by Dalai Lama
Advanced-level practitioners — and Geshe Puchungwa was one of these — contemplate the twelve links from the perspective of other sentient beings revolving uncontrollably in cyclic existence. With compassion for all the diverse sentient beings, they generate bodhicitta, engage in the bodhisattvas’ deeds, and cultivate the wisdom realizing emptiness in order to become a buddha, one who has full wisdom, compassion, and power to lead others to awakening.
Cultivating compassion by considering that other sentient beings cycle in saṃsāra by means of the twelve links is a powerful way to subdue anger and resentment. When we reflect that others are trapped by their ignorance and subjected to the three types of duḥkha, hating them seems ludicrous. How can we possibly wish suffering on people who are already bound in the tortuous cycle of saṃsāra?
Sentient beings are conditioned phenomena; they are not fixed, inherently existent personalities. There is no “solid” person to feel malice toward and no benefit from wishing someone ill. Rather, with compassion and wisdom, let’s do what we can to help them attain true freedom. As verses chanted daily in Tibetan monasteries after the midday meal say:
May all those who offered me food attain happiness of total peace.
May all those who offered me drink, who served me,
who received me, who honored me,
or who made offerings to me attain happiness that is total peace.
May all those who scold me, make me unhappy, hit me,
attack me with weapons, or do things up to the point of killing me
attain the happiness of awakening.
May they fully awaken to the unsurpassed,
perfectly accomplished state of buddhahood.
REFLECTION
1. Think of someone whom you care about deeply and reflect that they cycle in saṃsāra under the control of afflictions and karma. Let compassion arise.
2. Think of someone whom you do not like or who has harmed you. Recognize that this person too cycles in saṃsāra under the control of afflictions and karma. Let compassion arise for them.
3. Recall that if they were free from duḥkha, their ways of thinking and behaving would be entirely different than they are now.
The Demarcation of Generating the Determination to Be Free
How do we know our antipathy toward saṃsāra is a genuine determination to be free? Tsongkhapa says in The Three Principal Aspects of the Path:
By contemplating in this way, when you do not generate even for an instant the wish for the pleasures of cyclic existence, and when you have day and night unceasingly, the mind aspiring for liberation, you have generated the determination to be free.
When generated, the aspiration for liberation brings an enduring shift in perspective that alters how we see and relate to our lives and to the world around us. This determination to be free from saṃsāra involves relinquishing our obsessive attachment for saṃsāric pleasures and the duḥkha it brings and focuses our attention on attaining nirvāṇa, the state beyond sorrow, and making that the aim of our lives.
Generating the determination to attain liberation from saṃsāra is essential to cultivate compassion. After seeing the defects of our own saṃsāra, we shift our focus to others, contemplating that they face the same undesirable situation. Compassion — the wish for someone to be free from duḥkha and its causes — arises as a result.
Bodhisattvas fear rebirth in saṃsāra under the control of afflictions and karma and seek to be free from it. But, having firm compassion for others and strong resolve to benefit them, they willingly take rebirth in saṃsāra. Sūtra statements such as “bodhisattvas should not become disenchanted with saṃsāra” do not mean that bodhisattvas should indulge in saṃsāric pleasures. Rather, they urge bodhisattvas to have such strong joyous effort that they will never give up benefiting sentient beings trapped in saṃsāra. Even if bodhisattvas experience overwhelming difficulties when benefiting others, they persevere without succumbing to fear of duḥkha or disenchantment with sentient beings. Taking on the misery of others, bodhisattvas do not dread physical or mental pain. Knowing that their actions to benefit others enable them to fulfill the collection of merit — an essential factor to attain full awakening — bodhisattvas joyfully take many rebirths in saṃsāra. This is the meaning of the passage in the Sūtra of the Tathāgata’s Inconceivable Secret (Tathāgatācintya-guhya-nirdeśa Sūtra, LC 1:328):
Bodhisattvas, thinking of the maturation of living beings, view cyclic existence as beneficial. Accordingly, they do not view great nirvāṇa as beneficial to the maturation of beings.
If bodhisattvas do not renounce their own saṃsāra and continue to take rebirth under the control of afflictions and karma, their ability to benefit others will be extremely limited. Unable to accomplish their own goal of full awakening, they cannot help other sentient beings accomplish their spiritual goals. To fulfill both the purpose of themselves and others, bodhisattvas seek nonabiding nirvāṇa, in which they will be free from saṃsāra as well as their own personal peace of nirvāṇa. Bhāvaviveka says in Heart of the Middle Way (Madhyamaka-hṛdaya-kārikā, LC 1:330):
Since bodhisattvas see the faults of cyclic existence, they do not remain here.
Because they care for others, they do not remain in nirvāṇa.
In order to fulfill the needs of others, they resolve
to remain in cyclic existence.
Inspired by bodhisattvas’ compassion and courage, may we do the same.
10
Seeking Genuine Peace
EACH OF US wants happiness and not duḥkha. But among the various types of happiness, which is best? The Buddha answered (AN 2.65, 67, 68):
Monastics, there are these two kinds of happiness. What two? Sensual happiness and the happiness of renunciation . . . Of these two kinds of happiness, the happiness of renunciation is foremost.
