清淨道論 義疏通講 · 冊17Visuddhimagga · Exposition Throughout · Vol. 17

Do not be driven back by the thicket: this chapter says a single thing—suffering arises through a chain of conditions, and so can cease when those conditions are removed

The Big Picture — The Engine Room of the Whole Treatise

Chapter Seventeen is the engine room of the whole treatise, and the chapter most readers open only to shut again—the twelve factors, three times, and twenty-four conditions form a frightening thicket. Yet stripped to its root, it says a single thing: suffering is neither made by somebody nor sprung up without cause; it arises through a chain of conditions, and so can cease when those conditions are removed. The chapter is dense so that this chain of conditions may be seen with utter clarity—clearly enough that you can find where to intervene and cut it. This is also the final form of the measuring blade used throughout this exposition: earlier it taught you to relinquish the pleasure of jhāna (Chapter 4) and dissect “I” (Chapter 14); this chapter removes that “I” altogether from the causal story—the wheel needs no self to push it; conditions keep it turning, and when that is clearly seen, the wheel can stop. 〔Observation〕 This unit is the threshold of the chapter: it first distinguishes dependent origination from dependently originated phenomena (vernacular §1), gives dependent origination’s characteristic, function, manifestation, and four synonyms (vernacular §2), refutes two misreadings (vernacular §3), explains the term “dependent origination” in four ways and the two extremes it blocks (vernacular §4), sets out the expositor’s difficulty and the Buddha’s four modes of teaching (vernacular §5), answers why ignorance is placed first (vernacular §6), and closes with the modes of meaning, characteristic, classification, and determination of the factors (vernacular §§7–8). The detailed treatment of the twelve factors begins with 17-02.

§01 Dependent Origination and Dependently Originated Phenomena—Establishing the Distinction from the Discourses → Vernacular §1

Of the phenomena constituting the soil of wisdom, what remains is dependent origination and the dependently originated phenomena included by the word “and so forth” (vernacular §1). Dependent origination means the phenomena beginning with ignorance: “With ignorance as condition, formations; with formations as condition, consciousness; with consciousness as condition, name-and-form; with name-and-form as condition, the six bases; with the six bases as condition, contact; with contact as condition, feeling; with feeling as condition, craving; with craving as condition, clinging; with clinging as condition, becoming; with becoming as condition, birth; with birth as condition, aging-and-death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair arise. Thus there is the origin of this whole mass of suffering.” Dependently originated phenomena means the phenomena beginning with aging-and-death: “Aging-and-death is impermanent, conditioned, dependently originated, subject to exhaustion, subject to dissolution, subject to fading away, subject to cessation … ignorance is impermanent …” In brief, dependent origination is the side of the conditioning phenomena, and dependently originated phenomena are the phenomena born from those conditions. The discourse gives the proof: “With birth as condition, aging-and-death. Whether Tathāgatas arise or do not arise, that element stands just so: the stability of Dhamma, the fixed order of Dhamma, specific conditionality … the suchness there, the not-unsuchness, the non-otherness, and the specific conditionality—bhikkhus, this is called dependent origination.” 〔Reading〕 First distinguish the two terms: dependent origination is on the side of the conditions; dependently originated phenomena are on the side of the results—the same twelve factors, viewed as causes, are dependent origination; viewed as results, they are dependently originated phenomena. And the discourse’s words “whether Tathāgatas arise or do not arise, that element stands just so” are the foundation of the whole chapter: dependent origination was not invented by the Buddha; it was seen by him.

§02 The Characteristic, Function, Manifestation, and Four Synonyms of Dependent Origination → Vernacular §2

Dependent origination has the characteristic of being the condition for phenomena beginning with aging-and-death, the function of binding to suffering, and the manifestation of the wrong path (vernacular §2). Its four synonyms are these. Each phenomenon arises only from conditions that are neither more nor fewer—suchness. Once the conditions have come together, the conditioned phenomenon never fails to arise even for a moment—not-unsuchness. Conditions for one phenomenon do not produce a different phenomenon—non-otherness. It is the condition for aging-and-death and the rest, or the collection of those conditions—specific conditionality (“these conditions” means the conditions for these phenomena; “specific conditionality” means precisely these conditions, or their collection). 〔Reading〕 The four names show four faces of the same fact: neither more nor fewer (suchness), unfailing (not-unsuchness), not misplaced (non-otherness), and precisely these conditions (specific conditionality). Attend to the phrase “manifested as the wrong path”: this is dependent origination in its roundward course (forward contemplation), appearing as the road of suffering. Its cessationward face comes in 17-11.

§03 Refuting Two Other Views—Mere Arising and the Modification of Formations → Vernacular §3

Some say that “the arising which takes place correctly and independently of such external causes imagined by outsiders as primordial nature and a primal self is dependent origination.” This does not stand: it has no basis in a discourse; it conflicts with the discourses (the Padesavihāra-sutta: after full awakening the Blessed One dwelt seeing the modes of conditions, not merely arising—“There is what is felt with wrong view as condition, and there is what is felt with right view as condition”; the Kaccānagotta Sutta: forward dependent origination is called “the origin of the world” and shown to eradicate the annihilation view, which seeing mere arising cannot eradicate, while seeing the uninterrupted continuity of conditions can); its profundity cannot be established (“Ānanda, this dependent origination is profound”—the four profundities and four methods are absent from mere arising); and it breaks grammar (paṭicca requires the same agent and prior time, but when joined to “arising” there is no common agent; attaching “exists” to make “dependent origination exists” also fails and entails a further arising of arising) (vernacular §3). Others say, “Specific conditionality is the mode in which ignorance and the rest serve as causes, and the concept ‘dependent origination’ applies to the modification of formations.” This too fails, because the discourse says ignorance and the rest themselves are the causes: “This is the cause of aging-and-death … this is ignorance.” Thus the statement “dependent origination should be understood as the conditioning phenomena” is correct. 〔Reading〕 The Commentator tests both schools with the same four blades used throughout the treatise: Is there discourse support? Does it agree with the discourses? Is it deep enough? Does its grammar work? The first school reduces dependent origination to “things just happen”—that cannot remove the annihilation view, because it does not see the continuity of conditions. The second reduces it to an abstract “causal nature”—that empties ignorance itself of force. The Commentator wants the plainest answer: dependent origination is these concrete conditions beginning with ignorance. 〔Observation〕

§04 Four Explanations of the Term “Dependent Origination” and the Two Extremes It Blocks → Vernacular §4

The expression “dependent origination” can suggest that what is meant is simply arising; that impression must be quieted by grasping the term’s meaning (vernacular §4). Four explanations follow. First, when this collection of phenomena is understood it leads to welfare and happiness, so “the wise ought to understand it”—paṭicco (“to be understood”); it arises conjointly and rightly, neither separately nor causelessly—samuppādo (“co-arising”). The collection of causes is its condition, so the name of the result is figuratively applied to the cause—just as the world calls sugar, which conditions phlegm, “phlegm-sugar,” and the Teaching calls the arising of Buddhas, which conditions happiness, “the arising of Buddhas is happiness.” Second, the factors in the assemblage of causes, through their roles in accomplishing a common result and through their completeness, proceed facing one another—paṭicco; they produce only phenomena that arise in conjunction and operate inseparably—samuppādo. Third, if the conditions did not depend upon one another, or if any were missing, they could not produce the result: this conditionality, depending mutually, produces phenomena equally and together, not piecemeal and not in a temporal sequence. Thus the Sage spoke. Fourth, in terms of what the expression blocks: the first word, paṭicca, displays the conjunction of conditions and blocks eternalism, causelessness, the theory of unequal causes, and the doctrine of a controlling lord—for what use would a conjunction of conditions have for what is eternal or operates without causes? The second word, samuppāda, displays the arising of phenomena and refutes annihilationism, nihilism, and the doctrine of non-action—for phenomena repeatedly arise dependent upon preceding conditions, so where could annihilation be? Together the two words display the middle way: phenomena arise without breaking the continuity of their respective conjunctions of conditions; the claims “the agent and experiencer are the same” and “the agent is one, the experiencer another” are abandoned; local idiom is not clung to, and conventional designation is not overrun. 〔Reading〕 This is the chapter’s most refined passage of linguistic philosophy, but its point lies in the last sentence: the word “dependent” blocks eternalism, and the word “origination” blocks annihilationism; together they form the middle way. “Not overrunning conventional designation” also grants the reader permission: you may still say “I” and “he,” provided you know that these are conventions. 〔Observation〕

§05 The Expositor’s Difficulty and Four Modes of Teaching → Vernacular §5

Anyone explaining dependent origination must enter the circle of the Vibhajjavādins, not misrepresent the teachers, depart from the tenets of the school, draw in another school’s tenets, contradict the discourses, or fail to accord with the Vinaya; the expositor must look to the great authorities, illuminate the Dhamma, gather the meaning, and restate that same meaning through various other methods—and dependent origination is intrinsically difficult to explain (the ancient teachers said: “Truth, being, rebirth-linking, and the modes of conditions—these four phenomena are hard to see and exceedingly hard to teach”). The Commentator declares, “Wishing to explain the modes of conditions, I find no footing, like a person sunk in the sea”; nevertheless, relying on the Teaching’s many modes of exposition and the uninterrupted path of earlier teachers, he begins (vernacular §5). Determination proceeds in five modes: by differences in teaching, by meaning, by characteristic and the rest, by the onefold and the rest, and by the determination of the factors. The four modes of teaching resemble four vine gatherers: from beginning to end (forward teaching: ignorance conditions formations … birth conditions aging-and-death—to show, for those confused about the causes of occurrence, that phenomena occur from their own causes and to show the order of arising); from the middle to the end (feeling → delight → clinging → becoming → birth—to show the future from causes of the future in the present); from the end to the beginning (reverse teaching: “Is aging-and-death really conditioned by birth, or not?”—contemplating the troubled world, to show the causes of the suffering beginning with aging-and-death that he had himself realized); and from the middle to the beginning (the four nutriments are conditioned by craving … craving → feeling → contact → six bases → name-and-form → consciousness → formations → ignorance—following the conditioning of nutriment back into the past, to show the sequence of cause and effect). Dependent origination is wholly excellent and leads to penetration of the principle from whatever point it is entered. The Blessed One possesses the four kinds of fearlessness, the discriminations, and the four profundities, and has mastery of teaching. The mode established here is the first, the forward teaching. 〔Reading〕 The simile of the four vine gatherers makes it perfectly clear that the twelve factors admit more than a single reading: the Buddha begins with different factors according to the person and occasion. This already suggests that they form a circuit whose chain may be seized at any link, not a line that can only be read from its head. 〔Observation〕

§06 Why Ignorance Is Placed First and the Two Heads of the Teaching of the Round → Vernacular §6

Why is ignorance placed first? Not because it is causeless: “With the origin of the influxes there is the origin of ignorance.” It is first only in the teaching of the round (vernacular §6). The Blessed One teaches the round with either of two phenomena as its head: ignorance (“A first point of ignorance is not discerned … yet ‘ignorance has this as condition’ is discerned”) or craving for becoming (“A first point of craving for becoming is not discerned …”). Why these two? Because they are the respective distinctive causes of kamma leading to a bad destination and to a good destination. A worldling overwhelmed by ignorance initiates kamma leading to a bad destination, such as killing, like an ox for slaughter, tormented by fire and blows, driven by distress to drink hot water that is tasteless and harmful. A worldling overwhelmed by craving for becoming initiates kamma leading to a good destination, such as abstaining from killing, like an ox that drinks cool water which is tasty and relieves distress. Sometimes the teaching has a single phenomenon as root (“formations have ignorance as their proximate support”; “craving grows; with craving as condition, clinging”), and sometimes two (“the foolish person, obstructed by ignorance and conjoined with craving …”). Here “with ignorance as condition, formations” is the teaching rooted in the single phenomenon of ignorance. 〔Reading〕 “Ignorance is not a first cause”—the Commentator expressly closes the path that would turn dependent origination into a creation account: ignorance has a cause, the influxes; the round is merely taught from ignorance as a beginning. The teaching of the round has two possible heads: ignorance propels kamma toward bad destinations, while craving for becoming propels kamma toward good destinations—even good kamma remains within the wheel, propelled by craving for becoming. This qualifies the thought that practice consists merely in accumulating good deeds. 〔Observation〕

§07 The Mode of Meaning—The Meanings of the Twelve Factors → Vernacular §7

Ignorance: it obtains what should not be obtained (bodily misconduct and the rest) and fails to obtain what should be obtained (bodily good conduct and the rest); it prevents the meanings of aggregate as mass, base as domain, element as empty, faculty as dominance, and truth as suchness from being known; it prevents the four meanings of suffering beginning with oppression from being known; it drives beings through every birth, destination, existence, station of consciousness, and abode of beings in beginningless saṃsāra; it runs toward women and men who do not ultimately exist, but not toward aggregates and the rest that do exist; and it conceals the bases and objects of eye-consciousness and the rest, together with dependent origination and dependently originated phenomena (vernacular §7). A condition is that dependent upon which a result comes: it neither leaves nor relinquishes it, and the result both arises and occurs; the meaning of condition is assistance. Formations form what is conditioned. They are twofold: formations conditioned by ignorance (the three—meritorious, demeritorious, and imperturbable—and the three—bodily, verbal, and mental—making six; all are nothing but mundane wholesome and unwholesome volitions) and formations to which the word “formation” is applied (conditioned formation, formed formation, formation that forms, and formation as exertion, making four); none falls outside conditioned formations. The remaining factors: consciousness because it cognizes; name because it bends; form because it is deformed; base because it extends upon what comes and leads what has been extended; contact because it contacts; feeling because it feels; craving because it thirsts; clinging because it clings; becoming because it becomes and brings into becoming; birth because of being born; aging because of growing old; death because through it beings die; sorrow because of sorrowing; lamentation because of lamenting; pain because it pains or digs twice by way of arising and persistence; grief because of a bad state of mind; despair because of powerful weariness. “Arise” is connected to every clause, not only to sorrow and the rest. “Thus” means only from causes beginning with ignorance, not through creation by a controlling lord. “Whole” means unmixed or entire. “Mass of suffering” means an accumulation of suffering, not a being and not pleasure or beauty. “Origin” means production, and “there is” means arises. 〔Reading〕 Of ignorance’s seven meanings, the keenest is this: it runs toward what does not exist—woman and man—yet does not run toward what exists—the aggregates. Ignorance is not a lack of knowing; it is knowing in the wrong place. And “mass of suffering—not a being, nor pleasure or beauty” is the key to reading the whole chain: from beginning to end there is no “person” who suffers, only a mass of suffering being produced. 〔Observation〕

§08 The Mode of Characteristics, the Mode of Classification, and Determination of the Factors → Vernacular §8

