Explanations by Master Cheng-Yan
Subject: The Dharma of the 12 Links of Cyclic Existence (四念處及因緣法)
Date: March.13. 2017
“Due to our karma of ignorance and delusion, we cling to everything as permanent. All phenomena undergo infinitesimal changes and do not abide permanently. Unenlightened beings are attached to the Four Inverted Views. They cling to nihilism and believe causes and conditions bring no retributions.”
Do you understand? With this text, as soon as we read it, we feel it is profound. Indeed! It is deeply connected to our life and death, so of course it is very profound. How do we come and go in life? Our daily living feels as if it is nothing special, but birth and death are serious matters. We must put effort into comprehending them. In the past, present and future, we are always creating karma due to our ignorance and delusion. Amidst ignorance and delusion, we create karma because of our perspectives and thinking; once a single thought arises, we begin to cling to everything; we take issue over everything. Why do we take issue? It is because we have this sense of “I believe these things are real. They will always exist and always be mine.” In this way, “We cling to everything as permanent.”
In fact, life is impermanent, but we still assume that things are permanent and unchanging. We are unaware of impermanence, so we often take issue over things in this way. Thus we stir up so much karma of ignorance and delusion. So, “All phenomena undergo infinitesimal changes and do not abide permanently,” but we are not aware of it. All things undergo constant change and are in fact impermanent. As we pass the days in our lives, we are always passing them amidst impermanence. Time passes by the second, without our awareness. Time never permanently abides. Yesterday has already passed, and today will not stay either. Time passes away, second by second; however, not only time is this way. Look, now it is not dawn yet, but slowly, without us knowing it, day will break gradually. This is how Earth turns infinitesimally, how it orbits and rotates. It continues to move, but we are not aware of it. These are very subtle, infinitesimal changes. We have often discussed this.
This is what the universe is like; the sun and moon are always in motion. Our body is the same; constantly metabolizing and replenishing itself. From the time we were little, all the way to our adolescence, middle age and then old age, following the passing of time our bodies continue to metabolize as we grow older. We reach our prime, then old age, but we ourselves are not aware of these changes. This is the meaning of “All phenomena undergo infinitesimal changes.” All of these changes are aggregated together, constantly in this state of impermanence, never remaining the same, constantly passing away. So, with “infinitesimal changes, [they] do not abide permanently.” We ourselves are not aware of this.
“Unenlightened beings are attached to the Four Inverted Views.” We are unenlightened beings, so we are often attached like this, seeing what is impermanent as permanent, seeing a non-existent self as an existing self and seeing what is not joyful as joyful. With permanence, joy, self, and purity, we “see what is impure as pure.” We are always so backwards in our views. Just speaking of our own bodies, we must “contemplate the body as impure.” From the Fourfold Mindfulness, we know our bodies are impure and our minds are constantly fluctuating. We “contemplate the mind as impermanent” and “contemplate all things as being without self.” All phenomena are also without an existent self. So, with an impure body and an impermanent mind, throughout our daily living, we cling to everything around us. This is how we live with inverted views. We constantly “cling to nihilism and believe causes and conditions” [have no retribution]. We have this kind of attachment and cling to permanence or abide in inverted views. Because of this, we deny the law of karma. We are not afraid or aware of cause and effect. We are not aware that every thought that arises, every action we take and everything that we do, all follows the law of cause and effect and continues in this cycle.
In fact, everything is truly impermanent; we cannot be attached to it. If we are stubbornly attached, then we will always be deluded. So, we must be mindful. These are teachings we often discuss. Everyone must mindfully seek to realize them. “Due to our karma of ignorance and delusion, we cling to everything as permanent.” We do this everywhere. Actually, where exactly is our mind? With our mind that runs around here and there, wherever we are, our mind may instantly go to a faraway place and then suddenly be somewhere near. The mind’s power is to be everywhere like this, so we cling to everything and take issue over it. There are so many things that we do not need to get upset over, yet we always choose to take issue over them, because we do not understand the principle of impermanence. We are not aware that all of us are living with such inverted and deluded views. These are inverted views in our daily living. We do not yet understand karmic cause and effect, so we stir up many afflictions over life and death. We should be mindful in comprehending this.
