the Buddha declares that
because they have not penetrated dependent origina-
tion, beings roam and wander through the sequence of
births and deaths called saṁsāra (see DN II 55). From
this we can see that understanding of dependent origi-
nation is the key to liberating wisdom.
Despite the importance of this doctrine, however,
various conflicting opinions have arisen over its correct
interpretation, and in modern times these have multi-
plied. The resolution of this issue is not inconsequential,
for if one’s understanding of dependent origination is
distorted, one’s understanding of the Dhamma itself is
bound to be inaccurate. The most secure way of inter-
preting dependent origination in accordance with the
Buddha’s intent is to return to the early discourses and
closely scrutinize them, trying to draw out the mean-
ing they aim to convey rather than randomly seeking
out statements that support one’s own predetermined
interpretation.
In this little essay, based on a Dhamma talk, Ajahn
Brahmāli gives a concise explanation of dependent orig-
ination that, in my view, extracts its core principle
while remaining faithful to the original intent. A ma-
jor point that Ajahn Brahmāli makes, both explicitly
and through his mode of explanation, is the integral
connection of dependent origination with the teaching
of rebirth. It has become fashionable today to inter-
pret dependent origination simply as an affirmation
of the interdependence and interconnectedness of all
events, and then to extol it as a forerunner of the sci-
entific method. But while dependent origination may
well point to interdependence and a scheme of univer-
sal interconnections, this is not its primary purpose.
The primary purpose, as seen in the most archaic Bud-
dhist texts, is to show the causal origination of suffering,
which is sustained precisely by our bondage to rebirth.
Thus, by revealing the conditions that keep us bound
to repeated birth, dependent origination also indicates
what must be done to gain liberation.
This, as Ajahn Brahmāli shows in his account of the
‘core driver’ of dependent origination, is by breaking
the link between feelings and craving, to be achieved by
eliminating ignorance or delusion. Delusion in turn is
to be eliminated by cultivating the noble eightfold path,
a point Ajahn Brahmāli also makes. His explanation
thereby shows the coherence and internal harmony
of three fundamental Buddhist teachings: dependent
origination, the four noble truths, and the eightfold
path.
Dependent Origination

As you read the word of the Buddha and get

a feel for what he taught, again and again you come
across the teaching of dependent origination (paṭicca
samuppāda). It soon becomes quite obvious that this
teaching is a very important part of the way the Bud-
dha explained things. At the same time dependent orig-
ination is a difficult teaching to understand. This essay,
then, is an attempt to draw out the most important
aspects of dependent origination in such a way as to
make it more easily comprehensible.
To begin with, and very briefly, I will go through
each of the twelve factors of dependent origination to
give an overall picture of what it is about. I will then
pick out some of the factors and explain only those in
detail. I will also try to show how dependent origination
fits in with the rest of the Buddha’s teachings. When
we understand how dependent origination fits into the
teaching overall, it gives us a better sense of why this
teaching is important and how it might be used as part
of the development of the Buddhist path. But first of all
2 dependent origination

I will briefly go through each of the twelve factors so

as to set up a framework for the following discussion.
The first of the twelve factors is usually known as
ignorance (avijjā). Ignorance refers to a distortion in
our understanding, a not seeing of reality as it actually
is, and it affects all beings except those who are fully
awakened. Because of ignorance we engage in activi-
ties that have future kammic results. These activities
(saṅkhāra) are the second factor of dependent origina-
tion. The most important result of producing kamma is
future rebirth, the arising of consciousness at the begin-
ning of a particular life. So consciousness (viññāṇa) is
the third factor. Consciousness always arises together
with the other aspects of mind – feeling, perception
and the will – and usually also a material body. That
becomes the fourth factor (nāmarūpa). When you have
mind and body you also have the fifth factor, the six
senses (saḷāyatana). All experience happens through
these six senses, and the senses thus allow us to ‘con-
tact’ the world. Contact (phassa) therefore is the sixth
factor. Perhaps the most fundamental part of what we
experience through the five senses is feeling (vedanā).
This becomes the seventh factor of dependent origina-
tion. Our experiences are usually either pleasant or un-
pleasant, and obviously we want the pleasant feelings
to last and the unpleasant ones to disappear. We have
desire both in regard to the pleasant and the unpleas-
ant. So desire or craving (taṇhā), which is the eighth fac-
 bhikkhu brahmali 3

