Dependent Co-arising
One of the most difficult subjects to understand in Buddhism, is the subject of Dependent Co-arising. It is the study of how suffering is caused. Before we begin this analysis, I would like to make a disclaimer. These practices need to be done in a safe place. If done properly there is a sense that boundaries are needed at the same time. If done to extremes of zealotry, you are open to violent people and exploiters to hurt you, for example:
“Monks, even if bandits were to carve you up savagely, limb by limb, with a two-handled saw, he among you who let his heart get angered even at that, would not be doing my bidding… And now let contact with fists come to this body, let contact with stones, with sticks, with knives come to this body, for this is how the Buddha’s bidding is done.” ~ The Buddha
For most people it’s the understanding and the deep relief from stress they are looking for. Even with these unpractical applications, the knowledge unfolding is helpful. It helps us understand why there is theft, war, and strife in this life, and how it keeps repeating endlessly throughout history, like a fated colliding of galaxies. A murderous cause and effect. On one hand you have deep peace and pacifism, leading to being easy for predators to pillage. On the other hand, there are those who do nothing but fight over territory and think that is all there is to life.
In the real world we will have to exert some control over our possessions. At the same time we have to be aware of how much energy we are draining in acquiring more, and trying to defend our acquisitions. Balance.
One of the surprising inclusions in the Bhikkhu Bodhi translation in the Mahanidana Sutta, is a secondary sequence of dependent co-arising describing what happens before this fighting starts.
Alternate sequence
When we have craving in our body there is two types of craving. First is Acquisitive Craving, to get something or a situation. Second is a Possessive Craving, to keep what you have. Then there is Pursuit of these objects or situations. This leads to Gain of these objects and situations. When they are gained there is Decision-making of how to apportion these possessions for oneself and others. As the attributes of the possessions or situations are thought about in decision making, there is a Desire leading to Attachment. Attachment is the sense of self towards these objects. Possessiveness comes next, which is based on excuses to apportion more for oneself. Stinginess is the unwillingness to share. Safeguarding is the natural act to protect what one is not willing to share. This leads to Various evil phenomena, which are various forms of conflict where one wants to take and another wants to defend. When one looks at boundaries like borders, laws, and rights, then we have the world we see today.
“When there is this, that comes to be; with the arising of this, that arises. When this is absent, that does not come to be; with cessation of this, that ceases.” ~ The Buddha
The alternate sequence is helpful in understanding conflict, but the classic sequence is needed to see what is happening inside the mind.
Dependent Co-arising, tr. by Darryl Bailey
Ignorance
of the flowing unformed nature of existence
creates a focus on [Clouds]
fabrications,
patterns in the flow, such as patterns of [River]
consciousness
(seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, smelling, thinking), [Sensing – hands in water]
forms and names
(physical and mental divisions),
the body,
patterns of [Filling cup]
contact
with other forms and the outline of [Drinking]
feelings
associated with that contact. [Drinking]
Fixating on the above formations creates
craving
for pleasant feelings, [Drinking]
clinging
to particular habits and [Filling cup]
being,
(a belief in ideas of self and world
plus the clinging activities based on that belief). [Aqueduct]
This is
birth.
It leads to [Broken cup]
Ageing and death (change and loss),
Sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief and despair, [War]
wanting/yearning,
frustration/anger,
anxiety/fear,
laziness/insensitivity,
uncertainty/doubt.
Considering how much momentum these forces have over us, it’s hard to imagine how we get out. Yet it is when we are in stress that we desire to learn about these practices in the first place.
Ignorance in Thanissaro Bhikkhu’s book, The Shape of Suffering, is where all of this starts. Specifically it is being ignorant of the 4 noble truths. The 4 noble truths are: being ignorant of stress being an integral part of life, that there is a cause to this stress, there is a cessation to this stress, and there is a path to this cessation. This path is the 8 fold path.
This is the beginning of a long process of mastery that a Buddhist must come to terms with. The sense of self. Since these links in dependent co-arising are symbolic, I will give a run down of what they actually mean. A good way to do this is to follow the links backwards. The links aren’t always about time, but are more about supports. Each item is supported be the below item. There are also feedback loops where certain items can feed their supports.
Aging and Death
With change, a lack of control, and a turbulent life, our plans can go awry. There is a sense of stress and disappointment over how our identity didn’t create the results we hoped for. This is the stage of aging and death of this identity we created. It is the start for many people on the path. People look at their contribution for the suffering they are feeling. One of the suggested practices is to be aware of the death of all identities including the shock of physical death. This helps to disenchant the lust for the Birth of more stressful Identities. We stressfully shed countless identities before we actually die.
