Yesterday I talked about the four methods by which the Doctrine of Dependent Origination should be understood. I gave you the names of these four methods. In order to understand these four methods let us go back to the formula of Dependent Origination. With ignorance as condition there is consciousness. With consciousness as condition there is mentality-materiality. With mentality-materiality s condition there is the sixfold base. With the sixfold bae as condition there is contact. With contact as condition there is feeling. With feeling as condition there is craving. With craving as condition there is clinging. With clinging as condition there is becoming. With becoming as condition there is birth. With birth as condition there is ageing and death, and sorrow, lamenttion, pain, grief and despair. Thus there is the arising of this whole mass of suffering.

When we study something, it is important that we d not fall into some wrong views. We must not understand incorrectly and fall into some wrong views. In Buddhism some wrong views are mentioned which we must avoid.

The first of them is the eternalist view. This view takes everything to be permanent. This view takes the world as permanent and the soul which abides in beings as permanent. It takes it that this soul lives eternally purifying itself from one life to another until it is reabsorbed into the universal soul or Atman. This is one kind of wrong view.

The other wrong view is the annihilationist view. This view takes it that every being is annihilated after death. So there is no rebirth for any being. This life is the only life we have. After we die there will be no more of us, no rebirth.

Then there is another view that everything comes out of nothing or there is no cause for anything to arise. So this is the no-cause view. Also when it denies the cause, it denies the effect.

There is another view that whatever action that you do does not amount to the real action. It is the no-actin view. It is differently tanslated. In this view there is no action to be spoken of, just phenomena rising and disappearing.

Also there is another viw that takes it that everything is fixed. Everything hppens or arises according to that fixed order. There can be no changes at all even though there may be changes in the cause. This is fatalism or predestination.

so there are these views. Whenever we study some teachings of the Buddha, we must try not to fall into any of these views. We must understand the doctrine of the Buddha correctly.

With regard to Dependent Origination we must understand it and undestand it correctly so that we do not fall into these wrong views. In order not to fall into these wrong views we have to understand Dependent Origination by these four methods.

The first method is called the method of identity. In Dependent Origination it says with ignorance as condition there are formations. With formations as condition there is consciousness and so on. That does not mean that the person at the moment of ignorance is totally different from the person at the moment of formations. The person at the moment of formations is not totally different from the person at the moment of consciousness and so on. Although at every moment new phenomena arise there is some kind of identity going through all this continuity. So we are to understand with reference to this continuity when we say, 'This person is reborn as such and such a person in a particular existence.' This kind of language we use following this method of identity. Although things are always new at every moment, there is this thread of identity going along this continuity. Since they belng to one and the same continuity, they are said to be one and the same person or one and the same thing.

It is explained with the simile of the seed and the shoot, and the small tree, and the big tree. Suppose you grow a seed. And the seed grows into a shoot. The shoot grows into a small tree. The small tree grows into a big tree. We cannot say the shoot is totally different or totally disconnected from the seed. The seed gows into a shoot; the shoot grows into a small tree and so on. At every moment there are new things or new cells arising. Because it belongs to the one continuity we say this seed grows into a big tree. In the same way because of the unbroken continuity or uninterrupted continuity we say this person is reborn in that state and so on. But we do not mean that this person is permanent and that he just moves to another existence or anther place.

When one sees this rightly, one abandons the annihilationist view because since there is identity and the cause and effect relationship between them, we do not come to the conclusion that everything is annihilated at death. So we avoid the annihilationist view if we see Dependent Origination by this method of identity.

But if we do not understand it correctly or if we see it wrongly we willcling to the eternity view because we find this person again and again in different lives. What we are to understand here is that although there are different new things coming at every moment, there is some identity going on in this continuity. We are to understand in that way.

I think that for Buddhists that it is very likely they may fall into this eternity view because we believe in rebirth and in different existences. Also we think this same person goes from one life to another.