tor, is a natural consequence of feeling. Craving in turn

leads to taking up, grasping or clinging. Your desires
make you implement ‘strategies’ with the aim of ful-
filling those desires. This is the ninth factor (upādāna).
Once we grasp at things, once we decide on particular
strategies to satisfy our cravings, then our life tends to
take a certain direction. And because we live in a partic-
ular way, we make kamma according to that way of liv-
ing. This is the tenth factor, known as existence (bhava).
When we live in a certain way and produce the corre-
sponding kamma, rebirth (jāti) follows as the eleventh
factor. Through rebirth we experience what all beings
must experience – we experience old age, we experi-
ence death and we experience all the suffering that
comes with existence. Old age (jarā), death (maraṇa)
and suffering (dukkha), or in brief just suffering, is the
twelfth and final factor of dependent origination.
One of the important things to understand about
this sequence of twelve factors is that each factor builds
on the previous one and is dependent on the previous
one for its existence. It is precisely because of this condi-
tional relationship between the links that this sequence
is called dependent origination. Take the last two fac-
tors. To experience old age, death and suffering, first of
all you have to be born. Birth is a necessary condition
for you to experience suffering in life; if you had not
been born, you wouldn’t suffer. In the same way, each
one of the twelve links, starting with ignorance and
4 dependent origination

ending with suffering, is necessary for the subsequent

one to exist. This is a crucial aspect of dependent origi-
nation, and once you understand this the whole thing
becomes much clearer.
The next thing which is very helpful is to acquire a
good grasp of the significance of the two end points of
the sequence. The significance of the last link is that it
shows us the purpose of dependent origination. Each
of the other links is just a condition that leads up to
the last one; the last factor is what all the other ones
are pointing to. So the purpose of this teaching is to
show us why we suffer, to show us the causes for the
arising of suffering. This in turn makes it a practical
teaching, because if we understand why suffering arises
then we have an opportunity to do something about
it; if we understand the causal relationship then we
can do something about those causes. This gives us the
opportunity to both reduce the suffering in our lives
and ultimately to overcome suffering altogether. Since
we have seen that rebirth is the immediate cause of
suffering, the only way to eliminate suffering is to end
all future rebirth.
An interesting point here is that the last two fac-
tors of dependent origination are birth and suffering,
or birth, old age and death. Now birth and death taken
together, when they are perpetuated through the mech-
anism of dependent origination, is nothing other than
saṁsāra. Saṁsāra is the perpetual wandering on, around
 bhikkhu brahmali 5

and around, from one life to another, from birth to

death, again and again. The last two factors of depen-
dent origination are thus essentially equivalent to saṁ-
sāra. Looking at dependent origination in this way shows
us how saṁsāra comes to arise, how there can be such
a thing as saṁsāra. On the subject of saṁsāra, a brief
word of caution: please don’t think of it as the world
or the universe ‘out there’, something different from
us. Saṁsāra, rather, is how we as human beings expe-
rience the world, our internal view, what goes on in
our minds. Because it is a personal experience, saṁsāra
will inevitably be slightly different for each one of us.
But the common thread is that we experience a seem-
ingly endless sequence of births and deaths, suffering
without apparent beginning or end. So dependent orig-
ination shows us how saṁsāra comes to be and how
suffering comes to be, these two essentially being the
same. And again, knowing how suffering comes to be
empowers us to do something about it.
To properly understand what can be done about
the problem of suffering we have to go to the other end
of dependent origination, its starting point, ignorance.
Once we understand the nature of the starting point
we understand the fundamental cause of dependent
origination, and thus what drives it. If we were to re-
move the starting point dependent origination would
unravel, because each factor is causally dependent on
the previous one. This means that if we eliminate igno-
6 dependent origination

