4. Dependent Origination and Supportive Conditions

Not so, Ananda! Not so, Ananda! This dependent origination is deep and deep in implications. It is because of not understanding and not penetrating this dhamma, ânanda, that this generation has become like a tangled skein, like a knotted ball of thread, like matted reeds and rushes, and does not pass beyond the plane of misery, the bad destinations, the nether world, sansàra. – The Buddha, Causation Sutta

PEMASIRI THERA: At the time of the Buddha, wise people believed in kamma-vipàka, which means they believed that their good actions led to good results and that their bad actions led to bad results. Since they already believed in kamma-vipàka and weren’t engaging in many bad and akusala actions, the Buddha didn’t need to teach these wise people about kamma and results of kamma. Even jhàna is a manifestation of kamma. Having this belief in kamma-vipàka is a prerequisite to understanding the process of dependent origination. If you don’t believe that there is any relationship between your actions and the results of your actions, then you can’t possibly ever see the reality of causes and effects, hetu-phala, let alone ever realize the process of dependent origination. It’s impossible. And when we say seeing causes and effects, hetu-phala that is seeing path-knowledge.

David: Didn’t you just tell me that the teaching on dependent origination is by definition the connection between causes and their effects? Actions and results? This is confusing.

No, were okay. In fact, if you believe that there is a clear-cut causal relationship between your actions and the results of your actions, kamma-vipàka, and then you’re on the right track to understanding causes and effects, hetu-phala. We are trying to go beyond a crude type of thinking, believing in one gross action leads to one gross result, and try out a more mature type of thinking, which means examining the role played by supportive conditions. The teaching on dependent origination is about causes, supportive conditions, and effects. It’s not crude and simplistic. Supportive conditions must be taken into account. Dependent origination is a complicated process with various supportive conditions impacting on our actions the causes in every which way imaginable. Read The Conch Blower Sutta; the Buddha looks at the wrong views in the teachings on kamma-vipàka.

Continuing, dependent upon various causes and conditions, effects come into being. For example, supportive conditions must exist for a mango seed to evolve into a tree that bears mangoes. The soil, water, and nutrients are neither causes nor effects; they are conditions. Dependent upon these supportive conditions, the seed develops and eventually becomes a tree that bears fruit. The seed is the original cause; the soil, water, and nutrients are supportive conditions; and the mango fruit is the effect. The mango fruit exists in dependence upon all these conditions coming together in the right way. And as you might well notice, soil, water, and nutrients are also effects in their own right, effects that came into being through the means of other causes and other conditions.

Since the seed is the cause, why isn’t the tree the effect?

The tree isn’t the effect because it evolved out of the seed. The tree is just a change in the characteristics of the seed; so it is still part of the cause. The mango is the effect because it breaks off the tree. The happening of any state or the arising of any phenomenon is not an effect until it separates from the cause that gave rise to it. We see the mango in the tree and mistake it for the effect. It is not the effect. As long as the mango stays on the tree, it is not an effect. Effects arise between two causes. While the mango is in the air falling from the tree to the ground, it is a full effect. Once settled on the ground, the mango is no longer an effect. It’s a new cause, a cause which may give rise to another tree that bears more mangoes.

The developing stage of an effect is different from the fully developed stage. In its developing stage, the effect is not yet fully operational. It’s in the midst of a process that leads to a result. There is only the potential to produce an effect. Neither a mango blossom nor an unripe mango is a mango. For a mango to arise as an effect, it has to ripen, mature, and then fall off the tree. When we say effects, we mean fully developed and operational effects. They are on their own. Milk for example can be made into curd. But just because we pour milk into a container, it doesn’t automatically turn to curd. No. We have to add suitable bacteria. Milk is the original cause; the container and bacteria are supportive conditions; the milk gradually curdles; and eventually we have our tasty curd. Effects always come about gradually. All of us were conceived in our mother’s womb. Is our mother a cause or a condition?

The womb is a condition with the egg and sperm as causes.

You are partly right. The rebirth consciousness, patisandhi-vinnàna, arising in the womb of the mother is the first cause for the birth of a child. The womb of the mother, the egg of the mother, and the sperm of the father these are all supportive conditions. It is incorrect to say conception takes place just because a woman and a man have sexual intercourse. That is not a cause. Intercourse is only a supportive condition. The child, as all effects, gradually develops from embryo and then after three months to foetus. Neither the embryo nor the foetus is a child because both are still within the womb, still connected to the original cause. When the entity in the womb is fully developed, the child is born.

Okay, when does the rebirth consciousness descend into the woman’s womb?

Consciousness does not do any descending. Dependent upon specific conditions, consciousness arises. After the woman and the man have sex, it might be as long as two weeks before the rebirth consciousness arises along with the mass in the womb, linking the past kamma to the new kamma. This is conception. When conception takes place is dependent upon the needs of the new being; conception isn’t dependent upon the needs of the mother or the father. At the moment of conception, materiality is already present in the womb. During sex, the mother contributed an egg and the father contributed sperm. Egg and sperm are materiality; the elements earth, water, fire, and air. Out of these elements, a mass of similar elements gradually develops in the womb.