Birth
The support or cause of the aging and death of this identity is in fact a Birth of the identity in the first place. Birth is the role or identity we have taken on to get and control what we want of objects or situations. Pay attention to how impermanent these identities are, how stressful they are to keep up, and they aren’t really, and truly YOU. It is a role you are playing to get something.
Becoming
Birth is supported by Becoming, which is ruminating about different roles we can take on to get what we want. We look at shapes, colors, and opportunities and think about different identities that can shape our environment to our liking. Part of the stress of becoming is not knowing which role to choose. A healthier form of becoming is developing a concentration practice which is an enjoyment that doesn’t hurt others or oneself, and will help you to see more detail inside your mind.
Clinging
Becoming is brainstorming different roles or plans on how to get something. This is supported by Clinging to the target object or situation. This is the passion and desire for new objects or situations. They can also be passion for old objects and situations. It is a sustenance or that which gives passionate strength to act on these objects. A feeling of feeding to fill your craving. This is the main target of the 4 noble truths. When you are clinging you are acting on some kind of allure. By looking vividly at the drawbacks, the clinging can weaken.
Craving
Clinging is supported by craving. Craving is located in our senses, and the different forms of craving in these senses. The senses want something interesting to feed on, and it fuels the clinging which is acquiring a target and having passion for it. What is interesting is that studies show that part of the brain related to wanting something can actually be dissociated from the part of the brain that responds to liking. For example, if I want something I should look at the feeling that overvalues what is wanted and then compare to the actual experience of enjoying. Often times there is a disconnect, where the wanting, or hype, was more pleasurable than the actual experience. Again focusing on the drawbacks in the clinging stage, can help to alleviate the craving. The brain has to see that a lot of things aren’t worth the effort and risk.
Feeling
Supporting the craving is feeling. Feeling requires senses, and contact of experience on the senses. The feeling can note what is pleasant, unpleasant, and neither pleasant nor unpleasant. The craving maximizes pleasant experiences, and aims to reduce unpleasant experiences. The main practice here is restraint of the senses to see how details in the environment at sensory contact can create this cause and effect, where feelings add to craving, and clinging and so forth. See: The Pleasure Principle: https://youtu.be/0UR4hkbKsJ0
Name and Form
To register a feeling of what is pleasant or unpleasant, the mind needs Name and Form as a support for it. Name is for mental movements like the intention to pay attention, which is basically the attention span moving towards or away from perceptions. Perceptions are labels used to recognize what an object or situation is. The practice here is to apply appropriate attention that focuses on how stress is created. Form is the sense of the body and the sense of solidity, liquidity, energy and warmth, the classic 4 elements. All these recognitions support feeling, which categorizes in our memory what is likeable or unlikeable. The practice here is to look at the solidity, liquidity, energy, and warmth of other objects and mimic their non-reactive qualities. Inanimate objects are not horrified about things the way the human mind is. See: Following the pain meditation: https://youtu.be/9kAlGO7Dwls
Consciousness
The factor that allows for these recognitions is consciousness or knowing. This function allows us to know that something is there or something is happening. Instead of seeing consciousness as a final self to rely on, you need strong concentration to see how consciousness is feeding on objects in order to stay conscious. Here is quote by Bhikkhu Bodhi:
“Consciousness appears an enduring subject due to lack of attention. When it is mindfully examined the appearance of lastingness is dissolved by the perception of its impermanence. Consciousness constantly arises and falls, and each new arising occurs through conditions.” This means that consciousness feeds on Name and Form to stay conscious.
Fabrication
For knowing to exist, there needs to be fabrication. Fabrication is simply the mind’s natural ability to put together distinct experiences so that the mind can know one thing from another. It’s the basic faculty that lets us perceive differences in experience. Verbal fabrication is the putting together of concepts. Mental fabrications shape the mind into various states. Bodily fabrication is the sensation of movement of the breath. Progressive concentration practice through the jhanas quiets all these fabrications. This teaches the meditator how cause and effect works in the mind. It also teaches the value of pleasure in the practice, because the mind needs a replacement pleasure like concentration, so it is stable enough to see these subtle insights without destabilizing. When the mind turns aversive to scary insights of impermanence of identity, it can easily replace concentration with external pleasures to find relief.
Ignorance
Finally we are back to what is supporting all this stress which is ignorance of the eightfold path.