The mode of characteristics: ignorance—unknowing, delusion, concealment, influxes; formations—forming, accumulation, volition, ignorance; consciousness—cognizing, precedence, rebirth-linking, formations (or basis and object); name—bending, association, inseparability, consciousness; form—deformation, dispersion, the indeterminate, consciousness; the six bases—base, seeing and the rest, the nature of basis and door, name-and-form; contact—contacting, striking, concurrence, six bases; feeling—experiencing, enjoyment of the flavor of the object, pain and pleasure, contact; craving—cause, delight, insatiability, feeling; clinging—grasping, not releasing, consolidation of craving and view, craving; becoming—kamma and kamma-result, bringing into becoming and becoming, wholesome/unwholesome/indeterminate, clinging; birth and the rest are as in the “Explanation of the Truths” (vernacular §8). The mode of classification: ignorance is onefold; twofold (non-practice and wrong practice; prompted and unprompted); threefold according to the three feelings; fourfold according to penetration of the four truths; fivefold by concealing the dangers of the five destinations; and sixfold by doors and objects for all immaterial phenomena. Formations are onefold (having influxes and being phenomena with result); twofold in several ways (wholesome/unwholesome; limited/exalted; inferior/middling; fixed in wrongness/not fixed); threefold as the meritorious and the rest; fourfold by leading to the four modes of birth; and fivefold by leading to the five destinations. Consciousness is onefold (mundane resultant and the rest); twofold (with roots/without roots and so forth); threefold (included in the three existences; associated with the three feelings; without roots/with two roots/with three roots); and fourfold and fivefold by birth and destination. Name-and-form is onefold (dependent on consciousness and conditioned by kamma); twofold (with object/without object); threefold (past and the rest); and fourfold and fivefold. The six bases are onefold (the place of birth and convergence); twofold (great-element sensitivity and consciousness and the rest); threefold (objects that have arrived, not arrived, or are neither); and fourfold and fivefold. Contact and the rest are to be understood similarly. Determination of the factors: sorrow and the rest are stated to show that the wheel of becoming remains unbroken—the foolish worldling struck by aging-and-death sorrows, wearies, laments, beats the breast, and becomes confused; for as long as these occur, ignorance occurs, and again “with ignorance as condition, formations”: the wheel of becoming is joined. Sorrow and the rest are gathered together with aging-and-death, so the factors of dependent origination are exactly twelve. This is the brief account here. 〔Reading〕 The table of characteristics gives every factor a “proximate cause,” and each factor’s proximate cause is the preceding factor: ignorance ← influxes, formations ← ignorance, consciousness ← formations, name-and-form ← consciousness … the table is the twelvefold chain itself. The closing statement that “sorrow and the rest are gathered with aging-and-death” answers a familiar question: why does the discourse list sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair, yet there are only twelve factors? Because these are the aftershocks of aging-and-death and the point at which ignorance rises anew; they are the seam that joins the wheel back to its beginning. 〔Observation〕

Correspondence — Is This the Same as Huayan “Dependent Origination of the Dharma Realm” or Yogācāra “Dependent Origination from the Ālaya”? 〔The Decoder’s Reading; Awaiting Those Yet to Come〕

This is the most important passage for readers of the Chinese traditions, because the term “dependent origination” developed there in several very different directions. To mark the boundary: the correspondence is the decoder’s reading; readers within those traditions should check the Chinese doctrinal material for themselves, awaiting those yet to come. Yogācāra “dependent origination from the ālaya”: the eighth, ālaya consciousness, holds seeds and serves as the support for the round (continuing the fork in the correspondence section of 14-03). Here the Theravāda account has no ālaya: dependent origination is simply the twelve factors’ “specific conditionality” (vernacular §2), and continuity depends on kamma and rebirth-linking consciousness (17-05), not on a storehouse consciousness. Tathāgatagarbha dependent origination: it takes tathāgatagarbha or a true and permanent mind as support. The Theravāda account of dependent origination establishes no such single true and permanent support. Huayan “dependent origination of the Dharma realm”: it reads dependent origination as the endless mutual inclusion and interpenetration of all phenomena throughout the Dharma realm—a cosmological scale of mutual conditioning. Theravāda dependent origination is not cosmology but soteriology: it is the specific conditional sequence of “how suffering arises and how it ceases” (the discourse in vernacular §1), meant to locate where the round can be cut, not to describe the total structure of the Dharma realm. In brief, do not confuse the labels: Chinese traditions often press dependent origination toward “the ground of being” or “the general form of the Dharma realm”; Theravāda holds it to the concrete and actionable conditional sequence of “the arising and cessation of suffering.” Read this chapter back into its soteriological home—seek the point at which to cut the round—and the correspondence becomes clear. 〔Observation〕

For the General Reader

Three points are enough to carry away from this unit. First, dependent origination means the concrete conditions—ignorance, formations, consciousness, and so forth—not an abstract “happening” or “causal nature.” Second, “dependent” blocks eternalism and “origination” blocks annihilationism; together they form the middle way—so you may continue to say “I,” provided you know it is a convention. Third, ignorance is not a first cause but the point from which the round is taught, and the wheel propels even good kamma—this does not tell you to stop doing good, but to know that good action too remains within the wheel. From the next unit onward, each factor’s conditioning of the next is explained line by line. Remember the four vine gatherers: the vine can be grasped at any link.

To read this unit in full: vernacular §§1–8 translate in full the distinction between dependent origination and dependently originated phenomena, the characteristic, function, and four synonyms, the refutation of other views, the term’s four explanations, the four modes of teaching, why ignorance is placed first, the modes of meaning, characteristic, and classification, and determination of the factors.

Ignorance is not simply “not knowing”; it takes suffering for pleasure and what is not the path for the path—and therefore forms formations

The Big Picture — The First Clause of the Twelve Factors and the Force That Drives the Whole Wheel

The detailed treatment of each clause in the twelve factors begins here. This unit first marks the range of ignorance (vernacular §1)—not vague unknowing, but concealment in regard to the four truths and eight fields; it then lays “formations” out as twenty-nine volitions and the three doors (vernacular §2); finally it answers “How do we know that formations have ignorance as their condition?” (vernacular §3)—because formations exist only when ignorance exists. The Commentator uses six similes to expose exactly why someone who does not know suffering strives so hard to make kamma. This clause is the wheel’s first push: it is not pushed by somebody else, but by seeing wrongly. 〔Observation〕

§01 The Range of Ignorance—Unknowing in Relation to the Four Truths and Eight Fields → Vernacular §1

According to the method of the discourses, ignorance is unknowing in regard to the four fields beginning with suffering; according to the Abhidhamma method, it is unknowing in regard to eight fields when the past limit and the rest are included: “unknowing in regard to suffering … unknowing in regard to the path of practice leading to the cessation of suffering; unknowing in regard to the past limit; unknowing in regard to the future limit and the past and future limits; unknowing in regard to specific conditionality and dependently originated phenomena” (vernacular §1). Although ignorance arises with all fields apart from the two supramundane truths as its object, what is intended here applies only by way of concealment: when it arises it remains concealing the truth of suffering, not allowing its true function and characteristic to be penetrated. Likewise it conceals origin, cessation, and path; the past five aggregates (the past limit); the future five aggregates (the future limit); both together (the past and future limits); and specific conditionality and dependently originated phenomena, not allowing “this is ignorance; these are formations” to be penetrated. 〔Reading〕 The last of the eight fields deserves a pause: among the things ignorance conceals is dependent origination itself. To read this chapter while ignorant is to read what is concealed with the very mind that conceals it. The Commentator takes the meaning “concealment,” not “object,” precisely to say that ignorance is not a missing piece of information but a layer lying over what is there.

§02 The Detailed Division of Formations—Twenty-Nine Volitions and Formations through the Three Doors → Vernacular §2

Meritorious formation = eight wholesome sense-sphere volitions occurring through giving, virtue, and the rest + five wholesome fine-material-sphere volitions occurring through development = thirteen volitions. Demeritorious formation = twelve unwholesome volitions occurring through killing and the rest. Imperturbable formation = only the four wholesome immaterial-sphere volitions occurring through development. Thus the three formations total twenty-nine volitions (vernacular §2). Bodily volition is bodily formation, verbal volition is verbal formation, and mental volition is mental formation. This triad shows how meritorious formation and the rest occur through the doors at the moment kamma is accumulated: the eight wholesome sense-sphere volitions and twelve unwholesome volitions that produce bodily intimation and occur through the body door make exactly twenty bodily formations; the same twenty, producing verbal intimation and occurring through the speech door, are verbal formations. The volitions of direct knowledge and restlessness are not included because they do not condition later consciousness—exclude them when speaking of the condition for consciousness, but include all when speaking of ignorance as condition. All twenty-nine volitions arising at the mind door without producing either intimation are mental formation. This latter triad is included in the former, so ignorance’s conditionality is understood only in terms of meritorious formation and the rest. 〔Reading〕 “Formations” are counted with complete precision here: twenty-nine volitions. They are not an abstract “kammic force,” but twenty-nine kinds of intention—thirteen wholesome intentions, twelve unwholesome intentions, and four intentions settled in the immaterial. The three doors—body, speech, and mind—merely classify the doorway through which the same group of volitions proceeds. Remember the number: it makes 17-04, “In how many ways does ignorance condition formations?” much easier to read.

§03 How Formations Are Known to Arise from Ignorance—Four Aspects of Unknowing the Truths and Six Similes → Vernacular §3

How is it known that “formations have ignorance as condition”? Because they exist only when ignorance exists (vernacular §3). Someone who does not know suffering, the past limit, and the rest grasps the suffering of saṃsāra with the perception of pleasure and initiates the three formations that cause it. Someone who does not know origin takes formations, furnished with craving and actually causes of suffering, to be causes of pleasure and initiates them. Someone who does not know cessation and path perceives a distinguished destination that is not cessation as the cessation of suffering, and sacrifices, immortality observances, austerities, and the rest that are not the path as the path to cessation, then initiates the three formations through these as avenues while aspiring to suffering’s cessation. Six similes: not knowing as suffering the result of merit mixed with birth, aging, sickness, and death, a person initiates meritorious formation—like somebody desiring celestial nymphs who leaps from a cliff; not seeing the suffering of change and meager gratification when the result of merit ends, the person initiates meritorious formation—like a moth plunging into a lamp flame and like somebody greedy for a drop of honey licking a knife-edge smeared with honey; not seeing the resultant danger in enjoying sensual pleasures, the person initiates demeritorious formation—like a foolish child playing with excrement and like somebody seeking death eating poison; not knowing the suffering of change in formations among immaterial results, and through the perversions beginning with permanence, the person initiates imperturbable formation—like a lost traveler taking the road toward a city of goblins. Hence “the existence of formations occurs precisely through the existence of ignorance.” The discourse says: “An unwise person fallen into ignorance forms a meritorious formation, a demeritorious formation, and an imperturbable formation … when a bhikkhu’s ignorance has been abandoned and true knowledge has arisen, he no longer forms a meritorious formation.” 〔Reading〕 The six similes are the heart of this clause. Notice their distribution: four concern wholesome and imperturbable kamma—the cliff, moth, knife, and wrong road—while only two concern unwholesome kamma—excrement and poison. The Commentator spends more effort explaining why even somebody “inclined toward good” remains within ignorance: the person takes the result of merit for pleasure and fails to see the burning when it ends; the person takes stability in an immaterial attainment for permanence. Ignorance propels not only evil, but every pursuit within the wheel. The last line of the discourse points to the exit: when true knowledge arises, even meritorious formations are no longer formed. This does not mean ceasing to do good; it means no longer forming for the sake of a “result.” 〔Observation〕

For the General Reader

Carry away a single point from this first clause: ignorance is not “not knowing” but taking suffering for pleasure and what is not the path for the path. The first force driving the wheel is therefore not an evil thought but seeing wrongly—and a person who sees wrongly may strive very hard: leaping from a cliff, rushing into fire, licking a blade. Four of the six similes concern people striving toward what they take to be good. This does not say that good deeds should not be done. It says: if good deeds are done because “that result will be blissful,” that very thought remains within ignorance. When true knowledge arises, formations are not suppressed; they simply cease to be formed. This is not ceasing to do good, but ceasing to form for the sake of that result.

To read this unit in full: vernacular §§1–3 translate in full the range of ignorance, the twenty-nine volitions and three doors of formations, the proof that formations arise from ignorance, and the six similes.

Twenty-four ways of “helping”—before saying “A conditions B,” ask in which manner A helps B

The Big Picture — The Instrument Room

“Ignorance is the condition for formations”—but for which formations, and in what manner is it a condition? To answer, the Commentator pauses and brings in the entire set of twenty-four conditions from the Paṭṭhāna (vernacular §1). This unit is the chapter’s instrument room; every later clause “A conditions B” returns here for its tools. Do not memorize the twenty-four conditions—the first recommendation this exposition gives the reader—but know what they say. They are not twenty-four things, but twenty-four ways of “helping”: serving as root, object, chief, previous moment, arising together, supporting mutually, serving as ground, acting as powerful cause, existing before, supporting afterward, making familiar, acting as kamma, acting as result, feeding, governing as a faculty, contemplating as jhāna, leading as path, associating, dissociating, being present, being absent, having departed, and remaining. Once the many ways in which a condition can “help” are clear, cause and effect no longer form a line but a net. 〔Observation〕

§01 General Statement of the Twenty-Four Conditions → Vernacular §1

Grant first that “ignorance is the condition for formations,” but it must still be said for which formations and in what manner it is a condition (vernacular §1). The Blessed One taught twenty-four conditions: root, object, predominance, proximity, contiguity, conascence, mutuality, support, decisive support, prenascence, postnascence, repetition, kamma, result, nutriment, faculty, jhāna, path, association, dissociation, presence, absence, disappearance, and nondisappearance conditions. A “root condition” is both a root and a condition—it conditions by being a root; the rest are understood in the same way. 〔Reading〕 A glance at the list is enough. Every item below is “a phenomenon that assists in such-and-such a sense”: assistance is the common definition of all twenty-four (§02 explains it).

§02 Root Condition → Vernacular §2

The term hetu has three senses: a member of speech (proposition and reason), a cause (“phenomena born from causes”), and a root (“three wholesome roots and three unwholesome roots”). Here it denotes a root (vernacular §2). A “condition” is that dependent upon which something comes—it occurs without relinquishing it; its characteristic is assistance: if a phenomenon assists another phenomenon’s persistence or arising, it is that phenomenon’s condition. Condition, root, cause, source, birth, and production differ in name but share one meaning. Root condition is a phenomenon that assists in the sense of a root. The commentators say a root makes the wholesome and the rest possess the nature of wholesomeness and the rest, as rice seed does rice and a jewel’s color its radiance. The Commentator refutes this. If it were so, a root could not be a root condition for the materiality it originates, since it does not make materiality wholesome, although the canonical text says: “Roots are conditions by root condition for phenomena associated with roots and the materiality originated by them.” Rootless minds are already indeterminate without roots; the wholesome nature and the rest of rooted minds depends on wise attention and the rest, not the associated root. If roots were intrinsically wholesome and the rest, non-greed would have to be invariably wholesome or invariably indeterminate, yet it may be either. No conflict arises if the root meaning is instead taken as “making something well established”: phenomena with root condition are firm like rooted trees; rootless phenomena are unstable like duckweed. 〔Reading〕 The Commentator devotes a whole section to “root” simply to dismantle a misunderstanding: root condition does not “determine good and evil”; it makes a mind stand firmly—the difference between a rooted tree and duckweed. Good and evil have other sources, such as wise attention. This fine distinction protects a crucial point: greed, hate, and delusion, as well as non-greed, non-hate, and non-delusion, are roots, not destiny. 〔Observation〕

§03 Object, Predominance, Proximity, and Contiguity Conditions → Vernacular §3

Object condition assists by being an object—there is no phenomenon that cannot serve: just as a weak person must cling to a staff or rope in order to rise, mind and mental factors must take visible form and other objects in order to arise and stand (vernacular §3). Predominance condition assists in the sense of chiefship and is twofold: conascent (the four—zeal, energy, mind, and investigation—are not predominant simultaneously; when mind takes zeal as its yoke, only zeal is predominant) and object predominance (the phenomenon accorded weight by immaterial phenomena as they occur). Proximity condition and contiguity condition: the fixed order of mind—after eye-consciousness, mind element; after mind element, mind-consciousness element—is accomplished only through the preceding mind. A phenomenon capable of causing an appropriate mind to arise after itself is proximity condition. Every proximity condition is a contiguity condition; as with accumulation and continuity, only the expressions differ. The commentators say “proximity in meaning is proximity condition; proximity in time is contiguity condition.” This conflicts with the statement that the wholesome mind of neither-perception-nor-non-perception in a person emerging from cessation attainment conditions fruition attainment by contiguity condition. Their own reply—that the power to originate remains but is obstructed by the strength of development—establishes precisely that proximity in time is absent. Therefore no attachment should be made; the difference is accepted only in expression: no interval, hence “proximity”; no intervening pause and thus thorough proximity, hence “contiguity.” 〔Reading〕 Object condition states something fundamental: mind cannot arise empty; it must cling to something—which is why the choice of object, the meditation subject, matters so much. And the treatment of proximity and contiguity shows how the Commentator handles the commentators: he does not follow merely because they are teachers; when the canonical evidence conflicts, he says so, then closes without wounding—“accept the difference only in expression.” 〔Observation〕

§04 Conascence, Mutuality, and Support Conditions → Vernacular §4

Conascence condition assists, while itself arising, by causing another to arise together—like a lamp and its light. It is sixfold: the four immaterial aggregates mutually; the four great elements mutually; name and form mutually at descent into the womb; mind and mental factors for mind-originated materiality; great elements for derived materiality; material phenomena sometimes, and sometimes not, for immaterial phenomena (said specifically of the heart-basis) (vernacular §4). Mutuality condition assists through mutual arising and support—like three poles supporting one another; it is threefold: four immaterial aggregates, four great elements, and name and form at descent into the womb. Support condition assists in the mode of dwelling place and support—like earth for a tree and cloth for a painting. It follows the conascence method, with the sixth part: eye base conditions the eye-consciousness element … body base conditions the body-consciousness element; the materiality on which the mind and mind-consciousness elements depend conditions them. 〔Reading〕 The three similes show three kinds of “together”: lamp and light (arising simultaneously), three poles (mutual support), and earth and tree (one holds up another). The words “at the moment of descent into the womb, name and form condition each other mutually” are the Theravāda account of “life beginning”: body does not come first and mind later, nor mind first and body later; name and form arise simultaneously, each conditioning the other.