The previous passage states, “Sramanas, Brahmins, heavenly begins, Brahma kings and all others in the world are unable to turn it.”
This passage is about all the Brahma kings asking the Buddha to turn the Dharma-wheel. Because only the Great Enlightened One could thoroughly comprehend the Dharma, the ultimate truth of all Dharma, they asked the Buddha to turn the Dharma-wheel. Only the Buddha, the Great Enlightened One could thoroughly understand and awaken to, the analyze for us, the principles of life. So, Great Unhindered Wisdom Superior Buddha saw that the causes and conditions were complete. “Thus He immediately began the Three Turnings and Twelve Applications of the Dharma-wheel.”
These are the Four Noble Truths, suffering, causation, cessation and the Path. “He spoke of suffering, the causation of suffering, the cessation of suffering and the path to cessation of suffering.”
We explained all of this yesterday. Now, the next passage states, “He then extensively taught the Dharma of the Twelve Links of Cyclic Existence.” This was after the Twelve Applications of the Four Noble Truths. He explained the Four Noble Truths three times, so these are “the Three Turnings and.” “Twelve Applications of the Dharma-wheel.”
Next, “He extensively taught the Dharma of the Twelve Links of Cyclic Existence. Ignorance gives rise to volitional formation and volitional formation to consciousness. Consciousness gives rise to name and form, name and form give rise to the six entrances, the six entrances give rise to contact, contact gives rise to feeling, feeling gives rise to craving, craving gives rise to grasping, grasping gives rise to becoming, becoming gives rise to birth, and birth gives rise to the worry, sadness and distress of aging and death.”
This is the cycle of the Twelve Links. We should know this. So, we must understand the teachings of the Twelve Links of Cyclic Existence.
He then extensively taught the Dharma of the Twelve Links of Cyclic Existence: Of the states taught in this chapter, this is explaining the Twelve Links of Cyclic Existence. What can give rise to something is the cause. What assists in this happening is the condition. So, this teaching is also called the Twelve Links of Causes and Conditions.
Everyone’s cyclic existence are inseparable from these Twelve Links of Causes and Conditions. “What can give rise to something is the cause. What assists in this happening is the condition.” In our daily living, whatever happens, when it starts to happen, there has to be a cause giving rise to it. What assists this cause arising is the condition. A thought arises in us because our Six Roots connect to the Six Dusts. This is how it is. Our eye-root is the cause, and external states are the conditions. So, “What can give rise to something is the cause. What assists in this happening is the condition.” If we do not look with our eyes, there will be no conditions for external states to enter our consciousness. So, this is causes and conditions coming together. Then our consciousness will cling to everything. We previously said we cling to everything. We make connections everywhere, and our consciousness begins to discriminate. So, this Dharma is the Twelve Links of Cyclic Existence.
Now we are going to explain the Twelve Links of Cyclic Existence in detail. Mindfully listen to this teaching! The first is, “Ignorance gives rise to volitional formation.”
Ignorance gives rise to volitional formation: Ignorance is being deluded as to the principles of true meaning and the matters of different karmic fruitions. Due to delusion, we give rise to all kinds of confused thoughts.
Ignorance refers to the fact that the minds of unenlightened beings are deluded. We are confused about the principles of truth; we have lost the true principles and instead cling to different karmic fruitions. Theses different karmic fruitions are the results of good and evil behaviors in our daily living, whether in our past, present or future lives. The retributions we experience in this life are from good and evil deeds in past lives. These lead to our circumstantial and direct retributions. Now I have these affinities to form so many good connections with everyone. This might seem like fruits to everyone, but actually they are conditions from past lives. In past lives we had such affinities, so in this life, a thought arose. With this thought, I became a monastic. That initial thought combined with the time of the past few decades to result in the many good affinities that I have with you all. Without these conditions from past lives, how would there be such fruits in this life? However, in my life, there is suffering and joy, as well as many obstacles that I have encountered. Over the course of facing many afflictions, I have often thought that these are karmic conditions from past lives. Good and evil [karma] are different. Good causes are good causes; evil conditions are evil conditions. So, I face these karmic retributions in this life. This applies to every one of us. I am not the only like this. These are called different karmic fruitions. Different causes and conditions of good and evil from the past have matured, and the fruits manifest in this life.
