Dependent Co-Arising: Steps 3-7

The principle of Dependent Co- Arising is that when anything arises dependent on particular conditions, it ceases with the ceasing of those conditions. So for example, rain is dependent on clouds; when the clouds vanish, the rain stops. So consciousness, how we pay attention influences how we experience the body and mind; how we perceive the world, and how we experience the world. Feeling tones, how we experience things as pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral. This talk explores steps 3 through 7.

Transcript

Good morning.

So I want to begin by reading something that was written in the discourses.

This is attributed to the Buddha.

It says,

Deep indeed is this dependent co-arising.

It is through not understanding and penetrating it that people become entangled like a tangled ball of thread.

It is through not understanding and penetrating it that people become entangled like a tangled ball of thread.

In my experience of these teachings of dependent co-arising,

It seems that when the four noble truths which are really they're very much linked to these to these principles of dependent co-arising but when they seem impenetrable in some way when maybe the four noble truths the truth of suffering the truth that suffering has a cause and the cause is clinging when that seems too simple to penetrate the complexity of this tangled ball then it seems useful to investigate further these teachings on the twelvefold steps of dependent co-arising or dependent origination as some people know it.

And the basic principle is that when anything arises dependent on a particular condition it ceases with the ceasing of those conditions.

So a really simple example of that would be rain is dependent on clouds.

When the clouds vanish the rain stops.

So for these next couple weeks our exploration is to understand these teachings of dependent origination so we don't become so entangled in our suffering in our dissatisfaction.

We don't become so entangled in the unreliability of experience.

To start to understand our experience from the point of view of these causes and conditions.

The Buddha said that the person who sees dependent origination sees the Dharma.

So the one who sees the Dharma sees this dependent origination this cause and effect.

So there's a this is really at the heart of seeing the Buddha's Dharma the Buddha's teachings and it's considered a very profound topic and it's also considered difficult to really understand.

And I can't say that I understand it well but I will try to present it to you with the intention of making it somewhat understandable for all of us.

So it begins with ignorance which we talked about last week and the ignorance doesn't refer to the absence of knowing something but rather has to do with ignoring ignoring some aspect of reality some aspect of what's going on.

So the ignorance that it starts with that it speaks of is the act of ignoring.

And 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 our actions.

This is where it folds into the formations the second step.

So if we believe that our suffering our dissatisfaction is really caused by some external source something outside of us it forms how we tend to it.

Our motivations our aspirations our desires our actions are shaped by not understanding that the cause of our dissatisfaction our suffering it's caused by our holding on not by some external source.

So what are we holding on to.

We often don't look at that we look at oh it's this thing out there.

So these next steps along the path of dependent co-arising are paradoxically a little harder to see and are obvious in their simplicity.

So the third step is consciousness.

So what in the world is consciousness.

You know psychologists and brain researchers have been trying to answer this question.

And there are all these theories and every few years there's a new theory that tries to understand and explain what consciousness is.

And as far as I know I don't think anybody has an adequate handle on it yet on what consciousness is like what does it take for a human being to be conscious.

What is consciousness and how does it operate.

I don't think there's an adequate answer to that question.

So what I'm going to use for our exploration is the word awareness as a starting place.

So it seems so obvious what awareness is right.

We're aware right now.

You're all aware of listening to me.

If I ring the bell some awareness is operating.

So what is that awareness that you have.

If we focus on it and try to understand the awareness what tends to happen is you start to tie yourself in a knot pretty quickly trying to define and identify and clarify well what is this awareness.

What's operating here.

So you just we start to tangle up.

And then there's this level of well this is really obvious it's natural to be conscious right.

We don't think much about it.

We don't have to orchestrate being conscious.

Like when we get into our car to drive on the road we're not really trying to figure out exactly what consciousness is and how to bring it into operation.

It's just there.

We're focusing on other things like the stop sign and the speed limit and the cars in front of us.

So I'm going to really simplify these next steps of dependent co-arising.

And I want to honor that some of you may be really interested in going deeper on each of these 12 step processes of dependent co-arising.

And there are many scholars who I can point you to.

But for the purposes of our simple understanding I'm going to use a simple analogy that I found through the work of a monastic named Thanasarobiku.

And Thanasarobiku is one of the scholars who I can point you to that really goes deep into these 12 processes of dependent co-arising and the topic of becoming.

So what he found in the discourses and I'll read it to you is this very simple analogy.

Karma is the field.

So imagine in the mind's eye a field.

Karma is the field.

Consciousness is the seed and craving the moisture.

So what the basic message is is that karma are actions that come out of motivations.

Often those motivations are from ignorance right ignoring that the cause of our suffering is not outside of ourselves.

So our actions,

Our aspirations,

Our desires provide this range of possibility.

So here's the field of our actions in which the seeds of consciousness can be planted and craving our clinging our grasping waters it.

The moisture that keeps the seed alive and we'll get in to that on Thursday.

So consciousness are the seeds of the six senses.

So consciousness arises dependent on seeing the first sense our eyes consciousness arises dependent on hearing consciousness arises from the nose on smelling the taste on the tongue the sensations in the body.

So those are our five senses and the sixth sense is arising the consciousness arises dependent on our ideas in the mind.

So consciousness how we pay attention influences how we experience the body in the mind how we sense how we perceive the world through our eyes through our nose through our taste through our hearing how we perceive and experience the world and the feeling tones how we experience it as pleasant or unpleasant or neutral.

So this is a simplification of steps three through seven of the chain of dependent origination and it begins with ignorance.

Okay the first seven processes in this twelve-fold list are the conditions that give rise to craving to our clinging which is the eighth item on the list as well as the second noble truth which we'll explore more on Thursday.

So I want to stop here and take questions that you may have about these first seven.

So thank you for your attention and I welcome your questions about this.