rance then each subsequent factor is also eliminated,

ending in the elimination of suffering. If we are not
able to remove ignorance altogether, but we are able
to reduce or weaken it, then we also weaken suffering,
because that weakening of ignorance makes itself felt
all the way through that chain. In this way, we can use
the conditionality of dependent origination to our own
benefit.
To be able to reduce and eventually eliminate ig-
norance, first of all you need to be clear about what it
refers to. The Pāli term usually translated as ignorance
is avijjā, which might be better translated as delusion.
The problem is not so much that we lack knowledge, as
the word ignorance might suggest, but that we have a
distorted understanding of how things work. Because
of our fundamentally deluded or distorted outlook, we
don’t see things as they actually are. This distorted out-
look is nothing other than our inability to see the three
characteristics of existence: our tendency to see things
as permanent when in fact they are impermanent, to
see happiness where in fact there is suffering, and to
see things as self when in fact they are non-self. This is
the basic delusion that we live under and this misper-
ception is at the root of this entire chain of dependent
origination.
The good news is that ignorance/delusion is itself
conditioned by other factors; it is not a monolithic en-
tity that exists independently of everything else. It is by
 bhikkhu brahmali 7

understanding the conditionality of delusion that we

can weaken it. When we understand the conditions that
support delusion we also understand what sort of prac-
tice we need to undertake to reduce it and eventually
abandon it altogether. So what are the conditions that
prop up and perpetuate delusion? They are nothing
other than the five hindrances: desire for sense objects,
ill will, dullness and lethargy, restlessness and worry,
and doubt. This means that the stronger these five hin-
drances are, the more powerful our delusion is going
to be.
Why is this so? Because the hindrances themselves
distort how we see things. Consider what happens if
you are angry: you tend to do things that you otherwise
would not. Under the influence of anger you think that
you should tell somebody off or do something nasty to
them. While you’re angry, it seems the right thing to
do: we think that this person deserves this, that that
person needs to be told off or treated rudely. Thus we
sometimes end up doing something stupid. But once
the anger is over we realize that we made a mistake: we
shouldn’t have been so harsh to that person, we should
have been more understanding, we should have tried
to understand their motivation. We feel regret and re-
morse. The point is that our anger distorts our outlook
so that we do things which we otherwise would not.
You can then see how anger connects up with delusion
by distorting our understanding of the world.
8 dependent origination

Sense desire has a similar distorting effect. Why, for

example, do people have extra-marital affairs? Often it
is just because desire overpowers the mind. You don’t
really know what you are doing, and because of that
you often bitterly regret it afterwards. You realize how
much pain you’ve caused for your spouse, and often
you pay for it when your marriage breaks up, you have
to sell your house, or you can’t see your children. But at
the time, that affair seemed the right thing to do. Your
view of things was distorted by your desires. Sometimes
you can see the same pattern in a simple activity like
shopping. Perhaps you see an item in a shop that is
irresistibly attractive, and a desire so powerful arises
that you simply have to buy it. Later on, when you are
free from the grasp of desire, you realize that it was a
mistake, that in fact you had no need for that item.
So the five hindrances, particularly anger and de-
sire, distort our view of the world. The stronger the
five hindrances are, the greater is our delusion, and the
more distorted is our outlook. The less we have of these
five hindrances, the less is the distortion and the clearer
is our view of the world. And because dependent orig-
ination is a causal chain, the effect of the hindrances
feeds the whole chain all the way down to suffering. So
the weaker the hindrances are, the less suffering we
experience, and the stronger the hindrances are, the
greater is the suffering. It follows that if you want to
reduce ignorance and suffering in your life, you have
 bhikkhu brahmali 9