All sentient beings in this lifetime create negative karma and thus bring about the effect of falling into evil realms in future lifetimes. If they do flawed good deeds in this life, they bring about the effect of being born in good realms in future lifetimes. As these [seeds] of different lifetimes mature, these are called different karmic fruitions.
In our present lifetime, we ourselves must be aware of exactly how many negative things we have done. In the thoughts that I give rise to and in dealing with matters and people, have I made mistakes? How much good have I accumulated in my actions? How much have I done to benefit the world? These are causes and conditions in this lifetime. They have not ripened yet. We have to wait until future lifetimes. What we have created and done in this life has not fully matured yet. When these causes ripen, they become fruits in future lifetimes. When our present lifetime comes to an end, they will then truly be fully formed and will be brought to the next lifetime. So, they are called “different karmic fruitions.”
The good and evil karma created in the past now ripen as fruit in this lifetime. Good and evil karma from this lifetime will be brought to the next life to ripen as fruitions. This is past, present and future. In this cyclic existence of causes and conditions, all the karma we create manifests as matters and appearances. Because we are all deluded, “Due to delusion, we give rise to all kinds of confused thoughts.” We ourselves are not aware of causes, conditions, effects and retributions. So, we follow karmic cause and effect and constantly remain in delusion. We have all sorts of confused thinking. Are we in such delusion in this lifetime? Do we have this lack of understanding? When we are confused, we lack clarity. We are unclear over what is right or wrong. Then don’t our actions create [negative] karma? This is called ignorance. We are ignorant and unaware, so we create karma though our actions. Then without our control we are carried into the next lifetime.
We often say, “It is beyond our control.” With the karma we created in this lifetime, where will we go in our next lifetime? We do not know. It all depends on what we do in this lifetime. Then it is beyond our control. Thus we are unenlightened beings. Because “Ignorance gives rise to volitional formations,” next “volitional formation [leads] to consciousness.” As these give rise to one another, confused thoughts permeate us, which become karma.
Volitional formation [leads] to consciousness: Confused thoughts permeate us and become karmic seeds. When they mature and the karmic consciousness of our present lifetime ends, they will give rise to the consciousness of different karmic fruitions in future lifetimes.
From our past lives to the present, our confused thoughts have permeated our karma. We were ignorant in the past. “An ignorant thought creates the Three Subtleties. External states lead to the Six Coarse Marks.” This is what we often talk about. As we remain in ignorance, “volitional formation”, actions from the past, manifest as our actions in the present. These were our actions in the past. Now that we have come to this lifetime, in this life, we again have confused thoughts. Permeated by habitual tendencies in the past, we have brought these into this lifetime. Therefore, “Confused thoughts permeate us.” I often tell everyone that there is nothing for us to practice, other than working on our habitual tendencies. We must eliminate our habitual tendencies. To eliminate afflictions, we must eliminate our negative habitual tendencies. Because “Confused thoughts permeate us and become karmic [seeds], our habitual tendencies lead us to create all kinds of karma, which then ripen. “When the karmic consciousness of our present lifetime ends,” when this present lifetime ends, we have to abandon the physical body of this life. As we just mentioned, what we have created has not ripened yet. It is only when our present lifetime ends that these can be called mature. However, the karma has already been created. When the conditions for this life are used up, karma matures and conditions come to an end. This lifetime will come to an end. So, “Karmic consciousness ends.” This lifetime ends. “This leads to the rise of different karmic fruitions in future lifetimes.” We just explained this clearly. When this lifetime is over, will our karmic fruitions be good or evil? When this lifetime has ended, we bring our karma to a future life. “This will give rise to the consciousness of different karmic fruitions in future lifetimes.” We will be led to our future life. “Thus it says volitional formation gives rise to consciousness.” Volitional formation gives rise to consciousness, and we cannot help but enter [next life’s] womb; this is beyond our control.
