Pa_ ticca samuppa¯da (dependent arising) is the central philosophical principle of Buddhism, and is most commonly exemplified in the suttas in terms of the twelve nida¯nas. The ubiquitous interpretation of the twelve nida¯nas of pa_ ticca samuppa¯da as taking place over three lives, a religious doctrine explaining the rebirth process, is a commentarial development, not found in the suttas. Recent Therava¯din exegetes Bhikkhu Buddhada¯sa and N˜a¯_ navı¯ra Thera argue for an interpretation of the twelve nida¯nas of pa_ ticca samuppa¯da as taking place in the present moment, but Bhikkhu Bodhi disputes the claim that their interpretation is the Buddha’s original meaning. Recent work by Vedic scholar Joanna Jurewicz, however, suggests that originally the twelve nida¯nas were a parody of Vedic cosmogony. This scholarship opens the way for renewed exegesis of pa_ ticca samuppa¯da liberated from Indian Buddhist metaphysics.

Introduction

The Buddha is recorded as telling Ananda that it was through not understanding and not penetrating pa_ ticca samuppa¯da (dependent arising) that humanity ‘has become like a tangle of string covered in mould and matted like grass’, and so does not go beyond the miseries of conditioned existence (D 15 PTS ii 55, S 12:60 PTS ii 92). It is said that just before his enlightenment the bodhisatta reflected on how dukkha (unhappiness) arose dependent on conditions—how ageing and death ( jara¯mara_ na) arose on condition of birth ( ja¯ti), birth on existence (bhava), existence on clinging (upa¯da¯na), clinging on craving (ta_ nha¯), craving on feeling (vedana¯), feeling on contact ( phassa), contact on the six sensebases (sa_ la¯yatana), the sense-bases on name and form (na¯maru¯pa), name and form on consciousness (vin˜n˜a¯na), consciousness on formations (san˙kha¯ra¯), and formations on ignorance (avijja¯). It was just through the ceasing of these twelve nida¯nas that the Buddha, like Buddhas before him, attained the path to awakening, that overgrown road to the ancient city of enlightenment (S 12:65 PTS ii 104). To investigate these twelve linked conditions of sa _ msa¯ra is to understand the ‘noble method’ of the Dharma (A 10:92 PTS v 182); and the cessation of just these twelve nida¯nas is the end of dukkha.

From the paramount importance given to the teaching of the twelve nida¯nas in the Pali canon, one might expect the formula to be clearly explained. But not so. Although each nida¯na or link is expounded to some extent, ‘the earliest texts give very little explanation of how the formula is to be understood’ (Gethin 1998, 149). Later Buddhist tradition interpreted the twelve-fold formula as an explanation of the rebirth process over three lives, but it there is no evidence that this is what the Buddha originally meant. 

In this article I will explore the interpretations of the twelve nida¯nas of pa_ ticca samuppa¯da offered by two recent Therava¯din thinkers, Bhikkhu Buddhada¯sa and Bhikkhu N˜ a¯ _ navı¯ra, who in different ways criticise the three-life interpretation and, reading the suttas afresh, offer accounts of how the links of pa_ ticca samuppa¯da can be understood as working in the present moment. I will also indicate the criticism of this present moment interpretation by Bhikkhu Bodhi, a defender of Buddhist tradition. I will then present a completely different approach to the problem, starting from the idea that the arrangement of the nida¯nas begins to make sense when one takes into account the brahminical religious context in which the Buddha was teaching. In this context, the various links in different ways turn upside down the assumptions about Self (atta¯), reality (brahman) and the supposed purpose of brahminical rituals current in the Buddha’s time. This suggests that the arrangement of the twelve nida¯nas was originally intended as a parody of brahminical beliefs as well as a statement of what the Buddha taught.

Below is an important excerpt, which very clearly sheds new light on the Twelve Nidanas. I highly recommend reading the entire essay as it is very informative. ABN

In N˜ a¯ _ navı¯ra’s view, the twelve nida¯nas are not a causally related sequence of temporally successive phenomena. Instead, they are the structurally related phenomena that make up the lived experience of being an ordinary human being, meaning, the experience of being a self, a ‘someone’, an ‘I’. This experience, characterised as dukkha, is ultimately a mistake since it finds a self, a sense of ‘me’ and ‘mine’ where, according to the Buddha, no such self can really be found. Direct seeing of pa_ ticca samuppa¯da means seeing that experience is thus structured, thereby enabling the process of cessation, by which there is liberation from dukkha. An analogy for what N˜ a¯ _ navı¯ra means by the twelve nida¯nas as the structure of experience is that of a building. Just as a house cannot have a roof without walls, so there can be no subjective existence as a self (bhava) without craving (tan˙ha¯) and grasping (upa¯da¯na); similarly, just as there can be no lower walls without foundations, there can be no consciousness of being a self (vin˜n˜a¯na) and the name and form of that experience (na¯ma-ru¯pa) without ignorant unawareness (avijja¯). The roof does not arise after the walls but depends on those walls for its existence; conversely, without a foundation, the whole building ceases to stand. However, whereas a building is a static entity, human experience is dynamic. The sense of self, of being a ‘someone’, is constantly attempted and renewed through the processes of feeling, craving and appropriation by which personal life is sustained.