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Les douze facteurs ou liens interdpendants

"The twelve modes / processes of dependent-related origination / arising". Translation of the Sanskrit "dvadashaoga pratitya samutpada". The Buddha described the process of the arising of cyclic existence as a sequence of twelve events of !)- dependent-related origination q.v. These are a sequence of . processes or modes in which the production of life in cyclic existence occurs. Since the processes are the links in circles of cycling in existence, they are also spoken of as the !)-3 "The twelve links of dependent-related origination / arising". There is 6- a forward progression or "order" to the links and 67 a reverse order. When a being travels the forward order, they travel through one cycle of cyclic existence. When a being travels them in reverse order, they gain emancipation from cyclic existence. See the link to forward progression for details. The twelve are, in forward order: 1) "ignorance"; 2) :; "formatives (saskras)"; 3) = "consciousness"; 4) ? "name and form"; 5) @B "six sources (six yatanas)"; 6) "contact"; 7) D "feeling"; 8) E "craving"; 9) "taking"; 10) E "existence"; 11) @ "birth"; and 12) F "old age and death".

1. DISTINGUISHING EACH LINK In the twelve links of interdependent origination there are: Ignorance "avidya". As it says in the 'Korha: "Ignorance is like alienation, lying etc.," The great Acharya Dharmakirti explains that as follows: "Alienation and lying do not involve just not having affection or truthfulness or just being something instead of affectionate or truthful; rather, they involve a dissidence with affection and truth which becomes their very opposites. Likewise, ignorance does not involve just not having the antidote insight, but is a dissidence with insight which becomes its very opposite. Here, the antidote which is insight is insight into the genuine meaning, the egolessness, of a person. Ignorance, the opp. of that, is the view of the transitory which grasps at an ego of a person." Acharya Asaoga and his brother explain it similarly: "Of the twograsping at a mistaken view regarding the genuine meaning and just being obscured regarding the genuine meaningignorance is said to be the latter. In short, of these two conceptual minds of wrong understanding and of non-understanding, ignorance is the conceptual mind of non-understanding. However in turning away from that the chief antidote is said to be the praja which realises egolessness." This is what it says in the Sammucaya: "If obscuration is categorised there are two sorts; obscuration regarding karma and its result, and obscuration regarding the meaning of suchness. By the rst we collect samskaras which send us into lower rebirths. By the second we collect samskaras which send us into upper rebirths." 2) :; "formatives (saskras)" Samskara is karma. To expand on that there is non-meritorious karma which projects lower rebirths, and there is karma which projects upper rebirths. The latter is also of two sorts; meritorious karma which projects upper rebirths in the desire realm, and unchanging karma which projects upper rebirths in the higher realms. 3) = "consciousness" "vijana" In the sutras consciousness is taught as a group of six but here the primary concern is with alaya for those who proclaim an alaya and mind () consciousness for those who do not.

Furthermore, consciousness is as follows. Because of obscuration regarding that suffering of suffering arises as a result of non-virtuous karma then non-virtuous karma is actually formed (by the samskaras) and collected on the consciousness. The consciousness at the time of being imprinted with that karmic habit is the causal-time consciousness, and in the future based on that, the consciousness conjoining with a place of birth in the lower realms is the resultant-time consciousness. Likewise, through the power of being obscured regarding the suchness of egolessness we are unaware that upper rebirths are real suffering and we hold onto them as being happy, because of which we collect meritorious karma and unchanging karma. The consciousness at the time of collection is causal-time, and based on that, the consciousness conjoining with an upper rebirth in either the desire or higher realms is resultant-time. 4) ? "name and form" "namarupa" Name is feeling, perception, formation, and consciousness; the four skandhas which do not have form. Form: when born formless one has just the seed of form; in other cases one has an embryonic form which differentiates in accordance with the type of rebirth taken. 5) @B "the six ayatanas" In the case of birth from a womb at rst there is an oval embryo of sperm and blood with consciousness resident. As its parts develop the four ayatanas of eye and so on are established; the ayatanas of body and mind exist from the time of the oval embryo. In the case of miraculous birth, at the time of conjunction with the rebirth state the sense powers are established all at once; they do not develop in stages as in the previous case. In the cases of birth from egg, and from warmth and moisture, it is explained in The Basics of The Levels as similar to birth from a womb except for the womb itself. Thus, when name and form is established the essence of body is obtained. Then, with the six ayatanas established and the differentiation of the body nalised, the being becomes someone who can enjoy the pleasures of the senses. As for the ve ayatanas having form; if one is formless one does not have them. 6) "sparsha" The object, sense-power, and consciousness having come together, the object is distinguished mentally as either likeable, not likeable, or in-between; "from the condition of the six ayatanas" as is taught, contact is object and consciousness, and indication too. 7) D "vedana" Through contact one of three objects is distinguished. Following that and concordant with the distinction, one of three feelingspleasant, suffering, or neutralarises. 8) E "tprhna" This is craving not to be separated from pleasant feelings and craving to be separated from suffering. "From the condition of feeling arises craving" as is taught: under the inuence of ignorance the condition of contact does generate craving, but without ignorance even though there is feeling, craving does not arise. In view of this then, contact is enjoyment of the object. And as for feeling, since it is enjoyment of either a birth or a fully-ripened karma, when they both are completed then feeling is enjoyment completed. 9) Strong Grasping "upadana" In regard to four types of objects there are four wantings-and-longings. The four objects are: the desirables of form, sound, and so on; bad views excluding the view of the perishables; bad views together with bad discipline and wrong asceticism; and the view of the perishable constituents. When there is wanting-andlonging-for these it is strong-grasping, so then there are the strong-grasping of desirables, the stronggrasping of views, the strong-grasping of bad discipline and wrong asceticism, and the strong-grasping of propounding an ego.

