Himalayan path along Phoksundo Lake (lasochres.se)The Buddhist Law of Conditionality
The teaching of causal interdependence is the most important of Buddhist principles.It describes a law of nature that exists as the natural course of things. The Buddha was not an emissary of heavenly "commandments." He was a discoverer of this liberating-principle of the natural order, and he proclaimed its truth to the world.
The progression of causes and conditions is the reality that applies to all things: from the natural environment, which is an external and physical condition, to the events of human society, ethics, life events, and the happiness and suffering that manifest in our minds.
Causal relationships are part of one natural truth. Our happiness within this natural system depends on having some knowledge of how it works and practicing correctly within it. With knowledge we are able to address problems on personal, social, and environmental levels.
Given that all things are interconnected, all affecting one another, success in dealing with the world lies in creating harmony within it.
The sciences, which have evolved with human civilization and are influencing our lives so profoundly, are said to be based on reason and rationality. Their storehouse of knowledge has been amassed through interacting with these natural laws of conditionality. ...
But the human search for knowledge in modern scientific fields has three notable features...
- Underneath it all, we tend to interpret concepts like happiness, freedom, human rights, liberty, and peace in ways that preserve the interests of some and encroach on others. Even when controlling other people comes to be seen as a blameworthy act, this aggressive tendency is then turned in other directions, such as the natural environment. Now that we are beginning to realize that it is impossible to really control other people or other things, the only meaning left in life is to preserve self interests and protect territorial rights. Living as we do with this faulty knowledge and these mistaken beliefs, the natural environment is thrown out of skew, society is in turmoil, and human life, both physically and mentally, is disoriented. The world seems to be full of conflict and suffering.
All facets of the natural order -- the physical world and the human world, the world of conditions (dharma) and the world of actions (karma), the material world and the mental world -- are connected and interrelated; they cannot be separated. Disorder and aberration in one sector will affect other sectors. If we want to live in peace, we must learn how to live in harmony with all spheres of the natural environment, both the internal and the external, the individual and the social, the physical and the mental, the material and the immaterial.
...This is why, of all the systems of causal relationship based on the following law "Because there is this, that arises; when this ceases, that ceases," the teachings of Buddhism begin with, and stress throughout, the factors involved in the creation of suffering in individual awareness.
"Because there is ignorance, there are volitional formations..." is the first link of the Dependent Origination formula. Once this system is understood on the inner level, liberating us from suffering, we are then in a position to see the connections between inner factors and the causal relationships in the external environment. This is the approach adopted in this book. More
1. An Overview of Dependent Origination
Types of Dependent Origination found in the texts
1. The general principle
2. The principle in effect
2. Interpreting Dependent Origination
The essential meaning
4. The Standard Format
The main factors
1. Ignorance and craving-clinging
2. Volitional impulses and becoming
3. Consciousness to feeling, and birth, aging and death
5. Other Interpretations
Preliminary definition
How the links connect
Examples
An example of Dependent Origination in everyday life
7. Dependent Origination in Society
A note on interpreting the principle of Dependent Origination
Birth and death in the present moment
Dependent Origination in the Abhidhamma
A problem with the word "nirodha"