Cessation and the Twelve Links | Setting in Motion the Dharma Wheel

To begin the process of cessation we need to understand the twelve links of conditioned arising, and how they are both the causes and the effects of suffering. The twelve links are the stages that an individual experiences through the samsaric cycle of birth and death. The first is (1)fundamental ignorance: being ignorant as to the impermanent nature of existence and being defiled by the poisons of desire, hatred, and delusion. This link sets into motion the second link, (2) action, or volitional impulses, where the seeds of karma are planted. The third link is (3) consciousness, the active mental force that propels us from one life cycle to the next.

In the fourth link, (4) name-and-form, we enter the phase of the current life in which the karmic residue of consciousness and bodily form unite to ultimately become an individual. The fifth link, the (5) six entrances, or sense faculties, are our windows of interaction with the world. Note that in addition to the senses, consciousness is the sixth sense faculty The sixth link, (6) contact is the interaction of the sense faculties with the environment. The seventh link, (7) sensation discriminates among experiences as to pleasurable, painful, or neutral. The eighth link, (8) desire is the result of the interactions between sense faculties and their sense objects. The ninth link, (9) grasping, is the eighth link translated into action. When the craving for existence becomes grasping, one’s re-entry into the world of samsara is imminent. The tenth link is (10) existence, the creation of a new cycle of karma in the form of a sentient being.

Once there is sensation, inevitably there is desire, when there is desire there is grasping; once there is grasping, there is existence; once there is existence, there is the eleventh link, (11) birth. The newly born individual has received the retribution of previous karma and is starting a new round of karma creation. The twelfth link, (12) aging and death, completes the current cycle. Once there is birth there inevitably will be old age and death. So those are the twelve links of conditioned arising.

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