The Root Cause for Samsaric Rebirth

The main structure of the Buddha’s teachings are the four noble truths and these are facts that are seen as true by the aryas, usually translated as “the noble ones.” Ordinary people would not see these as true; they wouldn’t understand them. It’s only on very deep reflection about the reality that one sees the truth of these four – “truth” maybe isn’t exactly the word. These are things that are really true in a sense. We’ll see what that means.

The first is true suffering. What truly is suffering? What truly is the problem? The problem is that we experience suffering on many different levels. Some of these levels many people, not just the aryas, can see are truly a problem. The first level is the suffering of unhappiness, pain, which is usually called the “suffering of suffering.” Even animals recognize this as something undesirable; in their own ways, they want and try to get rid of it. 

A more subtle level is our ordinary happiness. Our ordinary happiness is a type of suffering called “the suffering of change,” basically because it is totally unreliable. Our ordinary happiness doesn’t last and it’s not satisfying; we always want more, and we never know what’s going to come next when it ends. 

If ordinary happiness were true happiness, then the more we had, the happier we would be. For example, we might be happy walking, going for a walk, but if we had to walk for an endless number of hours, after a while we’d get pretty tired and that happiness would turn into suffering. If it were true happiness, the more we walked, the happier we would become. We then sit down and we think that’s happiness; we feel happy when we sit down, but the longer we sit, that happiness soon changes. If it were true happiness, the longer we sat, let’s say if we had to sit there for ten years, the happier we would become. Obviously, that’s not the case. 

Now, Buddhism is not alone in identifying this type of experience, so-called “worldly happiness,” as a form of suffering. There are many religions that say, “Give up worldly happiness and aim for the everlasting happiness of heaven or paradise.” Therefore, to want to overcome that kind of suffering is not particularly Buddhist. 

What is the true suffering? What’s the true problem? What the aryas see is the true problem. The true problem is our uncontrollably recurring aggregates; in other words, the body and mind that we get, to put it very simply, lifetime after lifetime. This whole cycle of samsaric rebirth, which then forms the basis for experiencing the first two types of suffering: unhappiness and ordinary happiness, that’s the real problem. Others don’t really recognize this as true suffering, as the true problem. 

We could argue that there are other Indian philosophical systems, non-Buddhist systems, that also see this type of samsaric rebirth as a real problem. However, what’s the cause of this? We have to go deeper. It’s not just to see that this is the only true thing, but Buddha went on to speak about what’s truly the cause of this. Now, we get much more specifically into a fuller Buddhist context. Buddha said that the true cause of our problems, this uncontrollably recurring samsara, is our unawareness of reality, of how we exist. 

What Buddha taught was – to just jump ahead a little bit – that we have to realize that it is thinking that an impossible way in which we exist is actually the way in which we really do exist. That’s the problem. We’re confused. We think that we exist in a way that is impossible.

Other Indian systems also say that the cause of samsara is ignorance, this unawareness. However, what they say is impossible and therefore what’s leftover, in other words, what is the way in which we exist, Buddha said, “No, that’s impossible too.” That’s what is particularly special here in the Buddhist presentation. For instance, if we look at the Upanishads, which form the basis of most of the Hindu thought, they also say that it’s ignorance, it’s deception that causes samsara, and we want to gain liberation from that. Further, what’s impossible is that we all exist separately, and what really is the case is that we are all one with Brahma. 

The identification of ignorance or unawareness, from a Buddhist point of view, Buddha saw that’s not true. Buddha identified what the true ignorance is, what the true unawareness is, which is the real cause of the real problem – the uncontrollably recurring rebirth. That’s where the explanation of the 12 links of dependent arising comes in because it’s through this explanation scheme that Buddha explained how unawareness of reality, of how we exist, actually causes this uncontrollably recurring rebirth. 

The 12 links are basically a description of how rebirth works. In other words, the 12 links show us how through our unawareness, or confusion, we perpetuate over and over again having a body and a mind, which is going to act as the basis for experiencing the suffering of unhappiness and the suffering of worldly happiness, which never satisfies. 

