12 facteurs interdépendants

8/22/2019 12 facteurs interdpendants

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!)-Les douze facteurs ou liens interdpendants

"The twelve modes / processes of dependent-related origination / arising". Translation of the Sanskrit"dvadashaoga pratitya samutpada". The Buddha described the process of the arising of cyclic existence as asequence of twelve events of!)- dependent-related origination q.v. These are a sequence of

. processes or modes in which the production of life in cyclic existence occurs. Since the processesare the links in circles of cycling in existence, they are also spoken of as the !)-3"The twelve links of dependent-related origination / arising".

There is 6- a forward progression or "order" to the links and 67 a reverse order. When a beingtravels the forward order, they travel through one cycle of cyclic existence. When a being travels them inreverse order, they gain emancipation from cyclic existence. See the link to forward progression for details.

The twelve are, in forward order: 1) "ignorance"; 2) :; "formatives (saskras)"; 3) ="consciousness"; 4) ? "name and form"; 5) @B "six sources (six yatanas)"; 6) "contact"; 7)D "feeling"; 8) E "craving"; 9) "taking"; 10) E "existence"; 11) @ "birth"; and 12) F "oldage and death".

1. DISTINGUISHING EACH LINK

In the twelve links of interdependent origination there are:

Ignorance "avidya". As it says in the 'Korha: "Ignorance is like alienation, lying etc.,"The great Acharya Dharmakirti explains that as follows: "Alienation and lying do not involve just not havingaffection or truthfulness or just being something instead of affectionate or truthful; rather, they involve adissidence with affection and truth which becomes their very opposites. Likewise, ignorance does notinvolve just not having the antidote insight, but is a dissidence with insight which becomes its very opposite.Here, the antidote which is insight is insight into the genuine meaning, the egolessness, of a person.

Ignorance, the opp. of that, is the view of the transitory which grasps at an ego of a person."

Acharya Asaoga and his brother explain it similarly: "Of the twograsping at a mistaken view regarding thegenuine meaning and just being obscured regarding the genuine meaningignorance is said to be the latter.In short, of these two conceptual minds of wrong understanding and of non-understanding, ignorance is theconceptual mind of non-understanding. However in turning away from that the chief antidote is said to bethe praja which realises egolessness."

This is what it says in the Sammucaya: "If obscuration is categorised there are two sorts; obscurationregarding karma and its result, and obscuration regarding the meaning of suchness. By the first we collectsamskaras which send us into lower rebirths. By the second we collect samskaras which send us into upperrebirths."

2) :; "formatives (saskras)"Samskara is karma. To expand on that there is non-meritorious karma which projects lower rebirths, andthere is karma which projects upper rebirths. The latter is also of two sorts; meritorious karma whichprojects upper rebirths in the desire realm, and unchanging karma which projects upper rebirths in thehigher realms.

3) = "consciousness" "vijana"In the sutras consciousness is taught as a group of six but here the primary concern is with alaya for thosewho proclaim an alaya and mind () consciousness for those who do not.


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Furthermore, consciousness is as follows. Because of obscuration regarding that suffering of suffering arisesas a result of non-virtuous karma then non-virtuous karma is actually formed (by the samskaras) andcollected on the consciousness. The consciousness at the time of being imprinted with that karmic habit isthe causal-time consciousness, and in the future based on that, the consciousness conjoining with a place ofbirth in the lower realms is the resultant-time consciousness. Likewise, through the power of beingobscured regarding the suchness of egolessness we are unaware that upper rebirths are real suffering and wehold onto them as being happy, because of which we collect meritorious karma and unchanging karma. The

consciousness at the time of collection is causal-time, and based on that, the consciousness conjoining withan upper rebirth in either the desire or higher realms is resultant-time.

4) ? "name and form" "namarupa"Name is feeling, perception, formation, and consciousness; the four skandhas which do not have form.Form: when born formless one has just the seed of form; in other cases one has an embryonic form whichdifferentiates in accordance with the type of rebirth taken.

5) @B "the six ayatanas"In the case of birth from a womb at first there is an oval embryo of sperm and blood with consciousnessresident. As its parts develop the four ayatanas of eye and so on are established; the ayatanas of body andmind exist from the time of the oval embryo. In the case of miraculous birth, at the time of conjunction withthe rebirth state the sense powers are established all at once; they do not develop in stages as in the previouscase. In the cases of birth from egg, and from warmth and moisture, it is explained in The Basics of The Levelsas similar to birth from a womb except for the womb itself. Thus, when name and form is established theessence of body is obtained. Then, with the six ayatanas established and the differentiation of the bodyfinalised, the being becomes someone who can enjoy the pleasures of the senses. As for the five ayatanashaving form; if one is formless one does not have them.