In the Indaka Sutta of the Samyutta Nikàya, the Buddha explains to the yakkha Indaka the characteristics of the mass in the womb. In its early stages of development, the mass is devoid of consciousness, similar to a plant. The rebirth consciousness is the first consciousness of the new life. Once it dies, a new consciousness linked with the new birth arises, and then it too dies. With the arising and dying of two or three more moments of consciousness, mentality-materiality linked with the new birth is being produced by kamma and by mind. In some Buddhist traditions, the rebirth consciousness is seen as descending into the womb when the woman and the man are having sexual intercourse. The egg, sperm, and consciousness all arrive in the womb at exactly the same time. This doesn’t make any sense, as the rebirth consciousness would have to be hanging around, like a spirit, waiting for the woman and the man to have sex.

This explanation of the birth process is far from complete. For example, the sperm are effects just prior to one of them becoming a condition. After the sperm left the man and are swimming towards the egg, they are effects. Once one of the sperm joins with the egg, it is no longer an effect. Causes. Conditions. Effects. There is a mix of events happening. You’ll have to come back for a more complete discussion!

EFFECTS ARE SEPARATE FROM THEIR ORIGINAL CAUSES

Effects are always separate from their original causes. Results are separate from actions. Mango trees produce mango fruit. With support of suitable causes and conditions, a mango gradually develops and ripens. When the mango is fully ripe, it falls off the tree and breaks the link with the tree. The mango is a distinct entity. In the same way, after nine months of developing in your mother’s womb, you emerged from her womb and broke the link with your mother. At this point in time, you take it for granted that you have none of your mother’s mentality or materiality. You are a completely unique person, completely separate from your mother. Moreover, your mother had a stroke and died when you were eighteen. Despite the fact you could do nothing to prevent her death, you still felt sad. It is in the nature of beings to experience sadness when friends and relatives die. But the sadness you are experiencing now is separate from your mother’s death. She died more than thirty years ago.

What we experience now is always separate from what we experienced in the past. Like a mango in a mango tree, the effects of our actions gradually ripen until they are fully ripe and operational. By the time the effect is fully operational, the effect has no link whatsoever with the original cause. The results, the vipàka, that are taking effect in our lives as adults are not only separate from the kamma we performed as children, but they are also entirely different. The mango fruit is not the same as the original mango seed. And once a mental formation arises, that mental formation has no link to the ignorance that gave rise to it. In the end, when the effect is fully developed and is on its own, it has no link to its original cause. With the original cause lost, we only experience the effect. Even though the original cause isn’t linked to its eventual effect, there still is a cause and that cause is the owner.

Since the effect is separate from the cause, maybe I look at the effect as a thing in itself? I don’t think my past can reach out and force an effect in the present. Please explain.

Elizabeth has four children. Whatever actions her children perform, the children are the owners of those actions Elizabeth can’t own her children’s actions. The experiences of her children are her children’s experiences. Elizabeth, the original cause, gets lost and the children, the fruit, experience their own emotions any happiness or sadness or whatever. By linking different objects together, we create totally new objects. For example, bricks, sand, and cement are all different objects. Individually, they are not meditation huts. But by linking them all together, we build many huts. Similarly, the composite nature of what we commonly call ourselves, our minds and bodies, is summed up in the five aggregates of clinging, the panca-upàdànakkhandhà the aggregates of feelings, perceptions, mental formations, consciousness, and materiality. By linking together the causes for the arising of these five aggregates of clinging in one moment, the five aggregates are experienced as a self in the next moment.

Does dependent origination operate inside or outside of time?

You can’t think of dependent origination operating only in terms of time. Dependent origination, sansàra, and time are all connected to the concept of a self. If you penetrate non-self, anattà, then dependent origination, sansàra, and time are no longer relevant, and there is no dependent origination. As the Buddha said to Ananda, “This dependent origination is deep and deep in implications.” It isn’t easily understood.

I’m struggling with why I should even try to understand dependent origination. Does it affect my mind, my attitudes and decisions?

ACTIVE MINDS

Our minds are very active. We’re forever creating lots of mental formations, sankhàràs. When we create beneficial mental formations, beneficial effects arise. When we create harmful mental formations, harmful effects arise. Mental formations arise at one of three levels: vague and weak, volition, and kammic. Because ignorance activates our greed, aversion, and delusion, we hold onto vague and weak mental formations and by vague and weak I mean gàha, mannanà, papanca, coming from past sankhàras and we gradually develop our vague and weak mental formations into clearly formed mental formations that are called volition, cetanà, and it’s with the arising of volition that effects can happen. Then by developing volition, kamma arises and at that point the kamma is already performed and experienced. We can even find the Buddha saying on certain occasions, “Volition is kamma.” When we talk about mental formations, sankhàràs, we always have to talk about volition and karma. Sankhàràs, cetanà, kamma – all three must be discussed together as one topic.