There was a monk named Sati during the time of the Buddha who had such a view. He studied the Jàtakas. Jàtakas are the stories of the former rebirths of the Bodhisatta. At the end of each Jàtaka there is an identification. The Buddha will say for example, 'The king at that time was reborn as me in this life.' He says something like that. So every being in that life is identified with the Buddha or with Venerable Sàriputta, or sometimes Venerable Moggallàna and so on. This monk did not think the physical body goes from one existence to another because sometimes the Buddha was born as a king, sometimes as a human being, sometimes as an animal. If the physical body persists, the Buddha would have to have all these bodies in this life. So the physical body does not persist. He thought the consciousness must be the same. The same consciousness matured into the consciousness of a Buddha. Consciousness must be permanent. He took that view. It was a wrong view and so he was taken to the Buddha. The Buddha told him that it was wrong. At every moment consciousness is new, consciousness is different.

Consciousness is called by the name of the obects it takes. For example we say seing consciousness when we see something. When we hear something, we call it hearing consciousness. Seeing consciousness is diffeent from hearing consciousness. They ae not identical. In this way consciousness cannot be permanent, cannot be eternal. So it is very important that we do not fall into this eternity view. Although we say this person is reborn there, it is by way of the method of identity that we use these terms.

It is very useful in explaining the Law of Kamma. If at every moment there are new phenomena, then the one who does the deed here would be totally different from the one who gets the results. In that case nobody needs to do meritorious deeds. Nobody needs to refrin from unwholesome deeds because the one who will get the result is a different person.

Although at every moment Nàma and Rùpa or the phenomena ae new and different, there is this identity going along this continuity. Since they belong to one and the same continuity, we say this person is reborn there and reaps the fruits of his actions in the past lives and so on. We are to understand in this way the Law of Dependent Origination so that we do not fall into this view, the annihilationist view and also the eternalist view. This is the first method.

The second method is the method of diversity. There are twelve factors. Each factor has its own characteristic. Ignorance has the characteristic of producing Kamma formations. Kamma formations have the characteristic of producing consciousness and so on. They are new at different moments. Ignorance is not Sankhàras. Sankhàras are not consciousness and so on. They are new at every moment. One who sees this rightly abandons the eternity view. When one sees that at every moment there is new phenomena, then one does not fall into the eternalist view because nothing is permanent.

But if one sees it wrongly then one clings to the annihilationist view. Sinc at every moment one sees a new thing, one believes that everything must be new and that there is no continuity at all. In this case although there is diversity, although at every moment everything is new, there is this continuity going on.

So it is neither total identity nor total diversity. It is neither the one nor the other. At every moment the one is elated to the other in different ways as cause and effect. This relationship of cuse and effect runs through all this continuity. We should understand the Doctrine of Dependent Origination by this method of diversity also. If we understand by these two methods we will not come to fall into either one fo these false views.

The third one is called the method of uninterest. The Pàli word is Avyàpàra. Vyàpàra means effort. Here it may mean concern. Interest may also be correct here. So the meaning of this method here is that ignorance has no interest or concern that I will produce Kamma formations. Kamma formations have no interest that we will produce consciousness and so on. This uninterestedness is in all these factors.

When one sees this rightly, one abandons the self view by understanding the absence of a maker. One sees that each factor has no interest or no concern in producing the other and that there is this law of cause and effect which makes ignorance produce mental formations and so on. When one sees this correctly, then one will not fall into the wrong view that there is a maker of this whole life or of this whole wheel of existence. There is no maker other than these factors themselves. There is no maker of ignorance. There is no maker of formations. Rightly seeing this one can avoid falling into the wrong view that there is a maker.

But if one does not se it rightly, but sees it wrongly, then one clings to moral inefficacy of action view. That means the non-action view. Since these factors do not hve interest or do not have concern in producing others, then there can be no action, no action that can be spoken of, no action which will produce results. One can fall into this view because he does not see that the causative function of ignorance etc. is established as a law by their respective individual essence. That means although these factors have no concern or no interest in producing their respective effects, there is this law that ignorance etc. as causative factors of Kamma formations etc. - although ignorance has no interest in producing Kamma formations, still Kamma formations are produced by ignorance. This law of producing results is always there. So if we do not see this, we will fall into the wrong view of non-action. This is the third method.

