2020.04.04 Saturday

Excerpt From
The Great Causes Discourse
Mahā Nidāna Sutta  (DN 15)

Translator’s note: The first part of the discourse takes the factors of dependent co-arising in sequence from effect to cause, tracing them down to the mutual dependency of name-&-form (mental and physical activity) on the one hand, and consciousness on the other.

“If one is asked, ‘Is there a demonstrable requisite condition for name-&-form?’ one should answer, ‘There is.’

“If one is asked, ‘From what requisite condition does name-&-form come?’ one should say, ‘Name-&-form comes from consciousness as its requisite condition.’

“If one is asked, ‘Is there a demonstrable requisite condition for consciousness?’ one should answer, ‘There is.’

“If one is asked, ‘From what requisite condition does consciousness come?’ one should say, ‘Consciousness comes from name-&-form as its requisite condition.’

“Thus, Ānanda, from name-&-form as a requisite condition comes consciousness. From consciousness as a requisite condition comes name-&-form. From name-&-form as a requisite condition comes contact. From contact as a requisite condition comes feeling. From feeling as a requisite condition comes craving. From craving as a requisite condition comes clinging. From clinging as a requisite condition comes becoming. From becoming as a requisite condition comes birth. From birth as a requisite condition, aging-&-death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair come into play. Such is the origination of this entire mass of stress.

Source https://www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/DN/DN15.html which has the following copyright: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ The author of www.dhammatalks.org also states: “There is some uncertainty about the meaning of ‘Commercial’ with regard to the CC NonCommercial License. For example, some consider the sale of content to support a non-profit entity to be ‘NonCommercial.’  The author and copyright holder of the content on this site considers any sale, including by non-profit entities for non-profit purposes, to be ‘Commercial’ and a copyright violation.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.