10) E In the past samskaras stained consciousness with karmic habits. Becoming refers to those stains when, nourished by craving and grasping, they possess the power to draw one into the next existence. This a case of a cause being given the name of a result. 11) @ "jati" This is the moment when, in any of the four places of conception (mentioned under the six ayatanas), consciousness rst conjoins with its rebirth state. 12) F Aging and death Aging is the skandhas maturing and turning into something else. Death is letting the skandhas, which have been functioning as an harmonious collection, fall apart.

Dnition de chacun des douze facteurs interdpendants "Ignorance". Translation of the Sanskrit [NDS] "avidya". As one of the three poisons, one of the six root afictions, one of the twelve links, and one of the Gfour currents, etcetera, etcetera, this is one of the most important terms in Buddhism. In all meditational and philosophical systems of Buddhism, ignorance is considered as the root cause of cyclic existence which is by nature IJ unsatisfactory. Some schools, such as the KL Mahamudra system, further describe the root ignorance as being two-fold; M@ co-emergent ignorance and N! conceptualizing ignorance. Then the O Thorough Cut and F Direct Crossing paths of the Great Completion teachings alone describe a third cause, the Q ignorance of same identity, which precedes the two causes just mentioned (see =R the three types of ignorance). Ignorance is an active quality of not seeing reality; the original Sanskrit term and the Tibetan translation like it use the term "(actively) not knowing" where knowing has the sense of seeing with the mind. The original usage in Sanskrit and Tibetan has more the sense of "ignoring" rather than the static "ignorance". As is said in some Tibetan commentaries, "ignorance produces obscuration that prevents the seeing of the real meaning and in doing so creates a mistaken approach altogether". Ignorance is the very root of the process that drives sentient beings' cycling through births in deluded existence and hence is the rst of the !)-3 twelve links of dependent-related arising q.v. for more information on ignorance in this context. In summary, because it is the process of mind operating in a mode contrary to reality, it opens the door to the birth of the afictions which are the driving forces that create the various circumstances of cyclic existence. When a being in cyclic existence turns away from it they instead 6 see reality.

:;. "Formatives". Translation of the Sanskrit [NDS] "saskra". The term means "that which gathers up a number of things and forms them into an aggregate". In Buddhist terminology it has the specic meaning of those factors of the mind which cause the threefold sequence of i) aggregation into a being which is the taking of a rebirth, ii) subsequent aggregation of the various forms of the ST heaps of that rebirth, and nally the dissolution of that. As Ngrjuna [NDS] says, there are two kinds of formatives: 1) .7:; "formatives which have concomitance with mind" meaning formatives that they are the same sort of thing as mind and mental events and always arise as mind or mental event and 2) .7:; "formatives