Monastics, there are these two kinds of happiness. What two? The happiness with defilements and the happiness without defilements . . . Of these two kinds of happiness, the happiness without defilements is foremost.
Monastics, there are these two kinds of happiness. What two? Worldly happiness and spiritual happiness . . . Of these two kinds of happiness, spiritual happiness is foremost.
Here “renunciation,” “happiness without defilements,” and “spiritual happiness” refer to liberation. The Buddha steers us to a higher and more commendable type of happiness, the peace that goes beyond saṃsāra, the joy of nirvāṇa and full awakening. While we may experience many kinds of happiness in our present human rebirth, all of these pale in comparison to the joy and peace of nirvāṇa. Because the pleasures of this life are immediate and appeal strongly to our senses, some people have difficulty gaining confidence in the peace of nirvāṇa. To give up craving for sense pleasures requires an understanding of their defects and of the benefits of nirvāṇa. The more we understand these, the more our minds will naturally turn away from cyclic existence to liberation.
But we don’t have to wait until we attain liberation or awakening to experience Dharma happiness. Each time we release attachment, anger, and other afflictions in our daily lives, Dharma happiness, peace, and confidence take their place. Experiencing this Dharma happiness here and now gives us a small glimpse of the peace of nirvāṇa.
We began the section on the twelve links of dependent origination with the Buddha’s succinct statement on causality and conditionality:
When this exists, that comes to be;
with the arising of this, that arises.
When this does not exist, that does not come to be;
with the cessation of this, that ceases.
The first two lines tell us that saṃsāra comes about due to a causal process, which we have explored in the previous two chapters. The last two lines inform us that nirvāṇa — the cessation of saṃsāra and its origins — can be attained through eliminating ignorance, the fundamental cause of saṃsāra. When the causes and conditions of saṃsāra do not exist, th
e resultant state of duḥkha will not arise. With the “remainderless fading away and cessation of ignorance,” the new creation of all the other links will cease, just as when the first domino in a row is hit, the others tumble down as well. What brings the cessation of ignorance? According to the common Buddhist view, it is the eightfold path, especially the wisdom or true knowledge that understands the four truths and nirvāṇa. According to the Prāsaṅgikas’ unique view, it also entails the direct, nonconceptual realization of the emptiness of inherent existence of all persons and phenomena. The process of gaining this wisdom is a gradual one, which itself depends on many causes and conditions.
The “Ye Dharmā” Dhāraṇī
A dhāraṇī — an intelligible phrase that encapsulates the essence of a teaching — that is frequently recited by followers of both the Pāli and Sanskrit traditions is the “Essence of Dependent Arising Dhāraṇī.” In Sanskrit it reads:
Ye dharmā hetu prabhavā hetun, teṣāṃ tathāgato hyavadat, teṣāṃ ca yo nirodha, evaṃ vādī mahāśramaṇa.
All phenomena arise from causes. Those causes have been taught by the Tathāgata. And their cessation too has been proclaimed by the great renunciant.
Before becoming a follower of the Buddha, Śāriputra encountered the arhat Aśvajit and asked him to explain the essence of the Tathāgata’s teaching to him. Aśvajit recited these words, and fully understanding their meaning, Śāriputra immediately became a stream-enterer. He later recited them to his friend Maudgalyāyana, who attained the same realization. They and five hundred of their followers then approached the Buddha and requested to become his disciples.
Fearlessly, and with complete self-confidence, the Buddha did not hesitate to proclaim four statements: He is fully awakened. He has destroyed all pollutants. He has correctly identified all obscurations. He knows that the Dharma, when practiced correctly, leads to the destruction of duḥkha. The Buddha taught the ye dharmā dhāraṇī by means of these four self-confidences or fearlessnesses.
All phenomena arise from causes indicates that each link of dependent origination comes into being dependent on the preceding ones. This emphasizes that true duḥkha — the seven resultant links — arises from true origins — the three links that are afflictions and the two that are karma. Here the Buddha instructs everyone who seeks liberation to abandon true origins; he says this by means of the third self-confidence, by which he has correctly identified the obscurations to liberation.
Those causes have been taught by the Tathāgata indicates that the Buddha has taught the counterforce to saṃsāra — the true path, a consciousness that directly perceives the selflessness of persons and phenomena. He states this in reliance on the fourth self-confidence, that he knows the way leading to the complete destruction of duḥkha.
And their cessation too indicates that by practicing true paths we will attain the final true cessation that is the eradication of true duḥkha and true origins. The Buddha states this by means of the second self-confidence, knowing that he has eradicated all pollutants.
Has been proclaimed by the great renunciant means that the Buddha has actualized true paths and true cessations and thus has completely perfected what to practice and what to abandon. He does this by means of the first self-confidence, being able to state with complete assurance that he is awakened with respect to all phenomena.
This short dhāraṇī contains great meaning because it incorporates the four truths, the eightfold path, a buddha’s truth body that is the perfection of abandonment and realization, and a buddha’s form body that acts to benefit all beings with the four self-confidences. A profound understanding of this dhāraṇī will enable us to attain the four bodies of a buddha.
