Dependent Origination: The 12 Links, With the Pali Chant

Dependent origination, the twelve links by which suffering arises and ceases, explained one by one, with the Pali chant forward and in reverse

Dependent origination is the Buddha's teaching that suffering does not appear by chance and is not made by anyone: it arises through twelve conditions, each depending on another, from ignorance (avijjā) to old age and death (jarāmaraṇa). And when the conditions cease, suffering ceases too. The Buddha contemplated dependent origination after his awakening, and it is counted among the deepest of his teachings. This page explains what dependent origination means, the twelve links one by one, an everyday example, and gives the Pali chant with its meaning, forward and in reverse.

What is dependent origination?

The Pali word paṭiccasamuppāda joins paṭicca, 'depending on', and samuppāda, 'arising together'. So it means arising in dependence, which is why English translators use dependent origination or dependent arising. In Thai it is read pa-tit-ja-sa-mup-baat. Later texts also call it paccayākāra, 'the mode of conditions'.

It rests on a more general principle called idappaccayatā, 'this-conditionality'. Many suttas sum it up in four lines: when this exists, that exists; when this arises, that arises; when this does not exist, that does not exist; when this ceases, that ceases. Idappaccayatā applies to everything. Dependent origination applies it to what matters most to us: how our own suffering arises and how it ends.

In the Mahāhatthipadopama Sutta (MN 28) Venerable Sāriputta quotes the Buddha: whoever sees dependent origination sees the Dhamma, and whoever sees the Dhamma sees dependent origination. It is not an optional theory but the core of understanding the Buddha's teaching.

The 12 links of dependent origination

Here are the twelve links, with the meanings the Buddha gives in the Analysis sutta (SN 12.2). Each is a condition for the next.

1. Ignorance (avijjā): not knowing suffering, its origin, its cessation and the way to its cessation, that is, not knowing the four noble truths.
2. Choices or formations (saṅkhāra): the intentions that shape action, by body, speech and mind.
3. Consciousness (viññāṇa): knowing through the eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and mind.
4. Name and form (nāmarūpa): name is feeling, perception, intention, contact and attention; form is the four elements and the form derived from them.
5. The six sense fields (saḷāyatana): eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and mind, the doors of experience.
6. Contact (phassa): the meeting of sense organ, object and consciousness, such as the eye meeting a sight.
7. Feeling (vedanā): pleasant, painful or neutral, born of the six kinds of contact.
8. Craving (taṇhā): craving for sights, sounds, smells, tastes, touches and mental objects.
9. Grasping (upādāna): grasping at sense pleasures, at views, at rules and rituals, and at theories of a self (see the four kinds of grasping).
10. Continued existence (bhava): existence in the sense world, the world of form or the formless world.
11. Birth (jāti): the appearance of the aggregates and the acquiring of the sense fields.
12. Old age and death (jarāmaraṇa): the decline of the body and the breaking up of the aggregates, followed by sorrow, lamentation, pain, sadness and distress.

The twelve are not like dominoes that fall once in a row. They are conditions that keep supporting one another: if one is missing, the next cannot arise. And the Buddha did not teach that ignorance is the beginning of the world. Ignorance has its own conditions too; it is simply a good place to start the explanation.

The dependent origination chant in Pali, with meaning

The chant comes from the first sutta of the Connected Discourses on Causation (SN 12.1), where the Buddha sets out the twelve links in the order of arising and then again in the order of ceasing. The same forward wording appears in the Vibhaṅga of the Abhidhamma. The Vinaya tells that after his awakening, while he sat under the Bodhi tree, the Buddha reflected on this chain of conditions in forward and reverse order during the first watch of the night. So the chant is usually said in two parts: arising, the forward order (anuloma), and ceasing, the reverse order (paṭiloma).

There is no set number of times to chant it and no standard short form. Some people chant it as part of their evening chanting; others chant it before meditation to review the teaching. Understanding the meaning matters more than the count, because the text explains how suffering arises and ends; it is not a formula for asking for anything. Below, the Pali is given in Roman letters, followed by the meaning of each part.

Forward order: how suffering arises

Avijjāpaccayā saṅkhārā,
saṅkhārapaccayā viññāṇaṁ,
viññāṇapaccayā nāmarūpaṁ,
nāmarūpapaccayā saḷāyatanaṁ,
saḷāyatanapaccayā phasso,
phassapaccayā vedanā,
vedanāpaccayā taṇhā,
taṇhāpaccayā upādānaṁ,
upādānapaccayā bhavo,
bhavapaccayā jāti,
jātipaccayā jarāmaraṇaṁ
sokaparidevadukkhadomanassupāyāsā sambhavanti.
Evametassa kevalassa dukkhakkhandhassa samudayo hoti.

Ignorance is a condition for choices; choices are a condition for consciousness; consciousness for name and form; name and form for the six sense fields; the six sense fields for contact; contact for feeling; feeling for craving; craving for grasping; grasping for continued existence; continued existence for birth; and birth is the condition for old age and death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, sadness and distress to come to be. That is how this whole mass of suffering arises.

