C. The Wheel of Becoming

[(I) The Wheel]

273. Now, here at the end sorrow, etc., are stated. Consequently, the ignorance stated at the beginning of the Wheel of Becoming thus, “With ignorance as condition there are formations,” is established by the sorrow and so on. So it should accordingly be understood that:

Becoming’s Wheel reveals no known beginning;
No maker, no experiencer there;
Void with a twelvefold voidness, and nowhere
It ever halts; forever it is spinning.

274. But (1) how is ignorance established by sorrow, etc.? (2) How has this Wheel of Becoming no known beginning? (3) How is there no maker or experiencer there? (4) How is it void with twelvefold voidness?

275. 1. Sorrow, grief and despair are inseparable from ignorance; and lamentation is found in one who is deluded. So, firstly, when these are established, ignorance is established. Furthermore, “With the arising of cankers there is the arising of ignorance” (M I 54) is said, and with the arising of cankers these things beginning with sorrow come into being. How?

276. Firstly, sorrow about separation from sense desires as object has its arising in the canker of sense desire, according as it is said:

If, desiring and lusting, his desires elude him,
He suffers as though an arrow had pierced him (Sn 767),

and according as it is said:

“Sorrow springs from sense desires” (Dhp 215).

277. And all these come about with the arising of the canker of views, according as it is said: “In one who [577] possesses [the view] ‘I am materiality,’ ‘my materiality,’ with the change and transformation of materiality there arise sorrow and lamentation, pain, grief and despair” (S III 3).

278. And as with the arising of the canker of views, so also with the arising of the canker of becoming, according as it is said: “Then whatever deities there are, long-lived, beautiful, blissful, long-resident in grand palaces, when they hear the Perfect One’s teaching of the Dhamma, they feel fear, anxiety and a sense of urgency” (S III 85), as in the case of deities harassed by the fear of death on seeing the five signs.^[1]

279. And as with the arising of the canker of becoming, so also with the canker of ignorance, according as it is said: “The fool, bhikkhus, experiences pain and grief here and now in three ways” (M III 163).

Now, these states come about with the arising of cankers, and so when they are established, they establish the cankers which are the cause of ignorance. And when the cankers are established, ignorance is also established because it is present when its condition is present. This, in the first place, is how ignorance, etc., should be understood to be established by sorrow and so on.

280. 2. But when ignorance is established since it is present when its condition is present, and when “with ignorance as condition there are formations; with formations as condition, consciousness,” there is no end to the succession of cause with fruit in this way. Consequently, the Wheel of Becoming with its twelve factors, revolving with the linking of cause and effect, is established as having “no known beginning.”

281. This being so, are not the words “With ignorance as condition there are formations,” as an exposition of a simple beginning, contradicted?—This is not an exposition of a simple beginning. It is an exposition of a basic state (see §107). For ignorance is the basic state for the three rounds (see §298). It is owing to his seizing ignorance that the fool gets caught in the round of the remaining defilements, in the rounds of kamma, etc., just as it is owing to seizing a snake’s head that the arm gets caught in [the coils of] the rest of the snake’s body. But when the cutting off of ignorance is effected, he is liberated from them just as the arm caught [in the coils] is liberated when the snake’s head is cut off, according as it is said, “With the remainderless fading away and cessation of ignorance” (S II 1), and so on. So this is an exposition of the basic state whereby there is bondage for him who grasps it, and liberation for him who lets it go: it is not an exposition of a simple beginning.

This is how the Wheel of Becoming should be understood to have no known beginning. [578]

282. 3. This Wheel of Becoming consists in the occurrence of formations, etc., with ignorance, etc., as the respective reasons. Therefore it is devoid of a maker supplementary to that, such as a Brahmā conjectured thus, “Brahmā the Great, the Highest, the Creator” (D I 18), to perform the function of maker of the round of rebirths; and it is devoid of any self as an experiencer of pleasure and pain conceived thus, “This self of mine that speaks and feels” (cf. M I 8). This is how it should be understood to be without any maker or experiencer.

