The gist of Buddha’s teaching---8

The gist of Buddha’s teaching---8

Bhikkhu Dhammavaro
Buddharatana Monastery of Australia

The twelve Dependent Cessations

Understanding the causation in the above, the cessation of suffering is just simply stopping or abandoning the above series of origination.

The Buddha said: “From the cessation of ignorance comes the cessation of mental formations.

From the cessation of mental formations comes the cessation of consciousness.

From the cessation of consciousness comes the cessation of name and form.

From the cessation of name and form comes the cessation of the six sense doors.

From the cessation of the six sense doors comes the cessation of contact.

From the cessation of contact comes the cessation of feeling.

From the cessation of feeling comes the cessation of craving.

From the cessation of craving comes the cessation of clinging.

From the cessation of clinging comes the cessation of becoming.

From the cessation of becoming comes the cessation of birth.

From the cessation of birth, then aging and death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, and despair all cease.” ( Kaccayanagotta Sutta )

The retrogressive order of Dependent Cessation excludes the expediency of a creator God, and leaves the salvation from samsara in our hand squarely.

What we understand about the "rebirth" of any being is a mundane understanding, from the supramundane viewpoint the Buddha explained that there is no being re-born, there is just the phenomena of birth and death. For those people during Buddha times who believed in rebirth, the Blessed One taught the wandering of the beings among the various realms, and then the Blessed One taught the teaching of "dependent origination" to them, as it is easier for those people to understand this. As for those who have a higher parami of intelligence, the Blessed One taught them directly the teaching of “Anatta”, as demonstrated by the second teaching on “Three characteristics” to the five ascetics.

For those who don’t believe in rebirth prior to embarking on the eightfold noble path, there is no need for the Blessed One to talk about the wandering of the beings in Samsara and of rebirth; this might lead to the wrong view of an eternal being or a ‘soul’.

For example, when a musician plays the flute, there is no storage of the sound played beforehand. When the music stops, it does not go anywhere else. It came into existence by way of the construction of the flute, the flow of air and the playing of the musician, which are the conditions for its existence. When the music stops, it is devoid of those conditions, it just simply goes out of existence.

Similarly all the components which conditions the appearance of a being, both material and immaterial components, come into existence, they just play their role for its appearance, and then when the conditions which support their existence disappeared or deteriorated, then that being disappeared or passed away.

What we call a person is just the coming together of various components and the working of the various components with each other. It is impossible to find a permanent entity. Yet the paradox is: there is clearly a path to be followed and there is walking to be done, but there is no walker. There are actions and performance which must be worked out but there is no actor. Our pre-conceived idea of an immutable self is a mirage only.