The Buddhist texts recognize five laws holding sway over the natural order.

Các kinh điển Phật giáo công nhận năm qui luật khống chế trật tự tự nhiên.

The doctrine of dependent origination shows that the sentient being is nothing but a flow of mental and physical phenomena which arises and continues in dependence on conditions. The layout of these conditions brings to light the cause of suffering and shows how suffering can be ended.

The doctrine is based on the following principle:

When THIS is present, there is THAT,
With the arising of THIS, THAT arises.

When THIS is not present, there isn't THAT,
With the cessation of THIS, THAT ceases.

Học thuyết thệp nhị nhân duyên cho thấy rằng chúng sanh hữu tình không gì khác hơn là luồng các hiện tượng tâm sinh lý sanh ra và tiếp diễn tùy thuộc vào các duyên. Cách bố trí của những điều kiện (duyên)này cho thấy nguyên nhân của khổ và cách khổ có thể được chấm dứt.

Học thuyết đặt nền tảng trên nguyên lý sau:

Khi CÁI NÀY hiện diện, thì có CÁI KIA,
Với sự khởi sanh của CÁI NÀY, CÁI KIA khởi sanh.

Khi CÁI NÀY không hiện diện, thì không có CÁI KIA,
Với sự diệt của CÁI NÀY, CÁI KIA diệt.

1. Dependent on ignorance there are activities (avijjaapaccayaa sa"mkhaaraa);
2. Dependent on activities there is consciousness (sa"mkhaarapaccayaa viññaa.na"m);
3. Dependent on consciousness there is mentality-materiality (viññaa.napaccayaa naama-ruupa"m);
4. Dependent on mentality-materiality there are the six bases (naamaruupapaccayaa sa.laayatana"m);
5. Dependent on the six bases there is contact (sa.laayatanapaccayaa phasso);
6. Dependent on contact there is feeling (phassapaccayaa vedanaa);
7. Dependent on feeling there is craving (vedanaapaccayaa ta.nhaa);
8. Dependent on craving there is clinging (ta.nhaapaccayaa upaadaana"m);
9. Dependent on clinging there is becoming (upaadaanapaccayaa bhavo);
10. Dependent on becoming there is birth (bhavapaccayaa jaati);
11. Dependent on birth there is old age and death (jaatipaccayaa jaraa mara.na"m).

1. Do vô minh mà có hành (avijjaapaccayaa sa"mkhaaraa);
2. Do hành mà có thức (sa"mkhaarapaccayaa viññaa.na"m);
3. Do tâm mà có danh - sắc(viññaa.napaccayaa naama-ruupa"m);
4. Do danh - sắc mà có lục nhập (naamaruupapaccayaa sa.laayatana"m);
5. Do lục nhập mà có xúc (sa.laayatanapaccayaa phasso);
6. Do xúc mà có thọ (phassapaccayaa vedanaa);
7. Do thọ mà có ái (vedanaapaccayaa ta.nhaa);
8. Do tham mà có thủ (ta.nhaapaccayaa upaadaana"m);
9. Do thủ mà có thành (upaadaanapaccayaa bhavo);
10. Do thành mà có sanh (bhavapaccayaa jaati);
11. Do sanh mà có già và chết (jaatipaccayaa jaraa mara.na"m).

The sequence of events covered by the doctrine falls into three existences — the immediately past, the present, and the future one. The first two factors in the sequence refer to the past life, the last two to the future life, and the rest to this present existence. However, these events intersect, so the factors assigned to the past and future existences also can be found in the present. The doctrine indicates how and why we came into this present existence and where we came from, confuting two erroneous interpretations of our nature and destiny:

1. that there is a soul, either uncreated or of divine origin, lasting eternally into the future; and
2. that we came into existence from nowhere and face nothing but annihilation at death.

1. rằng có một linh hồn, hoặc là không được tạo ra hoặc là có nguồn gốc thiêng liêng, tồn tại vĩnh cữu vào tương lai; và
2. rằng chúng ta không từ đâu đến và vào lúc lâm chung không phải đối mặt với bất cứ điều gì ngòai hư vô.

Dependent on ignorance there are activities. From an inconceivable beginning we have performed activities of body, speech, and mind dominated by ignorance. Ignorance is lack of insight into the Four Noble Truths. Any volitional action performed through ignorance becomes kamma with a potential to react, to bring about rebirth, and other consequences in accordance with the kammic law. Only the arahant, who has ended ignorance, can perform volitional acts without forming kamma.