6) "sparsha"The object, sense-power, and consciousness having come together, the object is distinguished mentally aseither likeable, not likeable, or in-between; "from the condition of the six ayatanas" as is taught, contact is

object and consciousness, and indication too.

7) D "vedana"Through contact one of three objects is distinguished. Following that and concordant with the distinction,one of three feelingspleasant, suffering, or neutralarises.

8) E "tprhna"This is craving not to be separated from pleasant feelings and craving to be separated from suffering. "Fromthe condition of feeling arises craving" as is taught: under the influence of ignorance the condition of contactdoes generate craving, but without ignorance even though there is feeling, craving does not arise. In view ofthis then, contact is enjoyment of the object. And as for feeling, since it is enjoyment of either a birth or a

fully-ripened karma, when they both are completed then feeling is enjoyment completed.

9) Strong Grasping "upadana"In regard to four types of objects there are four wantings-and-longings. The four objects are: the desirablesof form, sound, and so on; bad views excluding the view of the perishables; bad views together with baddiscipline and wrong asceticism; and the view of the perishable constituents. When there is wanting-and-longing-for these it is strong-grasping, so then there are the strong-grasping of desirables, the strong-grasping of views, the strong-grasping of bad discipline and wrong asceticism, and the strong-grasping ofpropounding an ego.


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10) EIn the past samskaras stained consciousness with karmic habits. Becoming refers to those stains when,nourished by craving and grasping, they possess the power to draw one into the next existence. This a caseof a cause being given the name of a result.

11) @ "jati"This is the moment when, in any of the four places of conception (mentioned under the six ayatanas),consciousness first conjoins with its rebirth state.

12) F Aging and deathAging is the skandhas maturing and turning into something else. Death is letting the skandhas, which havebeen functioning as an harmonious collection, fall apart.

Dfinition de chacun des douze facteurs interdpendants

"Ignorance".Translation of the Sanskrit [NDS] "avidya". As one of the three poisons, one of the six root afflictions, one ofthe twelve links, and one of the Gfour currents, etcetera, etcetera, this is one of the most important termsin Buddhism.

In all meditational and philosophical systems of Buddhism, ignorance is considered as the root cause of cyclic existence which is by nature IJ unsatisfactory. Some schools, such as the KLMahamudra system, further describe the root ignorance as being two-fold; M@ co-emergentignorance and N! conceptualizing ignorance. Then the O Thorough Cut and F DirectCrossing paths of the Great Completion teachings alone describe a third cause, the Qignorance of same identity, which precedes the two causes just mentioned (see =R the three typesof ignorance).

Ignorance is an active quality of not seeing reality; the original Sanskrit term and the Tibetan translation likeit use the term "(actively) not knowing" where knowing has the sense of seeing with the mind. Theoriginal usage in Sanskrit and Tibetan has more the sense of "ignoring" rather than the static "ignorance". Asis said in some Tibetan commentaries, "ignorance produces obscuration that prevents the seeing of the realmeaning and in doing so creates a mistaken approach altogether".

Ignorance is the very root of the process that drives sentient beings' cycling through births in deludedexistence and hence is the first of the !)-3 twelve links of dependent-relatedarising q.v. for more information on ignorance in this context.

In summary, because it is the process of mind operating in a mode contrary to reality, it opens the door to thebirth of the afflictions which are the driving forces that create the various circumstances of cyclicexistence. When a being in cyclic existence turns away from it they instead 6 see reality.

:;. "Formatives". Translation of the Sanskrit [NDS] "saskra". The term means "that which gathers upa number of things and forms them into an aggregate". In Buddhist terminology it has the specific meaningof those factors of the mind which cause the threefold sequence of i) aggregation into a being which is thetaking of a rebirth, ii) subsequent aggregation of the various forms of the ST heaps of that rebirth, andfinally the dissolution of that.

As Ngrjuna [NDS] says, there are two kinds of formatives: 1) .7:; "formativeswhich have concomitance with mind" meaning formatives that they are the same sort of thing as mind andmental events and always arise as mind or mental event and 2)

.7:;"formatives


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which do not have concomitance with mind" i.e., formatives which are not mind or mental event. The twotypes taken together constitute the fourth of the ST five aggregates which make up a sentient being,called the :;US [Skt. sasraskandha] "the skandha of formatives".