§05 Decisive-Support Condition—Object, Proximity, and Natural Decisive Support → Vernacular §5

Decisive support means a powerful support, just as powerful distress is called “despair”: it assists as a powerful cause (vernacular §5). It is threefold. Object decisive support: mind arises while giving weight to an object (after giving, undertaking virtue, or performing the observance, a person reviews it while giving weight to it; after emerging from jhāna, reviews jhāna while giving weight to it; trainees review change-of-lineage, purification, and path while giving weight to each). It is stated without distinction from object predominance. The difference is that object predominance is so called in the sense “should be accorded weight,” while object decisive support is so called in the sense “powerful cause.” Proximity decisive support: a preceding wholesome aggregate conditions a subsequent wholesome aggregate. It is stated without distinction from proximity condition. The difference is that “causing an appropriate mind to arise immediately after itself” is proximity, while “the preceding mind being powerful in causing the subsequent mind to arise” is proximity decisive support. Mind may arise without a particular root condition or the rest, but never without an immediately preceding mind; it is therefore a powerful condition. Natural decisive support: faith, virtue, and the rest accomplished in a person’s continuum, or habitually used climate, food, and the rest, unmixed with object and proximity decisive support. “Depending on faith, a person gives, undertakes virtue, performs observance, produces jhāna, insight, path, direct knowledge, and attainment; depending on virtue, learning, generosity, and wisdom … faith, virtue, learning, generosity, and wisdom condition faith, virtue, learning, generosity, and wisdom by decisive-support condition.” 〔Reading〕 Decisive support is the condition closest to a practitioner’s experience: a gift you gave, virtue you kept, or jhāna you entered becomes a powerful cause for the next wholesome mind when you return and review it with weight. This is the place of “reviewing” on the path. And the plainest principle of practice lies in the statement “faith, virtue, learning, generosity, and wisdom condition faith, virtue, learning, generosity, and wisdom”: good grows good. Even climate and food count—the conditions of practice include what you eat and where you live. 〔Observation〕

§06 Prenascence, Postnascence, Repetition, Kamma, and Result Conditions → Vernacular §6

Prenascence condition assists by having arisen previously and presently existing—elevenfold (five bases at the five doors, five objects, and one heart-basis) (vernacular §6). Postnascence condition is an immaterial phenomenon that assists by supporting earlier-born materiality—like a young vulture’s intention to seek food supporting its already-born body. Repetition condition assists immediately following phenomena through repetition, making them proficient and powerful—like each preceding effort in studying texts; threefold by wholesome, unwholesome, and functional impulsion. Kamma condition assists through the activity of the mind’s exertion—twofold (wholesome and unwholesome volition belonging to a different moment; all conascent volition): “Wholesome and unwholesome kamma conditions resultant aggregates and materiality made by kamma; volition conditions associated phenomena and materiality originated by it.” Result condition is a resultant phenomenon that assists through an effortless and peaceful nature in bringing about an effortless and peaceful nature—during occurrence it conditions the materiality it originates, at rebirth-linking materiality made by kamma, and everywhere associated phenomena. 〔Reading〕 The simile for postnascence is beautiful: the young bird’s mind seeking food supports its already-born body—a later mind can support materiality already present. Repetition condition is the dependent-origination version of “practice makes proficient”: a preceding wholesome impulsion makes the next stronger. Kamma condition is twofold—“different moment” (past kamma giving today’s result) and “conascent” (present volition driving present associated phenomena). This distinction matters: kamma is not only a past account but a present force. 〔Observation〕

§07 Nutriment, Faculty, Jhāna, and Path Conditions → Vernacular §7

Nutriment condition: four nutriments that assist by supporting material and immaterial phenomena—physical nutriment conditions this body; immaterial nutriments condition associated phenomena and the materiality they originate. Question Section: at rebirth-linking, resultant indeterminate nutriments condition associated aggregates and materiality made by kamma (vernacular §7). Faculty condition: twenty faculties, excluding femininity and masculinity, assisting in the sense of dominance—the eye faculty and the rest condition only immaterial phenomena, while the remaining faculties condition both material and immaterial phenomena; the material life faculty conditions materiality made by kamma. Jhāna condition: seven jhāna factors assisting in the sense of contemplation, excluding the pleasurable and painful pair in the two sets of five consciousnesses. Path condition: twelve path factors assisting in the sense of leading out from here or there. Jhāna and path conditions are absent from the two sets of five consciousnesses and rootless minds. 〔Reading〕 These four each “maintain” in a different way: nutriment sustains body and mind, faculties govern, jhāna factors contemplate, and path factors lead out. Notice that “path factors” here include twelve factors across wholesome and unwholesome categories (wrong view, wrong intention, and the rest are also path factors). In the Paṭṭhāna, “path” means “leading somewhere”; it does not refer only to the Noble Eightfold Path.

§08 Association, Dissociation, Presence, Absence, Disappearance, and Nondisappearance Conditions → Vernacular §8

Association condition: immaterial phenomena assist through association as same basis, same object, same arising, and same cessation—the four immaterial aggregates mutually (vernacular §8). Dissociation condition: material phenomena condition immaterial phenomena, and immaterial condition material, by not proceeding to the same basis and the rest; threefold as conascent, postnascent, and prenascent. Presence condition assists through presence characterized by presentness, supporting what is likewise present—sevenfold in the matrix (immaterial aggregates, great elements, name-and-form, mind and mental factors, great elements, bases, and basis), with the Question Section adding conascence, prenascence, postnascence, nutriment, and faculty. Absence condition: immaterial phenomena that have just ceased assist subsequent immaterial phenomena by giving them an opportunity to arise. Disappearance condition: those same phenomena assist by having disappeared. Nondisappearance condition: the very phenomena that are presence conditions assist by not having disappeared. The absence-disappearance pair was taught through mastery of teaching or with reference to people to be guided, like teaching the “dissociated from a root” dyad after the “rootless” dyad. 〔Reading〕 The final four form a beautiful symmetry: what is present helps (presence condition), and what is absent also helps (absence condition). The preceding mind must cease to make room for the next; “cessation” itself is a form of assistance. This is dependent origination at its most counterintuitive: not only what is there helps—what is no longer there helps too. 〔Observation〕

For the General Reader

Remember the three rounds; do not memorize the twenty-four conditions (see 17-11). But take this perspective from the unit: “cause and effect” is not a line but a net woven from twenty-four modes of assistance—some arise together (conascence), some support mutually (mutuality), some exist before (prenascence), some support afterward (postnascence), some strengthen by repetition, and some make room only by ceasing (absence). A condition you can use today is decisive support: when you call to mind a good deed you have done with earnest weight, it becomes a powerful cause for the next wholesome mind. That is what reviewing does. And remember: the conditions of practice include what you eat and where you live (natural decisive support). Conditions never exist only in the mind.

To read this unit in full: vernacular §§1–8 translate in full the general statement of the twenty-four conditions and the explanation of each, with its matrix passages and similes.

How Does a Neem Seed Produce Sugarcane?—Why Can an Unwholesome Cause Condition Wholesome Formations?

The Big Picture — Reading the First Clause Again through the Twenty-Four Conditions

The preceding unit prepared the tools; this unit uses them in earnest for the first time: in how many ways does ignorance condition each of the three kinds of formation (vernacular §1)? It then answers three difficulties that inevitably arise—whether the presentation of a single cause and a single effect falls into a theory of a single cause (vernacular §2), how unwholesome ignorance can condition wholesome formations (vernacular §3), and exactly how a bewildered person forms formations (vernacular §4). This unit’s bones are three questions and answers; its flesh is two similes: neem and sugarcane, and a person blind from birth. Once this is understood, the pattern of every later “Detailed Account of A as Condition for B” becomes recognizable. 〔Observation〕

§01 In How Many Ways among the Twenty-Four Conditions Ignorance Conditions Formations → Vernacular §1

The verse says: it is a condition for meritorious formations in two ways, for the others in many ways, and for the last formations in a single way (vernacular §1). Two ways for meritorious formations: object condition (when contemplating ignorance in terms of exhaustion and dissolution, it conditions sense-sphere meritorious formations; when knowing a mind accompanied by delusion with a direct-knowledge mind, it conditions fine-material-sphere meritorious formations) and decisive-support condition (for a person who fulfills sense-sphere bases of meritorious deeds such as giving and produces fine-material-sphere jhāna in order to transcend ignorance; and for a person who, bewildered by ignorance and aspiring to attainment in sense and fine-material becoming, performs merit). Many ways for demeritorious formations: when greed and the rest arise with ignorance as object—object condition; when giving it weight and relishing it—object predominance and object decisive support; when killing and so forth while bewildered by ignorance and seeing no danger—decisive support; for the second impulsion and the rest—proximity, contiguity, proximity decisive support, repetition, absence, and disappearance; for anyone committing any unwholesome act—root, conascence, mutuality, support, association, presence, and nondisappearance. A single way for imperturbable formations: decisive-support condition alone. 〔Reading〕 Seeing this allocation clearly means seeing ignorance’s position: for harmful kamma it helps in nearly every way (even by “arising together,” because ignorance itself is in the unwholesome mind); for wholesome kamma it helps only from outside—as object and as powerful cause; for abiding in an immaterial attainment, it serves only as powerful cause. Ignorance is not in a wholesome mind, yet it stands behind the wholesome mind. 〔Observation〕

§02 Why the Presentation of a Single Cause and a Single Effect Is Faultless → Vernacular §2

Difficulty: if ignorance alone is the condition for formations, this falls into a theory of a single cause; if there are other conditions, the single-cause presentation “with ignorance as condition, formations” cannot stand (vernacular §2). Answer: here no single effect arises from a single cause, no multiple effects arise from a single cause, and no single effect arises from multiple causes—what comes from multiple causes is only multiple effects (the many causes climate, earth, seed, and water produce the many effects of a sprout’s visible form, odor, and flavor); yet the presentation of a single cause and a single effect has its meaning. The Blessed One presents a single cause or effect because it is principal (contact conditions feeling—contact is feeling’s principal cause and feeling contact’s principal effect), conspicuous (illnesses arise from phlegm—phlegm is conspicuous, kamma and the rest are not), or distinctive (all unwholesome states have unwise attention as their root—unwise attention is distinctive to the unwholesome, while basis and object are shared), and in accord with mastery of teaching and those to be guided. Ignorance is presented as the cause of formations because it is principal (it is also the cause of the other causes, such as craving—“with the arising of ignorance, there is the arising of the influxes”), conspicuous, and distinctive. 〔Reading〕 This section establishes a rule needed throughout the chapter: “A conditions B” never means that A is B’s only cause—a factor is named because it is principal, conspicuous, or distinctive. Dependent origination is not a theory of a single cause; behind every link in the twelvefold chain stands a company of conditions, while the scripture names the factor most in need of naming. Forget this rule, and dependent origination becomes a row of dominoes. 〔Observation〕

§03 How Unwholesome Ignorance Can Condition Meritorious and Imperturbable Formations → Vernacular §3

Difficulty: ignorance invariably bears undesirable results and is blameworthy; how can it condition meritorious and imperturbable formations?—a neem seed does not produce sugarcane (vernacular §3). Answer: in the world, conditions for phenomena are established as contrary or noncontrary in place, nature, and function, and as similar or dissimilar, yet the conditioned phenomena are not simply the results of those conditions—a preceding mind is a place-contrary condition for a subsequent mind, and prior training in a craft conditions later practice; kamma is a nature-contrary condition for materiality, and milk conditions curds; light is a function-contrary condition for eye-consciousness, and sugar conditions liquor; eye and visible form are place-noncontrary conditions for eye-consciousness; earlier impulsions are nature- and function-noncontrary conditions for later impulsions; materiality called climate and nutriment is a similar condition for materiality, and rice seed for rice fruit; materiality conditions the immaterial and the immaterial conditions materiality as dissimilar conditions, while cow hair, reverse-growing hair, horn, curds, and sesame flour condition thatch grass, arrow grass, and fragrant grass, likewise dissimilarly. Thus, although ignorance invariably bears undesirable results and is blameworthy in nature, it still conditions all meritorious formations and the rest through contrary, noncontrary, similar, and dissimilar relations. 〔Reading〕 The neem-and-sugarcane difficulty asks something very natural: how can the bad give rise to the good? The Commentator’s answer has a sharp edge: “being a condition” does not mean “producing a result”—milk conditions curds, but curds are not milk’s kammic result; light conditions eye-consciousness, but eye-consciousness is not light’s kammic result. Ignorance “helps” a wholesome formation arise, yet the wholesome formation is not ignorance’s result. Once these two matters are separated, many apparent contradictions in dependent origination open out. 〔Observation〕

§04 Delusion in Five Fields and the Simile of a Person Blind from Birth → Vernacular §4

Another method: a person bewildered about death, rebirth, saṃsāra, the characteristics of formations, and dependently originated phenomena forms the three kinds of formation (vernacular §4). A person bewildered about death does not take “the breakup of the aggregates everywhere is death,” but speculates, “A being dies; a being passes into another body.” A person bewildered about rebirth does not take “the manifestation of the aggregates is birth” as rebirth, but speculates, “A being is born; a being has a new body.” A person bewildered about saṃsāra does not take “the succession of aggregates, elements, and bases, proceeding uninterruptedly, is called saṃsāra,” but speculates, “This being goes from this world to another and comes from another world to this world.” A person bewildered about the characteristics of formations does not take their individual and common characteristics, but conceives formations as self, belonging to self, permanent, pleasant, and pure. A person bewildered about dependently originated phenomena does not take the occurrence of formations and the rest through ignorance and the rest, but speculates: “Whether the self knows or not, it acts and causes action; it takes birth at rebirth-linking; atoms, a sovereign deity, and the rest fashion its body and complete its faculties; it contacts, feels, craves, clings, connects, and comes to be again in another becoming”; or supposes that all beings are transformed by destiny, circumstance, and nature. Such a person is like somebody blind walking on the earth—by a path or a nonpath, over high or low ground, even or uneven—and forms meritorious, demeritorious, and imperturbable formations. The verse says: “Just as a person blind from birth, without a guide, sometimes travels by the path and sometimes by a wrong path, so too a foolish person wandering in saṃsāra, without a guide, sometimes performs merit and sometimes demerit. But when that person knows the Dhamma and directly comprehends the truths, then, through the calming of ignorance, that person will fare in peace.” This is the detailed account of the clause “with ignorance as condition, formations.” 〔Reading〕 Delusion in these five fields has a common shape: in every field, a bewildered person sees an extra “being”—a being dies, a being is born, a being comes and goes, formations are self, and an agent acts. A person free of bewilderment sees only the breakup of aggregates, the manifestation of aggregates, their continuity, the characteristics of formations, and occurrence through ignorance and the rest. The simile of blindness closes evenhandedly: a blind person does not only take wrong roads but may stumble onto a right road—hence wholesome formations too occur within ignorance. When understanding arises, the person does not step onto the right road but “fares in peace”—walking no more. 〔Observation〕

For the General Reader

Take three statements from these three questions and answers. First, “A conditions B” never means “A is B’s only cause”: the scripture names what is principal, conspicuous, or distinctive; do not read dependent origination as dominoes. Second, “being a condition” does not mean “producing a result”: milk conditions curds, but curds are not milk’s kammic result; ignorance helps a wholesome formation arise, but that formation is not ignorance’s retribution, so it remains wholesome. Third, in every field a bewildered person sees an extra “being”—who died, who was born, who wanders in saṃsāra—while a person free of bewilderment sees only aggregates breaking up, manifesting, and continuing. A person blind from birth may also stumble onto the right road; the distinction is not between taking the right and wrong road, but between having one’s eyes open and closed.