However, Buddha didn’t leave it just at that by saying, “Well, this is how we perpetuate our samsaric suffering,” and then just complain about how terrible that is. Buddha went on to see that it is possible to have a true stopping of it. In other words, we can truly stop it, so that it never recurs again. That’s the third noble truth. 

In other words, Buddha saw that with these other systems of belief, other systems of explanation, we didn’t truly stop samsaric rebirth and all the suffering. Maybe we’re able to go into some incredible meditative trance, and it would seem as though it had ended because this trance lasted a very long time, and we didn’t really recognize anything that was going on; nevertheless, our samsaric suffering recurred; it came back. 

Some people would think, and we also have this common belief in the West, that life has its ups and downs and that we have to, “Learn to live with it,” and the best that we can do is to learn to live with our various problems, to cope with them. That’s in many cases the approach in Western psychology, isn’t it? However, Buddha saw that it is possible to truly stop, to end the samsaric cycle so that it will never recur again. That’s true stopping.

The fourth noble truth is that he saw what truly was the pathway of mind that will lead to this true stopping. This is often translated as “truth of the path” or “the true path.” However, we’re not talking about a road that we walk on; we’re talking here about a state of mind, a type of understanding that will act as a pathway to liberation. It’s not that we do this step-by-step; it’s more in terms of the kind of mind that we need. It’s talking about the mind itself, the understanding that this is what is going to bring liberation. 

Basically, if we understand that there’s no such thing as these impossible ways of existing that we imagine is how we exist, if we understand there’s no such thing – that’s what voidness is talking about, it’s an absence of this, a total absence – then we can gain liberation. How that liberation actually occurs is also explained in terms of the 12 links. The 12 links can be understood in progressive order; for example, one produces two, two produces three, and so on. They describe how we perpetuate samsara. We can also understand them in the reverse order, which describes how we get out of samsara. 

In other words, if we want to get rid of link number 12, since that arises dependently on eleven, we have to get rid of eleven. How do we get rid of eleven? We would have to get rid of ten. Then to get rid of that, we would have to get rid of nine. That’s how the understanding of the 12 links in reverse order indicates how to actually get out of samsara. Therefore, this teaching on the 12 links of dependent arising is very much involved with or represents the core understanding of the four noble truths.

In Buddhism, we talk about the three poisonous attitudes. These are the disturbing attitudes or disturbing emotions that are the most poisonous – the ones that really keep us in samsara. They are longing desire or attachment, greed, hostility and anger, and then there’s naivety. We can apply various temporary antidotes that will help us overcome this longing desire or attachment and anger. 

For example, if we have too much longing desire for somebody else’s body or our own body and have a lot of attachment, we can meditate on what is inside the body, the so-called ugliness of the body. The body doesn’t consist of just the external surface and shape, there’s everything that’s in the stomach and intestines and so on. This helps as a temporary antidote to lessen our desire and attachment. For instance, think about the most desirable, wonderful cake that we love the most, chew it a few times and spit it out on the plate and see how desirable it looks. Further, if we swallow it, think about what it turns into after a day. These types of thoughts are temporary help for overcoming our attachment and desire. 

For our anger and hostility, which is basically the wish for harm to happen to others, then we apply the temporary antidote of meditation on love, that everybody wants to be happy, nobody wants to be unhappy and so on; it’s the wish for others to be happy. That’s a temporary antidote to anger and hostility. However, these temporary antidotes of meditation on ugliness and love don’t bring about a true stopping of these disturbing emotions and the suffering that they cause. They’re just temporary help. 

These disturbing emotions will recur. If we really want to get rid of them, we need to apply the antidote to naivety, the third poisonous attitude. Naivety is particularly about reality, how we exist. We often speak of naivety in terms of two levels: naivety about cause and effect, and naivety about how we exist. What is the antidote to naivety? Buddha taught that meditation on these 12 links of dependent arising was the antidote. Through understanding them, we understand how cause and effect works. 

