Pratītyasamutpāda
Pratītyasamutpāda, commonly translated as dependent origination, or dependent arising, is a key doctrine in Buddhism shared by all schools of Buddhism. It states that all dharmas arise in dependence upon other dharmas: "if this exists, that exists; if this ceases to exist, that also ceases to exist". The basic principle is that all things arise in dependence upon other things.
The doctrine includes depictions of the arising of suffering and depictions of how the chain can be reversed. These processes are expressed in various lists of dependently originated phenomena, the most well-known of which is the twelve links or nidānas. The traditional interpretation of these lists is that they describe the process of a sentient being's rebirth in saṃsāra, and the resultant duḥkha, and they provide an analysis of rebirth and suffering that avoids positing an atman. The reversal of the causal chain is explained as leading to the cessation of rebirth.
Another interpretation regards the lists as describing the arising of mental processes and the resultant notion of "I" and "mine" that leads to grasping and suffering. Several modern western scholars argue that there are inconsistencies in the list of twelve links, and regard it to be a later synthesis of several older lists and elements, some of which can be traced to the Vedas.
The doctrine of dependent origination appears throughout the early Buddhist texts. It is the main topic of the Nidana Samyutta of the Theravada school's Saṃyuttanikāya. A parallel collection of discourses also exists in the Chinese Saṁyuktāgama.
Overview
Dependent origination is a philosophically complex concept, subject to a large variety of explanations and interpretations. As the interpretations often involve specific aspects of dependent origination, they are not necessarily mutually exclusive to each other.Dependent origination can be contrasted with the classic Western concept of causation in which an action by one thing is said to cause a change in another thing. Dependent origination instead views the change as being caused by many factors, not just one or even a few.
The principle of dependent origination has a variety of philosophical implications.
- As an ontological principle, it holds that all phenomena arise from other, pre-existing phenomena, and in turn current phenomena condition future phenomena. As such, everything in the world has been produced by causes. Traditionally, this is also closely connected to the Buddhist doctrine of rebirth, and how rebirth occurs without a fixed self or soul, but as a process conditioned by various phenomena and their relations.
- As an epistemological principle, it holds that there are no permanent and stable things, though there are classes of permanent phenomena vis. space, cessations, and suchness. Because everything is dependently originated, nothing is permanent and nothing has any self-nature or essence. Consequently, all phenomena lack essence. In various traditions, this is closely associated with the doctrine of emptiness.
- As a phenomenological or psychological principle, it refers to the workings of the mind and how suffering, craving, and self-view arise. This can refer to how different mental states condition each other over time, or to how different mental phenomena condition each other in a single moment.
Etymology
- Pratītya: "having depended". The term appears in the Vedas and Upanishads in the sense of "confirmation, dependence, acknowledge origin". The Sanskrit root of the word is prati* whose forms appear more extensively in the Vedic literature, and it means "to go towards, go back, come back, to approach" with the connotation of "observe, learn, convince oneself of the truth of anything, be certain of, believe, give credence, recognize". In other contexts, a related term pratiti* means "going towards, approaching, insight into anything".
- Samutpāda: "arising", "rise, production, origin" In Vedic literature, it means "spring up together, arise, come to pass, occur, effect, form, produce, originate".
Jeffrey Hopkins notes that terms synonymous to pratītyasamutpāda are apekṣasamutpāda and prāpyasamutpāda.
The term may also refer to the twelve nidānas, Pali: dvādasanidānāni, Sanskrit: dvādaśanidānāni, from dvādaśa + nidānāni. Generally speaking, in the Mahayana tradition, pratityasamutpada is used to refer to the general principle of interdependent causation, whereas in the Theravada tradition, paticcasamuppāda is used to refer to the twelve nidānas.
Dependent origination in early Buddhism
The principle of conditionality
In the early Buddhist texts, the basic principle of conditionality is called by different names such as "the certainty of dhamma", "suchness of dharma", the "enduring principle", "specific conditionality" and "dhammic nature". This principle is expressed in its most general form as follows:According to Paul Williams "this is what causation is for early Buddhist thought. It is a relationship between events, and is what we call it when if X occurs Y follows, and when X does not occur Y does not follow." Richard Gombrich writes that this basic principle that "things happen under certain conditions" means that the Buddha understood experiences as "processes subject to causation". Bhikkhu Bodhi writes that specific conditionality "is a relationship of indispensability and dependency: the indispensability of the condition to the arisen state, the dependency of the arisen state upon its condition."
Peter Harvey states this means that "nothing is independent. The doctrine thus complements the teaching that no permanent, independent self can be found." Ajahn Brahm argues that the grammar of the above passage indicates that one feature of the Buddhist principle of causality is that "there can be a substantial time interval between a cause and its effect. It is a mistake to assume that the effect follows one moment after its cause, or that it appears simultaneously with its cause."
Variable phenomena, invariant principle
According to the Paccaya sutta '','' dependent origination is the basic principle of conditionality which is at play in all conditioned phenomena. This principle is invariable and stable, while the "dependently arisen processes" are variable and impermanent.Peter Harvey argues that there is an "overall Basic Pattern that is Dhamma" within which "specific basic patterns flow into and nurture each other in complex, but set, regular patterns.".
Invariant principle
According to the Paccaya sutta and its parallel, this natural law of this/that conditionality is independent of being discovered by a Buddha, just like the laws of physics. The Paccaya sutta states that whether or not there are Buddhas who see it "this elemental fact just stands, this basic-pattern-stability, this basic-pattern-regularity : specific conditionality."Bhikkhu Sujato translates the basic description of the stability of dependent origination as "the fact that this is real, not unreal, not otherwise". The Chinese parallel at SA 296 similarly states that dependent origination is "the constancy of dharmas, the certainty of dharmas, suchness of dharmas, no departure from the true, no difference from the true, actuality, truth, reality, non-confusion". According to Harvey, these passages indicate that conditionality is "a principle of causal regularity, a Basic Pattern of things" which can be discovered, understood and then transcended.
Variable phenomena – dependently arisen processes
The principle of conditionality, which is real and stable, is contrasted with the "dependently arisen processes", which are described as "impermanent, conditioned, dependently arisen, of a nature to be destroyed, of a nature to vanish, of a nature to fade away, of a nature to cease." SA 296 describes them simply as "arising thus according to causal condition, these are called dharmas arisen by causal condition."Conditionality and liberation
The Buddha's discovery of conditionality
Regarding the arising of suffering, SN 12.10 discusses how before the Buddha's awakening, he searched for the escape from suffering as follows: "when what exists is there old age and death? What is a condition for old age and death?", discovering the chain of conditions as expressed in the twelve nidanas and other lists. MN 26 also reports that after the Buddha's awakening, he considered that dependent origination was one of the two principles which were "profound, difficult to see, difficult to understand, peaceful, sublime, beyond the scope of mere reasoning, subtle." The other principle which is profound and difficult to see is said to be Nirvana, "the stopping, or transcending, of conditioned co-arising".In the Mahānidānasutta the Buddha states that dependent origination is "deep and appears deep", and that it is "because of not understanding and not penetrating this teaching" that people become "tangled like a ball of string" in views, samsara, rebirth and suffering. SN 12.70 and its counterpart SA 347 state that "knowledge of Dhamma-stability" comes first, then comes knowledge of nirvana. However, while the process which leads to nirvāna is conditioned, nirvāna itself is called "unborn, unbecome, unmade, unconstructed". The Milinda Panha compares to how a mountain is not dependent on the path that leads to it ". According to Harvey, since it is "not co-arisen , nirvāna is not something that is conditionally arisen, but is the stopping of all such processes."