which do not have concomitance with mind" i.e., formatives which are not mind or mental event. The two types taken together constitute the fourth of the ST ve aggregates which make up a sentient being, called the :;US [Skt. sasraskandha] "the skandha of formatives". The saskras are a crucial part of the process that drives the cycling through births in deluded existence and hence are given as the second of the !)-.3 twelve processes of dependent-related arising (q.v. for more information) immediately following ignorance. Concerning their function, it is said there that NU;:;U; "due to ignorance, the saskras are produced in the mind and function to sow karmic seeds in the alaya (or mind depending on the exact philosophical system making the statement)". These karmic seeds become the patterns for future existence which are activated by subsequent members of the twelve links. The term has been translated in many ways, most of which do not adequately convey the intended meaning, which is "that agent which causes aggregation" and many of which positively mistakenly translate the meaning. For example, up till now the terms "compositional factors" within the context of the "aggregate of compositional factors" and also "formations" (from the [NTC]) have been popular. However, as can be seen from the meaning, these are inadequate. For example, since they are agents they are not "formations" but the "formers" i.e., the agents which produce the formations. They are also not compositional factors; this term came about because of a misunderstanding of thinking that the fourth skandha (the skandha of the saskras) was named for the fact that it was : a collection of various factors which taken together composed the fourth skandha. Then, because the saskras are for the most part emotions, the term has also been translated as "emotions", "thought formations", and so on but this needlessly goes beyond the meaning of saskra. The saskras are the "formative forces" which cause further accretions of deluded existence and for the reason that they are the drives behind this, they have also been translated as "impulses" however, this also needlessly goes too far from the meaning of saskra. It is said, e.g., by Tsongkhapa in [LCM] that the formatives are karma and it is for this reason that the term :;U saskrakarma is seen regularly in Buddhist texts. In fact, the very appearance of a formative in a sentient being's mind is concomitant with the production of a karmic seed and that karmic seed then patterns future existence.

= "Consciousness". Translation of the Sanskrit [NDS] "vijna". The term is used in two, distinct ways in Buddhist perceptual theory. 1) Generally speaking, the terms , =, and are equivalent when referring to the basic fact of "a knower". When used in a general way like this, = consciousness just refers to the fact that a being is aware; somewhat like saying in English "Is there consciousness there or not?" Because of this, although consciousness is normally dened as a dualistic operation (see below) the term = is not always used in that sense e.g., in the higher tantras the term = can be used to mean "awareness / consciousness in general" and in that case can and is used to refer to non-dualistic minds. 2) Specically, consciousness is that aspect of the dualistic mind which just knows an W object of perception. Here "knows an object" does mean that there is any conceptual understanding of the object but that there is merely an awareness of the object; the object is known for what it is. E.g., a blue colour is known for its "blueness" by eye consciousness but there is no conceptual thought of it being "blue" in the moment of the consciousness itself. For this reason, consciousness is said to be ! not conceptual but note that not conceptual does not mean "non-dualistic" but simply means that there is no activity of conceptualized comprehension together with the moment of the consciousness itself. The word for consciousness (Skt. vijna, Tib. =) was coined in contrast to the word for wisdom (Skt. jna, Tib. ). Consciousness is dened as W=;, that which makes known the aspects of an object. Wisdom is the U awareness present from the beginning in every mind. Consciousness is the = awareness of supercial aspects that knows reality in a variety of processes which are like windows that know only certain aspects of that reality. (Note that the = translates the Sanskrit X connector "vi" which can have several meanings and which in this case means "this and that

(superce)".) Wisdom is present in every consciousness and knows things as they are in direct perception without any of the dualistic process of knowing an object that is the hallmark of consciousness. Thus there are differing consciousnesses which know differing supercies. Generally in Buddhism, beings in the desire realm are said to have =B six consciousnesses, one for each of the sense faculties. I.e., a consciousness for each of the ve physical sense faculties and a sixth consciousness for the mental faculty. This six-fold group of consciousness is called the DB "six-fold group". In the Mind-only school of Buddhist philosophy and Buddhist schools such as the tantras which follow that system, there are considered to be eight consciousnesses, the group of which is referred to as the DL "eight-fold group". Consciousness is a crucial part of the process that drives sentient beings' cycling through births in deluded existence and hence is the third of the !)-3 twelve links of dependent-related origination. The consciousness being referred to in this case is specically the mind consciousness because that is the place which receives the karmic imprints. The link of consciousness is divided into two; the consciousness at the time of receiving the karmic impression and the consciousness at the time of its ripening; these are most often consciousnesses in different lives however, under certain circumstances they can be in the same life. See !)-.3 twelve processes of dependent-related arising for more information on consciousness in this context. "Consciousness" element is one of the -B "the six elements" and one of the B "six constituents" of the body. It functions to make the otherwise inert body into a sentient being.