Dependent on activities there is consciousness. After death the five aggregates disintegrate but kamma remains with its potential intact. This residual kamma helps form the embryo in the new existence. It is responsible for the rebirth consciousness, the first citta of the new life. The ovum and the sperm constitute the body of the embryo, kamma contributes the mind and mental functions. A kamma formation of the previous existence manifests itself as the passive consciousness which, from the very first moment of conception, receives all the potentialities resulting from past volitional actions. No consciousness passes over from one existence to the next but the stream of consciousness goes on, a flux, constantly becoming.

Dependent on consciousness there is mentality-materiality. The union of the ovum, sperm and rebirth consciousness brings the mental-material compound into being. Mentality (naama) signifies the mental factors conascent with passive consciousness — feeling (vedanaa), perception (saññaa), volition (cetanaa), contact (phassa), and attention (manasikaara). Materiality (ruupa) comprises the four primary elements of matter and their derivatives, described earlier. It must be noted that kamma plays a role in the arising of materiality too. At the moment of conception kamma generates three units of matter: the decads of sex, body, and the mind basis. In the course of life kamma causes and sustains the functioning of the senses and vitality. Rebirth consciousness is a conascent condition for the arising of materiality. Thereafter, consciousness conditions materiality via a number of relationships, to be given in the section on conditioning relationships below. Thus mentality and materiality are mutually dependent.

Dependent on mentality-materiality there are the six bases. Once generated and nourished by the mother, the embryo starts to grow. As it grows it acquires four other physical sense bases — the eye, ear, nose, and tongue. The body base appeared at conception as did the sixth sense organ, the mind-base (a collective term for all forms of consciousness).

Dependent on the six sense bases there is contact. Each physical sense base can be stimulated only by its appropriate sense object, i.e., eye-base by forms, ear-base by sounds, nose-base by smells, tongue base by tastes, and the tactile-base by touch. The mind-base can be stimulated by any thought or idea whether past, present, future, or timeless, whether real or imaginary, sensuous or abstract. When the sense base is stimulated, conditions are present for the appropriate consciousness to arise. The combination of the three — base, object, and consciousness — is called "contact."

Dependent on contact there is feeling. When contact is made with an object through the senses, feeling must also arise. Contact is a conascent condition feeling. The feeling may be agreeable, disagreeable, or neither. It is through feeling that we reap the results of previous kamma. Since kamma resultants differ from one person to another we each experience different feelings.

Dependent on feeling there is craving. Craving is of three kinds — craving for sense pleasures (kaamata.nhaa), craving for existence (bhavata.nhaa), and craving for non-existence (vibhavata.nhaa). We crave pleasant sensations experienced through the senses. When one pleasant object passes, as it must, we seek another, thirsting for a new pleasant sensation to replace the old. So the search goes on as craving knows no satiation. Besides pleasures, we also crave existence. In our ignorance we believe there is an abiding self within. Thence we strive and struggle to preserve this self and to provide it with the best conditions. But, at times, we also crave non-existence, as when in a mood of dejection we wish for annihilation, thinking death to be the end. Even if this craving does not become so drastic, it still springs up as the desire to destroy the causes of our distress.

Dependent on craving there is clinging. Clinging is an intensified form of craving. It has the nature of grasping and takes on four forms:

1. clinging to sense pleasures (kaam'uaadaana);
2. clinging to wrong views, principally eternalism and nihilism (di.t.th'uaadaana);
3. clinging to rites and rituals (siilabbat'upaadaana); and
4. clinging to a doctrine of self (attavaad'upaadaana). This is the most tenacious form of clinging, abandoned only when the stage of stream-entry is attained.

1. Thủ dục lạc (kaam'uaadaana);
2. Thủ tà kiến, chủ yếu là chủ nghĩa vĩnh cữu và hư vô (di.t.th'uaadaana);
3. Thủ nghi thức, lễ nghi (siilabbat'upaadaana); and
4. Thủ học thuyết về ngã (attavaad'upaadaana). Đây là hình thức cứng đầu nhứt của thủ, chỉ bị buông bỏ khi giai đọan Dự Lưu được chứng đạt.