To read this unit in full: vernacular §§1–4 translate in full, paragraph by paragraph, the ways in which ignorance conditions the three formations, the debate about a single cause and effect, the debate about wholesome formations conditioned by the unwholesome, the five fields of delusion, and the simile of a person blind from birth.

No Person Passes from Death to Birth—Only a Mind Ceases and a Mind Arises, Like an Echo, a Lamp, a Seal, or an Image

The Big Picture — The Weightiest Question in the Whole Chapter: How Kamma Becomes the First Mind of the Next Life

“With formations as condition, consciousness” is the link among the twelve that crosses death and birth. This unit first counts exactly which formations produce which consciousnesses (thirty-two resultant consciousnesses, vernacular §1), distinguishes their positions in occurrence and rebirth-linking (vernacular §§2–3), and then writes out the cognitive process at the juncture of death and birth moment by moment (vernacular §4)—the finest-grained account of “rebirth” in the whole work. It next answers three questions of greatest consequence: are death and rebirth-linking identical or different (vernacular §6: neither identical nor different), whose is the result (vernacular §7: an experiencer is only a designation), and how do formations serve as condition (vernacular §7: through having been done). It closes by allocating them among the three kinds of becoming, four modes of birth, five destinations, seven stations of consciousness, and nine abodes of beings (vernacular §8). This unit is among the sharpest blades in the entire chapter for cutting attachment to views: no person wanders in saṃsāra. 〔Observation〕

§01 Thirty-Two Resultant Consciousnesses—Which Formation Produces Which Consciousness → Vernacular §1

Consciousness means the six beginning with eye-consciousness: two each for eye, ear, nose, tongue, and body—wholesome-resultant and unwholesome-resultant—make ten; twenty-two are consciousness of mind—two mind elements, three rootless mind-consciousness elements, eight rooted sense-sphere resultants, five fine-material-sphere resultants, and four immaterial-sphere resultants. These are the thirty-two mundane resultant consciousnesses; supramundane resultants are not included because they are not connected with discourse about the round (vernacular §1). How is consciousness known to have formations as its condition?—where no kamma has been accumulated, no resultant arises; if a resultant arose without kamma, every kind of resultant would arise for every person, which does not happen. Which formation produces which consciousness? Sense-sphere meritorious formation produces the five wholesome-resultant consciousnesses, a mind element, two mind-consciousness elements, and eight great sense-sphere resultants—sixteen. Fine-material-sphere meritorious formation produces five fine-material-sphere resultants. Thus meritorious formation produces twenty-one in all. Demeritorious formation produces the five unwholesome-resultant consciousnesses, a mind element, and a mind-consciousness element—seven. Imperturbable formation produces the four immaterial resultants. 〔Reading〕 The number thirty-two need not be memorized, but its shape should be seen: wholesome kamma gives more kinds of resultants—twenty-one—while unwholesome kamma gives fewer—seven. This does not mean that unwholesome kamma is light; it means that the kinds of resultant mind in bad destinations are less varied, with no rooted rebirth-linking. This is also why, in the next section, rebirth-linking in a bad destination is carried by only a single mind.

§02 Consciousness in Occurrence—Thirteen Only in Occurrence, Nineteen Also at Rebirth-Linking → Vernacular §2

The thirty-two consciousnesses occur in the two modes of occurrence and rebirth-linking (vernacular §2). The two sets of five consciousnesses, the two mind elements, and the joy-associated rootless mind-consciousness element—thirteen in all—occur only in occurrence in five-aggregate becoming. The five consciousnesses accomplish seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and touching; their doors, objects, bases, positions, and functions are all fixed. The mind elements accomplish receiving; their doors and objects vary, while their bases, positions, and functions are fixed. The joy-associated rootless mind-consciousness element accomplishes investigating and, at powerful objects in the six doors, mostly at the end of greed-associated impulsion among sense-sphere beings, occurs once or twice as registration upon the impulsion’s object—the commentary to the Majjhima Nikāya gives this account, whereas the Abhidhamma commentary gives two cognitive processes at registration. This mind is called both “registration” and “rear life-continuum.” Its doors and objects vary, its basis is fixed, and its position and function vary. None of the remaining nineteen fails to occur at the rebirth-linking appropriate to itself. In occurrence, the two rootless mind-consciousness elements perform the four functions of investigating, registration, life-continuum, and death; the eight rooted sense-sphere minds perform registration, life-continuum, and death; the five fine-material and four immaterial resultants perform life-continuum and death. In occurrence, each of these thirty-two has formations as condition, and the respective formation conditions it by kamma condition and decisive-support condition. 〔Reading〕 This section explains “how many jobs a single resultant mind performs in a life”: some do only one, such as seeing or hearing; others do four—investigating, echoing, serving as the underlying current, and serving as the final mind. The phrase “registration is also called rear life-continuum” also reveals the Commentator’s caution: two commentarial traditions give two cognitive processes for the same mind, and he records both without deciding between them.

§03 Four Questions about Rebirth-Linking—Twenty Rebirth-Linkings, Nineteen Minds, Their Destinations, and Their Objects → Vernacular §3

How many kinds of rebirth-linking are there? Twenty, including rebirth-linking among non-percipient beings. How many rebirth-linking minds are there? Nineteen. Through which mind and where does rebirth-linking occur? The unwholesome-resultant rootless mind-consciousness element gives rebirth-linking in bad destinations. The wholesome-resultant rootless mind-consciousness element gives rebirth-linking among humans born blind, deaf, insane, mute, as eunuchs, and the like. The eight rooted sense-sphere resultants give rebirth-linking among sense-sphere devas and fortunate humans. The five fine-material resultants give rebirth-linking in the fine-material brahmā world. The four immaterial resultants give rebirth-linking in the immaterial sphere (vernacular §3). Rebirth-linking has three kinds of object: past, present, and not-to-be-stated; the rebirth-linking of non-percipient beings has no object. Rebirth-linking in the sphere of infinite consciousness and the sphere of neither-perception-nor-non-perception has only a past object. The ten kinds of sense-sphere rebirth-linking have a past or present object. The rest have only a not-to-be-stated object. Rebirth-linking occurs only immediately after a death mind with a past or not-to-be-stated object; no death mind has a present object. 〔Reading〕 The four questions divide “rebirth” into four verifiable items: how many kinds, how many minds, where they go, and what they grasp. The last is the most important—a rebirth-linking mind does not arrive empty; it grasps an object: past kamma, a presently appearing sign, or a sign of absorption. The next section presents this “grasping” frame by frame in slow motion.

§04 At the Juncture of Death and Birth—Modes of Rebirth-Linking in Good and Bad Destinations → Vernacular §4

When a person dwelling in a good destination who has performed evil kamma lies on a deathbed, accumulated evil kamma or a sign of kamma enters the mind door. Immediately after the impulsion process that ends with that object, a death mind taking the life-continuum’s object arises. When it has ceased, a bad-destination rebirth-linking mind, bent by the power of unabandoned defilements, arises taking the same kamma or sign of kamma as object—death with a past object followed by rebirth-linking with a past object (vernacular §4). For another person, a sign of a bad destination, such as the visible form of flames in hell, enters the mind door: two life-continuums, a single adverting, five impulsions whose force has grown weak because death is near, two registrations, and a single death mind—eleven mind moments pass; then rebirth-linking arises on the same object, whose lifespan still has five mind moments remaining—death with a past object followed by rebirth-linking with a present object. For another, an inferior object enters through one of the five doors: two life-continuums, adverting, seeing, receiving, investigating, determining, five impulsions, two registrations, and a single death mind—fifteen mind moments; then rebirth-linking arises on the same object, whose lifespan still has a single mind moment remaining. For a person dwelling in a bad destination who has accumulated blameless kamma, the bright side should be substituted for the dark side. For a person dwelling in a good destination who has accumulated blameless kamma, that blameless kamma or its sign enters the mind door; for someone who has accumulated exalted kamma, only a sign of kamma appears. A death mind follows an impulsion process that ends in that object or consists of impulsion alone, and then good-destination rebirth-linking occurs—with a past or not-to-be-stated object. Or a sign of a good destination—the visible form of a mother’s womb, park, palace, or wish-fulfilling tree—enters the mind door. Or relatives present at the five doors visible form as garlands and banners, sound as hearing Dhamma or a musical offering, odor as incense or perfume, flavor as honey or molasses, or touch as Chinese cloth or Somāra cloth, saying, “Dear one, this offering to the Buddha is being made for you; let your mind become serene.” After determining come five impulsions, two registrations, and a death mind; rebirth-linking occurs on the same object while it remains for a single mind moment. When a person dwelling in a good destination has attained an exalted mind, a sign consisting of sense-sphere wholesome kamma, a sign of kamma, a sign of destination, an earth kasiṇa or the like, or an exalted mind enters the mind door; or a sublime object enters through the eye or ear. After five impulsions—those bound for an exalted plane have no registration—come death and rebirth-linking in a sense-sphere good destination or an exalted plane. Rebirth-linking immediately after death in the immaterial sphere should be understood in the same way. For a person dwelling in a bad destination who has performed evil kamma, kamma, a sign of kamma, or a sign of destination enters the mind door, or an unwholesome object enters through one of the five doors, and after death comes bad-destination rebirth-linking. In this way the nineteen consciousnesses are shown to occur by way of rebirth-linking. 〔Reading〕 This section is the closest thing in the whole work to slow-motion photography: the final cognitive process is counted down to “five mind moments of lifespan remaining” and “a single mind moment remaining.” There are two points. First, there are only five impulsions at death—their force is weak, with no time to make weighty kamma, so what is grasped is kamma that is “weighty, habitual, near, or previously done” (§6). Second, the passage about relatives—“let your mind become serene”—is a rare guide to care at the end of life: before the death mind, give the person a wholesome object—a flower, the sound of Dhamma, fragrance, sweetness, fine cloth—and the rebirth-linking mind will grasp it. Death is not an instant but a sequence of minds that wholesome conditions can influence. 〔Observation〕

§05 Kamma’s Two Conditions and the Divisions of Rebirth-Linking—Mixed, Sexed, and Material Decads → Vernacular §5

The nineteen resultant consciousnesses at rebirth-linking proceed through kamma in two ways: the kamma that produces them is their condition by asynchronous kamma condition and decisive-support condition (vernacular §5). Through the divisions beginning with mixed, they are twofold as mixed or unmixed with materiality; threefold through the three kinds of becoming; fourfold through the four modes of birth; fivefold through the five destinations; sevenfold through the seven stations of consciousness; and eightfold through the nine abodes of beings. What is mixed is twofold according to sex: in fine-material becoming it lacks the femininity and masculinity faculties, while in sense becoming it arises together with sex except in the rebirth-linking of a person born a eunuch. What is sexed is again twofold as female or male. Together with the first, at minimum two or three decads arise—the basis and body decads, or these plus the sex decad. In egg-born and womb-born birth, this becomes the “kalala,” whose measure is like clarified butter lifted by a single fiber of newly grown wool. The presence or absence of the modes of birth is as follows: hell and devas other than earth-dwelling devas—and petas consumed by thirst—have spontaneous birth only; all four modes occur among animals, petas, humans, and earth-dwelling devas. Among fine-material brahmās, the eye decad, ear decad, basis decad, and life nonad make thirty-nine material phenomena arising together with rebirth-linking consciousness. Among other moisture-born and spontaneously born beings, the upper limit is seventy material phenomena in seven decads, which are always present among devas; the lower limit is thirty material phenomena—the tongue, body, and basis decads—for a being born blind and deaf, without a nose, and sexless. The eye decad consists of visible form, odor, flavor, nutritive essence, the four great elements, eye-sensitivity, and life. 〔Reading〕 “The kalala—whose measure is like clarified butter lifted by a single fiber of newly grown wool”: the Commentator measures the beginning of a life at this minute scale. Yet it arises simultaneously with rebirth-linking consciousness, through conascence condition (17-03)—there is neither first a body and then a mind, nor a mind that enters a body.

§06 Similarity and Difference between Death and Birth, Continuity without Self—Neither Identical nor Different → Vernacular §6

The difference and nondifference between death and rebirth-linking should be fully understood by aggregates, object, destination, roots, feeling, rapture, applied thought, and sustained thought (vernacular §6). Death with four immaterial aggregates may be followed by rebirth-linking with the same four aggregates and the same object, by rebirth-linking taking an exalted internal dhamma as object, or by sense-sphere rebirth-linking with five aggregates. Death with five aggregates may be followed by immaterial rebirth-linking with four aggregates. Death with a past object may be followed by rebirth-linking with a present object; death in a good destination by rebirth-linking in a bad destination; rootless death by rooted rebirth-linking; two-rooted by three-rooted; equanimity-associated by joy-associated; without rapture by with rapture; without applied thought by with applied thought; without sustained thought by with sustained thought; or without applied and sustained thought by with both—and the reverse combinations should be understood. “What approaches another becoming is only the dhamma that has obtained its conditions. It does not migrate there from the former becoming, nor does it exist without causes coming from there.” Only material and immaterial dhammas arise and approach another becoming, not a being or a living creature. Nothing migrates here from the former becoming, yet nothing appears here apart from causes coming from there. The manifest example is a dying person who cannot bear the knife of the final feeling: the body withers like a green palmyra leaf placed in the sun; the faculties beginning with the eye cease, while the body faculty, mind faculty, and life faculty remain only in the heart-basis. Consciousness occurs taking as object any of the weighty, habitual, near, or previously done kamma, sign of kamma, or sign of destination. Craving and ignorance remain unabandoned: craving bends toward the object covered by ignorance, and conascent formations hurl consciousness onward. Like a person crossing a ravine by grasping a rope tied to a tree on the near bank, it abandons the former basis and, relishing or not relishing, takes up the later basis produced by kamma; it occurs only through conditions beginning with its object. The former is called death and the later rebirth-linking. The latter has not come here from the former becoming, yet it has not appeared without causes arising from there—kamma, formations, inclination toward the object, and the rest. Echo, lamp, seal, and reflected image illustrate this: each has sound and the rest as its cause yet does not come from elsewhere. Through the bond of continuity there is neither absolute identity nor absolute difference. If there were absolute identity, curds would not be produced from milk; if there were absolute difference, curds would not depend upon milk. The same applies to every cause and what arises together from that cause; otherwise all worldly discourse would break down. Thus neither absolute identity nor absolute difference should be accepted. 〔Reading〕 This section is dependent origination’s most counterintuitive and most important stroke. The simile of crossing a ravine on a rope presents “rebirth” as an action: letting go of this bank and grasping the other—yet no person “runs” from this bank to the other; only this hand releases and that hand grasps. The four similes of echo, lamp, seal, and image say that it “does not come from elsewhere”: an echo is not sound that has run across, and the seal’s imprint is not the seal that has entered the clay. The simile of milk and curds makes “neither identical nor different” intelligible to anyone: curds are not milk—not the same self reborn—yet curds do not exist apart from milk—not annihilation without connection. 〔Observation〕

§07 The Result Is Neither Another’s nor Due to Another; the Experiencer Is Only a Designation; Formations Condition through Having Been Done → Vernacular §7