The fourth method is called the method of ineluctable regularity. This word has given us a lot of trouble. Yogis came to me and told me the meaning of the word. I found this note on the table. I think this will be the best. Ineluctable is from LUX or LUCIA, Latin words for light. Here there is an EX meaning outside the region of. Then there is an N, a prefix intensifying the X. So it means something outside the region which the light of reason can shine on. Inexluctable becomes ineluctable. The meaning is therefore something which cannot be understood no matter what reason tries to do. That mens something that cannot be elucidated or something that cannot be described.

So there is this regularity, but it cannot be described. This is the fourth method. The fourth method show us that ignorance produces Kamma formations only and Kamma formations produce consciousness only and not any other. When one sees this, one abandons the no cause view and the moral inefficacy of action view. That means when one sees that ignorance causes Kamma formations and Kamma formations cause consciousness and so on, then one des not take the view that there is no cause for things to arise. Also one does not fall into the wrong view that there is no action because there is action.

If one sees wrongly, one clings to the no cause view again and to the doctrine of fatalism. That means one sees only half of this method. Ignorance produces kamma formations only. Kamma formations produce consciousness only. Then Kamma formations are not produced by others; consciousness is not produced by Kamma formations and so on. One thinks in that way and comes to the conclusion there is no cause for things to arise.

It is like oil cannot be produced from grains of sand. If oil cannot be produced from grains of sand, but there is oil, then it must be produced by nothing. It must come out of nothing. Understanding in this way or understanding wrongly, he comes to or falls into the wrong view of no cause.

If ignorance produces Kamma formations only, there must be a fixed rule that this cause must produce this effect only and no other. Taking that way one falls into wrong view of fatalism where everything is fixed.

These are the four methods with which to understand correctly the Doctrine of Dependent Origination. These are not so easy to understand. What we should understand is the popular formula according to that formula - neither one nor the other. So the one who is born in the other world is neither the one nor the other. Nothing from this life moves to another life. But the one who is reborn in another life is not totally different or disconnected from the one who dies here. They have this connection as cause and effect. So they belong to the same continuity. That is why my ignorance will produce my Kamma formations and not yours. Otherwise there would be confusion of cause and effect. These are the four methods with which to understand the Law of Dependent Origination.

There is some more to understand with regard to this doctrine. There are how many factors? Do you remember? There are twelve factors - ignorance, Kamma formations, consciousness, mentality-materiality, sixfold base, contact, feeling, craving, clinging, becoming, rebirth, ageing and death. These are called the twelve factors. Sorrow and others are not included in the twelve factors because they are not the inevitable results of rebirth. So they are outside these twelve factors.

This Doctrine of paticca Samuppàda covers three periods of time or three lives - the past, the present and the future. If you look at the formula, the third one is what? Consciousness. 'Consciousness' means rebirth consciousness or resultant consciousness. So that consciousness must be the beginning of one life because rebirth consciousness is the first conscious moment in one's life. Then we have rebirth as a factor. Rebirth also means the first moment in one's life. So we have the present life nd the future life. The one before the present should be the past life. So this Doctrine of Paticca Samuppàda covers three periods of time or three lives - the past, the present and the future. The first two, ignorance and Kamma formations, belong to the past. Consciousness and others belong to the present. Rebirth, old age and death belong to the future. So we have three lives.

We are not to take it that Dependent Origination covers only three lives. If we really see that rebirth in the future time is the same as the consciousness in the present time or present life, then we can see the whole round of rebirth is covered by this Doctrine of Dependent Origination.

There are what we call three rounds (Vatta). We call them rounds because they go round and round, and they make others go round and round. These three rounds are defilement round, Kamma round and resultant round. Can you figure out which belong to the defilement round? Which factors belong to the defilement round? Ignorance, craving and clinging. These three belong to the defilement round because they are defilements themselves. Which belong to Kamma round? Which are Kamma among these twelve? Kamma formations and Kamma-becoming. These two are the Kamma round. The rest are the resultant round. So there ae three rounds.