These insights are difficult and subtle terrain to explore, but the 8 fold path is where it is safe to walk, because it sets up the mind so that there is pleasure in the practice and an ability to see more detail with strong concentration. The eightfold path works as follows…
- Right View: 1st is right view which is an attitude of understanding that there is stress, there is a cause for stress, a cessation of stress, and a path to the cessation of stress. The 4 noble truths.
- Right Resolve: Next is Right Resolve which is realizing that unskillful actions and thoughts, send you towards suffering. This makes it harder to meditate.
- Right Speech: Right Speech is seeing if your words are causing harm to yourself and others. By lying, using harsh, divisive speech, and idle chatter, your internal voices will be the same. Again this makes meditating difficult.
- Right Action: Right Action is looking at your actions to see if they are harmful to oneself or others. By avoiding killing, stealing, and illicit sex, you don’t have to ruminate about them in your meditation.
- Right Livelihood: Here we have to be careful. The best way to look at right livelihood is to see if you are harming others. One shouldn’t quit their job working at a tobacco company right away, but they should start planning to move into something more ethical.
- Right Effort: Let go of unskillfulness, prevent unskillfulness from arising, cultivate skillfulness, and maintain skillfulness. Because we have habits, we start by letting go of those habits in the moment, and try to prevent backsliding. Then we start creating new actions and habits, and then try to maintain those actions. This is a form of thought stopping, but it includes stopping unskillful actions. There is a tendency in the mind to finish a thought or action before moving on, but in many cases it’s better to interrupt these thoughts and actions right away.
- Right Mindfulness: Mindfulness here is keeping in mind what you say you want to do with the 8 fold path. It’s based on Ardency which is doing something well. Alertness is paying attention to what you are doing and the results. Being mindful to keep the effort going ultimately supports…
- Right Concentration: Now that the prior 7 requisites are developed, it is possible to enter right concentration. These are stages in concentration, but focusing on doing it well, will prevent you from going into stressful thinking about the end point too soon. Just get to know the concentration well and indulge in the pleasure. This internal pleasure is something that competes with external pleasures, making it easier to do the insight practice.
Thanissaro says: “Many people ask, ‘How much concentration can I get away with? How little do I have to put into it?’ The answer is, put as much into it as you can, because right concentration is what puts the mind in a position where it can really see. From that position you can continue to develop the other factors of the path so that they all come together. That’s how you gain the release that the Buddha intended for you.”
While in this concentration, the insight practice is to watch the impermanence of the impulses that interfere with the meditation. Look at how they arise and pass away. The meditator can notice the stress associated with these impulses ,and the relief when they pass. You want to see how the mind enjoys experiences, and then you want to compare, if these objects the impulses are looking for, are worth it compared to the peace you feel when they pass away. You can do this with your concentration practice. Look at the effort in maintaining concentration. Watch the stress in keeping these states permanent, and how there’s no permanent identity here. The mind falls into the deathless when it is ready.
What is the deathless like?
It’s hard to describe something that is unfabricated, and these descriptions are all fabrications themselves so they become contradictory or look like actual experiences of some kind.
“But because consciousness without surface—unlike dependently co-arisen sensory consciousness—exists outside of time, it does not arise. Because it is known independently of the six sense media, it will not cease when they do. This consciousness provides no footing for any of the causal factors—personal or cosmic—that would lead to any further suffering or stress.” ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu
As practitioners learn to dip into the deathless they crave less and less external enjoyments, because they can see with their meditation that there’s stress even in being conscious of objects. Stress was always there struggling to control these constantly moving objects and mind states.
As one progresses to lower levels of craving, one notices that they are able to enjoy things just as they are, without hype and embellishment. When the craving isn’t there, the sights, sounds, tastes, smells, sensations, and thoughts aren’t infused with a sense of MINE to distort the mind.
The Shape of Suffering – Thanissaro Bhikkhu: https://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/thanissaro/shapeofsuffering.pdf
The Great Discourse on Causation: The Mahanidana Sutta and its Commentaries – Translated by Bhikkhu Bodhi: https://www.isbns.net/isbn/9781681724478/
Buddhessence – Darryl Bailey: https://www.isbns.net/isbn/9780973897005/
Under the Bodhi Tree: Buddha’s Original Vision of Dependent Co-arising – Ajahn Buddhadasa Bhikkhu: https://www.isbns.net/isbn/9781614292197/
The Noble Eightfold Path – Thanissaro Bhikkhu: https://www.dhammatalks.org/books/OnThePath/Cover.html
Litt A, Khan U, Shiv B. Lusting while loathing: parallel counterdriving of wanting and liking. Psychol Sci. 2010 Jan;21(1):118-25.
Contemplative Practice: https://psychreviews.org/category/contemplativepractice/