Difficulty: if the result appears without transmigration, then since the aggregates of this body have ceased and kamma does not reach the other place, does not the result belong to another and come from another? If there is no experiencer, whose result is it? (vernacular §7). Answer: within a continuity, the result neither belongs to another nor comes from another—absolute identity and difference have already been excluded within a single continuity. What establishes this is the efficacy applied to seeds: after efficacy has been applied to a mango seed, a distinctive result that has obtained its conditions arises later in the continuity of that seed. It does not belong to another seed or arise through efficacy applied elsewhere, nor do the seed and the efficacy reach the place where the result appears. The same applies to spells, crafts, and medicines applied to a young body but yielding their result in the grown body. Who is the experiencer?—through the mere arising of a result, the conventional designation “experiencer” is established. When fruit arises on a tree, people say, “the tree bears fruit”; when a painful or pleasant result arises, they say, “a deva experiences,” “a human experiences,” “he is happy,” or “he is in pain.” There is no other referent called an experiencer. Difficulty: if formations condition through existing, resultants would arise only in the moment when they occur; if they condition through not existing, results would arise constantly, both before and after. Answer: formations are conditions through having been done, not through existing and not through not existing—“Because sense-sphere wholesome kamma has been done and accumulated, resultant eye-consciousness has arisen.” After they have conditioned their result, they no longer produce result. This is like a guarantor, buyer, or debtor who acts so that property will be handed over: the very fact that the action has been done is the condition for the handover, not whether the act exists or does not exist; after the handover, that person is no longer responsible. 〔Reading〕 Three difficulties, three similes: mango seed and efficacy—the result does not belong to another; the tree bearing fruit—the experiencer is only a conventional expression; the guarantor—kamma conditions through “having been done” and need not still be present. Together they constitute the Theravāda’s entire answer to “If there is no self, how can there still be kammic result?” Kamma needs neither a carrier nor an experiencer: within a single continuity, what has been done is done, and when the result comes, saying “he experiences” is only a convention. 〔Observation〕

§08 Allocation among Three Kinds of Becoming, Four Modes of Birth, Five Destinations, Seven Stations of Consciousness, and Nine Abodes of Beings → Vernacular §8

To dispel confusion about the thirty-two resultant consciousnesses, it should be understood, in terms of rebirth-linking and occurrence among the kinds of becoming and the rest, which consciousnesses these formations condition and how they condition them (vernacular §8)—three kinds of becoming, four modes of birth, five destinations, seven stations of consciousness, and nine abodes of beings. Meritorious formation: in sense becoming and a good destination, the eight sense-sphere volitions condition nine resultant consciousnesses at rebirth-linking by asynchronous kamma condition and decisive-support condition; in fine-material becoming, the five fine-material volitions condition five consciousnesses only at rebirth-linking. In occurrence, sense-sphere meritorious formation conditions seven minor resultants—excluding the equanimity-associated rootless mind-consciousness element—in a sense-sphere good destination, five in fine-material becoming, eight minor resultants in a sense-sphere bad destination (when Mahāmoggallāna Thera encounters an agreeable object while traveling through hell, or when animals and powerful petas obtain an agreeable object), sixteen wholesome resultants in both occurrence and rebirth-linking in a sense-sphere good destination, and ten in both occurrence and rebirth-linking in fine-material becoming. Demeritorious formation: in a sense-sphere bad destination, it conditions a single consciousness at rebirth-linking, six in occurrence, and seven in both occurrence and rebirth-linking; in a sense-sphere good destination, seven in occurrence; and in fine-material becoming, four in occurrence, through seeing an undesirable visible form or hearing an undesirable sound belonging to the sense sphere—there are no undesirable visible forms and the rest in the brahmā or deva worlds. Imperturbable formation conditions four consciousnesses in both occurrence and rebirth-linking in immaterial becoming. Through the doorway summary: in two kinds of becoming, four modes of birth, two destinations, four stations of consciousness, and four abodes of beings—among non-percipient beings, formations produce materiality alone—meritorious formation conditions twenty-one resultant consciousnesses in rebirth-linking and occurrence; in one becoming, four modes of birth, three destinations, a single station of consciousness, and a single abode of beings, demeritorious formation conditions seven; in one becoming, one mode of birth, one destination, three stations of consciousness, and four abodes of beings, imperturbable formation conditions four. This is the detailed account of the clause “with formations as condition, consciousness.” 〔Reading〕 This allocation table answers a practical question: are wholesome resultants found in hell?—yes, in occurrence, as when Mahāmoggallāna encounters an agreeable object while traveling there. Are unwholesome resultants found in a brahmā realm?—four are found there in occurrence, but no disagreeable visible forms or sounds are found there. The results of wholesome and unwholesome kamma are not monochrome in every plane.

For the General Reader

This unit is the longest, but taking away three similes is enough. First, crossing a ravine on a rope—no person passes from death to birth; only this hand releases and that hand grasps. Second, milk and curds—the mind of the next life is not the self of this life, just as curds are not milk, but neither are they unrelated, for curds do not exist apart from milk: neither identical nor different. Third, the guarantor—kamma conditions through “having been done” and need not still be present; when the result comes, it does not require an experiencer, and “he experiences” is only a convention, like “the tree bears fruit.” There is also a sentence that can be used when another person is dying: before the death mind, give that person a wholesome object—a flower, the sound of Dhamma, fragrance, sweetness, fine cloth, and the words “let your mind become serene”—and the rebirth-linking mind will grasp it.

To read this unit in full: vernacular §§1–8 translate in full, paragraph by paragraph, the thirty-two resultant consciousnesses, occurrence and rebirth-linking, the cognitive process at the juncture of death and birth, the discussion of neither identity nor difference, the discussion of result and experiencer, and the allocation among the kinds of becoming and the rest.

Name-and-Form Is Not Two Things Called “Body” and “Mind,” but Four Bundles of Reeds Holding Each Other Up—and the First Reed Supporting Them Is Consciousness

The Big Picture — After Rebirth-Linking Consciousness Lands: How the First Components of Body and Mind Stand Up

The preceding unit brought rebirth-linking consciousness into another becoming. This unit asks: conditioned by this consciousness, what arises? The answer is name-and-form. The Commentator determines it through four doors (the verse in vernacular §1): analysis (name is the three aggregates of feeling, perception, and formations; form is the four great elements and derived materiality), occurrence among the kinds of becoming and the rest (how many dhammas there are at the moment of rebirth-linking and during occurrence—the count reaches ninety-seven), inclusion (why the three situations “name,” “form,” and “name-and-form” are all called “name-and-form”), and the method of conditions (resultant consciousness conditions name in nine ways, basis-materiality in nine, and the remaining materiality in eight; formative consciousness conditions materiality in one way). The unit’s density lies in its numbers, but its heart lies in a simile: bundles of reeds set against each other in the four directions—kamma-born materiality and the materiality born of temperature, mind, and food can stand only through their specifically two-sided support, and consciousness is the condition for this whole bundle. 〔Observation〕

§01 Analysis of Name-and-Form—The Three Aggregates of Name, and the Four Great Elements and Derived Materiality of Form → Vernacular §1

The verse says: by the analysis of name-and-form, by occurrence among the kinds of becoming and the rest, by inclusion, and by the method of conditions, its determination should be understood (vernacular §1). Name consists of the three aggregates beginning with feeling, which bend toward the object; form consists of the four great elements and materiality derived from them. Their analysis was already stated in the Aggregates chapter. 〔Reading〕 Notice that “name” here does not include consciousness—it consists only of the aggregates of feeling, perception, and formations, because consciousness is on the “condition” side of this clause. Name-and-form is the result of consciousness, not its companion.

§02 Occurrence among the Kinds of Becoming and the Rest—The Number of Dhammas in Name-and-Form at Rebirth-Linking → Vernacular §2

Name occurs in every kind of becoming, mode of birth, destination, station of consciousness, and abode of beings except one abode, the non-percipient; form occurs in two kinds of becoming, four modes of birth, five destinations, the first four stations of consciousness, and five abodes of beings (vernacular §2). At rebirth-linking: womb-born and egg-born beings without sex—the two heads of continuity, the basis decad and body decad, plus the three immaterial aggregates, make twenty-three dhammas (“taking what has not already been taken” gives fourteen); beings with sex add the sex decad, making thirty-three (fifteen when what has already been taken is not recounted); spontaneously born brahmā-host devas and the rest—the eye decad, ear decad, basis decad, and life-faculty nonad, four heads of continuity plus three immaterial aggregates, make forty-two (fifteen without recounting); the remaining spontaneously born beings in sense becoming and moisture-born beings with sex and complete bases—seven heads of continuity, seventy material dhammas, plus three immaterial aggregates, make seventy-three (nineteen without recounting); for those who lack a group, subtract accordingly; immaterial becoming has only the three immaterial aggregates, and non-percipient becoming only the life-faculty nonad. 〔Reading〕 These numbers are a precise Abhidhamma anatomy and need not be memorized. What matters is that all of them are headed by “with consciousness as condition”: that small handful of materiality and the three immaterial aggregates arising together with consciousness at the moment of rebirth-linking is the first batch of “name-and-form.” The calculation “taking what has not already been taken” also reminds the reader that twenty-three and thirty-three count members of “groups,” not distinct “kinds.”

§03 The Number of Dhammas in Name-and-Form during Occurrence—Ninety-Seven Dhammas and the Mutual Support of the Four Origins → Vernacular §3

During occurrence, at the moment when rebirth-linking consciousness is present, the temperature occurring with it produces a temperature-originated pure octad. The rebirth-linking mind does not originate materiality—like a person fallen from a cliff who cannot become a condition for somebody else, it is too weak because its basis is weak. From the first life-continuum onward, there is a mind-originated pure octad; when sound appears, temperature and mind each originate a sound nonad; for womb-born beings, when the body is pervaded by food swallowed by the mother, and for spontaneously born beings when they first swallow saliva, there is a food-originated pure octad. The three origins plus the two nonads make twenty-six; adding seventy kinds originated by kamma, arising three times at every mind moment, gives ninety-six kinds of materiality, and with the three immaterial aggregates, ninety-nine dhammas. Removing the two inconstant sound nonads leaves ninety-seven dhammas. Whether beings are asleep, heedless, eating, or drinking, these dhammas occur day and night with consciousness as condition (vernacular §3). Kamma-born materiality, though first established, cannot stand without support from the three other origins, nor can those three stand without its support—like bundles of reeds set against each other in the four directions that do not fall though struck by wind, and like the cargo of a broken vessel battered by waves yet finding a footing in the sea. The two sides support each other without falling and remain for one year, two years, up to a hundred years, until life or merit is exhausted. 〔Reading〕 “The rebirth-linking mind cannot originate materiality—like a person who has fallen from a cliff and cannot become a condition for another” is an unusually candid observation: life’s first mind is too weak to make even a particle of materiality and must depend on the temperature occurring with it. The reed-bundle simile is the heart of the unit: “my body” is a bundle held up by a specifically two-way relation—kamma-born materiality on one side, and the three kinds born of temperature, mind, and food on the other. This is also why food and climate affect practice (compare 17-03 on natural decisive support). 〔Observation〕

§04 Inclusion—A Single Term Encompassing Name, Form, and Name-and-Form → Vernacular §4

By inclusion: during occurrence and rebirth-linking in immaterial becoming, and during occurrence in five-aggregate becoming, only name has consciousness as condition; everywhere among non-percipient beings, and during occurrence in five-aggregate becoming, only form has consciousness as condition; everywhere in five-aggregate becoming, name-and-form has consciousness as condition. By the method of retaining a single remainder where part has the same form, all three are included under “name-and-form” (vernacular §4). Objection: non-percipient beings have no consciousness, so consciousness as condition cannot hold. Reply: it does hold. Consciousness that is the cause of name-and-form is twofold, resultant and non-resultant. The materiality of non-percipient beings is originated by kamma and has as its condition the formative consciousness that occurred in five-aggregate becoming; during occurrence in five-aggregate becoming, kamma-born materiality also occurs at moments of wholesome and other minds. 〔Reading〕 The clause “with consciousness as condition, name-and-form” refers to different things in different places—sometimes only name (the immaterial realm), sometimes only form (the non-percipient heaven), and sometimes name-and-form (human and deva realms); the scripture uses a single term to cover all three situations. The Commentator answers the challenge about a non-percipient heaven without consciousness through “formative consciousness”: the mind that made that kamma is its condition, even if that mind occurred in another life long before. A condition need not be present at the same time.

§05 The Door of Conditions—Resultant Consciousness in Nine Ways, Formative Consciousness in One → Vernacular §5

The verse says: resultant consciousness conditions name in nine ways, basis-materiality in nine, and the remaining materiality in eight; formative consciousness conditions materiality in one way; the remaining consciousness conditions each kind as appropriate (vernacular §5). Resultant consciousness conditions resultant name at rebirth-linking or during occurrence, whether mixed with form or not, by nine conditions: conascence, mutuality, support, association, result, nutriment, faculty, presence, and nondeparture. At rebirth-linking it conditions basis-materiality by nine—conascence, mutuality, support, result, nutriment, faculty, dissociation, presence, and nondeparture—and the remaining materiality by eight, with mutuality removed. According to the Suttanta method, formative consciousness conditions the materiality of non-percipient beings or kamma-born materiality in five-aggregate becoming by only decisive support. The remaining consciousness beginning with the first life-continuum conditions name-and-form as appropriate; a full account would require the whole Paṭṭhāna, so the Commentator does not undertake it. How is it known that name-and-form at rebirth-linking has consciousness as condition? From scripture (“dhammas that turn in accordance with mind,” and so forth) and from reasoning: from mind-born materiality seen here, it is inferred that consciousness also conditions the unseen materiality at rebirth-linking. When the mind is bright or not bright, corresponding forms are seen to arise; from the seen, the unseen may be inferred. Kamma-born materiality’s dependence on consciousness is also stated in the Paṭṭhāna. This is the detailed account of the clause “with consciousness as condition, name-and-form.” 〔Reading〕 Nine conditions, nine, eight, and one—this section is the second practical use of the machinery from 17-03. Only one sentence need be retained: consciousness conditions “name” most closely (nine ways, including association), “form” less closely (through dissociation), and materiality born of past kamma most remotely (only as a strong cause). The close, “infer the unseen from the seen,” is a rare explicit statement of the Commentator’s method of reasoning: when emotion changes and the complexion changes with it, that visible mind-born materiality is used to infer that unseen materiality at rebirth-linking also depends on consciousness—observe the present to infer a beginning nobody saw. 〔Observation〕

For the General Reader

Take away one simile and one inference. The simile: bundles of reeds set against each other in the four directions—the body is a bundle in which kamma-born materiality and the three kinds born of temperature, mind, and food stand through their two-sided support; what you eat, where you live, and how the mind moves all help hold up this bundle. The inference: when the mind moves, the complexion changes—this “mind-born materiality” is visible to everyone; from it the Commentator infers that the unseen first materiality also arises dependent on consciousness. You need not believe in rebirth-linking, but you can begin today by watching how the mind changes the body.

To read this unit in full: vernacular §§1–5 translate in full, paragraph by paragraph, the analysis of name-and-form, the numbers of dhammas at rebirth-linking and during occurrence, the general rule of inclusion, the ninefold and single condition doors, and the reasoning by inference.