to reduce the five hindrances, that is, the defilements

of the mind.
How do we reduce the defilements of the mind?
In no other way than by practising the noble eight-
fold path. You begin walking this path by practising
virtue. Because of that practice there are certain ac-
tions you cannot do, and because you can’t do them
you are restraining yourself, restraining the hindrances,
restraining the defilements. Over time such restraint
weakens the defilements. You know that this is the case
when you see that keeping the precepts becomes eas-
ier over time until it becomes practically second nature
to you. Practising meditation – developing loving kind-
ness, peace and all such beautiful states of mind – has
the same effect because we are going against the hin-
drances, abandoning them step by step. So the eight-
fold path is nothing less than a mechanism for remov-
ing the hindrances. This in turn reduces delusion and
therefore also reduces suffering. In this way we can see
how the noble eightfold path and dependent origina-
tion fit beautifully together, forming an important part
of the overall picture we call the Dhamma.
In fact, it can be useful to regard the Dhamma as
a big jig-saw puzzle, where each teaching is one small
piece. It is only when we put all the pieces together,
when we understand how they fit with each other, that
we can see the full picture. In other words, although
the Buddha’s teachings consist of all these individual
10 dependent origination

bits and pieces – the five faculties, the five aggregates,

the four jhānas, etc. – it is nonetheless a united whole.
The better you understand the Buddha’s teachings, the
more you understand how this jig-saw puzzle fits to-
gether. In the present case I am simply pointing out
one particular way in which the noble eightfold path
fits together with dependent origination.
So the noble eightfold path reduces our delusion
stage by stage and therefore also reduces our suffering.
If we keep practising this path we will eventually elim-
inate suffering altogether. How is it that reducing the
hindrances leads to the complete abandoning of delu-
sion and suffering? As you develop the path stage by
stage, you gradually weaken the five hindrances until
the day comes when temporarily the hindrances are
completely absent, and the mind is pure and radiant.
Because the five hindrances are the main supports of
delusion, once the five hindrances are completely ab-
sent the props of delusion have been removed. Since
delusion is no longer propped up it becomes weak at
this particular point, and it is then possible to eliminate
it altogether. That is why the deep states of meditation
in which the five hindrances are completely abandoned
are such powerful bases for attaining deep insight and
understanding things as they actually are, that is, elim-
inating delusion. This also shows you why the deep
meditations are the last factor of the noble eightfold
path: it is only at this point that it is finally possible to
 bhikkhu brahmali 11

make that breakthrough where you see the Buddha’s

teaching for yourself. As long as the hindrances sup-
port delusion, no such breakthrough is possible. But
when the props of delusion are removed – assuming
that you already possess right view through a proper
grasp of the Buddha’s teachings – the mind can pene-
trate to the truth, the Dhamma, and thereby eliminate
delusion. When delusion is eliminated so is suffering,
since they go hand in hand.1 This is how delusion is the
root problem and how that root problem can be solved.
Having discussed the two end points of dependent
origination, we next need to consider how delusion
translates into suffering. This mechanism is what might
be called ‘the core driver’ of dependent origination,
since it shows us how saṁsāra is self-sustaining, that is,
how delusion sustains the process of birth and death
potentially without end. The ‘core driver’ is the process
by which our response to feelings leads to rebirth. To
understand the working of this core driver, therefore,
it is necessary to understand the dynamic process that
links the factors from feeling (vedanā) to rebirth (jāti).
We start with feelings. In Buddhism the word ‘feel-
ing’ does not refer to emotion but to the ‘felt tone’ of

1
This is slightly simplified compared to the usual exposition
in the suttas. According to the suttas, when one sees the
Dhamma and becomes a stream-enterer, one does not end
delusion or suffering straight away but it takes at most
seven lifetimes.
12 dependent origination

a particular experience as pleasant or unpleasant.2 Ex-

periencing things as pleasant or unpleasant is part and
parcel of being a human being, or indeed any kind of
being. The links of dependent origination preceding
feeling show us how feelings arise from the interaction
of body and mind; that is, once you have a body and
mind you must also have feelings. Since it is given that
we experience the world as pleasant or unpleasant, it
is also given that we are going to have desires (taṇhā)
according to those experiences. Because we don’t want
displeasure, we crave to avoid unpleasant experiences
and for existing unpleasant experiences to end; and
because we want pleasure, we crave to acquire pleas-
ant experiences and for existing pleasant experiences
to continue. In other words, desire or craving is our
normal response to experiencing feelings.
This leads us to the next link. Once we have desires
we want to make sure that the craving gets satisfied,
because not satisfying our craving is unpleasant. To
do this we take things up, we grasp at things, and we
follow certain strategies (upādāna). We get ourselves
an education, we get a job, we get into relationships,
we buy a house, we have children, we adhere to a reli-
gion, we have political views. Take religion: why do we
become Buddhists, for example? Essentially it is a strat-
egy to satisfy our craving, to help us find happiness in
2
The Buddha also spoke of neutral feelings but they may be
left out of the present discussion.
 bhikkhu brahmali 13