283. 4. However, ignorance—and likewise the factors consisting of formations, etc.—is void of lastingness since its nature is to rise and fall, and it is void of beauty since it is defiled and causes defilement, and it is void of pleasure since it is oppressed by rise and fall, and it is void of any selfhood susceptible to the wielding of power since it exists in dependence on conditions. Or ignorance—and likewise the factors consisting of formations, etc.—is neither self nor self’s nor in self nor possessed of self. That is why this Wheel of Becoming should be understood thus, “Void with a twelvefold voidness.”

[(II) The Three Times]

284. After knowing this, again:

Its roots are ignorance and craving;
Its times are three as past and so on,
To which there properly belong
Two, eight, and two, from its [twelve] factors.

285. The two things, ignorance and craving, should be understood as the root of this Wheel of Becoming. Of the derivation from the past, ignorance is the root and feeling the end. And of the continuation into the future, craving is the root and ageing-and-death the end. It is twofold in this way.

286. Herein, the first applies to one whose temperament is [false] view, and the second to one whose temperament is craving. For in the round of rebirths ignorance leads those whose temperament favours [false] view, and craving those whose temperament favours craving. Or the first has the purpose of eliminating the annihilation view because, by the evidence of the fruit, it proves that there is no annihilation of the causes; and the second has the purpose of eliminating the eternity view because it proves the ageing and death of whatever has arisen. Or the first deals with the child in the womb because it illustrates successive occurrence [of the faculties], and the second deals with one apparitionally born because of [their] simultaneous appearance.

287. The past, the present and the future are its three times. Of these, it should be understood that, according to what is given as such in the texts, the two factors ignorance and formations belong to the past time, the eight beginning with consciousness belong to the present time, and the two, birth and ageingand-death, belong to the future time. [579]

[(III) Cause and Fruit]

288. Again, it should be understood thus:

(1) It has three links with cause, fruit, cause,
As first parts; and (2) four different sections;
(3) Its spokes are twenty qualities;
(4) With triple round it spins forever.

289. 1. Herein, between formations and rebirth-linking consciousness there is one link consisting of cause-fruit. Between feeling and craving there is one link consisting of fruit-cause. And between becoming and birth there is one link consisting of cause-fruit. This is how it should be understood that it has three links with cause, fruit, cause, as first parts.

290. 2. But there are four sections, which are determined by the beginnings and ends of the links, that is to say, ignorance/ formations is one section; consciousness/mentality-materiality/ sixfold base/contact/feeling is the second; craving/clinging/ becoming is the third; and birth/ageing-and-death is the fourth. This is how it should be understood to have four different sections.

291. 3. Then:

(a) There were five causes in the past,
(b) And now there is a fivefold fruit;
(c) There are five causes now as well,
(d) And in the future fivefold fruit.

It is according to these twenty spokes called “qualities” that the words its spokes are twenty qualities should be understood.

292. (a) Herein, [as regards the words] There were five causes in the past, firstly only these two, namely, ignorance and formations, are mentioned. But one who is ignorant hankers, and hankering, clings, and with his clinging as condition there is becoming; therefore craving, clinging and becoming are included as well. Hence it is said: “In the previous kamma-process becoming, there is delusion, which is ignorance; there is accumulation, which is formations;there is attachment, which is craving; there is embracing, which is clinging;there is volition, which is becoming; thus these five things in the previous kamma-process becoming are conditions for rebirth-linking here [in the present becoming]” (Paṭis I 52).

293. Herein, In the previous kamma-process becoming means in kamma-process becoming done in the previous birth. There is delusion, which is ignorance means that the delusion that there then was about suffering, etc., deluded whereby the man did the kamma, was ignorance. There is accumulation, which is formations means the prior volitions arisen in one who prepares the things necessary for a gift during a month, perhaps, or a year after he has had the thought “I shall give a gift.” [580] But it is the volitions of one who is actually placing the offerings in the recipients’ hands that are called “becoming.” Or alternatively, it is the volition that is accumulation in six of the impulsions of a single adverting that is called “formations,” and the seventh volition is called “becoming.” Or any kind of volition is called “becoming” and the accumulations associated therewith are called “formations.” There is attachment, which is craving means that in one performing kamma, whatever attachment and aspiration there is for its fruit as rebirth-process-becoming is called craving. There is embracing, which is clinging means that the embracing, the grasping, the adherence, which is a condition for kamma-process becoming and occurs thus, “By doing this I shall preserve, or I shall cut off, sense desire in such and such a place,” is called clinging. There is volition, which is becoming means the kind of volition stated already at the end of the [sentence dealing with] accumulation is becoming. This is how the meaning should be understood.