“Consciousness gives rise to name and form.” Consciousness gives rise to name and from: Once our retribution-consciousness arises, it takes form as the body; this is the existence of the Five Skandhas of form, feeling, perception, action, consciousness. Name: This refers to the Four Skandhas of feeling, perception, action and consciousness.
Where exactly is our circumstantial retribution? I have often said to everyone that we formed affinities with our parents, so when that pair of parents comes together, our [direction] is decided; our affinity with that pair of parents has already ripened. So, the 40-week pregnancy comes to term. We have to leave this life for the next. Life is impermanent; this is how it is. “Once our retribution-consciousness arises” means the consciousness of our circumstantial retribution has ripened, therefore this process will begin. So, “It takes form as the body.” During pregnancy, our form gradually develops; our Six Roots continuously [develop] until they are formed. “Form” refers to the human body before it is fully developed. When someone sees the gynecologist, [she asks], “What is going on with my body?” On examination, the doctor says, “You’re pregnant.” By that point in the pregnancy, the Six Roots have not fully formed. The fetus is just starting, like a little bubble. When the sperm and egg unite, it is like a blister from a burn wound. Things gradually mix within that blister, like a pus-filled sore. Gradually, flesh is formed and takes shape. So, when the Six Roots are yet to be formed, that is called “form.” This thing within the mother’s uterus is called “form.” It will gradually develop in to the body. We see the fetus’s head and body begin to form. Then the arms and legs start to take shape. Gradually, this “form” completes our Six Roots, including our eyes, ears, nose and tongue, along with hands and feet. All the Six Roots are fully formed. This is called the “body.” The body begins to come into “existence.” “This is the existence.” With the existence of a body, we have this; we truly have form, feeling, perception, action, consciousness. They are called the Five Skandhas or Aggregates.
So, among form, feeling, perception, action, consciousness, everything returns to our consciousness. All the karma that we create is stored in the eighth consciousness. All ripened fruits, good or evil, are stored in this consciousness. So, “Consciousness gives rise to name and form.” “Name” refers to “the Four skandhas of feeling, perceptions, action, consciousness.” In this manner, both this external label and that clump of flesh at the start of a pregnancy are called “name.” With pregnancy, a body has come into existence, so there are “name and form.” With name and form, our body gives rise to the “six entrances.”
Name and form give rise to the six entrances: Due to the Five Skandhas, the six entrances of eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind arise.
From being a clump of flesh, we gradually begin to form the Six Roots. Eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind are formed. They are the “six entrances.” Then we continuously want to make connections. Because we have this body, eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind are formed. Once the Six Roots are formed, we are able to connect to external states. These are called the six entrances.
The eyes take in the sense object of form, the ears take in the sense object of sound, the nose smalls scents and so on. Then we discriminate “This smells bad, I hate it.” This is our consciousness discriminating. “This is very pretty; I like it. That is also the consciousness discriminating. So, “the states of the Six Dusts” arise because of name and form allowing the Six Roots and Six Dusts to meet. So, they are called the six entrances. They can take in external conditions, so they are the six entrances. They take in all external states.
Taking in external states, the “six entrances” give rise to “contact.”
The six entrances give rise to contact: When Roots and Dusts converge, that is “contact.”
“Contact” is when “Roots and Dusts converge.” The eye-root connect to the object of form. When our body comes into contact with something, [we perceive it as] hard or soft. If it hurts our body upon contact, we call it hard. If we feel sore after sitting on it for a long time, we label it as soft. In summary, it is everything our body comes into contact with. We must climb up steep places or go down to lower places. This is all what our body connects with. Our Roots, the sensory organs of our bodies, come into contact with external sense objects. So, “The six entrances give rise to contact.” All external conditions are [experienced] because of “contact.” We may call it comfortable or uncomfortable. This is what our bodies, our complete Six Roots, feel and experience. This is called contact.
Next, “Contact give rise to feeling.”Contact give rise to feeling: When Roots and Dusts converge, we experience the different conditions as adverse, favorable or neither adverse nor favorable. Accordingly different sensations will arise, either of suffering, joy or detachment.