It is said that there are four sections. In Burmese we call it four layers. Can you figure out these four sections? Cause-effect, cause-effect. Cause in the past, effect in the present, cause in the present, effect in the future. There are four sections. The first two, ignorance nd Kamma formations, constitute the first section because they are the cause in the past. Consciousness, mentality-materiality, sixfold base, contact and feeling, these five are called effects in the present becuse they are the results of the past causes. Then we have craving, clinging and Kamma-becoming. Craving, clinging and kamma-becoming are called causes in this present life. Then the others - rebirth, ageing and death - are called the effects in the future. So we have four layers or four sections - past cause, present effect, present cause, future effect.

It is said that there are five factors in the past cause. We found only two - ignorance and Kamma formations. When you take ignorance, you also take craving and clinging because they belong to the same round. That is why I told you about the rounds before coming to this subject. When taking ignorance, you also take craving and clinging. When you take Kamma formations, you also take becoming. When you take ignorance and Kamma formations, you virtually take ignorance, craving, clinging, Kamma formations and becoming. So we have five causes in the past.

The five effects in the present - there is no problem with them. Then it is said there are five causes in the present, but in this formula we only have three - craving, clinging and becoming. When we take craving and clinging, we also take ignorance because they belong to the same round. When we take becoming, we also take the formations. Again they belong to the same round. So the causes in the present are not three but five - craving, clinging, becoming, ignorance and formations.

Then it is said that there are five effects in the future, but we find only three - rebirth, ageing and death. How do they become five? They become five because they are nothing but consciousness, mentality-materiality, sixfold base, contact and feeling. When we say rebirth, ageing and death, we just mean consciousness and so on. So we have five effects in the future. Atogether we have twenty factors, twenty factors in four sections.

Then there are three connections. When we put four together, one after the other, we get three connections. Where is the first connection? It is between past cause and present effect. Then where is the second? It is between the present effect and the present cause. And the third is between the present cause and the future effect.

The first connection is cause-effect. The second is effect-cause connection. The third is cause-effect connection.

Where is the first connection, between what? Between formations and consciousness. Where is the second connection? Between feeling and craving. This is the second connection. And the third connection is between becoming and birth, ageing and death. So we have three connections: 1. cause and effect 2. effect and cause 3. cause and effect.

There are two great roots of Dependent Origination or the Wheel of Life. We can divide the Wheel of Life into two parts. One consists of past cause and present effect. The second cnsists of present cause and future effect. Among the factors of the first part ignorance is the foremost. Among the factors of the second group craving is the foremost. Ignorance and craving are said to be the two roots of the Wheel of Life. These are the two roots which cause ebirth again and again. So long as we cannot get rid of these two roots, we will be going around in this round of rebirths again and again and again. If we can get rid of or destroy these two roots, then we will get out of the round of rebirths.

Ignorance is put first or at the beginning of this doctrine, but it does not mean that ignorance is the first cause because there are causes of ignorance too. Here ignorance is put in the beginning because the Buddha wanted to show that ignorance is the basic cause of all suffring, the basic cause of the round of rebirth. It is like when you have ignorance, when you seize ignorance, then you are beguiled by craving and clinging also. When you have no ignorance, there will be no craving and clinging.

It is compared to taking a snake by the head. When you catch the snake by the head. you are caught in the coils of the body. But when you cut the head off, the body can do no more.

So because ignorance is the basis of the round of rebirth or the basic cause of the round of ebirths, it is put in the beginning. It does not mean that ignorance is the first cause.

In order to break this wheel of life what must we do? We must stop this round of rebirth somewhere. That place is where? Between feeling and craving. How do we do that? By being mindful. By noting the feelings or by being mindful of the feelings. Even though we have painful feelings, we just make notes of these feelings or we just keep ourselves mindful of these feelings. We must not get attachment to good feelings and not get attachment to any other feelings. By cutting at the connection between feeling and craving, we can cut this wheel of rebirth nd get out of it.