There Are Six Doors Because There Is Name-and-Form—Without This Bundle of Body and Mind, There Are No Doors to Open

The Big Picture — From a Bundle of Reeds to Six Doors

Once name-and-form stands, the six bases open: eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind—the six doors through which the world enters. This unit is very short and consists entirely of assignments: in how many ways does name condition the six bases (vernacular §2), in how many does form condition them (vernacular §3), and in how many do name and form together condition them (vernacular §4)? It first establishes the boundaries (vernacular §1): the scriptural “name-and-form” and “six bases” are each collective designations produced by “reducing to a single remainder.” In the immaterial realm only name conditions the sixth base, the mind base; only in five-aggregate becoming does name-and-form condition the six bases. The unit’s density lies wholly in the machinery of 17-03; its heart is a single statement: “it exists only when name-and-form exists”—when that exists, this exists. 〔Observation〕

§01 Boundaries of Name-and-Form and the Six Bases—Two Verses of Summary → Vernacular §1

The verse says: name is the three aggregates, and form is the great elements, physical bases, and the rest; what has been reduced to a single remainder conditions what has likewise been reduced to a single remainder (vernacular §1). Name is the three aggregates beginning with feeling. Form is included in the same continuity and is defined as the four great elements, six physical bases, and life faculty. “Name,” “form,” and “name-and-form” are reduced to a single remainder and collectively called name-and-form; “the sixth base” and “the six bases” are likewise collectively called the six bases. In immaterial becoming, only name is a condition, and only the sixth base is its result (the Vibhaṅga: “With name as condition, the sixth base”). How is name-and-form known to condition the six bases? The bases exist only when name-and-form exists: when this or that name-and-form exists, this or that base exists—when that exists, this exists. The method of conditions below makes this property clear. The verse says: at rebirth-linking or during occurrence, what conditions what and how it does so should be understood by the discerning. 〔Reading〕 The four words “when that exists, this exists” answer this unit and supply the whole chapter’s formula for “How is A known to condition B?” (compare 17-02 §03 and 17-05 §01): it is not derived from a theory but observed as this exists only when that exists, and without that, this does not exist.

§02 Name as a Condition for the Six Bases—How Many Ways in Immaterial and Five-Aggregate Becoming → Vernacular §2

Immaterial becoming: at rebirth-linking, name conditions the sixth base in seven ways at the minimum—conascence, mutuality, support, association, result, presence, and nondeparture (some mental dhammas also by root and nutriment; from this the maximum and minimum are understood). During occurrence, resultant name follows the same method; non-resultant name has six, with result removed (vernacular §2). Five-aggregate becoming: at rebirth-linking, resultant name accompanied by the heart-basis conditions the sixth mind-base in seven ways; accompanied by the four great elements, it conditions the five bases beginning with the eye in six ways—conascence, support, result, dissociation, presence, and nondeparture. During occurrence, resultant name conditions the resultant sixth base in seven ways, and non-resultant name the non-resultant sixth base in six; for the remaining five bases, other resultant name based on eye-sensitivity and the rest conditions them in four ways—postnascence, dissociation, presence, and nondeparture—and the non-resultant is the same. 〔Reading〕 Behind the numbers is a structure: name conditions the mind base most closely (seven ways, including association) and the five material bases of eye, ear, nose, tongue, and body less closely (six or four ways, through dissociation). The mind base and name are both mental dhammas and can be “associated”; the eye and the rest are material and can help only through “dissociation.” “Postnascence condition” appears among the ways name conditions the five bases: the later-arising mind holds up the already-present eye and ear (compare the vulture-chick simile in 17-03).

§03 Form as a Condition for the Six Bases—Basis, Great Elements, Life Faculty, and Nutriment → Vernacular §3

Form does not condition any base in immaterial becoming. In five-aggregate becoming, at rebirth-linking basis-materiality conditions the sixth mind-base in six ways—conascence, mutuality, support, dissociation, presence, and nondeparture. Without distinction, at rebirth-linking and during occurrence the four great elements condition the five bases beginning with the eye in four ways—conascence, support, presence, and nondeparture (vernacular §3). The material life faculty conditions the five bases by presence, nondeparture, and faculty; nutriment conditions them by presence, nondeparture, and nutriment, but only during occurrence for beings who live on food. The five bases beginning with the eye condition the sixth mind-base constituted by the five consciousnesses in six ways—support, prenascence, faculty, dissociation, presence, and nondeparture—during occurrence. Apart from the five consciousnesses, basis-materiality conditions the remaining mind-base in five ways—support, prenascence, dissociation, presence, and nondeparture—during occurrence. 〔Reading〕 A sentence here is often missed: the five bases of eye, ear, nose, tongue, and body are themselves conditions for the mind base constituted by the five consciousnesses. The six bases are not six parallel doors; the first five condition the sixth through support and prenascence. Eye-consciousness depends on the eye and arises after the eye; the mind base is fed by the five bases. There is sequence within the “six bases.” 〔Observation〕

§04 Name-and-Form Together as a Condition for the Six Bases → Vernacular §4

At rebirth-linking in five-aggregate becoming, the name-and-form called the three aggregates and basis-materiality conditions the sixth base by conascence, mutuality, support, result, association, dissociation, presence, nondeparture, and the rest. Only the doorway is shown; the whole can be fitted by the method stated (vernacular §4). This is the detailed account of the clause “with name-and-form as condition, the six bases.” 〔Reading〕 The Commentator stops here, saying that “only the doorway is shown.” This is kindness toward the reader and awareness of the chapter’s form: to give every assignment of the twenty-four conditions would require elaborating the whole Paṭṭhāna. The reader has the method, and that is enough.

For the General Reader

This is the shortest and driest unit; take away two statements. First, “when that exists, this exists”: the six bases exist only when name-and-form exists; without this bundle of body and mind, there are no doors to open. Second, the six doors are not parallel: the five doors of eye, ear, nose, tongue, and body feed the sixth door, mind—eye-consciousness depends on the eye, and mind-consciousness depends on the five consciousnesses. This supplies a dependent-origination reason why restraint of the six faculties begins with eye and ear in practice: the first five bases condition the mind base.

To read this unit in full: vernacular §§1–4 translate in full, paragraph by paragraph, the boundaries of name-and-form and the six bases, the several ways name conditions them, the several ways form conditions them, and name-and-form together as condition.

The Opening for Practice Is at the “Feeling → Craving” Joint: Feeling Is Result and Cannot Be Prevented; Craving Is the Start of New Defilement and Can Be Caught

The Big Picture — Reading Three Clauses Together: The Doors Open, Contact Occurs, Feeling Arises, and Then Wanting Begins

The Commentator moves quickly through three clauses: with the six bases as condition, contact (vernacular §1); with contact as condition, feeling (vernacular §2); and with feeling as condition, craving (vernacular §3). The first two still belong to the continuing stream of result—both contact and feeling here are resultants—while the third is the turn: feeling → craving is the joint where result becomes new defilement. An external object comes and feeling arises; these are still result and not under your control. But the step from feeling to craving is the start of new defilement, the trigger that keeps the wheel turning. The opening for practice is right here (see the three rounds in 17-11). At the end of the third clause, the Commentator himself points directly to this opening: “Yet even with feeling as condition, it does not arise without latent tendency; therefore it does not arise in the brahmin who has lived the holy life.” Feeling remains; craving need not arise. 〔Observation〕

§01 With the Six Bases as Condition, Contact—Thirty-Two Contacts and the Inclusion of Internal and External Bases → Vernacular §1

In brief, contact is sixfold, from eye-contact through mind-contact. In detail, like consciousness it is thirty-twofold—five wholesome resultants, five unwholesome resultants, and twenty-two associated with the other twenty-two mundane resultant consciousnesses (vernacular §1). There are two positions on the scope of the six bases. Those who maintain a “discourse on the occurrence of what is appropriated” take only each being’s own continuity: in immaterial becoming the sixth base conditions contact, elsewhere the six bases do, and both are included under “six bases” by reducing to a single remainder. Those who allow the condition to extend to a different continuity also include the six external bases. Objection: a single contact does not arise from all bases, and all contacts do not arise from a single base; why then does “with the six bases as condition, contact” speak of contact in the singular? Answer: a single contact does arise from many bases. Eye-contact arises from the eye base, visible-form base, the mind base called eye-consciousness, and the remaining associated dhamma base. The singular expression shows “a single contact from many bases.” As to conditions: the five bases condition five contacts by six—support, prenascence, faculty, dissociation, presence, nondeparture. A single resultant mind base conditions resultant mind-contact by nine—conascence, mutuality, support, result, nutriment, faculty, association, presence, nondeparture. Among external bases, visible form conditions eye-contact by four—object, prenascence, presence, nondeparture; sound and the rest are the same for ear-contact and the rest. For mind-contact, the external bases and dhamma base act as appropriate, some by object condition alone. 〔Reading〕 “A single contact arises from many bases” applies once more the rule from 17-04: “with the six bases as condition, contact” does not mean six bases each produce one contact; eye, visible form, eye-consciousness, and associated dhammas together produce a single eye-contact. Contact is never single-cause. The Commentator records but does not decide between the two positions—conditions confined to each being’s own continuity, or conditions also found in external objects—and both use “reducing to a single remainder.” This is his characteristic temper toward the views of the commentary teachers.

§02 With Contact as Condition, Feeling—Eighty-Nine Feelings and Thirty-Two Resultant Feelings → Vernacular §2

By the door, feeling is sixfold—from feeling born of eye-contact through feeling born of mind-contact, as in the Vibhaṅga. By analysis it is eighty-ninefold because associated with eighty-nine minds; what is intended here is only the thirty-two feelings associated with resultant minds (vernacular §2). At the five doors, eye-contact and the rest condition the five feelings based on eye-sensitivity and the rest by eight conditions—conascence, mutuality, support, result, nutriment, association, presence, nondeparture. They condition the remaining sense-sphere resultant feelings occurring at receiving, investigating, and registration in each door by decisive support alone. At the mind door, conascent mind-contact conditions sense-sphere resultant feelings at registration by eight and likewise conditions three-plane resultant feelings at rebirth-linking, life-continuum, and death; mind-contact associated with mind-door adverting conditions sense-sphere feelings at registration by decisive support alone. 〔Reading〕 This short clause requires only one fact to be retained: the “feeling” here is resultant feeling—the felt result, not something you have manufactured. This determines the weight of the next clause: you cannot prevent feeling, because it is the echo of past kamma.

§03 With Feeling as Condition, Craving—Six Cravings, Eighteen, Thirty-Six, and One Hundred Eight → Vernacular §3

Six cravings are named by object—craving for visible form, sound, odor, flavor, tangible objects, and dhammas, like a son named after his father “a merchant’s son” (vernacular §3). Each craving is threefold by mode of occurrence: craving for sensuality (relishing an object that enters the eye’s range through sensual enjoyment), craving for becoming (occurring with the eternalist view “lasting and eternal”—greed accompanied by eternalist view), and craving for non-becoming (occurring with the annihilationist view “cut off and perishes”—greed accompanied by annihilationist view), making eighteen. Internal and external make thirty-six; past, future, and present make one hundred eight. In summary, there are six by object and three by mode. Beings are like a wet nurse who relishes a child and conceives possessiveness toward the child: they relish feeling arisen from visible form and the rest, conceive possessiveness toward feeling, and therefore greatly honor those who provide these objects—painters, musicians, perfumers, cooks, weavers, compounders of medicines, and physicians. All this is craving with feeling as condition. What is intended here is resultant pleasant feeling, which conditions craving in only one way, by decisive support. Or: the unhappy long for pleasure, the happy desire still more, and equanimity is called pleasure because of its peaceful nature—therefore all three feelings condition craving. “Yet even with feeling as condition, it does not arise without latent tendency; therefore it does not arise in the brahmin who has lived the holy life.” 〔Reading〕 Three points. First, the three cravings are not three objects but three postures: wanting it, wanting it to last forever, and wanting it utterly gone—even “I wish it would disappear” is craving. Second, “the unhappy long for pleasure, the happy desire still more, and equanimity is called pleasure”: all three feelings feed craving. In pain, the mind wants comfort; in comfort, it wants more; in neutrality, it treats neutrality as comfort. There is no kind of feeling craving cannot use. Third, the wet-nurse simile exposes craving’s root: we do not love the object; we love the feeling, then treat the person who gives us that feeling as a benefactor. The final verse is the exit from the whole unit: feeling is result and cannot be prevented; craving depends on latent tendency, and when latent tendency is cut off, feeling remains but craving does not arise. This is why an arahant still has painful feeling but no suffering. 〔Observation〕

For the General Reader

Take one thing from these three clauses: watch the “feeling → craving” joint. This is the opening for daily practice. An uncomfortable feeling arises—feeling, which you cannot prevent. In the next moment you lunge to push it away or seize what is pleasant—craving and clinging, which you can catch. Seeing this step and not automatically joining it loosens the wheel by a single notch here and now. Remember too that craving has three postures: wanting, wanting forever, and wanting nothing—“I wish this feeling would disappear” is also craving, not release. True letting go is not at the level of feeling but at latent tendency. The joint is therefore not a place to suppress through force; it is a place to see.

To read this unit in full: vernacular §§1–3 translate in full, paragraph by paragraph, the six bases conditioning contact (thirty-two contacts and the two theories of inclusion), contact conditioning feeling (thirty-two resultant feelings), and feeling conditioning craving (one hundred eight cravings and the final verse).

Craving Is Reaching Out; Clinging Is Grasping—and Three of the Four Kinds of Clinging Are “Views”

The Big Picture — Wanting Becomes Grasping

The preceding clause stopped at the “feeling → craving” joint. This clause continues: when craving hardens, it becomes clinging. The Commentator analyzes the meaning of the four kinds of clinging (vernacular §1), their dhammas in brief and in detail (vernacular §2), three orders (vernacular §3), and the several ways craving conditions clinging (vernacular §4). One statement in this unit should be remembered above all: among the four kinds of clinging, only clinging to sensuality is the hardening of craving; the other three—clinging to views, clinging to virtues and practices, and clinging to a doctrine of self—are, in brief, simply views. Grasping happens in two ways: grasping things (sensuality), and grasping views—the latter is harder to release because it does not look like grasping. 〔Observation〕

§01 Analysis of the Meaning of the Four Kinds of Clinging → Vernacular §1

The four kinds are clinging to sensuality, clinging to views, clinging to virtues and practices, and clinging to a doctrine of self (vernacular §1). By analysis of meaning: it takes up sensuality called an object—clinging to sensuality, which is both sensuality and clinging. “Clinging” means “firm grasping”; the prefix meaning “near” carries the sense of firmness, as in “great anguish” and “very near.” A view is both view and clinging—clinging to views; a later view grasps an earlier one, as in “the self and the world are eternal.” It takes up virtues and practices—clinging to virtues and practices; cow virtue and cow observance, when held to with “this purifies,” are themselves clinging. Something is spoken and taken up through it—a doctrine of self and clinging to a doctrine of self; it speaks and grasps “self,” or takes the mere doctrine of self to be self. 〔Reading〕 The definition of “clinging” is “firm grasping.” Craving already wants; clinging is wanting that has tightened into a fist. All four names share the same structure: something + clinging—the something is both the thing grasped and the grasp itself. What is grasped and the grasping are expressed here by the same word.

