The Meaning of Life

Buddhist Perspectives on Cause and Effect

Dalai Lama, Jeffrey Hopkins

• Publisher: Wisdom Publications
• Year: 2005
• ISBN:
  9780861719518
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Buddhism

Using the traditional Buddhist allegorical image of the Wheel of Life and the teaching of the twelve links of dependent origination, the Dalai Lama deftly illustrates how our existence, though fleeting and often full of woes, brims with the potential for peace and happiness. We can realize that potential by cultivating a wise appreciation of the interdependency of actions and experience, and by living a kind and compassionate life. A life thus lived, the Dalai Lama teaches, becomes thoroughly meaningful for both oneself and for others.

1~ The Buddhist Worldview

FIRST, LET ME TALK to the Buddhist practitioners in the audience about the proper motivation for listening to lectures on religion. A good motivation is important. The reason why we are discussing these matters is certainly not money, fame, or any other aspect of our livelihood during this life. There are plenty of activities that can bring these. The main reason why we have come here stems from a long-term concern.

It is a fact that everybody wants happiness and does not want suffering; there is no argument about this. But there is disagreement about how to achieve happiness and how to overcome problems. There are many types of happiness and many ways to achieve them, and there are also many types of sufferings and ways to overcome them. As Buddhists, however, we aim not merely for temporary relief and temporary benefit but for long-term results. Buddhists are concerned not only for this life but for life after life, on and on. We count not weeks or months or even years, but lives and eons.

Money has its uses, but it is limited. Among worldly powers and possessions, there are, doubtless, good things, but they are limited. However, from a Buddhist viewpoint, mental development will continue from life to life, because the nature of mind is such that if certain mental qualities are developed on a sound basis, they always remain and, not only that, can increase. In fact, once properly developed, good qualities of mind eventually increase infinitely. Therefore spiritual practice brings both long-term happiness and more inner strength day by day.

So keep your mind on the topics being discussed; listen with a pure motivation—without sleep! My main motivation is a sincere feeling for others, and concern for others’ welfare.

BEHAVIOR AND VIEW

Meditation is needed in developing mental qualities. The mind is definitely something that can be transformed, and meditation is a means to transform it. Meditation is the activity of familiarizing your mind with something new. Basically, it means getting used to the object on which you are meditating.

Meditation is of two types—analytical and stabilizing. First, an object is analyzed, after which the mind is set one-pointedly on the same object in stabilizing meditation. Within analytical meditation, there are also two types:

1. something, such as impermanence, is taken as the object of the mind and is meditated upon;

2. a mental attitude is cultivated through meditation, as in cultivating love, in which case the mind becomes of the nature of that mental attitude.

To understand the purpose of meditation, it is helpful to divide spiritual practices into view and behavior. The main factor is behavior, for this is what decides both one’s own and others’ happiness in the future. In order for behavior to be pure and complete, it is necessary to have a proper view. Behavior must be well-founded in reason, and thus a proper philosophical view is necessary.

What is the main goal of Buddhist practices concerning behavior? It is to tame one’s mental continuum—to become nonviolent. In Buddhism, the vehicles, or modes of practice, are generally divided into the Great Vehicle and the Hearer Vehicle. The Great Vehicle is primarily concerned with the altruistic compassion of helping others, and the Hearer Vehicle is primarily concerned with the nonharming of others. Thus, the root of all of the Buddhist teaching is compassion. The excellent doctrine of the Buddha has its root in compassion, and the Buddha who teaches these doctrines is even said to be born from compassion. The chief quality of a buddha is great compassion; this attitude of nurturing and helping others is the reason why it is appropriate to take refuge in a buddha.

The Saṅgha, or virtuous community, consists of those who, practicing the doctrine properly, assist others to gain refuge. People in the Saṅgha have four special qualities: if someone harms them, they do not respond with harm; if someone displays anger to them, they do not react with anger; if someone insults them, they do not answer with insult; and if someone accuses them, they do not retaliate. This is the behavior of a monk or nun, the root of which is compassion; thus, the main qualities of the spiritual community also stem from compassion. In this way, the three refuges for a Buddhist—Buddha, doctrine, and spiritual community—all have their root in compassion. All religions are the same in having powerful systems of good advice with respect to the practice of compassion. The basic behavior of nonviolence, motivated by compassion, is needed not only in our daily lives but also nation to nation, throughout the world.