When we talk about cause and effect, we’re talking about behavioral cause and effect; we’re not talking about the cause and effect involved in gravity or some other physical process. We’re talking about our behavior, in other words, the topic of karma. The 12 links help us understand the whole mechanism of how karma functions and how it is the mechanism that drives uncontrollably recurring samsaric rebirth. 

More specifically, it explains to us how unawareness of the reality of how we exist is the root cause for the whole syndrome of samsara and it explains how to get rid of it. Furthermore, if we get rid of the root cause, this unawareness of how we exist, we will also get rid of the whole process that is explained with the 12 links as well. This understanding that gets rid of our unawareness, our confusion or ignorance, likewise, will get rid of the other disturbing emotions – longing desire and anger and so on – since these types of disturbing emotions are very much involved in the whole karmic process.

The 12 links explain the role of the disturbing emotions in driving karma, in a sense, in terms of negative motivations, what activates karmic tendencies and so on. The 12 links explain how these disturbing emotions are involved in causing our karmic actions and how they’re involved in bringing about the result of our karmic actions. With our understanding of the 12 links, both how they bring about samsara and how we get out of samsara, they eliminate that naivety about reality and our naivety about behavioral cause and effect. 

It’s very important to realize: When we act in a destructive way, that brings about the experience of the first type of suffering, the suffering of unhappiness, pain. Why do we act destructively? Because we’re unaware of how we exist. Even if we act constructively, but based on a misunderstanding of how we exist, in other words, “I’ll help you, so that it’ll make me feel important; it’ll make me feel useful; you will thank me and love me,” these type of things, that can bring about our temporary worldly happiness, but that’s still samsaric suffering, as we saw. Understanding these 12 links gets rid of the whole package: all the disturbing emotions, the karma, and the unawareness or ignorance of reality that is the basis for these.

The question is, why would we want to understand this? Is it because we think, “How fascinating? This is how we get into samsara; this is how we get out of samsara. How interesting.” Just because it’s interesting is not a sufficient reason and it’s not going to give us a very profound result for studying this material. What is one of the most basic fundamental axioms of Buddhism? It’s that everybody wants to be happy and nobody wants to be unhappy. There’s no reason why that is so; it’s just the way things are. 

It’s quite interesting, when we study Buddhism, many of us are struck at how rational the system is and how it gives explanations for everything. However, even within Buddhism, there are certain things that are explained as, “This is just the way things are. There is no reason.” One of these, which is really fundamental, is: “Everybody wants to be happy and nobody wants to be unhappy.” This is actually a very profound point. Because we don’t want to be unhappy, therefore, we want to eliminate unhappiness, don’t we? 

The problem is that we don’t really recognize what is true unhappiness, in other words, the first noble truth: true suffering. We don’t want to be unhappy. We don’t want to be poor and starving, so we think happiness is to get a lot of money. Then, we get a lot of money and there are so many other problems involved with it. What are we going to do with our money? How are we going to invest it? “Everybody wants my money.” It’s going to be stolen... all these sorts of problems that come with that. 

We want to be happy and so we think that... now, this is very interesting. I remember people who lived like you in the Soviet Union, who dreamt of being able to eat fruit, like bananas. One of my Russian friends came to India and there was almost an endless supply of bananas, so in the beginning, this is what he just absolutely stuffed himself with, bananas. However, he realized that this wasn’t really happiness. I mean, once we’ve eaten a certain number of bananas for a certain number of days, enough already. 

Although we want happiness, and everybody wants to be happy, we don’t really know what happiness is. If we could learn what true suffering is, this whole samsaric cycle, and what the true cause of it is, then – just based on the fact that everybody wants to be happy and nobody wants to be unhappy, just on the basis of that – we would want to get out of samsara, to get rid of that unhappiness, that suffering, that deepest type of suffering. This is actually a very profound and deep point if we think about it. 