? "Name and form". Translation of the Sanskrit "nmarpa". Name and form are a crucial part of the process that drives the cycling through births in deluded existence, being the fourth of the !) -.3 twelve processes of dependent-related arising q.v. "Name and form" refers to an entire being by referring to the mental aspects that a sentient being has which are collectively called "name" and to the form aspects that the sentient being has which are called "form". In fact, ? is equivalent to the ST ve skandhas since "name" refers to the last four of the ve skandhas taken as a groupthe so-called S skandhas of the four name (components) q.v.and "form" refers to the ?US form skandha.

@B "The six sources", "the six yatanas". Translation of the Sanskrit "hayatana". The six yatanas are a crucial part of the process that drives sentient beings' cycling through births in deluded existence, being the fth of the !)-.3 twelve processes of dependent-related arising q.v. for more information. The yatanas referred to here are the @B six internal yatanas.

"Contact". Translation of the Sanskrit "sparha". Contact is one of the NZ[T ve ever-present mental events. Contact is the component of the dualistic perceptual process which arises due to the coming together of the three things of W object of perception, sense faculty, and = consciousness. Contact means that, the three things have come together, mind R categorizes the object as being likeable, not likeable, or in between. Following that, and in correspondence with the category made in the contact, the mind R\ experiences the object as being either pleasant, I unpleasant or ^ neutral and that D feeling appears in mind. Because the mental event of contact gives rise to feelings in that way, it is a crucial part of the process that drives sentient beings' cycling through births in deluded existence, being the sixth of the !)-.3 twelve processes of dependent-related arising q.v. for more information.

D "Feeling". Translation of the Sanskrit [NDS] "vedan". 1) "Feeling" as one of the NZ[T ve everpresent mental events. 2) "Feeling" as one of the ST ve skandhas.

Feeling is the component of the dualistic perceptual process which is the production of a response to the decision that was made about an W object of perception when it was contacted. The response appears as an \ experience in the mind that the object is either pleasant, I unpleasant or ^ neutral. These three experiences are called D "pleasant feeling", DIJ "unpleasant feeling", and D ^ "neutral feeling". Feeling is only ever one of those only three experiences and the three taken together are called the DR three feelings. These three "feelings" are further divided into being either mental or physical feeling but this simply categorizes whether one of the three feelings has been experienced in regard to an object known through mental or physical consciousness. Once a feeling has occurred sentient beings usually act on the feeling by producing the various aficted states of mind in response to it. These then function as :; formatives of further possibilities of cyclic existence. Thus, feelings are one of the prime causes in the production of cyclic existence. Since the mental event of feeling is a crucial part of the process that drives sentient beings' cycling through births in deluded existence, it is the seventh of the !)-.3 twelve processes of dependentrelated arising q.v. for more information. And, because it is one of the keys to the continuation of cyclic existence, the Buddha highlighted it specically by categorizing it as one of the key components of sentient being's psychophysical existence. He put the whole area of "feeling" as the second of the UST the ve aggregates with outows and called it the DS. Although the standard translation of D has been "feeling" for many years now, there is a fault with this. As H.V. Guenther pointed out, it is more that there is a "tone" of mind that occurs regarding the perceived object. For this reason he translated it as "feeling-tone". Given the meaning of the term "sensation" is probably more accurate and should be considered in place of "feeling".

E "Thirst" or "Craving". Translation of the Sanskrit "tha". For meaning, see the verb denition above. Craving for something is a crucial part of the process that drives sentient beings' cycling through births in deluded existence, being the eighth of the !)-.3 twelve processes of dependentrelated arising q.v. for more information. Craving in this context occurs on the basis of the DR three feelings. There are ER three types of craving, q.v. Note: The term E was set down as the ofcial translation equivalent of the Sanskrit "tha" in the early days of translation into Tibetan. The term tha is said to be similar to "pips" which was translated into Tibetan with `. The difference is that pips means "to be thirsty" for water, whereas "tha" means "to thirst for / after" that is, "to crave".