The saskras are a crucial part of the process that drives the cycling through births in deluded existenceand hence are given as the second of the !)-.3 twelve processes of dependent-relatedarising (q.v. for more information) immediately following ignorance. Concerning their function, it is said

there that NU;:;U; "due to ignorance, the saskras areproduced in the mind and function to sow karmic seeds in the alaya (or mind depending on the exactphilosophical system making the statement)". These karmic seeds become the patterns for future existencewhich are activated by subsequent members of the twelve links.

The term has been translated in many ways, most of which do not adequately convey the intended meaning,which is "that agent which causes aggregation" and many of which positively mistakenly translate themeaning. For example, up till now the terms "compositional factors" within the context of the "aggregate ofcompositional factors" and also "formations" (from the [NTC]) have been popular. However, as can be seenfrom the meaning, these are inadequate. For example, since they are agents they are not "formations" but the"formers" i.e., the agents which produce the formations. They are also not compositional factors; this termcame about because of a misunderstanding of thinking that the fourth skandha (the skandha of the

saskras) was named for the fact that it was : a collection of various factors which taken togethercomposed the fourth skandha. Then, because the saskras are for the most part emotions, the term hasalso been translated as "emotions", "thought formations", and so on but this needlessly goes beyond themeaning of saskra. The saskras are the "formative forces" which cause further accretions of deludedexistence and for the reason that they are the drives behind this, they have also been translated as "impulses"however, this also needlessly goes too far from the meaning of saskra.

It is said, e.g., by Tsongkhapa in [LCM] that the formatives are karma and it is for this reason that the term:;U saskrakarma is seen regularly in Buddhist texts. In fact, the very appearance of a formative ina sentient being's mind is concomitant with the production of a karmic seed and that karmic seed thenpatterns future existence.

= "Consciousness". Translation of the Sanskrit [NDS] "vijna". The term is used in two, distinctways in Buddhist perceptual theory.

1) Generally speaking, the terms , =, and are equivalent when referring to the basic fact of "aknower". When used in a general way like this, = consciousness just refers to the fact that a being isaware; somewhat like saying in English "Is there consciousness there or not?" Because of this, althoughconsciousness is normally defined as a dualistic operation (see below) the term = is not always usedin that sense e.g., in the higher tantras the term = can be used to mean "awareness / consciousnessin general" and in that case can and is used to refer to non-dualistic minds.

2) Specifically, consciousness is that aspect of the dualistic mind which just knows an W object of

perception. Here "knows an object" does mean that there is any conceptual understanding of the object butthat there is merely an awareness of the object; the object is known for what it is. E.g., a blue colour is knownfor its "blueness" by eye consciousness but there is no conceptual thought of it being "blue" in the moment ofthe consciousness itself. For this reason, consciousness is said to be ! not conceptual but note that notconceptual does not mean "non-dualistic" but simply means that there is no activity of conceptualizedcomprehension together with the moment of the consciousness itself.

The word for consciousness (Skt. vijna, Tib. =) was coined in contrast to the word for wisdom(Skt. jna, Tib. ). Consciousness is defined as W=;, that which makes known the aspectsof an object. Wisdom is the U awareness present from the beginning in every mind.Consciousness is the = awareness of superficial aspects that knows reality in a variety of processeswhich are like windows that know only certain aspects of that reality. (Note that the = translates the

Sanskrit X connector "vi" which can have several meanings and which in this case means "this and that


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(superfice)".) Wisdom is present in every consciousness and knows things as they are in direct perceptionwithout any of the dualistic process of knowing an object that is the hallmark of consciousness.

Thus there are differing consciousnesses which know differing superficies. Generally in Buddhism, beingsin the desire realm are said to have =B six consciousnesses, one for each of the sense faculties. I.e.,a consciousness for each of the five physical sense faculties and a sixth consciousness for the mental faculty.This six-fold group of consciousness is called the DB "six-fold group". In the Mind-only schoolof Buddhist philosophy and Buddhist schools such as the tantras which follow that system, there areconsidered to be eight consciousnesses, the group of which is referred to as the DL "eight-fold group".

Consciousness is a crucial part of the process that drives sentient beings' cycling through births in deludedexistence and hence is the third of the !)-3 twelve links of dependent-relatedorigination. The consciousness being referred to in this case is specifically the mind consciousness becausethat is the place which receives the karmic imprints. The link of consciousness is divided into two; theconsciousness at the time of receiving the karmic impression and the consciousness at the time of itsripening; these are most often consciousnesses in different lives however, under certain circumstances theycan be in the same life. See !)-.3 twelve processes of dependent-related arising formore information on consciousness in this context.