Dependent-arising is the general philosophy of all Buddhist systems even though many different interpretations are found among those systems. In Sanskrit the word for dependent-arising is pratı́tyasamutpāda. The word pratı́tya has three different meanings—meeting, relying, and depending—but all three, in terms of their basic import, mean dependence. Samutpāda means arising. Hence, the meaning of pratı́tyasamutpāda is that which arises in dependence upon conditions, in reliance upon conditions, through the force of conditions. On a subtle level, it is explained as the main reason why phenomena are empty of inherent existence.

In order to reflect on the fact that things—the subjects upon which a meditator reflects—are empty of inherent existence because dependently arisen, it is necessary to identify the subjects of this reflection: the phenomena that produce pleasure and pain, help and harm, and so forth. If one does not understand cause and effect well, it is extremely difficult to realize that these phenomena are empty of inherent existence due to being dependently arisen. One must develop an understanding of cause and effect—that certain causes help and harm in certain ways. Hence, the Buddha set forth a presentation of dependent-arising in connection with the cause and effect of actions in the process of life in cyclic existence so that penetrating understanding of the process of cause and effect could be gained.

Thus, there is one level of dependent-arising that is concerned with causality, in this case the twelve branches, or links, of dependent-arising of life in cyclic existence: ignorance, action consciousness, name and form, the six sense spheres, contact, feeling, attachment, grasping, existence, birth, and aging and death. Then there is a second, deeper level of dependent-arising that applies to all objects; this is the establishment of phenomena dependent upon their parts. There is no phenomenon that does not have parts, and thus every phenomenon is imputed dependent upon its parts.

There is a third, even deeper level, which is the fact that phenomena are merely imputed by terms and conceptuality in dependence upon their bases of imputation. When objects are sought among their bases of imputation, nothing can be found to be the imputed object itself, and thus phenomena are merely dependently arisen—merely imputed in dependence upon bases of imputation. While the first level of dependent-arising refers to the arising of compounded phenomena in dependence upon causes and conditions and thus applies only to impermanent, caused phenomena, the other two levels apply to both permanent and impermanent phenomena.

When the Buddha set forth the twelve links of dependent-arising, he spoke from a vast perspective and with great import. He taught the twelve links in detail in the Rice Seedling Sūtra.¹ As in other discourses, the Buddha teaches by responding to questions. In this sūtra, the Buddha speaks of dependent-arising in three ways:

1. Due to the existence of this, that arises.

2. Due to the production of this, that is produced.

3. It is thus: due to ignorance there is compositional action; due to compositional action there is consciousness; due to consciousness there is name and form; due to name and form there are the six sense spheres; due to the six sense spheres there is contact; due to contact there is feeling; due to feeling there is attachment; due to attachment there is grasping; due to grasping there is the potentialized level of karma called “existence”; due to existence there is birth; and due to birth there is aging and death.

When the Buddha says, “Due to the existence of this, that arises,” he indicates that the phenomena of cyclic existence arise not through the force of supervision by a permanent deity but due to specific conditions. Merely due to the presence of certain causes and conditions, specific effects arise.

When the Buddha says, “Due to the production of this, that is produced,” he indicates that an unproduced, permanent phenomenon such as the general nature² propounded by the Sāṃkhya system ³ cannot create effects. Rather, the phenomena of cyclic existence arise from conditions that are impermanent by nature.

Then the question arises: If the phenomena of cyclic existence are produced from impermanent conditions, could they be produced from just any impermanent conditions? No. Thus, in the third phase, the Buddha indicates that the phenomena of cyclic existence are not produced from just any impermanent causes and conditions but rather from specific ones that have the potential to give rise to specific phenomena.

Setting forth the dependent-arising of suffering, Buddha shows that suffering has ignorance—obscuration—as its root cause. This impure, faulty seed produces an activity that deposits in the mind a potency that will generate suffering by producing a new life in cyclic existence. It eventually has as its fruit the last link of dependent-arising, the suffering of aging and death.