the world and decrease the suffering of life. Why do

we have a home? Because a home provides us with an
environment where we can enjoy pleasures. Our house
is where we usually eat our meals, relax in comfort, en-
joy entertainment, and the place that we share with
our family. It is also a place of safety from the world
outside. Having a home is a very important strategy for
satisfying our desires, and that is why people become
attached to their homes. Another important strategy
is getting a life-partner. Again, because a life-partner
brings us a sense of happiness, we often attach to such
people. But our strategies can also be of a loftier type.
As Buddhists we may take up meditation and a more
spiritual life-style. In this case our strategy is to develop
our mental happiness. Of course, these strategies are
usually not mutually exclusive – most Buddhists go for
a mixture of the sensual and the spiritual.
This leads us to the factor of existence (bhava). Once
we adopt certain strategies, we get established in a cer-
tain life pattern; we tend to exist in a certain way. Be-
cause most people’s strategies revolve around satisfy-
ing their sense desires, they live a sensual existence.
Their minds are preoccupied by the sensual realm; their
consciousness is established in that realm. A meditator,
however, who can access the pleasures of the mind in
samādhi, will tend to value those experiences more than
sense pleasures, and thus their mind inclines towards
those states. The more profound their meditation, the
14 dependent origination

more they ‘exist’ in the realm of the mind and the more
their consciousness is established there. This mecha-
nism also shows us why we have to be careful of anger
and other negative states. The more we have of these
dark states, the more we exist in that realm and the
more our consciousness tends to be established in that
darkness. So our existence is formed by the strategies
that we implement to find pleasure and avoid pain. And
once we exist in a certain way, in just that way we pro-
duce kamma. Thereby we establish and solidify our con-
sciousness in line with how we exist.
The next factor is birth (jāti). Because we exist in
a certain way and our consciousness is established ac-
cordingly, when we die our consciousness already exists
in a certain ‘realm’. When we are reborn our conscious-
ness doesn’t need to ‘go’ anywhere,3 because it has al-
ready been established in a particular ‘realm’ by the
way we lived our past life. The body falls away and con-
sciousness continues in line with its past habits. That
continuation is essentially what rebirth involves. If we
have lived a life of enjoying sense pleasures and have
inclined strongly towards sense pleasures, then, when
the body falls away at death, our consciousness will still
be established in sense pleasures and we will tend to be
reborn in a sensual realm. If you are a skilled meditator,
however, when you die your mind is likely to be estab-
3
It doesn’t ‘need’ to go anywhere but it may enter a womb
or get reborn through some other physical process.
 bhikkhu brahmali 15

lished in the peace of meditation. When the body falls

away the mind inclines to a peaceful realm, and that
is your rebirth. This is how rebirth happens in accor-
dance with kamma, in accordance with how the mind
has been established in the life that has just ended.4
Now you can see how this whole process works.
Because we crave, we implement strategies to satisfy
the craving; because of these strategies, we tend to live
in a certain way; because we live in a certain way, our
consciousness gets established in that way and we are
reborn accordingly; because we are reborn, we suffer,
grow old and die in line with that new existence. This
core driver is the mechanism that perpetuates saṁsāra.
What then is the relationship between delusion –
the root cause of dependent origination – and the core
driver? Delusion is the reason why we crave in response
to pleasant and unpleasant feelings. We crave because
we think we can gain mastery over our feelings by con-
trolling our environment; we think we can somehow
make things conform to whatever we want them to be.