"Consciousness" element is one of the -B "the six elements" and one of the B "six constituents" ofthe body. It functions to make the otherwise inert body into a sentient being.

? "Name and form". Translation of the Sanskrit "nmarpa". Name and form are a crucial part ofthe process that drives the cycling through births in deluded existence, being the fourth of the !)-.3 twelve processes of dependent-related arising q.v. "Name and form" refers to an entirebeing by referring to the mental aspects that a sentient being has which are collectively called "name" and tothe form aspects that the sentient being has which are called "form". In fact, ? is equivalent to theST five skandhas since "name" refers to the last four of the five skandhas taken as a groupthe so-calledS skandhas of the four name (components) q.v.and "form" refers to the ?US formskandha.

@B "The six sources", "the six yatanas". Translation of the Sanskrit "hayatana". The six yatanasare a crucial part of the process that drives sentient beings' cycling through births in deluded existence, beingthe fifth of the !)-.3 twelve processes of dependent-related arising q.v. for moreinformation. The yatanas referred to here are the @B six internal yatanas.

"Contact". Translation of the Sanskrit "sparha". Contact is one of the NZ[T five ever-presentmental events. Contact is the component of the dualistic perceptual process which arises due to the comingtogether of the three things ofW object of perception, sense faculty, and = consciousness.Contact means that, the three things have come together, mind R categorizes the object as beinglikeable, not likeable, or in between. Following that, and in correspondence with the category made in thecontact, the mind R\ experiences the object as being either pleasant, I unpleasant or ^neutral and that D feeling appears in mind. Because the mental event of contact gives rise to feelings inthat way, it is a crucial part of the process that drives sentient beings' cycling through births in deludedexistence, being the sixth of the !)-.3 twelve processes of dependent-related arisingq.v. for more information.

D "Feeling". Translation of the Sanskrit [NDS] "vedan". 1) "Feeling" as one of theNZ[T five ever-present mental events. 2) "Feeling" as one of the ST five skandhas.


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Feeling is the component of the dualistic perceptual process which is the production of a response to thedecision that was made about an W object of perception when it was contacted. The response appearsas an \ experience in the mind that the object is either pleasant, I unpleasant or ^ neutral.These three experiences are called D "pleasant feeling", DIJ "unpleasant feeling", and D^ "neutral feeling". Feeling is only ever one of those only three experiences and the three takentogether are called the DR three feelings. These three "feelings" are further divided into being eithermental or physical feeling but this simply categorizes whether one of the three feelings has been experienced

in regard to an object known through mental or physical consciousness.

Once a feeling has occurred sentient beings usually act on the feeling by producing the various afflicted states of mind in response to it. These then function as :; formatives of further possibilities of cyclic existence. Thus, feelings are one of the prime causes in the production of cyclic existence. Sincethe mental event of feeling is a crucial part of the process that drives sentient beings' cycling through birthsin deluded existence, it is the seventh of the !)-.3 twelve processes of dependent-related arising q.v. for more information. And, because it is one of the keys to the continuation of cyclicexistence, the Buddha highlighted it specifically by categorizing it as one of the key components of sentientbeing's psychophysical existence. He put the whole area of "feeling" as the second of the UST thefive aggregates with outflows and called it the DS.

Although the standard translation ofD has been "feeling" for many years now, there is a fault with this.As H.V. Guenther pointed out, it is more that there is a "tone" of mind that occurs regarding the perceivedobject. For this reason he translated it as "feeling-tone". Given the meaning of the term "sensation" isprobably more accurate and should be considered in place of "feeling".

E "Thirst" or "Craving". Translation of the Sanskrit "tha". For meaning, see the verb definition above.Craving for something is a crucial part of the process that drives sentient beings' cycling through births indeluded existence, being the eighth of the !)-.3 twelve processes of dependent-related arising q.v. for more information. Craving in this context occurs on the basis of the DR threefeelings. There are ER three types of craving, q.v.

Note: The term E was set down as the official translation equivalent of the Sanskrit "tha" in the earlydays of translation into Tibetan. The term tha is said to be similar to "pips" which was translated intoTibetan with `. The difference is that pips means "to be thirsty" for water, whereas "tha" means "tothirst for / after" that is, "to crave".

"Appropriation". The gerundial form is most freq. used in buddhist texts, because it refers to aprocess and the process is being emphasized. The gerundial form is sometimes abbreviated to and the truenoun form is usually written as .