§02 The Dhammas of the Four Kinds of Clinging—In Brief and in Detail → Vernacular §2

In brief, clinging to sensuality is the hardening of craving—the later craving that arises firmly with the earlier craving as decisive support (“desire, lust, delight, craving, affection, fever, infatuation, and engrossment in sensuality”). Some say: craving seeks an object not yet obtained, like a thief reaching out a hand in the dark; clinging takes hold of an obtained object, like that same thief seizing the goods; the two dhammas are opposed by fewness of wishes and contentment and are the roots of the dukkha of seeking and guarding. The other three kinds of clinging are, in brief, only views (vernacular §2). In detail: the hardening of one hundred eight cravings is clinging to sensuality; the wrong view concerning ten matters (“there is no giving, no sacrifice … having directly known, they proclaim”) is clinging to views; taking up “purification through virtues and practices” (“purification through virtue, through observance, through virtues and practices”) is clinging to virtues and practices; identity view concerning twenty matters (“regards form as self …”) is clinging to a doctrine of self. 〔Reading〕 The thief simile places the difference between craving and clinging directly in the hand: reaching out is craving; grasping is clinging. Each of the three view-clingings has a common misreading. Clinging to views does not mean “having a view,” but wrong view concerning ten matters—denial of kamma and its results. Clinging to virtues and practices does not mean “keeping virtue,” but believing the observance itself purifies. Clinging to a doctrine of self does not mean merely “speaking of self,” but the twenty forms of identity view. Together they give every shape of a wrong path: disbelieving causality, taking ritual as purification, and taking the five aggregates as self. 〔Observation〕

§03 Three Orders of the Four Kinds of Clinging—Arising, Abandoning, and Teaching → Vernacular §3

Order of arising: in beginningless saṃsāra no “first arising” can be stated, so this order is not given in the definitive sense. In a qualified sense, within a single becoming, self-grasping usually precedes attachment to eternalist and annihilationist views. A person who holds “I am eternal” develops clinging to virtues and practices for the purification of self; a person who holds “I am annihilated” and disregards the world beyond develops clinging to sensuality. Thus the order is clinging to a doctrine of self, then clinging to views, clinging to virtues and practices, and clinging to sensuality (vernacular §3). Order of abandoning: the three beginning with clinging to views are abandoned first, by the stream-entry path; clinging to sensuality is abandoned last, by the arahant path. Order of teaching: clinging to sensuality is taught first because its range is broad (associated with eight minds, while the others are associated with four) and it is evident (people mostly delight in ālaya, what is clung to). Or the agitation over auspicious signs and the rest produced by clinging to sensuality in pursuit of sensual pleasures is a view, so clinging to views comes next. When clinging to views is divided, it becomes clinging to virtues and practices—gross because it can be known by seeing what cows and dogs do—and subtle clinging to a doctrine of self, which comes last. 〔Reading〕 The three orders together form a precise picture: in arising, clinging to a doctrine of self comes first—first “I,” then eternalist or annihilationist views, observances to purify that self, and sensuality wanted for that self. In abandoning, clinging to sensuality comes last—wrong view is cut off at stream-entry, but the habit of wanting things persists until arahantship. In teaching, clinging to sensuality comes first because it is most visible. Thus the scriptural order—sensuality, view, virtues and practices, self-doctrine—is the order of teaching; reverse it—self-doctrine, view and virtues-and-practices, sensuality—to see the order in which they grow. 〔Observation〕

§04 In How Many Ways Craving Conditions the Four Kinds of Clinging → Vernacular §4

Craving for sensuality conditions clinging to sensuality in only one way, by decisive support, because clinging to sensuality arises in objects in which craving delights. It conditions the other three by seven—conascence, mutuality, support, association, presence, nondeparture, and root—or by eight with decisive support included. When it conditions through decisive support it is non-conascent (vernacular §4). This is the detailed account of the clause “with craving as condition, clinging.” 〔Reading〕 Behind the numbers is again a structure: craving helps “grasping things” from outside, only as a strong cause; it helps “grasping views,” the three view-clingings, from within—conascent, associated, and serving as root. Craving is inside the wrong view. This is why a wrong view is so difficult to change: it is not cold reasoning; greed is inside it.

For the General Reader

Take away two things. First, reaching out is craving; grasping is clinging. There is a step between “I want” and “this is mine,” and that step is called hardening. Seeing wanting turn into grasping is seeing clinging. Second, three of the four kinds of clinging are views: disbelieving kamma and result, believing a ritual or rule purifies in itself, and believing there is a self in the five aggregates. They do not look like grasping because they look like “my views,” but the Commentator says craving is inside them. In arising, “I” comes first; in abandoning, “wanting” comes last. Thus views of “I” are broken first, while the habit of wanting things is released last—do not hurry to reverse that order.

To read this unit in full: vernacular §§1–4 translate in full, paragraph by paragraph, the analysis of the meaning of the four kinds of clinging, their dhammas in brief and in detail, the three orders, and the several ways craving conditions them.

“Becoming” Is Two Things: the Kamma That Is Made (Kamma-Becoming) and the Aggregates That Are Born (Rebirth-Becoming)—An Ordinary Person Is Like Someone Mad, Aspiring to Any Becoming through Any Clinging

The Big Picture — After Grasping: Kamma and Birth

Once clinging grasps, kamma is made and birth follows—this is called “becoming.” The unit first divides becoming into kamma-becoming and rebirth-becoming (vernacular §1), gives their dhammas (vernacular §2), answers “Why say becoming after formations have already been stated?” (vernacular §3), counts the divisions and inclusions of becoming (vernacular §4), and closes with six examples showing which clinging conditions which becoming (vernacular §5). The heart of the unit is one statement and one judgment. The statement: kamma itself is becoming; birth itself is becoming. The judgment: “An ordinary person is like someone mad: without examining what is suitable or unsuitable, aspiring to any becoming through any clinging, that person performs any kamma.” Therefore “all becoming arises from every kind of clinging.” 〔Observation〕

§01 The Meaning of Becoming—Kamma-Becoming and Rebirth-Becoming → Vernacular §1

Because it comes to be, it is “becoming.” It is twofold: kamma-becoming, in which kamma itself is becoming, and rebirth-becoming, in which birth itself is becoming; “becoming in two ways: there is kamma-becoming, and there is rebirth-becoming” (vernacular §1). Birth is becoming because it comes to be; kamma is called becoming by a figurative designation through its result—like saying “the arising of buddhas is bliss,” calling the cause of bliss “bliss.” 〔Reading〕 “Becoming” here is not an abstract noun for “existence”; it consists of two very concrete things: the kamma that is made and the heap of aggregates that kamma will produce. The former is the cause but is called by the result’s name. This follows the same usage as “phlegm and sugar” in 17-01 §04.

§02 The Dhammas of Becoming—The Volitions of Kamma-Becoming and the Nine Kinds of Rebirth-Becoming → Vernacular §2

In brief, kamma-becoming is volition together with greed and other associated dhammas called kamma (“meritorious, demeritorious, and imperturbable formation, limited or exalted; and all kamma leading to becoming”: thirteen meritorious volitions, twelve demeritorious, four imperturbable; limited and exalted refer to lesser and greater result; all kamma leading to becoming refers to greed and the other associated dhammas) (vernacular §2). Rebirth-becoming in brief is the aggregates born of kamma; in detail it is ninefold: sense-sphere, fine-material, and immaterial becoming; percipient, non-percipient, and neither-percipient-nor-non-percipient becoming; one-, four-, and five-aggregate becoming. Sense-sphere and fine-material becoming have five appropriated aggregates; immaterial becoming four; percipient becoming five; non-percipient one; neither-percipient-nor-non-percipient four; one-, four-, and five-aggregate becoming have the number indicated by their names. 〔Reading〕 The nine kinds are three ways of cutting the same set of “becoming”: by sphere—sense, fine-material, immaterial; by perception—percipient, non-percipient, neither-percipient-nor-non-percipient; and by number of aggregates—one, four, five. They are not nine places, but three rulers measuring the same set of births.

§03 The Purpose of Repeating Becoming → Vernacular §3

Meritorious formation and the rest have already been stated under formations; why repeat them under becoming? The former are past kamma conditioning rebirth-linking here, while these are present kamma conditioning future rebirth-linking. Or, above only volition was “formation,” while here associated dhammas are included; above only kamma conditioning consciousness was “formation,” while here kamma producing non-percipient becoming is included; “with ignorance as condition, formations” states only wholesome and unwholesome dhammas, while “with clinging as condition, becoming,” by including rebirth-becoming, also states indeterminate dhammas. The repetition therefore has a purpose in every respect (vernacular §3). 〔Reading〕 This section answers the most common confusion in reading the twelve links: are not both formations and becoming kamma? The same kind of kamma appears twice because it stands at two different points in time: as “formations” it was made in the past and bears fruit in this life; as “becoming” it is made in this life and bears fruit in the next. This is the first appearance of the double causal sequence across three times (explained in detail in 17-11). 〔Observation〕

§04 The Division and Inclusion of Becoming—Twenty-Four, Twelve, Six, Three, Two, and One → Vernacular §4

By division: kamma performed with clinging to sensuality as condition for birth in sense-sphere becoming is kamma-becoming; the aggregates produced are rebirth-becoming—two sense-sphere becomings plus the included percipient and five-aggregate becomings. The same applies to two fine-material becomings with percipient, non-percipient, one-, and five-aggregate becomings included, and two immaterial becomings with percipient, neither-percipient-nor-non-percipient, and four-aggregate becomings included. Together with what is included, there are six. The other three kinds of clinging are the same, making twenty-four kinds of becoming by division (vernacular §4). By inclusion: combine kamma-becoming and rebirth-becoming into one—each clinging has three kinds, making twelve. Without distinguishing the four clingings, the three spheres each have kamma- and rebirth-becoming, making six. Without distinguishing kamma from birth, there are three spheres. Without distinguishing the spheres, there are two, kamma and birth. Without even that distinction, there is only one becoming. 〔Reading〕 Twenty-four, twelve, six, three, two, one—the same matter can be counted as twenty-four kinds or as a single kind. By gathering the numbers in this way, the Commentator teaches a way to read Abhidhamma: numbers are methods of division, not things.

§05 Which Clinging Conditions Which Becoming—Six Examples and the Several Modes of Condition → Vernacular §5

Which clinging conditions which becoming? Any clinging conditions any becoming. An ordinary person is like someone mad: without examining suitability, aspiring to any becoming through any clinging, that person performs any kamma. The claim “clinging to virtues and practices does not produce fine-material and immaterial becoming” should not be accepted; “all becoming arises from every clinging” should be accepted (vernacular §5). Six examples: (1) hearing that pleasures abound among great human families and in the six sense-sphere deva worlds, deceived by hearing what is not true Dhamma, a person depends on clinging to sensuality and performs bodily misconduct to obtain them, and is reborn in a bad destination; or seeking present pleasures and guarding those obtained, performs misconduct and reaches a bad destination. (2) Hearing true Dhamma and growing in understanding, a person depends on clinging to sensuality and performs good bodily conduct, and is reborn among devas or humans. (3) Hearing or conceiving that pleasures are more abundant in fine-material and immaterial becoming, a person depending solely on clinging to sensuality develops fine-material and immaterial attainments and, through their power, is born in a brahmā world. (4) Holding the annihilationist view that the so-called self is well annihilated in a complete sense-sphere becoming or a fine-material or immaterial becoming, a person performs kamma leading there—clinging to views conditions all three. (5) Through clinging to a doctrine of self, holding that the self will be happy and free of fever in one of these, a person performs kamma leading there—self-doctrine clinging conditions all three. (6) Through clinging to virtues and practices, holding that someone who fulfills the practice will enjoy perfect bliss in one of them, a person performs kamma leading there—clinging to virtues and practices conditions all three. As to modes: for fine-material and immaterial becoming, for only wholesome kamma within sense-sphere kamma-becoming, and for rebirth-becoming, the four clingings condition by decisive support alone. For associated unwholesome kamma-becoming in sense-sphere becoming, they condition by conascence, mutuality, support, association, presence, nondeparture, and root; for what is dissociated, by decisive support alone. This is the detailed account of the clause “with clinging as condition, becoming.” 〔Reading〕 The sharpest of the six examples is the third: “depending solely on clinging to sensuality,” a person can be born in a brahmā world. Someone hears that brahmā bliss is greater, practices absorption for that pleasure, succeeds, and is reborn there—the entire path was clinging to sensuality. This strikes hard at the notion that “practicing concentration is automatically practice”: concentration can be entirely a product of clinging to sensuality. The sentence “an ordinary person is like someone mad” diagnoses the unit: it does not mean badness, but failure to examine. Any clinging can lead to any becoming. 〔Observation〕

For the General Reader

Take away two things. First, “becoming” is two things: the kamma you make and the heap of aggregates it will produce. Kamma appears twice—as formations and becoming—because it stands at two points in time: what was made in the past bears fruit now; what is made now bears fruit in the future. Second, among the six examples, read the third three times: practicing absorption for the bliss of a brahmā world makes the entire path clinging to sensuality. Practicing concentration is not automatically practice; the clinging on which the motive rests determines whether it remains inside the round or goes beyond it. “An ordinary person is like someone mad” is not an insult but a diagnosis: without examining whether something is suitable, any grasping can lead to any birth.

To read this unit in full: vernacular §§1–5 translate in full, paragraph by paragraph, the meaning of becoming, the dhammas of kamma-becoming and rebirth-becoming, the purpose of repetition, the divisions and inclusions of becoming, and the six examples with the several modes of condition.

The Wheel Turns by Conditions, without Need of a Mover—and Precisely Because of This, When the Conditions Are Removed, the Wheel Stops

The Big Picture — Gathering the Twelve Links into a Wheel

After the preceding ten units have unfolded the clauses one by one, this unit first gathers the final three clauses, “with becoming as condition, birth; with birth as condition, aging-and-death, sorrow, and the rest” (vernacular §1), and then views the entire chain together as the wheel of becoming: ignorance is established by sorrow and the rest, the wheel’s beginning is unknown, it is without maker or experiencer, and it is empty with twelvefold emptiness (vernacular §2); its two roots, three times, and assignment of links (vernacular §3); three joints, four groupings, twenty modes, and three rounds (vernacular §4); derivation from the truths and two functions (vernacular §5); prevention of wrong views and twenty-four similes (vernacular §6); four profundities (vernacular §7); and four principles together with the chapter close (vernacular §8). The twelve links are easily read as a one-way line “from ignorance to aging-and-death.” A more useful reading is that they are a self-feeding circuit—aging-and-death is not the end: beings in the resultant phase continue in ignorance and continue to crave and cling, so the wheel reconnects with its beginning; the three rounds (§04) show this circuit most clearly. An interpretive reminder: this unit’s scheme of “two causal sequences across three times” (vernacular §§3–4) is an explicit interpretation adopted by the Visuddhimagga: it lays the twelve links across three lives and became the mainstream Theravāda commentarial reading. Readers should know that this is a scale adopted by Buddhaghosa; the tradition also contains readings of the twelve links as a present, even momentary, conditional continuum. This exposition remains faithful to the Vism and presents the three-time interpretation as primary; the other reading is only noted here and not developed. 〔Observation〕

§01 With Becoming as Condition, Birth; with Birth as Condition, Aging-and-Death, Sorrow, and the Rest → Vernacular §1

The determination of birth and the rest follows the explanation of the truths; here “becoming” intends kamma-becoming alone—kamma-becoming, not rebirth-becoming, is the condition for birth, and it conditions birth in two modes, as kamma condition and decisive-support condition (vernacular §1). How is it known that becoming is the condition for birth? Although the external conditions—father, mother, semen, blood, and food—are equal, beings, even twins, still differ as inferior and superior; the difference is neither causeless nor due to another cause besides kamma-becoming—“Kamma distinguishes beings, that is, as inferior and superior.” Without birth there is no aging-and-death and no sorrow and the rest; with birth there are aging-and-death and sorrow and the rest (in a foolish person touched by the dukkha called aging-and-death, whether connected with aging-and-death or, when touched by another painful dhamma, unconnected with it)—birth is their condition in a single mode, as decisive support. 〔Reading〕 “Even twins”: the same parents, food, and time, yet they remain different. The Commentator uses the hardest case to refute in establishing that becoming is the condition for birth. And the statement that “sorrow need not be connected with aging-and-death” prepares the next section: sorrow can arise at any time while life continues—it is the seam by which the wheel connects back to its beginning.