As for feeling, “When Roots and Dusts converge, we experience conditions as adverse or favorable.” There are conditions that we dislike, conditions that go against our wishes. If against our wishes, they are adverse conditions. They are conditions we do not like. Or, there are favorable conditions. Then there are conditions that are neither adverse nor favorable. These are neither with nor against [our wishes]. Each of these conditions is different. Are our conditions favorable or unfavorable? Unfavorable conditions give rise to suffering. “I do not like this, but I am forced to accept it.” This is suffering. In the world, there is much suffering that we can see. Whether caused by natural disasters or manmade calamities or retributions that we face, suffering in the human realm is beyond our control. This is all how we experience suffering, the conditions that go against our wishes. This is suffering, the sensation of suffering.
Favorable conditions give us the sensation of joy. Or if it is neither painful nor joyful, just average, those are neither favorable nor adverse conditions. They are just average. Our life is inseparable from these three sensations.
If neither favorable nor adverse, we feel “detachment,” which is just average. “I do not feel very happy or very joyful.” This is just average. This is called the sensation of detachment. The differences of suffering, joy and detachment, the differences between these three sensations, are why we say, “Contact gives rise to feeling.” Our feelings are always one of these three kinds.
“Feeling gives rise to craving.” Because there are feelings, “We give rise to greed and desire toward our own body and external conditions.” With feelings, there will be something that we love. So, we endlessly pursue it. This is greed and desire. When we cannot obtain it, we cling to this desire. Thus with greed and desire, it says, “Feeling gives rise to craving.” This is because [we feel] “I love this.” Because of craving, greed arises. With greed, we cling to desire, and in this manner, we are unable to let go. Then how much suffering will we create? Humans cling to desires in this manner; we become attached to things that we crave. So, this craving is the root of our suffering. Hence, this craving gives rise to grasping. Because of feeling, once we feel this way, we give rise to attachment to what we crave. With craving, greed arises, so we seek to grasp it.
Craving gives rise to grasping: With craving, one is attached and gives rise to the concept of a self and the self’s possessions.
So, in the world, there is much grasping. On the small scale, individuals fight to grasp things. On a large scale, this leads to chaos in society when people cannot obtain what they want. Because of their greed, because of their grasping, people fight for things. This causes society to be in chaos. The family, society and country are in chaos. Because of greed and craving, we grasp and cling, which leads to suffering in the world. When we grasp and get what we want, we are happy. When we do not, we suffer. So, “With craving, one is attached.” We become very attached. “I just want this.” This is our grasping and craving. So, this “gives rise to the concept of a self and the self’s possessions.” “This is mine, so I want to obtain and possess all of it.” We think, ‘“I’ am the most important.” From family, to society, to the country, there are different kinds of greed, craving, grasping and attachment leading to disorder. How many manmade calamities start this way? So, because of grasping, for the sake of greed, many such conflicts arise.
Therefore, “Grasping gives rise to becoming.” Something starts to be. What comes into existence? “Once the karmic seed of attachment has ripened, there will surely be future retribution.” The outcome from all this greed, grasping and fighting is victory or else defeat. What ripens later is because of this fighting and grasping. The outcome is that “The karmic seed of attachment has ripened.” What are the outcomes? Many manmade calamities and natural disasters. This is sentient beings’ collective karma, the karmic seeds currently being created. Everyone’s individual karmic seeds are creating our different karmic fruitions. When the fruits of good and evil ripen, we receive “future retributions.” Whatever we create now becomes future retributions. So, “Grasping gives rise to becoming.” Because we want to grasp, we act and create much karma and much ignorance. Whether good or evil, we create much karma. If good karma, we attain blessed retributions. If it is evil karma, we attain evil retributions. This is an absolute principle. So, “Becoming gives rise to birth”
Becoming gives rise to birth: Circumstantial retributions of future existence are all included in the appearance of the body.