294. (b) And now there is a fivefold fruit (§291) means what is given in the text beginning with consciousness and ending with feeling, according as it is said: “Here [in the present becoming] there is rebirth-linking, which is consciousness;there is descent [into the womb], which is mentality-materiality; there is sensitivity, which is sense base; there is what is touched, which is contact;there is what is felt, which is feeling; thus these five things here in the [present] rebirth-process becoming have their conditions^[2] in kamma done in the past” (Paṭis I 52).

295. Herein, there is rebirth-linking, which is consciousness means that it is what is called “rebirth-linking” because it arises linking the next becoming that is consciousness. There is descent [into the womb], which is mentality-materiality means that it is what consists in the descent of the material and immaterial states into a womb, their arrival and entry as it were, that is mentality-materiality. There is sensitivity, which is sense base: this is said of the five bases beginning with the eye. There is what is touched, which is contact means that it is what is arisen when an object is touched or in the touching of it, that is contact. There is what is felt, which is feeling means that it is what is felt as results [of kamma] that is arisen together with rebirth-linking consciousness, or with the contact that has the sixfold base as its condition, that is feeling. Thus should the meaning be understood.

296. (c) There are five causes now as well (§291) means craving, and so on. Craving, clinging and becoming are given in the text. But when becoming is included, the formations that precede it or that are associated with it are included too. And by including craving and clinging, the ignorance associated with them, deluded by which a man performs kamma, is included too. So they are five. Hence it is said: “Here [in the present becoming], with the maturing of the bases there is delusion, which is ignorance; there is accumulation, which is formations; there is attachment, which is craving; there is embracing, which is clinging; there is volition, which is becoming;thus these five things here in the [present] kamma-process becoming are conditions for rebirth-linking in the future” (Paṭis I 52). [581]

Herein, the words Here [in the present becoming], with the maturing of the bases point out the delusion existing at the time of the performance of the kamma in one whose bases have matured. The rest is clear.

297. (d) And in the future fivefold fruit: the five beginning with consciousness. These are expressed by the term “birth.” But “ageing-and-death” is the ageing and the death of these [five] themselves. Hence it is said: “In the future there is rebirth-linking, which is consciousness; there is descent [into the womb], which is mentality-materiality; there is sensitivity, which is sense base; there is what is touched, which is contact; there is what is felt, which is feeling; thus these five things in the future rebirth-process becoming have their condition in kamma done here [in the present becoming]” (Paṭis I 52).

So this [Wheel of Becoming] has twenty spokes with these qualities.

298. 4. With triple round it spins forever (§288): here formations and becoming are the round of kamma. Ignorance, craving and clinging are the round of defilements. Consciousness, mentality-materiality, the sixfold base, contact and feeling are the round of result. So this Wheel of Becoming, having a triple round with these three rounds, should be understood to spin, revolving again and again, forever, for the conditions are not cut off as long as the round of defilements is not cut off.

[(IV) Various]

299. As it spins thus:

(1) As to the source in the [four] truths,
(2) As to function, (3) prevention, (4) similes,
(5) Kinds of profundity, and (6) methods,
It should be known accordingly.

300. 1. Herein, [as to source in the truths:] profitable and unprofitable kamma are stated in the Saccavibhaṅga (Vibh 106f.) without distinction as the origin of suffering, and so formations due to ignorance [stated thus] “With ignorance as condition there are formations” are the second truth with the second truth as source. Consciousness due to formations is the first truth with the second truth as source. The states beginning with mentality-materiality and ending with resultant feeling, due respectively to consciousness, etc., are the first truth with the first truth as source. Craving due to feeling is the second truth with the first truth as source.