The teaching here which we have studied is called the normal order. The teaching of the cessation of ignorance and so on is called the reverse order. Here 'reverse' does not mean going from the bottom to the head. It is just the cessation. It would better to call the normal order the positive ordr and the reverse order the negative order.

What is the negative order of the teaching of the Doctrine of Paticca Samuppàda? With the remainderless fading and cessation of ignorance there is cessation of Kamma formations. With the cessation of Kamma formations there is the cessation of consciousness and so on. Thus there is the cessation of this whole mass of suffering. It is to that end that we must aim or that we must go. We must not run around in the round of rebirths. If we can keep ourselves from being attached to any kind of feeling, there is the cessation of craving. Then with the cessation of craving there is the cessation of clinging. With the cessation of clinging there is the cessation of becoming and so on.ºIn this wy we can cut the wheel of rebirth and get out of it. This is the teaching of Dependent Origination or Conditioned Genesis or whatevr name you want to call it.

This doctrinte is said to be profound and deep. Once the Venerable Ànanda said, 'Although people say that Dependent Origination is deep, to me it is not deep. It does not seem deep to me.' Venerable Ànanda was saying something like that.

Then the Buddha said, 'Don't say that Ànanda. The Dependent Origination looks deep and it is deep.' So it is difficult to understand.

It is profound in four ways. It is profound because it is difficult to understand the effects. That means it is difficult to understand that Sankhàras are produced by ignorance and that consciousness is produced by Sankhàras and so on.

Also it is deep with regard to the causes. Ignorance produces Sankhàras and Sankhàras produce consciousness and so on.

Also it is profound with regard to presentation. It is one of the subjects which is difficult to understand and at the same time difficult to teach.

Let me read this passage from The Path of Purification with regard to the profundity of presentation. 'Then the teaching of this Dependent Origination is profound since it needs to be given in various ways for various reasons and none but the omniscient knowledge gets fully established in it.' So only the Buddhas can understand it fully. Others may understand according to their own capacity.

'For in some places in the Suttas it is taught in forward order, in some in backwrd order, in some in forward and backward order, in some in forward or in backward order starting in the middle. In some it is taught in four sections and three links, in some in three sections and two links, and in some in two sections and in one link. That is why this Wheel of Becoming is profound in teaching.'

Buddha was very clever in teaching this. Maybe he would pick up in the beginning and go to the end. Sometimes he may pick up at the end and go backe to the beginning. Sometimes he would pick up in the middle and go backward or forward. So in various ways this doctrine was taught by the Buddha. You may read this especially in the Samyutta Nikàya (The Kindred Sayings). So this is profound and difficult to understand.

Is it necessary to understand the Doctrine of Dependent Origination so that we can practice meditation? In order to practice Vipassanà meditation do we need a good knowledge of Dependent Origination? Let me read from a book by Venerable Mahasi Sayadaw. It is a relief. There are some teachers in Myanmar who say that you must have a thorough knowledge of Dependent Origination before you practice Vipassanà meditation. If you don't have this knowledge, you cannot practice Vipassanà meditation. Sayadaw was refuting their statements.

'If according to their proposition, meditation could be practiced only after thoroughy mstering the Law of Dependent Origination together with its circular diagrams etc.( We have three circular diagrams and all these things are to help explain the doctrine. ) Some people who have no time nor the chance to study the Law of Dependent Origination, or who are slow in learning it comprehensivey are liable to lose the opportunity of gaining the Path or Fruition even if they are endowed with Pàramis, (Pàramis means perfections.) sufficient conditions and qualifications to attain them.'

