Twelve Links of Dependent Arising
Twelve Links of Dependent Arising (十二因緣法). The principle that explains why and how a sentient being continues to be reborn according to karma. Each link is the main condition for the next one to arise.
These twelve links are
(1) ignorance,
(2) karmic actions,
(3) consciousness,
(4) name and form,
(5) six faculties,
(6) contact with sense objects,
(7) sensory reception,
(8) love,
(9) grasping,
(10) karmic force for being,
(11) birth, and
(12) old age and death.
Links 1–2 refer to the afflictions and karmic seeds from previous lives, links 3–7 refer to the karmic fruit in the present life, links 8–10 refer to karmas in the present life, and links 11–12 refer to the karmic fruit in the next life. In this sequence, the twelve links connect one’s lives from the past to the present, continuing to the future. With ignorance, one goes from affliction to karma to suffering, continuing the endless spiral of birth and death. By ending ignorance one will disengage the remaining eleven links and end one’s cycle of birth and death.
Source
- Twelve Links of Dependent Arising
- 1. Ignorance
- 2. (Mental) formations
- 3. Consciousness
- 4. Name and form
- 5. Six Senses
- 6. Contact
- 7. Feeling
- 8. Craving
- 9. Grasping
- 10 Becoming
- 11. Birth
- 12. Aging and death