Clinging due to craving is the second truth with the second truth as source. Becoming due to clinging is the first and second truths with the second truth as source. Birth due to becoming is the first truth with the second truth as source. Ageing-and-death due to birth is the first truth with the first truth as source.

This, in the first place, is how [the Wheel of Becoming] should be known “as to … source in the four truths” in whichever way is appropriate.

301. 2. [As to function:] ignorance confuses beings about physical objects [of sense desire] and is a condition for the manifestation of formations; likewise [kamma-] formations [582] form the formed and are a condition for consciousness; consciousness recognizes an object and is a condition for mentality-materiality; mentality-materiality is mutually consolidating and is a condition for the sixfold base; the sixfold base occurs with respect to its own [separate] objective fields and is a condition for contact; contact touches an object and is a condition for feeling; feeling experiences the stimulus of the object and is a condition for craving; craving lusts after lust-arousing things and is a condition for clinging; clinging clings to clinging-arousing things and is a condition for becoming; becoming flings beings into the various kinds of destiny and is a condition for birth; birth gives birth to the aggregates owing to its occurring as their generation and is a condition for ageing-and-death; and ageing-and-death ensures the decay and dissolution of the aggregates and is a condition for the manifestation of the next becoming because it ensures sorrow, etc.^[3] So this [Wheel of Becoming] should be known accordingly as occurring in two ways “as to function” in whichever way is appropriate to each of its parts.

302. 3. [As to prevention:] the clause “With ignorance as condition there are formations” prevents seeing a maker; the clause “With formations as condition, consciousness” prevents seeing the transmigration of a self; the clause “With consciousness as condition, mentality-materiality” prevents perception of compactness because it shows the analysis of the basis conjectured to be “self”; and the clauses beginning “With mentality-materiality as condition, the sixfold base” prevent seeing any self that sees, etc., cognizes, touches, feels, craves, clings, becomes, is born, ages and dies. So this Wheel of Becoming should be known “as to prevention” of wrong seeing appropriately in each instance.

303. 4. [As to similes:] ignorance is like a blind man because there is no seeing states according to their specific and general characteristics; formations with ignorance as condition are like the blind man’s stumbling; consciousness with formations as condition is like the stumbler’s falling; mentality-materiality with consciousness as condition is like the appearance of a tumour on the fallen man; the sixfold base with mentality-materiality as condition is like a gathering that makes the tumour burst; contact with the sixfold base as condition is like hitting the gathering in the tumour; feeling with contact as condition is like the pain due to the blow; craving with feeling as condition is like longing for a remedy; clinging with craving as condition is like seizing what is unsuitable through longing for a remedy; [583] becoming with clinging as condition is like applying the unsuitable remedy seized; birth with becoming as condition is like the appearance of a change [for the worse] in the tumour owing to the application of the unsuitable remedy; and ageing-and-death with birth as condition is like the bursting of the tumour after the change.

Or again, ignorance here as “no theory” and “wrong theory” (see §52) befogs beings as a cataract does the eyes; the fool befogged by it involves himself in formations that produce further becoming, as a cocoon-spinning caterpillar does with the strands of the cocoon;consciousness guided by formations establishes itself in the destinies, as a prince guided by a minister establishes himself on a throne; [death] consciousness conjecturing about the sign of rebirth generates mentality-materiality in its various aspects in rebirth-linking, as a magician does an illusion; the sixfold base planted in mentality-materiality reaches growth, increase and fulfilment, as a forest thicket does planted in good soil;contact is born from the impingement of the bases, as fire is born from the rubbing together of fire sticks; feeling is manifested in one touched by contact, as burning is in one touched by fire; craving increases in one who feels, as thirst does in one who drinks salt water; one who is parched [with craving] conceives longing for the kinds of becoming, as a thirsty man does for drinks; that is his clinging; by clinging he clings to becoming as a fish does to the hook through greed for the bait; when there is becoming there is birth, as when there is a seed there is a shoot; and death is certain for one who is born, as falling down is for a tree that has grown up.

So this Wheel of Becoming should be known thus “as to similes” too in whichever way is appropriate.