We hear about renunciation, renunciation of samsara, and this sounds so difficult and really impossible. However, there is a basis that we all have that makes it possible, which is the basic nature that we all want to be happy and we don’t want to be unhappy. On the basis of that, it’s possible to develop renunciation. Further, on the basis of the fact that everybody wants to be happy and nobody wants to be unhappy, we can develop compassion, which is the basis for developing bodhichitta, the motivation for reaching enlightenment to be able to best help everybody out of their suffering. 

If we really want to develop renunciation, we have to realize what is it that we renounce. It’s not merely the suffering of unhappiness; furthermore, it’s not the suffering of our ordinary happiness which changes all the time, the so-called “suffering of change.” What we want to get out of and get rid of is what’s called “the all-pervasive affecting suffering.” These are uncontrollably recurring aggregates. They’re “all-pervasive,” pervading every moment of our existence. They’re “affecting,” which means they bring about our experience of the first two types of suffering. This is what we’re renouncing and what we want to get rid of. 

Renunciation is the wish to get rid of this deepest suffering, true suffering, and its causes. Literally, the word means “a determination,” so we’re determined to get free, and our mind is absolutely certain.

Now, what’s the basis for being certain about this? The basis is to be totally convinced that it is possible to eliminate true suffering and its true causes. We’re convinced of that. Further, we’re convinced of what type of mind, what type of understanding will actually get rid of it – and get rid of it forever. On that basis, we definitely want to get out. 

How can we have the determination to get free if we’re not convinced that it’s possible and don’t know how to do it, or we’re not sure if it will work? Further, what if we’re not convinced that we’re capable of doing it, that not only Buddha Shakyamuni can do it? To really study these 12 links, we have to have this motivation of being determined to get free of samsara. That determination is renunciation based on understanding the forward sequence of the 12 links, that: “This is really the true suffering. This is what I’m determined to get out of.” This is how it works. 

Then, also the reversal sequence, that: “This is really what will get rid of the samsaric suffering and it’s possible to get rid of it forever.” It’s very interesting, because, in a sense, we need this renunciation in order to get enough motivation to study the 12 links seriously. The more seriously we study the 12 links, the more determined we are to be free of samsara and the more convinced that we can become free of it. Our renunciation becomes stronger. Basically, the two strengthen each other, like a feedback loop.

The discussion of the 12 links is really focused on the topic of how samsara works and how to get liberation from it. It’s not exclusively Mahayana, as it’s in common with both Hinayana and Mahayana. In other words, this is what we have to understand and work with first if we’re going to work toward enlightenment. This gets into the whole discussion of what we need to do to gain liberation. What do we need to understand? What type of mind do we need to gain liberation? What kind of mind do we need to gain enlightenment? 

Is liberation possible? This is a very essential question and topic. Are liberation and enlightenment possible? “How could I possibly work toward it if I’m not convinced that it’s possible?” We have to look a little bit more deeply at these 12 links and the material that is underlying our understanding of them. 

Although this is not specifically the topic of the 12 links, I think it’s extremely important to understand, or at least to have an indication of what we need to think about in order to understand and become convinced that liberation and enlightenment are possible. Otherwise, why are we practicing Buddhism? What are we doing if we don’t think that it’s possible to achieve this goal? 

The problem is that our mind projects impossible ways of existing and we believe that they correspond to reality. These are the problems. When we talk about unawareness, the first of these 12 links, that refers to believing this projection, this junk that the mind projects of impossible ways of existing; basically, it refers to believing that that’s true. This is the unawareness. 

More specifically, our mind projects impossible ways of existing for persons (me, you), and also of all phenomena in general, of everything. In terms of the 12 links, they speak specifically about the unawareness of how persons exist, both self and others. 

Now, of course, there are many different tenet systems within Buddhism, many different philosophical systems of explanation. Some of them say that the projection of what’s impossible about persons, and the understanding that there’s no such thing, is that all we need to gain liberation is to understand the voidness of that – the understanding that the projection is not referring to anything real. What’s impossible about everything, including the self, is a deeper one that the mind projects, that we believe in, and we need to get rid of that in order to gain enlightenment. There are two levels of what’s impossible – two levels of getting rid of them.