SN 12.1; Vb 6

Reverse order: how suffering ends

Avijjāya tveva asesavirāganirodhā saṅkhāranirodho;
saṅkhāranirodhā viññāṇanirodho;
viññāṇanirodhā nāmarūpanirodho;
nāmarūpanirodhā saḷāyatananirodho;
saḷāyatananirodhā phassanirodho;
phassanirodhā vedanānirodho;
vedanānirodhā taṇhānirodho;
taṇhānirodhā upādānanirodho;
upādānanirodhā bhavanirodho;
bhavanirodhā jātinirodho;
jātinirodhā jarāmaraṇaṁ
sokaparidevadukkhadomanassupāyāsā nirujjhanti.
Evametassa kevalassa dukkhakkhandhassa nirodho hoti.

But when ignorance fades away and ceases with nothing left over, choices cease. When choices cease, consciousness ceases; when consciousness ceases, name and form cease; when name and form cease, the six sense fields cease; when the six sense fields cease, contact ceases; when contact ceases, feeling ceases; when feeling ceases, craving ceases; when craving ceases, grasping ceases; when grasping ceases, continued existence ceases; when continued existence ceases, birth ceases; and when birth ceases, old age and death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, sadness and distress cease. That is how this whole mass of suffering ceases.

SN 12.1

Notice that the reverse order does not begin by removing old age and death directly. It begins at the root, with ignorance fading away. When the start of the chain ends, the end of it has nothing to stand on. To chant this teaching together with the other groups that serve as objects of insight, see the Vipassanabhumi Patha, which ends with this same forward and reverse sequence.

The wheel: the twelve links across three lives

Many people know the teaching as a wheel diagram. It comes from the explanation in the Visuddhimagga, which places the twelve links across three periods: ignorance and choices are past causes; consciousness through feeling are present results; craving, grasping and existence are present causes; birth and old age and death are future results. It also groups the links into three rounds:

• The round of defilements (kilesavaṭṭa): ignorance, craving and grasping.
• The round of kamma (kammavaṭṭa): choices, and existence in its active, kamma-making side.
• The round of results (vipākavaṭṭa): consciousness, name and form, the six sense fields, contact and feeling.

Defilements lead to kamma, kamma leads to results, and results, as feeling, become the condition for fresh defilements. So the wheel keeps turning; saṁsāra, the round of rebirth, means exactly this cycling. The only way to stop the wheel is to cut it at the defilements, starting with ignorance, through wisdom.

An everyday example of dependent origination

Besides the Visuddhimagga's reading across lifetimes, many teachers today also use dependent origination to look at events in the mind that unfold within a few seconds. The two readings do not conflict; the second simply lets you see the same mechanism on a small scale. Here is an example.

1. You open your phone and see a message from your boss: eye, message and awareness meet (contact).
2. The message is short and curt, and at once there is an unpleasant feeling (feeling).
3. You want the feeling gone; you want the boss to have been nicer (craving).
4. The mind seizes the thought 'they don't respect me', holding both that view and a self that was wronged (grasping).
5. The mind steps into the role of the insulted one and starts drafting a reply (existence).
6. That self is fully born: I am the one who is angry (birth).
7. The day is clouded; the feeling slowly wears out and fades, leaving tiredness and resentment behind (ageing and death, sorrow and distress).

All of this runs on because we did not see clearly from the start, which is ignorance at the scale of a moment. If, as the feeling arises, you know 'this is an unpleasant feeling, and it is changing', the rest of the chain does not have to turn. You can still answer the message, but with a mind that has not been dragged along.

Where the chain can be broken

In practice, teachers often point to the joint between feeling and craving as the easiest place to work. Feeling arises by itself from contact; we cannot stop it. But craving does not have to follow every time. If mindfulness knows the feeling as it is, which is contemplation of feelings in the four foundations of mindfulness, a feeling stays a feeling and does not turn into craving.

Lasting cessation, though, happens at the root. The reverse order begins with ignorance fading away and ceasing completely. Ignorance ends through true knowledge (vijjā), the wisdom that sees things as they are, which grows from seeing the three marks of existence in your own body and mind again and again.

Dependent origination, the four noble truths and not-self

The forward order of the chant is a detailed account of the first and second noble truths, suffering and its origin. The reverse order spells out the third, its cessation. What makes the reverse order actually happen is the noble eightfold path, the fourth truth. And ignorance, the first link, is defined as not knowing those four truths. So dependent origination and the noble truths are one subject seen from two angles.

Dependent origination also explains not-self. Among the twelve links there is no doer or receiver standing behind them, only conditions arising together. Yet this does not mean nothing exists: the chain really operates and actions really have results. In the sutta to Kaccānagotta (SN 12.15) the Buddha presents this as a teaching by the middle, avoiding both the view that everything exists and the view that nothing exists.

Dependent origination in summary

• Suffering does not appear from nowhere and is not created by anyone; it arises from conditions that depend on one another.
• The chain has twelve links, from ignorance to old age and death.
• The chant has two parts: the forward order shows how suffering arises, the reverse order how it ends.
• The place to practise every day is knowing feeling before it turns into craving.
• Lasting cessation is the ending of ignorance through wisdom, which comes from following the path.

If you remember only one sentence, remember this: when the cause is there, the result is there; when the cause ends, the result ends. The twelve links of dependent origination apply that sentence, in detail, to our own suffering.

Based on: Paṭiccasamuppāda Sutta (SN 12.1) · Vibhaṅga Sutta, analysis of dependent origination (SN 12.2) · Vibhaṅga, analysis of dependent origination (Vb 6) · Mahāhatthipadopama Sutta (MN 28) · Kaccānagotta Sutta (SN 12.15) · Vinaya Piṭaka, Mahāvagga, the Great Chapter · Visuddhimagga, by Buddhaghosa