Dependent Origination
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The phrase “cause and effect” is becoming somewhat of a cliché in today’s society. Often, people blame “kamma” for any failures or deviations from the plan. In Buddhism, kamma is described as a volitional activity, while vipaka refers to its later outcome. This means that there is a deliberate action that provokes a powerful reaction. To better understand kamma-vipaka, it is necessary to study the mind as it is a forerunner of all states.
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Generally speaking, kamma (actions) result in consequences, with positive actions leading to positive outcomes and negative actions leading to negative outcomes, both now and in the future. The idea of kamma is essentially a component of dependent origination, specifically how volitional actions impact future experiences. To gain a better understanding of how our actions have ripple effects on the surroundings and beyond, let’s investigate the mechanism of dependent origination.
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In Buddhism, Dependent Origination is referred to as a principle of interrelated causality. It explicates that all phenomenal existences are products of the proper combination of causes and conditions. Each of the causes would need other causes to be present together with their respective conditions. Let’s look at these causal relationships:
Equanimity (E0) leads to stability. Stability leads to aggregation. Aggregation leads to agitation. Agitation leads to information. Information leads to knowledge. Knowledge leads to representation. Representation leads to memory. Memory leads to compulsion. Compulsion leads to ignorance. Ignorance leads to blindness. Blindness leads to disorientation. Disorientation leads to confusion. Confusion leads to irrationality. Irrationality leads to impulse. Impulse leads to sparkling. Sparkling leads to inkling. Inkling leads to volition. Volition leads to awareness. Awareness leads to consciousness. Consciousness leads to manas. Manas leads to mind and body. Mind and body lead to sensation. Sensation leads to six sense bases. Six sense bases lead to conductivity. Conductivity leads to contact. Contact leads to stimulation. Stimulation leads to feeling. Feeling leads to experience. Experience leads to craving. Craving leads to grasping. Grasping leads to clinging. Clinging leads to unsettling. Unsettling leads to becoming. Becoming leads to creation. Creation leads to birth. Birth leads to energising. Energising leads to mobility. Mobility leads to hauling. Hauling leads to aging. Aging leads to draining. Draining leads to death. Death leads to fragility. Fragility leads to segregation. Segregation leads to diffusion. Diffusion leads to discomposure. Discomposure leads to adjustment. Adjustment leads to alignment. Alignment leads to equanimity (E1).
In a dependent nature, everything is a matrix of everything, and all things or matters co-arise interdependently. As such, it is essential to view Dependent Origination from a correct perspective that does not construct narratives out of a series of linear events. It’s important to emphasise that any of the causes would necessitate the presence of other causes and their respective conditions. Therefore, Dependent Origination can never be deciphered as that kind of an eye for an eye justice because one cause is never enough to bring about an effect. In conventional reality, all things will co-exist interdependently across a complex web of existence.