There are some systems within these Indian schools of Buddhist philosophy that say, “Well, actually we need the same understanding to gain either liberation or enlightenment.” However, this is a technical point that we can study in-depth later, whether we need the same understanding to gain liberation and enlightenment or there are levels of understanding for liberation and enlightenment. That unawareness, the first link, is understood slightly differently in each of these tenet systems, in terms of what is it unaware of. 

The real point here is that the mind projects these impossible ways of existing and we believe that they’re true. Now, to gain liberation from samsara, we have to stop believing that these are true, that our projections refer to reality. We have to realize, “This is ridiculous; they don’t refer to anything real. That’s totally absent.” Voidness is talking about that – it’s totally absent. 

Even if we only stop believing that these projections refer to anything real, even if the mind is still projecting them, we don’t have any suffering. We don’t produce any further samsaric experience based on believing in these projections. It’s believing in these projections, like there’s some solid “me” that leads to desire, “I have to get a lot of things for me, to make that me secure,” or there’s anger, “I have to get a lot of things away from me that I feel threaten me,” and so on. We get rid of that when we stop believing in this false appearance, and so we don’t create any more causes for suffering for ourselves. 

Furthermore, even if the mind produces all this garbage, we realize it’s like an illusion; it doesn’t refer to anything real. We don’t act upon it and produce further suffering and samsaric rebirth for ourselves. That’s liberation. We become what’s called an arhat, a liberated being. The understanding of the 12 links is sufficient for gaining liberation. However, we have to go deeper if we really want to help everybody gain liberation as well. We need to get the mind to stop projecting these deceptive, false appearances. If we can get the mind to stop doing that, then we become an enlightened Buddha.

If we want to understand this in a very simple, initial way: The mind projects something like a solid line around things and so everything appears to exist solidly, independently, all by itself, as if encapsulated in plastic. 

For example, somebody gets angry with us, or says something nasty to us and, “There it is,” it appears as though it’s existing all by itself, independent of all the causes. The entire life of this person, the entire spectrum of all the people they ever met and all the influences and what happened to them the day before and what happened to them before they met us – all these things don’t appear. What only appears is, “Ooh, you said this nasty thing to me!” as if existing all by itself, with a big line around it or encapsulated in plastic. Then on that basis, we get really angry. 

If we want to help everybody achieve liberation, we have to get the mind to stop projecting this garbage. Because when it stops projecting these solid lines around things, encapsulating them as if they existed independently, then we see how everything is interdependent – all the causes of why somebody has acted the way they did, all the things that would follow if we taught them this or if we taught them that and how that will affect all their future lives and everybody that they interact with and so on. We have to be able to know this in order to be a Buddha. That’s what an enlightened Buddha knows; the omniscient mind knows that. To know that, we have to get the mind to stop projecting these impossible ways of existing, these false appearances. We have to be convinced that it’s possible to gain a true stopping, not just of our belief in these false, deceptive appearances, but also that it’s possible to get a true stopping of the projection of these deceptive appearances, that the mind will stop projecting all of this. 

How and why is it that the mind projects these impossible ways of existing? 

This is very much related to the topic of the 12 links. When we talk about sentient beings – literally, the word is “someone with a limited mind” and a synonym is “embodied beings,” as we are referring to someone with a limited body. A Buddha is not a sentient or an embodied being. 

If we can use an analogy from computers: The problem is that when we have this uncontrollably recurring samsaric rebirth, what is produced is “limited hardware.”  The 12 links explain how it’s produced. We have limited minds and bodies. These two are dependent on each other. Because the body is limited, the mind and the awareness are limited. 

