Dependent Co-Arising_2

This talk explores dependent co-arising. The model is traditionally understood as explaining both rebirth and moment-to-moment suffering. In any moment, with mindfulness, we can see how craving for comfort or contracting against discomfort lead to painful states of mind and heart, and a fixated sense of who we are. Each link depends on another and leads directly to something else.

Transcript

So we have been exploring dependent co-arising.

It's also known as dependent origination and it lays out in 12 linked steps that kind of form a circle how it what our process is as a human being and this circle is kind of like the face of a clock with the last link being old age and death and the first ignorance.

So the model is traditionally understood as explaining rebirth in and moment to moment suffering and so just to normalize this a little bit or make it more palpable like rebirth is like we're always becoming every moment is a rebirth.

In any moment with mindfulness we can see how craving for comfort or contracting against discomfort can lead to painful states in the mind and in the heart and a very fixed sense of who we are.

In a very mundane way it's like I'm cold like that statement.

We can see how we're contracting against discomfort and we fixate it on a sense of who we are.

I am.

I am this state and it's important to remember that there is no that there are no fixed states.

There's no fixed self in this chain of causation.

Each link of dependent co-arising depends on another link that leads directly to something else.

So we started this inquiry based on the teachings of the aggregates,

The five aggregates of self,

But this also relates to our earlier study of the three characteristics of existence,

Right?

So we're going back to that.

We know that there's dissatisfaction.

There's no fixed identity to dissatisfaction and it's constantly changing.

So this model is expressed as,

It expresses change as rebirth or easier for me becoming.

We're always becoming,

You know,

Which happens moment by moment.

I was cold and now I'm hot,

Right?

I am or becoming warm.

So the Buddha saw this chain of dependent co-arising as inescapable in human life.

You know,

We're always trying to become something different,

Kind of striving for a new mode of being.

And each state that we're striving for is pointing to yet again,

That nothing in this life can be regarded as stable.

So it brings us back to the teachings of impermanence.

So this model,

As it's understood in the suttas,

Proposes that based on our actions and the intensity of our craving,

Our wanting,

Or the intensity of our ignorance,

We are continually reborn or becoming until we see the wisdom of these three characteristics.

It's like,

Oh,

There's dissatisfaction,

It's not personal,

And it's ever changing.

That kind of stops this dependent co-arising to some extent.

To see this clearly stops perpetuating suffering and ends the rebirth cycle.

Like that's the gist of it.

So it begins with ignorance,

Which we talked about Tuesday.

And ignorance doesn't refer to the absence of knowing something,

It has to do with ignoring some aspect of reality.

So the act of ignoring that there is suffering,

Really,

That's how it's,

That's how it's presented in the in the suttas.

We're ignoring some aspect of reality,

Some aspect of what's going on.

One of the most significant symptoms of ignorance is believing that our psychological suffering is caused by external events.

So our ignorance shapes what we do and our actions.

So if we believe that our suffering is caused by the election,

Something external,

Something outside of us,

It forms how we attend to it.

Our motivations,

Our aspirations,

Our desires,

Our worries,

Our fears,

Are all shaped by not understanding that the suffering that we're experiencing is caused by clinging,

Not to some external source.

So we have to see our suffering.

We're not ignoring it.

The path is not ignoring our suffering.

You know,

Years ago,

I saw this bumper sticker in Berkeley that said,

I stop for suffering.

And I love this because,

You know,

We're not looking to suffer better.

But by stopping for suffering,

We can really engage with it.

Like,

Huh,

If what's happening is not external,

If my suffering,

My experience is not caused by something external.

Let me get to know,

Well,

What is it?

What's this about?

How am I participating?

Begin to understand it.

So these next steps along this path of dependent co-arising are a little harder to see.

And they're also very obvious and simple.

And I'll share them.

But I and I really want to honor that some of you may be really interested in going deeper into these 12 processes of dependent co-arising.

And there are some Buddhist scholars that I can point you to in order to do that.

But I'm just going to offer an overview.

And we can explore it deeper if you request that.

So these points,

These 12 points can be understood as kind of the points on a clock of dependent co-arising.

And we talked about ignorance,

That's kind of the 12 o'clock right down the center ignorance is the the number 12 on the on the clock analogy.

Then there's volitious,

Volitional formations.

That's basically your mental narratives.

That's not that's the one position.

Then then there's a form.

Oh,

I'm sorry,

Volitional formations are kind of like the form.

That's kind of like the where we're making,

Where we're ignoring our ignorance.

And then we're creating like and we're experiencing,

Experiencing it on the level of the body,

Form,

Then consciousness,

Then name and form,

Then the six sense fields,

Contact,

Feeling tone,

Craving,

Clinging,

Becoming,

Birth,

Old age and death.

So just to say this is the longest list in the traditional Dharma lists.

So that's why that's one of the reasons that we're not going to go and break it down so deeply.

But I'm gonna break it in half just to keep it simple.

So the first six points,

Ignorance,

Mental narratives,

Form,

Consciousness,

Name,

And name and form,

And the six sense fields.

That represents the background,

Sort of our past conditioning that influenced the present.

Okay,

The first six,

Ignorance,

Mental narratives,

Form,

Consciousness,

Name and form,

And the six sense fields.

This represents the background,

How we've been influenced and how we respond to the present.

At link six,

We go to feeling tones.

Feeling tones is this place where we can observe with mindfulness how reactivity and craving lead to contracted states of being that are difficult to escape from.

So then it goes,

Feeling tones,

Craving,

Clinging,

Becoming,

Birth,

Old age and death.

So the heart of dependent origination kind of is an explanation for suffering and it can be seen in this set of links beginning kind of with the fundamental experience of feeling tones.

Pleasant,

Unpleasant,

Or neutral.

That's why we talk about them.

It's known as Vedana and we'll go deeper into Vedana in the coming weeks.

So the rest of the sequence of dependent origination describes how suffering takes root and causes rebirth or becoming into ignorance and continues this painful cycle of birth and death,

Birth and death,

Becoming and dying,

Becoming and dying.

So where the possibility of liberation lies in this model is between the feeling tones and the craving.

So when we are mindful of our feeling tones and practice staying with the feelings,

This is pleasure,

This is pain,

Without reactivity,

Without giving into the wish that things be other than they are,

The tendency towards the craving,

The next link,

Weakens.

So when we're balanced in the present,

We're aware of the feeling tones arising,

We can stop the cycle after feeling tones and be with feelings without further reactivity and stop the spinning of the wheel of this dependent co-arising.

Stop the ticking of the clock.

Stop becoming ignorance again.

So the qualities we need to interrupt the cycle at this point are mindfulness,

A certain amount of effort,

And a mind that's non-reactive.

And in time we see our patterns and our habits more and more clearly and we feel them.

This pattern,

This habit is unpleasant and you're not going to respond to them and so slowly we learn to let go of them.

So this is the overview of dependent co-arising.

I'll stop here and take your questions and I certainly hope this was helpful and not confusing.

Thank you so much.

Reviews

Excellent talk that links all key Buddhistic insights. Thank you!