With the support of suitable conditions, causes always lead to the arising of effects. We said with enough good soil, water, and nutrients, mango trees bear mango fruit. Similarly, with the support of our ignorance, we develop our vague and weak mental formations into volition and kamma. However, without support of suitable conditions, causes won’t lead to effects. Without good soil, water, and nutrients, a mango seed does not grow into a strong mango tree that produces mangoes; the seed will just lie on the ground and rot. Without proper nutrition, mothers don’t give birth to healthy babies, despite carrying their foetuses for nine months. Without supportive conditions, babies do not grow into adults; they might even be stillborn or die shortly after birth. Just because a cause is present, there is no guarantee that a matching effect will arise. Of course, our ignorance is strong and deeply rooted. Yet, without mixing our ignorance in with our vague and weak mental formations, the majority of our vague and weak mental formations leave our minds as quickly as they entered. They die. Kamma cannot arise unless we develop our vague thoughts up to the level of volition.

You said effects are coming about gradually. Does this mean that I have some time to intervene?

You don’t have to develop the thoughts that cause you so many problems. There is a close link between your intentions and the effects you experience. We have to move on. Even though an effect is eventually separate from its cause, its strength is directly proportional to the strength of its cause. How high a stone flies up into the air depends upon how hard we throw it. Likewise, in whatever way and to whatever extent our ignorance arises, our mental formations arise in the same way and to the same extent. Led by his or her ignorance, a strong meditator undertakes a specific practice to leave the sense-sphere and fine-material realms behind them. If his or her mind is only directed towards the immaterial realm, the beneficial formation of the imperturbable will arise as the effect. The imperturbable is the fourth jhàna and the immaterial attainments.

Due to ignorance, the meditator makes the imperturbable arise?

Yes. Once a fully operational effect arises, it simply runs for its set period of time. The meditator has not attained path. The meditator is still in the mundane realm of experience, lokiya dhamma, and as such, he or she has the potential to bring about effects now or in the next birth. Only arahats are free of the effects. Read the chapter on suffering in the Nidàna Samyutta of the Samyutta Nikàya. The stone we throw might be in the air for a few seconds; humans often live for eighty years; strong meditators experience the imperturbable formation for hours; and if you live a wholesome and beneficial life, you could take birth as a deva, experiencing a blissful and delightful world for thousands of years. Attain to anàgàmi and experience the imperturbable formation for aeons. After running its course, the effect dies. No matter how hard we throw the stone into the air, it eventually falls to the ground. At the point where one effect exhausts its energy and dies, another cause comes forward. Many causes come forward. With the arising of the subsequent causes and with the support of suitable conditions, more effects arise and run continuously until they too end their lives. They die. Yet more causes come forward, resulting in yet more effects. The cycle repeats and repeats. Though often looked at as a continuous unbroken chain, dependent origination is more like a bird’s nest with strands of causes and effects coming and going in every possible direction. It’s complicated.

I can almost understand what you are saying! Does one cause produce one effect?

No. One cause does not produce one effect. There is no linear chain of causation. For a fully operational effect to arise, various other causes and conditions must support it. And as soon as a full effect arises, it becomes a cause.

Are you saying that an effect is the same as a cause?

No. But once an effect arises, it becomes a cause, part of the mix of causes and conditions many interconnections. As a sense-sphere being living in this sense-sphere plane, your mind is very active new causes and new effects are constantly arising. A vinnàna, a consciousness, can arise because of past causes; something comes up in our minds and then we think about it. Though effects end, we haven’t made an end to our mind’s capacity to produce causes. A temporary suspension of causes and conditions is of little use. During the time that meditators experience the imperturbable formation, no new effects arise. That is true. But after the imperturbable formation runs its course and ends, ignorance comes forward again. New effects arise. Without destroying ignorance, meditators accomplish nothing more than the experiencing of the imperturbable formation for a period of time. That is all they are doing. As long as causes and the suitable conditions exist, effects arise. Because we keep picking up and throwing stones, the stones keep flying through the air; and because ignorance is present, mental formations arise. The stones always come back to the ground. Magga-phala, the attaining of path knowledge, is no stone. More like a rocket blasted into space it’s not coming back. The attaining of magga-phala would be a very good day.

The highly attained ascetic Asita was happy to pay respects to baby Siddhartha because he saw that this baby was destined to become the enlightened Buddha. But when Asita realized that his own destiny was to take birth in an immaterial plane before Siddhartha became enlightened, Asita’s happiness turned to sadness. Missing the chance to be taught by the future Buddha, Asita would miss attaining what is beyond that immaterial plane. This account of Asita’s encounter with the Buddha sounds like a fairytale because Asita could have cut down his birth destination to human, say thirty years hence, and studied with the Buddha at that time. The account implies Asita was clinging too strongly to the immaterial plane, or lacked the confidence in attaining arahatship as a human, even under the guidance of the Buddha.