4
This is a very simplified explanation of how rebirth hap-
pens. In reality there are all sorts of complications: kamma
from a past life ripening at the moment of our death; an un-
fortunate/fortunate death that alters our normal state of
consciousness; remorse or elation at the time of dying over
bad or good actions performed, etc. The above is just meant
as a general explanation of the process, not an exhaustive
account of all the details.
16 dependent origination

This sense that we have an inherent mastery over our

feelings is a central aspect of delusion. It is not difficult
to see why this sense of mastery is illusory. We all meet
more suffering and pain – that is, more unpleasant feel-
ings – in our lives than we want. Why is that? Because
we do not have mastery over the course of our lives.
The most obvious suffering we can’t evade is illness,
old age and death. The most frightening sort of suffer-
ing is the prospect of a bad rebirth. And in the end this
too is beyond our control. The reason you cannot ex-
ercise mastery over events is because there is no self.
Feelings arise because of causes and conditions, not
because there is someone in charge of them. It is the
delusion of a self that gives us the illusory sense of mas-
tery and thus causes us to crave for pleasant feelings.
Once there is craving, as explained above, you undergo
rebirth and the consequent suffering. This is how delu-
sion is the source of the craving which, in turn, causes
rebirth. That is, this is how delusion constantly leads
to renewal of suffering.
And how does the elimination of delusion affect the
core driver so that suffering is also eliminated? Imagine
for a moment that you have no mastery over the feel-
ings in your body and mind. What would be the point of
craving if you cannot really have the feelings you would
like? If you lack mastery over your feelings, you are bet-
ter off just ‘sitting back’ and watching as feelings come
and go according to their nature. The irony is that this
 bhikkhu brahmali 17

is also the way to experience the least possible suffering.

By craving and trying to control we tend to just create
more suffering for ourselves. And the Buddha said that
when we penetrate to the truth of non-self this is ex-
actly what we see: we realize that, indeed, we have no
mastery over our feelings, that craving is futile and in
fact counterproductive.5 When we see this, when we
eliminate delusion, we also give up craving.6 When you
abandon craving you don’t need any strategies to try
to satisfy it. When you give up all your strategies, all
your grasping and taking up of things, you no longer
exist in a particular way7 and your consciousness is no
longer established in anything. Since consciousness is
not established in anything, then at death, when the
body falls away, consciousness does not incline to any
particular realm, whether the realm of sense pleasures
or a refined realm of the mind or any other realm. Then
5
See for example the Buddha’s instructions in the famous
Anattalakkhana-sutta.
6
Again, the full exposition from the suttas is a bit more in-
volved. When one sees the truth of non-self one becomes
a stream-enterer, whereas the full elimination of delusion
only happens when one becomes an arahant. In the present
context, however, this distinction is not important because
once you become a stream-enterer you are guaranteed to
become an arahant within at most seven lifetimes.
7
You don’t “exist in a particular way” in the sense that you
don’t incline towards any sort of existence and therefore
don’t make any corresponding kamma.
18 dependent origination

there will be no rebirth, and when there is no rebirth

there will be no suffering, no old age and no death. This
is how the elimination of delusion translates into the
elimination of suffering.
For many, the ending of all rebirths might seem like
a distant goal. But we should remember that, even if we
don’t make a complete end to rebirth, any reduction in
delusion is a reduction in future suffering. When you
reduce delusion by reducing the five hindrances, your
craving is also lessened. When craving is reduced you
will be more peaceful, and this will result in a more
contented life here and now, and also in a better future
rebirth.
This, in brief, is how dependent origination works.
It shows us how delusion, via rebirth, is the root cause of
suffering. It is important to realise that rebirth is an in-
tegral part of this scheme. Because rebirth is the imme-
diate cause of suffering, if there were no rebirth there
would be no problem to solve. The suffering we meet
in any individual existence as human beings is insignifi-
cant; it is the potentially endless round of births and
deaths that is the real problem. Once we understand
the true nature of suffering, and grasp the fact that
dependent origination explains how suffering comes
to be, we will clearly see that rebirth is integral to de-
pendent origination. What we need to do, then, is to
practise the noble eightfold path to remove delusion.
By removing delusion we end all future rebirth. When
 bhikkhu brahmali 19

there is no rebirth, suffering comes to a complete stop.