Dependent origination

Dependent origination (Sanskrit pratītyasamutpāda, Pali paṭiccasamuppāda) is the Buddha’s account of how things come to be: whatever arises does so in dependence on conditions, and ceases when its conditions cease. The early discourses give it in a short formula, “when this is, that is; from the arising of this, that arises”, and in a chain of twelve links that explains the round of rebirth, from ignorance through craving and grasping to birth, ageing and death.

The teaching is meant to avoid two extremes: eternalism, the view that there is a permanent self or substance, and annihilationism, the view that nothing continues at all. It explains continuity without a continuant, and it shows where the chain can be broken: with the end of ignorance and craving, suffering ceases.

Nāgārjuna gave the teaching a new depth by identifying it with emptiness: things are empty of intrinsic existence precisely because they arise dependently. East Asian Buddhism developed it further in the Huayan image of Indra’s net, in which every jewel reflects every other.