304. 5. [Kinds of profundity:] Now, the Blessed One’s words, “This dependent origination is profound, Ānanda, and profound it appears” (D II 55), refer to profundity (a) of meaning, (b) of law, (c) of teaching, and (d) of penetration. So this Wheel of Becoming should be known “as to the kinds of profundity” in whichever way is appropriate.

305. (a) Herein, the meaning of ageing-and-death produced and originated with birth as condition is profound owing to difficulty in understanding its origin with birth as condition thus: Neither does ageing-and death not come about from birth, nor, failing birth, does it come about from something else; it arises [only] from birth with precisely that nature [of ageing-and-death]. And the meaning of birth with becoming as condition … and the meaning of formations produced and originated with ignorance as condition are treatable in like manner. That is why this Wheel of Becoming is profound in meaning. This, firstly, is the profundity of meaning here. [584] For it is the fruit of a cause that is called “meaning,” according as it is said, “Knowledge about the fruit of a cause is the discrimination of meaning” (Vibh 293).

306. (b) The meaning of ignorance as condition for formations is profound since it is difficult to understand in what mode and on what occasion^[4] ignorance is a condition for the several formations … The meaning of birth as a condition for ageing-and-death is similarly profound. That is why this Wheel of Becoming is profound in law. This is the profundity of law here. For “law” is a name for cause, according as it is said, “Knowledge about cause is discrimination of law” (Vibh 293).

307. (c) Then the teaching of this [dependent origination] is profound since it needs to be given in various ways for various reasons, and none but omniscient knowledge gets fully established in it; for in some places in the suttas it is taught in forward order, in some in backward order, in some in forward and backward order, in some in forward or in backward order starting from the middle, in some in four sections and three links, in some in three sections and two links, and in some in two sections and one link. That is why this Wheel of Becoming is profound in teaching. This is the profundity of teaching.

308. (d) Then the individual essences of ignorance, etc., owing to the penetration of which ignorance, etc., are rightly penetrated as to their specific characteristic, are profound since they are difficult to fathom. That is why this Wheel of Becoming is profound in penetration. For here the meaning of ignorance as unknowing and unseeing and non-penetration of the truth is profound; so is the meaning of formations as forming and accumulating with and without greed; so is the meaning of consciousness as void, uninterested, and manifestation of rebirth-linking without transmigration; so is the meaning of mentality-materiality as simultaneous arising, as resolved into components or not, and as bending [on to an object] (namana) and being molested (ruppana);so is the meaning of the sixfold base as predominance, world, door, field, and possession of objective field; so is the meaning of contact as touching, impingement, coincidence, and concurrence; so is the meaning of feeling as the experiencing of the stimulus of an object, as pleasure or pain or neutrality, as soulless, and as what is felt; so is the meaning of craving as a delighting in, as a committal to, as a current, as a bindweed, as a river, as the ocean of craving, and as impossible to fill; so is the meaning of clinging as grasping, seizing, misinterpreting, adhering, and hard to get by; so is the meaning of becoming as accumulating, forming, and flinging into the various kinds of generation, destiny, station, and abode; so is the meaning of birth as birth, coming to birth, descent [into the womb], rebirth, and manifestation; and so is the meaning of ageingand-birth as destruction, fall, break-up and change. This is profundity of penetration.

309. 6. [As to methods:] Then [585] there are four methods of treating the meaning here. They are (a) the method of identity, (b) the method of diversity, (c) the method of uninterest,^[5] and (d) the method of ineluctable regularity. So this Wheel of Becoming should also be known accordingly “as to the kinds of method.”^[6]

310. (a) Herein, the non-interruption of the continuity in this way, “With ignorance as condition there are formations; with formations as condition, consciousness,” just like a seed’s reaching the state of a tree through the state of the shoot, etc., is called the “method of identity.” One who sees this rightly abandons the annihilation view by understanding the unbrokenness of the continuity that occurs through the linking of cause and fruit. And one who sees it wrongly clings to the eternity view by apprehending identity in the noninterruption of the continuity that occurs through the linking of cause and fruit.