Dependent on clinging there is becoming. Clinging conditions volitional activities, unwholesome and wholesome, which set the stage for a new existence where they can ripen.

Dependent on becoming there is birth. The unexhausted kammic activities of this life bring about birth into a new existence, finding appropriate conditions to manifest themselves.

Dependent on birth there is old age and death. Once a person is born, decay and death inevitably follow, bringing in their trail sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair.

In order to cure any disease its cause must be known and removed. All other treatments are symptomatic. The Buddha taught dependent origination to point out the cause of suffering and to show how it can be uprooted.

Modes of Conditioning

Buddhism teaches that all phenomena, mental and physical, arise through conditions. In the Abhidhamma the modes of conditionality are analyzed into twenty-four types of relationship, each representing a tie between a condition and the phenomena it conditions. A brief account of these is as follows:

1. Root condition (hetu paccaya). The three unwholesome roots — greed, hate, and delusion — are root conditions for their associated unwholesome mental states and the material form they originate. Likewise, for the wholesome and indeterminate states — greedlessness, hatelessness, and undeludedness.

2. Object condition (aaramma.na paccaya). Any state that is an object for consciousness and its factors is an object condition. Consciousness is of six kinds by way of eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind; each can arise only with its appropriate object.

3. Predominance condition (adhipati paccaya). This assists in the manner of being foremost, thereby exercising a dominating rose over the other mental states. It may be a conascent mental state or it may be an object which is given special importance by the mind.

4. & 5. Proximity and Contiguity conditions (anantara paccaya, samanantara paccaya). In our analysis of a thought process we saw that seventeen thought moments follow each other in rapid succession. Each thought moment, with its factors, stands to the next thought moment and its factors in the relation of proximity condition and contiguity condition. These two modes of conditioning are different only in name but not in essence.

Đạo Phật dạy rằng tất cả các hiện tượng (chư pháp), danh hay sắc, sanh ra thông qua các điều kiện. Trong Vi Diệu Pháp các phương thức nhân duyên được phân tích thành 24 lọai mối quan hệ, mỗi cái đại diện cho sự ràng buộc giữa một điều kiện và hiện tượng (pháp) mà nó qui định. Trình bày tóm tắt các mối quan hệ này như sau:

1. Root condition (căn duyên) (hetu paccaya). Ba căn bất thiện — tham, sân và si — là root conditions vì các tâm sở bất thiện đi theo chúng và các sắc mà chúng duyên vào. Tương tự, các tâm sở thiện và không quyết định — vô tham, vô sân và vô si.

2. Object condition (duyên đối tượng) (aaramma.na paccaya). Bất cứ trạng thái nào là điều kiện của tâm và tâm sở của nó là một object condition. Tâm có sáu lọai theo nhãn, nhỉ, tỷ, thiệt, thân và ý; mỗi lọai chỉ khởi sanh với một đối tượng thích hợp của nó.

3. Predominance condition (duyên trội) (adhipati paccaya). Duyên này hỗ trợ theo cách dẫn đường, theo đó thực hiện một sự vươn lên khống chế các trạng thái tâm khác. Nó có thể là một trạng thái đồng sanh hoặc có thể là một đối tượng được tâm cho là có tầm quan trọng đặc biệt .

4. & 5. Proximity and Contiguity - Các thường cận y duyên (anantara paccaya, samanantara paccaya). Trong phân tích của chúng ta về một quá trình tâm chúng ta thấy rằng có 17 chặp tâm theo nhau trong một chuỗi nối tiếp tốc hành. Mỗi chặp tâm, với tâm sở của nó, theo kế chặp tâm và các tâm sở của nó liền sau trong mối quan hệ của duyên phụ cận và lân cận. Hai phương thức nhân duyên này chỉ khác nhau về tên gọi chứ không khác về thực chất.

6. Conascence condition (sahajaata paccaya). When a number of phenomena arise simultaneously, each will function as a conascent condition for the others. For example, feeling arises as a conascent condition for its concomitants — perception, mental formations and consciousness — and each of these for the other three. The four primary elements are conascent conditions for each other and secondary matter. So too are mind and matter at conception.

The doctrine of dependent origination (pa.ticca samuppaada) teaches us that our mental and physical components are effects resulting from causes. The conditions (paccayas) show that a variety of specific relationships obtain between these effects and their causes. A few examples will be given to illustrate how this knowledge helps us to understand the Buddha's teaching and to put it into practice.