"Appropriation". The gerundial form is most freq. used in buddhist texts, because it refers to a process and the process is being emphasized. The gerundial form is sometimes abbreviated to and the true noun form is usually written as . Translation of the Sanskrit "updna". The Sanskrit is constructed from upa + dna. The "dna" of the Sanskrit means "to take hold of, to seize"; it is actually dna, meaning to give or let go off, negated. The "upa" is a X upasarga that intensies the meaning of the root of the word to mean "very much" or "closely". The term overall means to take hold of something in the strongest possible way. In the buddhist usage described below, it conveys a movement of mind which is a coming back to something again and again so that it is not lost. It conveys the sense of not letting something go but taking it up so that it is not lost. "Appropriation" is a crucial part of the process that drives sentient beings' cycling through births in deluded existence, being the ninth of the !)-.3 twelve processes of dependent-related arising q.v. for more information. The strong grasping which is updna sets the stage for the particular karmas which will be the basis of another E existence (a further rebirth in cyclic existence) to be activated at the time of death, i.e., it sets the stage for the tenth link of the process of the twelve dependent links. Note that it is not a particular grasping, rather it is dened as is the fact of taking another life that occurs because during

this life one has become attached to various things and has made strong efforts in various way to attain those things. Those various individual circumstances of E thirsting, the seventh link, add up throughout one's life. Depending on how they add up, one has a particular "appropriation" which is the immediate cause of being which propels one at the time of death towards another existence in relationship to the totality of that energy of desire, attachment, and habit of action concerning the objects of desire and attachment. It is the strength in the mind developed on the basis of the individual and prior instances (called E) of desire, attachment, and effort which cannot but continue on by taking another life. The Buddha categorized the various ways in which sentient beings take hold of another existence as four-fold; see the "the four appropriations".

E Having the same sense of "what could come to exist", as a noun it is usually translated either as "becoming" or "existence". It conveys the sense of the possibilities within cyclic existence and as such is used heavily in Buddhist texts in regard to cyclic existence. 1) Cyclic existence viewed from one perspective is a round of E possibilities, of existences that can occur, hence E is a synonym for cyclic existence. E.g., the E so-called "wheel of life" is a diagram which the Buddha had drawn on the lintel of a King's palace and which illustrates the way that cyclic existence works; the wheel shows how one "becomes" the various "existences" of cyclic existence. 2) It implies the taking of birth in cyclic existence due to karmic cause and effect. One "becomes" an existence which is one of the possibilities that one has because of one's collection of karmic habits. 3) It implies "an existence" as in one of the G four currents q.v. 4) "Existence" is the tenth of the !)-3 twelve links of dependent, related origination. ([HNL] translates this as "rebirth" in this context but that is not correct.) In this context is the event early in the death process in which the particular karmic seeds that will cause the next birth are "slotted" into place and become effective as the seeds which will pattern the next rebirth. As Tsongkhapa points out, this is a case of a cause being given the name of an effect (see !)-.3 for more).

@ "Birth". Sanskrit "jti". E.g., ab@ "birth of a child"; @F "birth, sickness, old-age, and death". Birth in cyclic existence is one of the principal features of the process of sentient beings' cycling through deluded existence and hence is the eleventh of the !)-3 twelve links of dependent-related origination. See !)-.3 twelve processes of dependent-related arising for more information on birth in this context. Note that birth in this context does not mean "life" but is dened as taking birth in the womb, etc. Because sentient beings cycle in through @ "births", the term can also be translated as rebirth. A being who takes birth (and less freq. some "thing" which has come into being) is called lit. "a born one", a @. 2) "Birth" meaning a c life. E.g., @ "sentient beings take birth in cyclic existence / have births in cyclic existence". E.g., @JK "former and later lives / births". 3) "Birth". Translation of the Sanskrit [NDS] "jti". One of the fourteen 7:;3 non-associated formatives. 4) "Arising" of something meaning the production, the new appearance of something. It should be noted that there is the "arousal" or "arising" of something in English but that there is no word "arisal" of!

F Abbrev. of F and . Translation of the Sanskrit "jarmraa". 1) "Aging and death" or "old-age and death" in general. 2) Specically, "aging and death" or "old-age and death" is one of the principal features of the process of sentient beings' cycling through deluded existence. It is always the end of coming into existence and hence is the twelfth and nal of the !)-3 twelve links of dependent-related origination. See !)-.3 twelve processes of dependent-related arising for more information on aging and death in this context.