The Twelve Links of Interdependent Arising

“Oh, good man! All beings have, equally, the twelve links of interdependence. These are the cases of the interior and exterior. What are the twelve?

1. The defilement from the past is called ignorance ['avidya'].

2. The karma from the past is called mental formation ['samskara', ie, mental volitions and impulses].

3. In this present life, first, we gain life in the womb. This is consciousness ['vijnana'].

4. After entering the womb, the five parts [i.e., the five limbs or five parts of the human body, composed of two hands (arms), two feet (legs), and head (column)], and the four roots [i.e., the four sense organs of the eye, ear, nose, and mouth] are not yet fully formed. This state is called mind-and-body ['nama-rupa "].

5. When one has the four roots, and when one is not yet in the stage of touch ['sparsa'], this stage is called the six spheres ['sadayatana'].

6. When no feeling of suffering or joy has yet arisen, this stage is called 'touch'.

7. When one clings to a single love, this stage is called feeling ['vedana'].

8. When one learns and befriends the five desires, this is craving ['trshna'].

9. When one looks inside and out, and has affection, this is clinging ['upadana'].

10. When one raises actions inside and out, in the three categories of body, mouth and mind, this is existence ['bhava'].

11. The consciousness that one has in life is the birth [of someone] in future days [i.e., one's worldly consciousness provides the basis for one's future rebirth], and

12. The body-and-mind, the six spheres, touch, and feeling are the old age, illness, and death of the future.

These are the twelve links of interdependence.

Oh, good man! Although there are these twelve links of interdependent arising, there are cases where things do not so happen. When one dies at the kalala stage, (fetal stage), there can not be the twelve. There can be the twelve when one gets into the stages (of life) beginning with birth and ending with old age and death."

Nirvana Sutra, Chapter 33, on the Bodhisattva Lion's Roar 1.

twelve links of interdependent arising.mp3