The Twelve Links

by Geshe Sonam Rinchen

In what follows we will examine some different ways of presenting the twelve links but will focus in particular on how they are viewed in the philosophical system based upon the great Indian master Nagarjuna’s Treatise on the Middle Way. This important work deals almost exclusively with the fundamental nature of reality — namely that all existent phenomena lack any kind of reified, intrinsic, and objective existence. Having demonstrated this, in the twenty-sixth chapter of The Treatise Nagarjuna examines the dependently existent nature of the twelve-part process that keeps us bound within cyclic existence and demonstrates how, by stopping the fundamental ignorance which underlies it, we can halt the process step by step.

According to some Buddhist schools of thought all twelve links can occur at the same time in relation to a single action, such as killing an animal out of a desire to eat its meat. At the time of killing, different kinds of confusion — regarding how things exist and regarding the connection between actions and their effects — are present and constitute the first link, ignorance. From this standpoint the intention to kill creates the formative action, the second link. Ignorance and intention are mental factors accompanying primary consciousness which apprehends its object, the third link.

Name and form, the fourth link, are taken to refer to the person’s five aggregates at the time of performing the action, while the fifth link, the six sources, refers specifically to that person’s faculties, present within the five aggregates. The coming together of these faculties with an object is referred to as contact, the sixth link. This contact between faculty and object produces the experience of pleasure, pain, or what is neutral, which is referred to as feeling, the seventh link.

Attachment, the eighth link, is accompanied by a lack of shame and lack of embarrassment. In general the attachment can either be directed towards pleasure, or it can take the form of a desire to avoid or be rid of pain. Lack of shame is an absence of the self-respect that would prevent us from performing a negative action. Lack of embarrassment means we do not have the decency to take the opinion of others into account, which would normally inhibit us from doing wrong. Lack of shame and embarrassment are the root of all non-virtue, whereas their opposites serve as the basis for everything good. We live in strange times when people think we need to rid ourselves of these qualities, but to be without them is like running around stark naked.

The ninth link, grasping, is a reaching out for the object of attachment. Readiness for the physical action of killing constitutes the tenth link, existence. The arising of these eleven links and the inception of the action is its birth or production, the eleventh link. The development and disintegration of that action are the twelfth link. The eleventh and twelfth links are sequential, while all the others occur simultaneously.

Production, duration, and disintegration are seen as a sequence and cover the time span of a process. These twelve links take place within that short time span, which is termed an instant. This presentation of the twelve links by certain proponents of the Vaibhashika system of tenets gives us much to think about since every action involves many different factors. There is also a presentation of the process in terms of three lives, referred to as the twelve links at different junctures.

The presentation of the twelve links which we will consider here is substantially different. The order in which they are enumerated may seem perplexing at first but, in fact, it covers first the projecting causes and the projected effects, followed by the accomplishing causes and the accomplished effects.

Ignorance, formative action and consciousness, the latter referring to the imprint implanted on consciousness by the action, are the causes which project another rebirth. The projected effects consist of name and form, the six sources, contact, and feeling. How do ignorance and action project another rebirth? By implanting an imprint on consciousness. To use a farming analogy: ignorance is the farmer and the formative action is the seed. Consciousness is the field in which the seed is sown. When craving and grasping activate this seed or imprint, the next four links, which are the effects, are projected.

There are three accomplishing factors: craving, grasping, and existence. What they accomplish are birth as well as ageing and death. They are called accomplishing factors because when craving and grasping activate the imprint, all the different factors required to create a new rebirth become ready for the accomplishment of the result.

First we need to acquaint ourselves with these twelve links and understand this way of presenting them. In his Supplement to the Middle Way the Indian master Chandrakirti says:

If when free and in conducive conditions,

We do not act to restrain ourselves,

We will fall into an abyss and be controlled by others.

How can we later rise up again?

We enjoy great liberty at present because we are free from all kinds of adverse circumstances and are supported by many conducive conditions. The first thing we need to do is to protect ourselves from bad future rebirths by observing a sound code of ethical discipline, beginning with restraint from the ten harmful activities. Once we are in a bad state of existence, it is difficult not to keep taking bad rebirths. The power of our previous actions and the power of Buddhas to help us are equal, and even an enlightened being cannot override the force of our own karma. We must understand well and without error what needs to be done and what we must avoid. With our human intelligence we can distinguish between constructive and detrimental actions, but our present confusion and ignorance prevent us from doing this. Our spiritual practice should be an effective counteraction to this confusion and to the clinging attachment, hostility, and all the other disturbing emotions which come from that confusion. If we can decrease these emotions, we will feel so much happier.