Translation of the Sanskrit "updna". The Sanskrit is constructed from upa + dna. The "dna" of the

Sanskrit means "to take hold of, to seize"; it is actually dna, meaning to give or let go off, negated. The"upa" is a X upasarga that intensifies the meaning of the root of the word to mean "very much" or

"closely". The term overall means to take hold of something in the strongest possible way. In the buddhistusage described below, it conveys a movement of mind which is a coming back to something again andagain so that it is not lost. It conveys the sense of not letting something go but taking it up so that it is notlost.

"Appropriation" is a crucial part of the process that drives sentient beings' cycling through births in deludedexistence, being the ninth of the !)-.3 twelve processes of dependent-related arisingq.v. for more information. The strong grasping which is updna sets the stage for the particular karmaswhich will be the basis of another E existence (a further rebirth in cyclic existence) to be activated at thetime of death, i.e., it sets the stage for the tenth link of the process of the twelve dependent links. Note that itis not a particular grasping, rather it is defined as is the fact of taking another life that occurs because during


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this life one has become attached to various things and has made strong efforts in various way to attain thosethings. Those various individual circumstances ofE thirsting, the seventh link, add up throughout one'slife. Depending on how they add up, one has a particular "appropriation" which is the immediate cause ofbeing which propels one at the time of death towards another existence in relationship to the totality of thatenergy of desire, attachment, and habit of action concerning the objects of desire and attachment. It is thestrength in the mind developed on the basis of the individual and prior instances (called E) of desire,attachment, and effort which cannot but continue on by taking another life. The Buddha categorized the

various ways in which sentient beings take hold of another existence as four-fold; see the "thefour appropriations".

E Having the same sense of "what could come to exist", as a noun it is usually translated either as"becoming" or "existence". It conveys the sense of the possibilities within cyclic existence and as suchis used heavily in Buddhist texts in regard to cyclic existence. 1) Cyclic existence viewed from oneperspective is a round ofE possibilities, of existences that can occur, hence E is a synonym for cyclicexistence. E.g., the E so-called "wheel of life" is a diagram which the Buddha had drawn on thelintel of a King's palace and which illustrates the way that cyclic existence works; the wheel shows how one"becomes" the various "existences" of cyclic existence. 2) It implies the taking of birth in cyclic existence due

to karmic cause and effect. One "becomes" an existence which is one of the possibilities that one has becauseof one's collection of karmic habits. 3) It implies "an existence" as in one of the G four currents q.v. 4)"Existence" is the tenth of the !)-3 twelve links of dependent, related origination.([HNL] translates this as "rebirth" in this context but that is not correct.) In this context is the event early inthe death process in which the particular karmic seeds that will cause the next birth are "slotted" into placeand become effective as the seeds which will pattern the next rebirth. As Tsongkhapa points out, this is acase of a cause being given the name of an effect (see !)-.3 for more).

@ "Birth". Sanskrit "jti". E.g., ab@ "birth of a child"; @F "birth, sickness, old-age, and death". Birthin cyclic existence is one of the principal features of the process of sentient beings' cycling through deludedexistence and hence is the eleventh of the

!)-3twelve links of dependent-related

origination. See !)-.3 twelve processes of dependent-related arising for moreinformation on birth in this context. Note that birth in this context does not mean "life" but is defined astaking birth in the womb, etc. Because sentient beings cycle in through @ "births", the term can also betranslated as rebirth. A being who takes birth (and less freq. some "thing" which has come into being) iscalled lit. "a born one", a @. 2) "Birth" meaning a c life. E.g., @ "sentient beings take birth incyclic existence / have births in cyclic existence". E.g., @JK "former and later lives / births". 3) "Birth".Translation of the Sanskrit [NDS] "jti". One of the fourteen 7:;3 non-associated formatives. 4)"Arising" of something meaning the production, the new appearance of something. It should be noted thatthere is the "arousal" or "arising" of something in English but that there is no word "arisal" of!

F Abbrev. of F and . Translation of the Sanskrit "jarmraa". 1) "Aging and death" or "old-ageand death" in general. 2) Specifically, "aging and death" or "old-age and death" is one of the principalfeatures of the process of sentient beings' cycling through deluded existence. It is always the end of cominginto existence and hence is the twelfth and final of the !)-3 twelve links ofdependent-related origination. See !)-.3 twelve processes of dependent-relatedarising for more information on aging and death in this context.

12 facteurs interdépendants

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