311. (b) The defining of the individual characteristic of ignorance, etc., is called the “method of diversity.” One who sees this rightly abandons the eternity view by seeing the arising of each new state. And one who sees it wrongly clings to the annihilation view by apprehending individual diversity in the events in a single continuity as though it were a broken continuity.

312. (c) The absence of interestedness on the part of ignorance, such as “Formations must be made to occur by me,” or on the part of formations, such as “Consciousness must be made to occur by us,” and so on, is called the “method of uninterestedness.” One who sees this rightly abandons the self view by understanding the absence of a maker. One who sees it wrongly clings to the moral-inefficacy-of-action view, because he does not perceive that the causative function of ignorance, etc., is established as a law by their respective individual essences.

313. (d) The production of only formations, etc., respectively and no others with ignorance, etc., as the respective reasons, like that of curd, etc., with milk, etc., as the respective reasons, is called the “method of ineluctable regularity.” One who sees this rightly abandons the no-cause view and the moral-inefficacyof-action view by understanding how the fruit accords with its condition. One who sees it wrongly by apprehending it as non-production of anything from anything, instead of apprehending the occurrence of the fruit in accordance with its conditions, clings to the no-cause view and to the doctrine of fatalism. So this Wheel of Becoming:

As to source in the [four] truths,
As to function, prevention, similes,
Kinds of profundity, and methods,
Should be known accordingly.

314. There is no one, even in a dream, who has got out of the fearful round of rebirths, which is ever destroying like a thunderbolt, unless he has severed with the knife of knowledge well whetted on the stone of sublime concentration, this Wheel of Becoming, which offers no footing owing to its great profundity and is hard to get by owing to the maze of many methods. [586]

And this has been said by the Blessed One: “This dependent origination is profound, Ānanda, and profound it appears. And, Ānanda, it is through not knowing, through not penetrating it, that this generation has become a tangled skein, a knotted ball of thread, root-matted as a reed bed, and finds no way out of the round of rebirths, with its states of loss, unhappy destinies, … perdition” (D II 55).

Therefore, practicing for his own and others’ benefit and welfare, and abandoning other duties:

Let a wise man with mindfulness
So practice that he may begin
To find a footing in the deeps
Of the dependent origin.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Their flowers wither, their clothes get dirty, sweat comes from their armpits, their bodies become unsightly, and they get restless (see M-a IV 170).

[2]:

As regards these four paragraphs from the Paṭisambhidā (see §§292, 294, 296, and 297), all four end with the word ‘paccayā’ (nom. pl. and abl. s. of paccaya = condition). In the first and third paragraphs (§§292 and 296) this is obviously nom. pl. and agrees with ‘ime pañca dhammā’ (these five things). But in the second and fourth paragraphs the context suggests vipākā (results) instead of conditions. However, there is no doubt that the accepted reading is paccayā here too; for the passage is also quoted in XIX.13, in the Sammohavinodanī (Paccayākāra-Vibhaṅga commentary = present context), and at M-a I 53. The Paramatthamañjūsā and Mūla Ṭīkā do not mention this point.

The Saddhammappakāsinī (Paṭisambhidā commentary) comments on the first paragraph:

“Purimakammabhavasmin ti atītajātiyā kammabhave karīyamāne pavattā; idha paṭisandhiyā paccayā ti paccuppannā paṭisandhiyā paccayabhūtā,”

and on the second paragraph:

“Idh’upapattibhavasmiṃ pure katassa kammassa paccayā ti paccuppanne vipākabhave atītajātiyaṃ katassa kammassa paccayena pavattī ti attho.”

The Majjhima Nikāya Ṭīkā (M-a I 53) says of the second paragraph:

“Ime paccayā ti ime viññāṇādayo pañca koṭṭhāsikā dhammā, purimabhave katassa kammassa, kammavaṭṭassa, paccayā, paccayabhāvato, taṃ paṭicca, idha, etarahi, upapattibhavasmiṃ upapattibhavabhāvena vā hontī ti attho.”

From these comments it is plain enough that “paccayā” in the second and fourth paragraphs is taken as abl. sing. (e.g. avijjā-paccayā saṅkhārā).