'To set an example during the time of the Blessed One a Bhikkhu by the name of Cùlapanthaka found it difficult to memorize a verse of only 44 syllables although he tried to do it for four months. To learn the whole Law of Dependent Origination extensively would thus have been an impossible task for him. Yet the same Bhikkhu attained Arahantship, was accomplished in Jhànas and supernormal knowledge by practicing for one morning only the meditation exercise prescribed by the Buddha. So we should like to take this opportunity while giving this discourse on turning the Wheel of Dhamma on cautioning those good learned persons to refrain from making asseertions which may discourage and demoralize those engaged in or bent upon the practice of meditation. If one intends to strive all alone for the practice of meditation, no doubt one needs to have learned extensively all about the aggregates, the bases, the elements, the truths, the faculties and the Law of Dependent origination. But if one is going to work under the guidance of a good virtuous learned and wise teacher, all that one needs to know is that all Dhammas are impermanent, subject to suffering, insubstantial and not self. It is also sufficient if he has learned through hearing that a worldling individual is governed by two mundane truths of causal relations (cause and effect), namely the five aggregates which is the truth of suffering and craving which is the truth of the origin of suffering. The majority of Buddhists of Burma can be taken to be already equipped with this much knowledge. Even if not they can pick this up just before starting meditation or during the course of meditation by listening to the sermons of their meditation teacher. There should be no wavering or uncertainty on this score of Suttama??? (That means learned knowledge). All that is required is to start practicing meditation in accordance with the instructions given by the reliable, virtuous, learned and wise teacher.'

So actually we don't have to have a thorough knowledge of Dependent Oigination to practice Vipassanà meditation. But if you are going to be alone and doing it al by yourself, then you may need some knowledge of Dependent Origination and also some knowledge of the Abhidhamma like aggregates, bases and so on.

When we study Dependent Origination, we find sometimes factors belonging to different times and sometimes to the same time. And so sometimes we want to be very organized and very systematic, and have one clearly defined and separate from another. We want all thes factors to be cause and effect clearly and so on. But it cannot be so because Dependent Origination is not a logical presentation or proposition. It is the description of the Wheel of Life which is very complex. So it cannot be logical and it cannot be well organized.

As a conclusion I would like to read a footnote in a book by Venerable Ñanamoli. 'The Dependent Origination or structure of conditions appears as a flexible formula with the intention of describing the ordinary human situation of a man in this world or indeed any conscious event where ignorance and craving have not entirely ceased. That situation is always complex since it it implicit that consciousness with no object or being (Bhava) or becoming or however rendered without consciousness of it, is impssible except as an artificial abstraction. The Dependent Origination being designed to portray the essentials of that situation in the limited dimension of words and using only elements recognizable in experience is not a logical proposition.' (In parentheses Descret Cogito is not a logical proposition.) 'Nor is it a temporal cause and effect chain. Each member has to be examined as to its nature in order to determine what its relations to the others are. For example is it successive in time or conascent, positive or negative etc. A pure cause and effect chain would not represent the pattern of the situation. That is always complex, always subjective-objective, static-dynamic, positive-negative and so on. Again there is no evidence of any historical devlopment in the various forms given within the limit of the Sutta Pitaka, leaving aside the Patisambhidàmagga, a historical treatment within that particular limit is likely to mislead if its hypothesis is with no foundation.'

I am very glad that I am able to finish tlking on this very difficult Doctrine of Paticca Samuppàda or Dependent Origination. I hope that although you may not understand all, that you may understand some of it. This has to be studied from the beginning. Many of you have not heard the talks before and also you need a knowledge of Abhidhamma to understand the Doctrine of Dependent Origination. At least you have heard about Dependent Origination and so you have a fairly good idea of what it is and how it is difficult to understand. I hope that you would make a more detailed study of this important doctrine with the help of the Commentary and maybe the help of a teacher. I hope you are able to grasp its meaning as much as you can and then go on to prctice Vipassanà meditation to see for yourself the teachings taught in this Doctrine of Dependent Origination. Because through Vipassanà meditation many links can be seen through self-experience. You need only to have a certain amount of learnt knowledge and then you can apply this learnt knowledge to what you have experienced in the actual practice of meditation. Only when you can relate to your experience the knowledge you have gained through reading will this knowledge become real knowledge. Otherwise it is just second-hand knowledge or borrowed knowledge. In order to make the borrowed knowledge your own knowledge then you have to practice meditation and see this working of the Dependent Origination for yourself.

Thank you very much.

Sàdhu! Sàdhu! Sàdhu!