With regard to the twelve links of dependent-arising, there are basically two modes of explanation, one in terms of thoroughly afflicted phenomena and the other in terms of pure phenomena. In the Buddha’s root teaching of the four noble truths,⁴ there are two sets of cause and effect: one set for the afflicted class of phenomena and another for the pure class. Just so, here in the twelve links of dependent-arising there are procedures in terms of both afflicted phenomena and pure phenomena. Among the four noble truths, true sufferings—the first truth—are effects in the afflicted class of phenomena, and true sources—the second truth—are their causes. In the pure class of phenomena, true cessations, the third truth, are effects in the pure class, and true paths, the fourth truth, are their causes. Similarly, when it is explained in the twelve links of dependent-arising that action is produced and so forth due to the condition of ignorance, the explanation is in terms of the afflicted procedure; when it is explained that action ceases and so forth due to the cessation of ignorance, it is in terms of the procedure of the pure class. The first is the procedure of the production of suffering, and the second is the procedure of the cessation of suffering.

The twelve links of dependent-arising are thus laid out in terms of a process of affliction and in terms of a process of purification, and each of these is presented in forward and reverse orders. Thus, in the forward process, it is explained that:

due to the condition of ignorance, action arises;
due to the condition of action, consciousness arises;
due to the condition of consciousness, name and form arise;
due to the condition of name and form, the six sense spheres
arise;
due to the condition of the six sense spheres, contact arises;
due to the condition of contact, feeling arises;
due to the condition of feeling, attachment arises;
due to the condition of attachment, grasping arises;
due to the condition of grasping, the potentialized level of karma
called existence arises;
due to the condition of existence, birth arises;
due to the condition of birth, aging and death arise.

Because this mode describes how suffering is produced, it is an explanation of the sources⁵ that produce suffering. In reverse order it is explained that:

the unwanted sufferings of aging and death are produced in
dependence upon birth;
birth is produced in dependence upon the potentialized level of
action called “existence”;
existence is produced in dependence upon grasping;
grasping is produced in dependence upon attachment;
attachment is produced in dependence upon feeling;
feeling is produced in dependence upon contact;
contact is produced in dependence upon the six sense spheres;
the six sense spheres are produced in dependence upon name
and form;
name and form are produced in dependence upon consciousness;
consciousness is produced in dependence upon action;
action is produced in dependence upon ignorance.

Here emphasis is on the first of the four noble truths, true sufferings themselves, which are the effects. Then, in terms of the process of purification, it is explained that:

when ignorance ceases, action ceases;
when action ceases, consciousness ceases;
when consciousness ceases, name and form cease;
when name and form cease, the six sense spheres cease;
when the six sense spheres cease, contact ceases;
when contact ceases, feeling ceases;
when feeling ceases, attachment ceases;
when attachment ceases, grasping ceases;
when grasping ceases, the potentialized level of karma called
“existence” ceases;
when the potentialized level of karma called “existence” ceases,
birth ceases;
when birth ceases, aging and death cease.

This explanation is given in terms of the purified class of phenomena with emphasis on the causes, the true paths, second among the four noble truths. In reverse order, it is explained that:

the cessation of aging and death arises in dependence upon the
cessation of birth;
the cessation of birth arises in dependence upon the cessation of
the potentialized level of karma called “existence”;
the cessation of the potentialized level of karma called “existence”
arises in dependence upon the cessation of grasping;
the cessation of grasping arises in dependence upon the cessation
of attachment;
the cessation of attachment arises in dependence upon the cess
tion of feeling;
the cessation of feeling arises in dependence upon the cessation
of contact;
the cessation of contact arises in dependence upon the cessation
of the six sense spheres;
the cessation of the six sense spheres arises in dependence upon
the cessation of name and form;
the cessation of name and form arises in dependence upon the
cessation of consciousness;
the cessation of consciousness arises in dependence upon the ces-
sation of action;
the cessation of action arises in dependence upon the cessation of
ignorance.

Here, within the process of purification the emphasis is on the effects—true cessations, the third of the four noble truths...