PHRASE IN DHĀRAṆĪ
RELATIONSHIP TO FOUR TRUTHS
SELF-CONFIDENCE
All phenomena arise from causes.
True duḥkha arises from true origins.
Third: The Buddha correctly identified the obscurations to liberation.
Those causes have been taught by the Tathāgata.
True path.
Fourth: The Buddha knows the way leading to the complete destruction of duḥkha.
And their cessation too . . .
True cessation.
Second: The Buddha knows that he has eradicated all pollutants.
has been proclaimed by the great renunciant.
True paths and true cessations have been actualized.
First: The Buddha knows that he is awakened with respect to all phenomena.
Forward and Reverse Orders of the Afflictive and Purified Sides of the Twelve Links
The twelve links of dependent origination can be spoken of in terms of affliction — how cyclic existence continues — and purification — how cyclic existence ceases. Both the afflictive and purified presentations have a forward and a reverse order. The forward order of the afflictive side emphasizes the origins of duḥkha: with ignorance as condition, formative action arises; with formative action as condition, consciousness arises; and so forth, up to with birth as condition, aging and death arise. The reverse order of the afflictive side emphasizes the resultant true duḥkha: aging and death are produced in dependence on birth; birth is produced in dependence on renewed existence, and so on, up to formative action is produced in dependence on ignorance.
The purified forward and reverse sequence indicates the method for quelling saṃsāra and attaining liberation. The forward order of the purified side says: by ceasing ignorance, formative action ceases. By ceasing formative action, consciousness ceases, and so on until aging or death ceases. This sequence emphasizes the true paths that cease ignorance, thus stopping the other links from arising.
The reverse order of the purified side begins with the last link, aging or death, and investigates how to cease it. That is done by ceasing birth. Birth is ceased by ceasing renewed existence and so on back to ceasing ignorance. Looking at the twelve links in this way emphasizes true cessation: that all the links can be ceased and nirvāṇa attained.
ORDER OF TWELVE LINKS OF DEPENDENT ORIGINATION
NOBLE TRUTH THAT IS SHOWN
UNDERSTANDING AND ASPIRATION ARISING FROM MEDITATION
Reverse order of afflictive dependent origination: aging or death arise due to birth . . .
True duḥkha.
Understanding the nature of duḥkha, we desire to be free from it.
Forward order of afflictive dependent origination: with ignorance as condition, formative action arises . . .
True origin.
Understanding the origins of duḥkha, we aspire to abandon them.
Reverse order of purified dependent origination: aging or death are ceased by ceasing birth . . .
True cessation.
Understanding that duḥkha can be ceased, we want to actualize that cessation.
Forward order of purified dependent origination: by ceasing ignorance formative actions cease . . .
True path.
Understanding that true paths cease ignorance, we desire to cultivate them.
The question then arises: How do we cease the ignorance that is the origin of cyclic existence? We beginners must first develop a robust understanding of karma and its effects and bring that into our lives so that it influences our daily choices and actions. Then with a motivation aspiring for either liberation or full awakening, we seek the antidote that will demolish saṃsāra’s root, first-link ignorance. Nāgārjuna says (MMK 26.10):
The root of cyclic existence is [formative] action;
therefore the wise one does not act.
Therefore the unwise is the agent.
The wise one is not, because he sees reality.
The first line points to formative actions, the second link, as the root of saṃsāra. Usually the fundamental root of saṃsāra is identified as ignorance, but here the root is said to be formative action because it is the source of consciousness entering into a new body. The distinction between the wise and the unwise lies in w
hether or not someone has realized the emptiness of true existence. Wise ones — āryas of all three vehicles — do not create formative actions because they have realized emptiness directly. Not having yet gained the direct realization of emptiness, unwise ordinary beings accumulate karma that propels new rebirth in cyclic existence.
In saying “the wise one does not act,” Nāgārjuna does not mean they do nothing at all. If that were the case, they would never complete the path. Rather, the wise do not engage in activities motivated by their own self-centered, saṃsāric desires. But in terms of creating the causes and conditions for liberation or awakening, they do as much as possible.
This leads to further investigation of the last two of the four truths, true cessations and true paths. Nāgārjuna says (MMK 26.11–12):
With the cessation of ignorance
[formative] action will not arise.
The cessation of ignorance occurs through
exercising wisdom in meditating on suchness [emptiness].
Through the cessation of this and that,
this and that will not manifest.
That which is only a mass of duḥkha
will thus completely cease.
The wisdom realizing emptiness is the true path that ceases first-link ignorance. In the second verse, “this and that” refer to first-link ignorance and second-link formative action. By ceasing ignorance, there is no fuel for formative action to arise. In this way, the entire chain of twelve links that is a mass of constantly recurring misery ceases, and nirvāṇa, true freedom, is obtained.
The key that ceases first-link ignorance is the wisdom realizing the emptiness of inherent existence. The Buddha and great sages taught many reasonings to refute inherent existence and establish emptiness. A famous one is refuting the four extremes of arising. Nāgārjuna introduces it (RA 37):