§02 Four Things about the Wheel of Becoming—Ignorance Established by Sorrow and the Rest, Beginning Unknown, without Maker or Experiencer, Twelvefold Emptiness → Vernacular §2

Because sorrow and the rest are stated at the end, the ignorance stated in the opening clause is to be understood thus: ignorance is established by sorrow and the rest; this wheel of becoming has an unknown beginning; it is without maker and experiencer and is empty with twelvefold emptiness—and it turns continuously without interruption (vernacular §2). Ignorance is established by sorrow and the rest: sorrow, grief, and despair are not dissociated from ignorance, and lamentation belongs to someone deluded; when they are established, ignorance is established. “With the arising of the taints comes the arising of ignorance”—sorrow and the rest arise from the taints: the taint of sensual desire (“For that person who desires sensual pleasures, in whom desire has arisen, if those sensual pleasures decline, he suffers as though pierced by an arrow”); the taint of views (“While he remains obsessed with ‘I am form, form is mine,’ sorrow, lamentation, dukkha, grief, and despair arise through form’s change and alteration”); the taint of becoming (even long-lived devas rich in pleasure become fearful and stirred on hearing the Tathāgata’s teaching—like devas terrified by the five portents); and the taint of ignorance (“That fool experiences three kinds of dukkha and grief here and now”). Thus the occurrence of sorrow and the rest establishes the taints, and the taints condition ignorance. Beginning unknown: once ignorance is established through conditions, the sequence continues again as ignorance conditions formations and formations condition consciousness, without an end to the succession of cause and result. “With ignorance as condition, formations” does not name a temporal first point; it names the principal dhamma. Ignorance is principal among the three rounds: grasping a snake by the head lets the rest of its body coil around the arm, while cutting off the head frees the bound arm; in the same way, grasping ignorance allows the remaining round of defilement and kamma to bind the fool, and cutting off ignorance brings release from them. The simile marks ignorance as principal, not temporally first. Without maker or experiencer: because formations and the rest occur from conditions such as ignorance, the wheel is without a creator of saṃsāra imagined as “Brahmā, Mahābrahmā, the Highest, the Creator,” and without a self imagined as speaker and experiencer of pleasure and pain. Twelvefold emptiness: ignorance is empty of permanence because it arises and ceases, empty of purity because it is defiled and defiling, empty of pleasure because it is oppressed by arising and ceasing, and empty of a controlling self because its occurrence depends on conditions; all the other links are the same. Or ignorance is not self, does not belong to a self, is not in a self, and does not possess a self; the remaining links are the same. 〔Reading〕 This section is the pivot that turns the twelve links into a wheel: sorrow and the rest establish the taints; the taints condition ignorance; ignorance conditions formations—the aftershock of aging-and-death feeds the next circuit. The snake-head simile answers “Is ignorance a first cause?” No: the head is not temporally first; when it is grasped, the whole snake coils around the arm, and when it is cut, the arm is freed. Ignorance is principal, not first. 〔Observation〕

§03 The Wheel’s Two Roots, Three Times, and Assignment of Links → Vernacular §3

The wheel has two roots, ignorance and craving. It has two spans: the span that draws in the past is rooted in ignorance and ends with feeling (stated for a person of view-temperament; to eradicate annihilationism by showing that causes do not cease before their results arise; and for womb-born beings by showing gradual occurrence); the continuation into the future is rooted in craving and ends with aging-and-death (stated for a person of craving-temperament; to eradicate eternalism by showing the aging-and-death of what has arisen; and for spontaneously born beings by showing simultaneous arising) (vernacular §3). Its three times are: the two links ignorance and formations in the past; the eight links consciousness through becoming in the present; and the two links birth and aging-and-death in the future. 〔Reading〕 The wheel has two handles: a person of view-temperament takes it up from ignorance, and a person of craving-temperament from craving—this corresponds to the “two heads of discourse on the round” in 17-01 §06; the two presentations each counter one extreme view, annihilationism and eternalism. The allocation across three times (2–8–2) is the framework of the Theravāda interpretation: what was produced in the past (ignorance and formations) → what is experienced now (consciousness through feeling) + what is produced now (craving, clinging, becoming) → what will be experienced in the future (birth and aging-and-death).

§04 Three Joints, Four Groupings, Twenty Modes, and Three Rounds → Vernacular §4

Three joints: between formations and rebirth-linking consciousness (cause to result), between feeling and craving (result to cause), and between becoming and birth (cause to result) (vernacular §4). Four groupings: ignorance and formations / consciousness, name-and-form, six bases, contact, feeling / craving, clinging, becoming / birth and aging-and-death. Twenty modes: five past causes (ignorance and formations—“in the former kamma-becoming, delusion is ignorance, accumulation is formations, hankering is craving, approach is clinging, volition is becoming”: accumulation means the preparatory volitions of a person making kamma, such as the prior volitions of someone who spends a month or a year preparing requisites for a gift, or the volitions in the first six impulsions under a single advertence; the seventh impulsion, or the volition that places the gift in the recipient’s hands, is becoming; hankering is delight and aspiration for the result and for rebirth-becoming; approach is the taking expressed as “having done this, I will enjoy sensual pleasures there” or “I will be annihilated”); five present results (“rebirth-linking here is consciousness, descent is name-and-form, sensitivity is base, what is contacted is contact, what is felt is feeling”); five present causes (craving, clinging, and becoming together with the included formations and ignorance—“here, when the bases have matured, delusion is ignorance … volition is becoming”); and five future results (“future rebirth-linking is consciousness … what is felt is feeling”). Three rounds: formations and becoming are the round of kamma; ignorance, craving, and clinging are the round of defilement; consciousness, name-and-form, the six bases, contact, and feeling are the round of result. So long as the round of defilement is not cut off, the conditions remain and the wheel continues to turn. 〔Reading〕 If the twelve links are hard to remember, remember the three rounds: defilement (ignorance, craving, clinging) → drives kamma (formations, becoming) → yields result (consciousness, name-and-form, six bases, contact, feeling) → the resultant life gives rise to defilement again. This is how the wheel turns. The practical use of the diagram is that it shows where practice can enter. A result already arisen cannot be undone, but work can occur in the round of defilement—most immediately at the joint “feeling → craving”: an object arrives and feeling arises; craving need not automatically follow. Among the three joints, only this joint runs from result to cause; because the result has already arisen while the next cause has not, this is the only joint at which the next link can be left unmade in the immediate practice frame. The snake-head simile shows that the complete cutting off of ignorance releases the whole round. 〔Observation〕

§05 Derivation from the Truths and the Two Functions of the Links → Vernacular §5

By derivation from the truths (wholesome and unwholesome kamma alike belong to the truth of origin): formations derive from the second truth and are the second truth; consciousness derives from the second and is the first; name-and-form through feeling derive from the first and are the first; craving derives from the first and is the second; clinging derives from the second and is the second; becoming derives from the second and is both the first and second; birth derives from the second and is the first; aging-and-death derives from the first and is the first (vernacular §5). Each link has two functions: ignorance deludes beings regarding things and conditions formations; formations form the conditioned and condition consciousness; consciousness discerns and conditions name-and-form; name and form support each other, and name-and-form conditions the six bases; the six bases occur in their respective fields and condition contact; contact touches its object and conditions feeling; feeling experiences the taste of its object and conditions craving; craving lusts after what can be lusted after and conditions clinging; clinging takes up what can be clung to and conditions becoming; becoming casts beings into various destinations and conditions birth; birth generates the aggregates and conditions aging-and-death; aging-and-death presides over the maturation and breakup of the aggregates and conditions the appearance of another existence by serving as the basis for sorrow and the rest. 〔Reading〕 The twelve links have only two colors, the truth of dukkha (result) and the truth of origin (cause)—the whole chain alternates between result and cause. And “two functions” means that each link does two things at once: it performs its own function and conditions the next link. No link is merely a result; each also pushes onward.

§06 Preventing Wrong Views and Twenty-Four Similes → Vernacular §6

Preventing wrong views: “with ignorance as condition, formations” prevents a view of a maker; “with formations as condition, consciousness” prevents a view of a transmigrating self; “with consciousness as condition, name-and-form” prevents the perception of a compact whole by analyzing what is imagined as a self; “with name-and-form as condition, the six bases” and the rest prevent the views “I see … I know, I touch, I feel, I crave, I cling, I become, I am born, I age, I die” (vernacular §6). The boil group: ignorance is like a blind person; formations like the blind person’s stumbling; consciousness like the stumble’s fall; name-and-form like the fallen person’s boil; the six bases like pustules caused when the boil bursts; contact like striking the boil’s pustules; feeling like the pain of the strike; craving like the wish to remedy the pain; clinging like taking an unsuitable remedy in that wish; becoming like applying the unsuitable remedy; birth like the boil’s alteration caused by the application; aging-and-death like the boil bursting through that alteration. The other group: ignorance is like a film covering the eyes; formations like a cocoon-making worm binding itself in a cocoon; consciousness like a prince supported by a minister and established in his kingdom; name-and-form like an illusion made by an illusionist; the six bases like a woodland growing and flourishing in good soil; contact like fire made by rubbing fire-sticks; feeling like burning when touched by fire; craving like the thirst of someone drinking salt water; clinging like a thirsty person’s desire for drink and like a fish swallowing a hook through greed for bait; becoming like a sprout when a seed is present; birth together with aging-and-death like the fall of a tree that has grown. 〔Reading〕 The prevention of wrong views reads the twelve links as twelve instances of “not self”: no self makes, no self transmigrates, there is no compact self, and no self sees, knows, touches, feels, craves, clings, becomes, is born, ages, or dies. The twenty-four similes offer two walks through the twelve links: the boil group is a patient’s case history (blindness → stumble → fall → boil → pustules → strike → pain → bad remedy → worsening → rupture); the other group is twelve distinct pictures (cocoon, prince, illusionist, woodland, fire-sticks, salt water, fishhook, seed and sprout, falling tree). The thirst of someone drinking salt water—the simile for feeling conditioning craving—is perhaps among the book’s most exact images: the more that is drunk, the greater the thirst. 〔Observation〕

§07 Four Profundities—Meaning, Dhamma, Teaching, and Penetration → Vernacular §7

“This dependent arising is profound, Ānanda, and appears profound”—four profundities (vernacular §7): profundity of meaning—aging-and-death comes from no other cause but birth, and the meaning of “arising with birth as condition” is hard to know (the result of a cause is “meaning,” hence discrimination of meaning); profundity of dhamma—the modes and situations in which ignorance conditions formations are hard to know (a cause is “dhamma,” hence discrimination of dhamma); profundity of teaching—teaching proceeds in various ways for various reasons: forward, reverse, forward and reverse, from the middle forward or backward, as three joints and four groupings, two joints and three groupings, or one joint and two groupings; no knowledge other than omniscient knowledge gains a footing there; profundity of penetration—the meanings of ignorance as unknowing, not seeing, and non-penetration of the truths; formations as forming, accumulation, with lust, and without lust; consciousness as empty, inactive, non-transmigrating, rebirth-linking, and manifestation; name-and-form as conascent, separable, inseparable, bending, and changing; the six bases as predominance, world, door, field, and possession of a domain; contact as touching, impingement, meeting, and convergence; feeling as experiencing the taste of the object, pleasure, pain, neutrality, and soulless experience; craving as delighting, adherence, stream, creeper, river, and the hard-to-fill ocean of craving; clinging as taking, grasping, fixation, adherence, and hard to cross; becoming as accumulation, forming, and casting into births, destinations, stations, and abodes; birth as birth, full birth, descent, production, and manifestation; aging-and-death as exhaustion, decay, breakup, and change—all are profound. 〔Reading〕 The four profundities answer the four discriminations of 17-01 §06 (meaning and dhamma as result and cause). The “profundity of teaching” is the Commentator’s judgment on this chapter itself: after eleven units on dependent arising, he still says that no knowledge short of omniscient knowledge gains a footing here. The chapter lays a path for the reader; it does not walk that path in the reader’s place.

§08 Four Principles and the Chapter Close → Vernacular §8

Four principles (vernacular §8): the principle of unity—the continuum does not break as a seed becomes a sprout and then a tree; seeing it rightly, a person understands continuity through the connection of cause and result and abandons annihilationism, while seeing it wrongly, a person takes continuity as unity and adopts eternalism. The principle of diversity—ignorance and the rest are each defined by their own characteristic; seeing it rightly, a person observes ever-new arising and abandons eternalism, while seeing it wrongly, a person treats what falls within a single continuum as if it belonged to a broken continuum and adopts annihilationism. The principle of non-activity—there is no activity such as “formations must be produced by me from ignorance”; seeing it rightly, a person understands the absence of a maker and abandons self-view, while seeing it wrongly, a person fails to grasp the causal efficacy established by the nature-bound regularity of ignorance and the rest even without such activity, and adopts the view of no action. The principle of specific conditionality—from causes such as ignorance only the corresponding effects such as formations arise, just as curd comes from milk; seeing it rightly, a person understands results in accordance with their conditions and abandons causelessness and the view of no action, while seeing it wrongly, a person imagines that anything may arise from anywhere and adopts causelessness and determinism. The wheel of becoming is bottomless in its profundity and hard to cross because of its thicket of many principles: “Unless the sword of wisdom, well sharpened on the excellent whetstone of concentration, splits the wheel of becoming that crushes ceaselessly like a thunderbolt-wheel, no person escapes the fear of saṃsāra, even in a dream”; the Blessed One says that through not awakening to and penetrating this Dhamma, humankind becomes like a tangled skein, a knotted ball of thread, and matted muñja grass, unable to pass beyond bad destinations, states of deprivation, ruin, and saṃsāra; “Here in the profound distinctions of the modes of conditions, the wise should always train mindfully until they gain a footing.” The colophon closes the seventeenth chapter, the Explanation of the Ground of Wisdom, within the section on the development of wisdom in the Visuddhimagga, composed for the joy of good people. 〔Reading〕 The four principles are the chapter’s most exact conclusion: unity and diversity, non-activity and specific conditionality, in pairs counter four extreme views—unity counters annihilationism because there is continuity; diversity counters eternalism because each link is new; non-activity counters self-view because there is no maker; specific conditionality counters causelessness because results accord with conditions. Right view and wrong view look at the same wheel; the difference is where they grasp and where they release. The final verse says that the sword of wisdom must be sharpened “on the excellent whetstone of concentration”—returning to the order of the whole book: wisdom’s blade is sharpened on concentration’s stone. 〔Observation〕

Breaking the Fixation—Removing “Me” from Cause and Result without Removing Causality 〔Decoder’s Reading〕

This is dependent arising’s sharpest and most counterintuitive cut. Vernacular §2 establishes three things: beginning unknown, without maker or experiencer, twelvefold emptiness (compare the four principles in §8: no first cause, no self transmigrating, and freedom from the extremes of permanence and annihilation). Decoded in a sentence: dependent arising dismantles the story that “a self makes kamma, receives its result, and transmigrates,” but it does not dismantle causality itself. Against “there is a permanent self” (eternalism), dependent arising says: no such self can be found; there are only conditions giving rise through conditions. Against “at death everything is simply over” (annihilationism), it says: conditions continue, kamma still issues in rebirth, and there is “neither identity nor absolute difference” (17-05: no identical self is reborn, yet there is no disconnected annihilation). This carries the measure from Chapter 14 to its furthest point: Chapter 14 analyzes “me” into five aggregates; this chapter returns those aggregates to the flow of time and shows that they turn through conditions, without need of an owner. And precisely because the wheel turns through conditions, when its conditions—ignorance and craving—are cut off, it stops. Vernacular §2’s snake simile says that when ignorance is cut off, the bound arm is freed. The endpoint of subtraction is not nothingness; it is cessation. 〔Observation〕

For the General Reader — What You Can Use Today

1. Remember the three rounds; do not memorize the twenty-four conditions. Take away one sentence: defilement drives kamma, kamma yields result, result gives rise to defilement again. That is enough to recognize the wheel (vernacular §4).
2. Watch the joint “feeling → craving.” The opening for daily practice is here: an unpleasant feeling arises (feeling—you cannot prevent that already-arisen result); in the next moment the mind lunges to push it away or grasps what is pleasant (craving and clinging—this automatic continuation can be seen). Seeing this step without automatically linking onward loosens the wheel here and now (17-08).
3. Dependent arising is not fatalism. It says the opposite: precisely because everything depends on conditions, when conditions change, results change—including dukkha. This is a structure of possibility, not resignation (vernacular §8, the principle of specific conditionality: wrong view, not right view, adopts determinism).

To read this unit in full: vernacular §§1–8 translate in full, paragraph by paragraph, the three final clauses beginning with becoming conditioning birth, the four things about the wheel, its two roots and three times, its three joints and four groupings, twenty modes and three rounds, derivation from the truths and two functions, prevention of wrong views and twenty-four similes, four profundities, four principles, and the chapter close. This unit is very long; reading it alongside the three rounds (vernacular §4) provides a useful map.

In a sentence: dependent arising removes “me” from the story of causality but leaves causality intact—the wheel turns through conditions, without need of a mover; precisely for that reason, when its conditions, ignorance and craving, are removed, the wheel stops. This is not nothingness; it is cessation.