For example, we can only see what’s in front of us out of the holes in our head where our eyes are; we can’t see what’s behind us. This is a very simple example. With the limited capacity of a brain, eyes, ears and so on – whatever life form we take – then it’s a bit like being in a submarine looking out of a periscope. We only see a little bit. Further, when we only see a little bit, like seeing out of the periscope, we believe that that’s all there is because that’s all that we see, that’s all that we’re aware of. We can’t be aware of all the causes of things, results, and all these things. We can’t even see what’s behind our head. 

As part of this whole samsaric phenomenon, we are generating these limited aggregates. The 12 links explain how that happens and how we get out of that. The really nasty thing is that it feels as though this is real. It feels as though there is some solid little “me” sitting inside our head talking. However, who’s the author of that voice in our head? It feels as though there’s some sort of “me” inside, solid, “Ooh, what am I going to do now? Let’s press the buttons, make the arm move, and get information in from the video screen from the eyes.” It feels like that.

This now brings us to the whole topic of the natural purity of the mind, Buddha-nature. When an arya has non-conceptual cognition of basically the four noble truths and more specifically of voidness, thinking, “There’s no such thing as these impossible ways of existing; they’re not referring to anything real,” when they’re focused on that non-conceptually, which means not through a category of “voidness” or whatever, then not only does that state of mind believe in these false appearances, it doesn’t even project them. It’s totally free of all of that. 

This becomes a very interesting process. When we become an arya, however, that doesn’t mean that we’re already a liberated being. There’s still quite a long way to go. There are many different levels of this unawareness, this first link, and the disturbing emotions that come from it. When we first get this non-conceptual focus on voidness, we start to get rid of this unawareness, and it doesn’t come back. We start to get rid of different levels of it. 

The first insight that we get here is that this confusion, this ignorance or unawareness is not in the nature of the mind. If it were in the nature of the mind, it should be there every single moment. However, here’s a situation of when we have non-conceptual cognition of voidness when it isn’t there. If it isn’t there at certain times, then it’s not part of the innate nature of the mind. 

Then the question is: Can we get rid of it so that it never comes back again? Can we get a true stopping of it? However, at least first we’re convinced that it’s not part of the nature of the mind. That’s essential. That’s what really pushes us further to work to really get rid of it because we see that we can get rid of it. It doesn’t have to be there all the time.

What happens after we’ve had what’s called a “total absorption” on voidness, non-conceptual total absorption on, “There’s no such thing as this impossible way of existing,” and that impossible way of existing doesn’t appear at all? What happens subsequent to that is that things appear again and they appear in various impossible ways, but we start to believe that they’re not true. 

As I said, there are certain levels of this unawareness, levels that will go away in stages. When the first levels start to go away, then with enough familiarity and practice over and over and over again for a huge amount of time, eventually when we’re not totally absorbed on voidness, our minds will still make the appearance of these impossible ways of existing, but there won’t be any level whatsoever of confusion about it, and there won’t be any level whatsoever of belief in them. That’s when we become liberated and become an arhat. 

Because it’s believing in these appearances of impossible ways that cause the disturbing emotions, and these form a basis for karma and rebirth, samsara. We can become convinced that it is possible to achieve liberation on the basis that there is this type of experience – in the total absorption there’s not even an appearance of false existence and there’s no belief in it, and eventually as an arhat, even when there is that appearance of true existence, of impossible existence, there’s no belief in it. Of course, this is quite difficult if we haven’t actually experienced these states in meditation, isn’t it?

Then, we have to look a little deeper at a topic that is discussed in the highest class of tantra, and this is the clear light mind, the subtlest level of mind. It’s what actually goes from lifetime to lifetime, has no beginning, and actually continues into enlightenment as well. Although it is present in every moment, this continuity is in every moment, it’s not manifest while we’re alive because there are grosser levels of mind operating. However, this level of mind manifests during the period of death. In the death phase, we have what’s called the clear light mind of death. 