“Future existence” means our karma has already been created. “Circumstantial retributions of future existence” are this way. This is all due to our body. With our physical body, because we have a body, we act and create all kinds of karma, which then lead to the circumstantial retributions of our future lifetimes. What will the appearance of our bodies be? We do not know. Will we be born into the Three Evil Destinies? Maybe we will be reborn in the animal realm. We may suffer in hell, or as animals or face hardship in the human realm, etc. This is all beyond our control. This body is a result of our past lives. What we do and create now determines our physical appearance in the future. In the four forms of birth and Five Destinies, where exactly will we go? We do not know. We have already acted and created [karma]. The karma has already been created, so we carry it to future existences. Thus, “Becoming gives rise to birth.” We carry our karma to future lives. “Birth gives rise to the worry, sadness and distress of aging and death.”
With birth, there will be the illusory appearances of being young and vigorous and thus the opposite appearance of aging. Whatever arises will cease, thus there is the opposite appearance [of birth], which is death. With birth, there is the suffering of suffering, suffering of decay and suffering of action. These all press in on us, so we have worry, sadness and distress. Therefore, it says that birth gives rise to the worry, sadness and distress of aging and death.
We bring our karma with us at birth. “With birth, there will be the illusory appearances of being young and vigorous.” Where have our young selves gone? If we want to look for our youth now, we cannot find it; it is gone. It is already in the past. Such appearances of being young and vigorous are illusory. Youth is illusory. If it was real and permanent, we would be forever young. But it is impermanent; our bodies age. Aging is inevitable. So, there is this illusory appearance; with aging, we may grow old, but can we stay old forever? No, we cannot. We age, but regarding the end of our life, we do not know what the future will bring. Of course, if we are still reborn as humans, we again begin to come in contact with the world. The air will prick the skin of our whole body, leading to the pain of birth. This is a cycle of birth, aging, illness and death. These are all illusory appearances,
“thus there is the opposite appearance.” In the future we will age. The future of youth is aging; we become old like this. “Whatever arises will cease.” With arising there will be ceasing. “There is the opposite appearance, which is death.” This means that we die. This is the natural law of human life. It is very natural matter. “With birth; there is the suffering of suffering.” With birth, we come to the human realm amidst pain and suffering. Next is the “suffering of decay.” For everything in the world, that which undergoes arising, abiding, changing and ceasing will decay. That which undergoes formation, existence, decay, disappearance will decay. So, there is change and there is decay. This is the “suffering of decay.” In the suffering of action, “action” refers to impermanence. There is always this change. Decay is due to the aggregate of action. With action, the aggregate of action, which is impermanence, without us knowing, life passes us by. The present never abides; the future still comes. So, “Suffering of suffering, suffering of decay and suffering of action mutually press in on each other.” Each presses on the one before it. Continuously, endlessly, thought after thought, second after second, the nest thought pushes the previous thought to the past. The principle is the same. So, “We have worry, sadness and distress Therefore, it says that birth gives rise to the worry, sadness and distress of aging and death.” So much is accumulated through the “Dharma of Twelve Links of Cyclic Existence.” I hope all of us, truly, in the span of this lifetime, can understand different karmic fruitions. We must know what causes and conditions we create and what effects and retributions we face from these. This is the cycle of cause and effect. Good deeds lead to blessed retribution, and evil leads to evil retributions. It is just that the time may not have arrived, It is not that there is no retribution. So, this all depends on whether our karmic seeds and conditions have ripened. When this lifetime ends it gives rise to the next. Thus we endlessly cycle in the four forms of birth and the Five Destinies. This is inseparable from the “Dharma of the Twelve Links of Cyclic Existence.” Be mindful; we must be mindful of the present. Seize the present moment and sustain it forever; to do so we must take good care of our hearts. We must not deviate. We want to do good, aim in the right direction and not deviate. With a slight deviation, ignorance can lead us to many mistakes. We will continue on in that way without end. These Twelve Links of Cyclic Existence continue to give rise to each other. So, do not be greedy or attached to the forms and appearances of this world. We must earnestly, regularly eliminate the discursive thoughts that arise, like these mindsets of grasping and attachment. Spiritual practitioners must thoroughly understand the source of the Dharma. Only then will we have the chance to put an end to cyclic existence. This requires us to always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV – Wisdom at Dawn program – Explanation by Master Chen-Yen)
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