There is a parallel ablative construction with genitive at Paṭis II 72, 1.8:

“Gatisampattiyā ñāṇasampayutte aṭṭhannaṃ hetūnaṃ paccayā uppatti hoti.”

Perhaps the literal rendering of the second and fourth paragraphs’ final sentence might be: “Thus there are these five things here in the [present] rebirth-process becoming with their condition [consisting] of kamma done in the past,” and so on. The point is unimportant.

[3]:

“Sorrow, etc., have already been established as ignorance; but death consciousness itself is devoid of ignorance and formations and is not a condition for the next becoming; that is why ‘because it assures sorrow, etc.’ is said” (Vism-mhṭ 640).

[4]:

Avatthā—“occasion”: not in PED.

[5]:

Avyāpāra—“uninterest”: here the equivalent of anābhoga, see IV.171 and IX.108. The perhaps unorthodox form “uninterest” has been used to avoid the “unselfish” sense sometimes implied by “disinterestedness.” Vyāpāra is clearly intended throughout this work as “motivated action” in contrast with “blind action of natural forces.” The word “interest” has therefore been chosen to bring out this effect.

[6]:

The dependent origination, or structure of conditions, appears as a flexible formula with the intention of describing the ordinary human situation of a man in his world (or indeed any conscious event where ignorance and craving have not entirely ceased). That situation is always complex, since it is implicit that consciousness with no object, or being (bhava—becoming, or however rendered) without consciousness (of it), is impossible except as an artificial abstraction. The dependent origination, being designed to portray the essentials of that situation in the limited dimensions of words and using only elements recognizable in experience, is not a logical proposition (Descartes’ cogito is not a logical proposition). Nor is it a temporal cause-and-effect chain: each member has to be examined as to its nature in order to determine what its relations to the others are (e.g. whether successive in time or conascent, positive or negative, etc., etc.). A purely cause-and-effect chain would not represent the pattern of a situation that is always complex, always subjective-objective, static-dynamic, positive-negative, and so on. Again, there is no evidence of any historical development in the various forms given within the limit of the Sutta Piṭaka (leaving aside the Paṭisambhidāmagga), and historical treatment within that particular limit is likely to mislead, if it is hypothesis with no foundation.

Parallels with European thought have been avoided in this translation. But perhaps an exception can be made here, with due caution, in the case of Descartes. The revolution in European thought started by his formula cogito ergo sum (“I think, therefore I am”) is not yet ended. Now, it will perhaps not escape notice that the two elements, “I think” and “I am,” in what is not a logical proposition parallel to some extent the two members of the dependent origination, consciousness and being (becoming). In other words, consciousness activated by craving and clinging as the dynamic factory, guided and blinkered by ignorance (“I think” or “consciousness with the conceit ‘I am’”), conditions being (“therefore I am”) in a complex relationship with other factors relating subject and object (not accounted for by Descartes). The parallel should not be pushed too far. In fact it is only introduced because in Europe the dependent origination seems to be very largely misunderstood with many strange interpretations placed upon it, and because the cogito does seem to offer some sort of reasonable approach.

In this work, for convenience because of the special importance attached here to the aspect of the death-rebirth link, the dependent origination is considered from only one standpoint, namely, as applicable to a period embracing a minimum of three lives. But this is not the only application. With suitable modifications it is also used in the Vibhaṅga to describe the structure of the complex in each one of the 89 single typeconsciousnesses laid down in the Dhammasaṅgaṇī; and Bhadantācariya Buddhaghosa says: “This structure of conditions is present not only in (a continuity period consisting of) multiple consciousnesses but also in each single consciousness as well” (Vibh-a 199–200). Also the Paṭisambhidāmagga gives five expositions, four describing dependent origination in one life, the fifth being made to present a special inductive generalization to extend what is observable in this life (the fact that consciousness is always preceded by consciousness, cf. this Ch. §83f.—i.e. that it always has a past and is inconceivable without one) back beyond birth, and (since craving and ignorance ensure its expected continuance) on after death. There are, besides, various other, differing applications indicated by the variant forms given in the suttas themselves.