That mind automatically, by just the nature of how it is, doesn’t project these impossible ways of existing and doesn’t believe in them. All of us experience that. No matter how much or how little meditation we’ve done, we all experience the clear light of death. We certainly aren’t very aware of it when we experience it, but this clear light state of the mind at time of death is also a very important indication that this mechanism of projecting impossible ways of existence and believing in them, as well as all the disturbing emotions that come from them, are not in the nature of the mind. Because at every death existence, we don’t have them. 

Further, what is important about this clear light mind is that with that level of mind it is possible to have appearances of things, but without projecting an impossible way of existing. That’s possible with this level of mind. Now, that state of mind doesn’t necessarily understand what it is, doesn’t understand voidness or anything like that, but it doesn’t produce all this garbage. If we can get the understanding of voidness with that level of mind, then we’ve really acquired a powerful tool. Because that’s the state of mind, if we could sustain it forever, which is the enlightened state of a Buddha. 

That is what enlightenment is. It’s this state of mind, the clear light mind, combined with the understanding of voidness and meditation, that we’re able to sustain forever. It’s just a matter of familiarity. The more and more we’re able to generate this in meditation and keep it with the understanding of voidness, then not only do the different levels of this belief in these impossible ways of existing go away, but we don’t even have the projection of these impossible ways.

All of this may sound very fantastic and really strange, but the more and more we think about this, the more we can become convinced that it is possible to gain not just liberation, but also enlightenment and an understanding of how it happens. That’s the whole point of bringing up this topic. This is how it happens. This is why it’s possible. We all have clear light minds, so everybody is capable of this. It’s summarized by the little statement, again, an axiom, that’s just the way it is: “The mind is naturally pure.” This refers to the clear light level of mind. 

If we can become convinced that “It’s possible to gain liberation and it’s possible to even go beyond that and gain enlightenment because a true stopping of all this garbage and the belief in this garbage that we project is possible,” then that would really give us a strong motivation to achieve it. If we’re not convinced it can happen and we don’t really understand how it can happen, it’s very hard to sincerely work for it. Then we’re working for, “Well, it would be nice, but I don’t know if I can achieve it.” How can we put our heart into it?

Let’s return to the 12 links, our topic for the weekend. On the basis of really being convinced that liberation and enlightenment is possible, we then go more deeply and we’re interested more deeply in how samsara actually works. How do we actually get out of it? How does this mechanism function? Further, if we can understand how it functions and the various parts of it, then we gain more confidence in how to pull it apart so that it’s destroyed and never occurs again. 

More specifically, on a very practical level, when we understand these 12 links, then we can notice and recognize in our daily life how we’re creating more samsaric suffering for ourselves. We can see and recognize the problem. Then, we have some idea of how to attack it. The understanding of these 12 links is not just something that is theoretical. It has a very practical application once we’ve digested the whole system. Nobody said it was easy. It’s a complicated system. However, once we’ve digested it, we can actually apply it and see how it’s working. “Look, what am I doing? I’m just creating more suffering for myself,” and we know, “Ha! This is what I have to work on right now.” 

If we want to gain liberation ourselves, based on the fact that we want to be happy and nobody wants to be unhappy, specifically ourselves, then we need to understand this. Further, if we want to be able to help others gain happiness and overcome suffering, in other words, gain liberation, this is what we have to teach them. Because others also have to understand this. We need to know how to do that properly so that we don’t mess them up; we have to know how to teach them, and we need to become enlightened, a Buddha.

This has been an introduction to the topic of the 12 links of dependent arising. In the next session, we’ll start a more detailed discussion of it. However, I think it’s very important, before studying something as complex as this, to try to understand the context and the importance of it. Because when we approach a complex topic, it’s very easy to say, “Oh, this is too complicated,” and, “I don’t want to do this. I don’t want to understand this, as it’s too much.” That’s a big obstacle and we need to overcome it. To do so, it helps to understand the context, the purpose, why we would want to try to understand this. 

In short, “I want to be happy. I don’t want to be unhappy. This is how I make myself unhappy, and this is how I can achieve true happiness.” That’s the bottom line.