A. In relation to the teaching:

1. First Cause. Buddhism does not postulate a first cause. The world is beginningless, a continuous arising and passing away of phenomena dependent on conditions. The assumption that the world must have had a beginning is due to our limited understanding. Buddhism teaches that the world consists of a countless number of world-systems arising, evolving, and disintegrating in accordance with natural laws. To this cosmic process there is no first point or outside cause. As the Buddha says: "Inconceivable, O monks, is this sa.msaara. Not to be discovered is any first beginning of beings, who obstructed by ignorance and ensnared by craving, are hurrying and hastening through this round of rebirths." In fact, it is our ignorance, resulting in craving, that creates us over and over again.

2. Ignorance. Though in the doctrine of dependent origination ignorance was given as the first link, it must not be taken as a first cause. The commentator, Venerable Buddhaghosa, states in the Visuddhi Magga (translated by Bhikkhu Ñaanamoli):

   'Nor from a single cause arise
   One fruit or many, nor one fruit from many;
   'Tis helpful, though, to utilize
   One cause and one fruit as representative.'

The twenty-four conditions are so intricately related that nothing can stand by itself as a sufficient cause. Even ignorance arises and continues through conditions such as wrong companionship and wrong views. It is placed first, not because it is temporally first, but because it is the most fundamental condition for suffering.

B. Application in practice

1. Root condition. Buddhist training is directed towards eliminating the defilements (kilesaa). The foremost defilements are the three unwholesome roots — greed, hate, and delusion. From these spring others: conceit (maana), speculative views (di.t.thi), skeptical doubt (vicikicchaa), mental torpor (thiina), restlessness (uddhacca), shamelessness (ahirika), lack of moral fear or conscience (anottappa). These defilements function at three levels:

1. Transgression (viitikkama) leading to evil bodily and verbal acts. This is checked by the practice of morality, observing the five precepts.
2. Obsession (pariyu.t.thaana) when the defilements come to the conscious level and threaten to lead to transgression if not restrained by the practice of mindfulness.
3. Latency (anusaya) where they remain as tendencies ready to surface through the impact of sensory stimuli. Security from the defilements can be obtained only by destroying the three roots — greed, hate and delusion — at the level of latency. This requires insight-wisdom (vipassanaa-paññaa), the decisive liberating factor in Buddhism.

When the wanderer Jambukhaadaka asked his uncle, the Venerable Saariputta, what the word "nibbaana" means, the Venerable Saariputta replied that nibbaana is the extinction of greed, hate, and delusion. But nibbaana is not the mere extinction of these defilements. It is a state to be attained in this very existence by the extinction of greed, hate, and delusion.

Nibbaana is the summum bonum of Buddhist practice, to be achieved only by following the Noble Eightfold Path. For most of us the journey along the Path will be long and arduous, but there are sign-posts on the way that will indicate we are going in the right direction. We will recognize these sign-posts when the fetters that bind us are broken in succession. When the first three fetters — personality view, doubt, and clinging to mere rules and rituals — are broken one becomes a "stream enterer" (sotaapanna), one who has entered the stream to nibbaana. The fetters, once broken, will never bind such a person again. This is the truth he knows without uncertainty. The stream-enterer will not be reborn in the four lower planes of existence. He will take rebirth seven times at the most, either in the human or heavenly planes.

When the next two fetters — sensuous craving and ill-will are attenuated, one becomes a "once-returner" (sakadaagaamii), due to return only once to the sense sphere world and then attain nibbaana.

When all the lower five fetters are eradicated, the disciple becomes a "non-returner" (anaagaami), who will never return to the sense sphere world but, after death, will be reborn in a pure divine abode and attain nibbaana there.

One who takes the next major step and eradicates the five higher fetters — desire for existence in fine material planes, desire for existence in the immaterial planes, conceit, restlessness, and ignorance — reaches the final goal. He is the arahant, free from all future becoming.

Each of these four supramundane stages involves two phases. One is the "path" (magga) that eradicates the fetters, the other is the "fruit" (phala), moments of supramundane consciousness that result from the path, made possible by the path's work of eradication. The fruit is the enjoyment made available by the work of the path. The fruit can be entered and enjoyed many times after the appropriate path has been reached. The noble disciple determines to enter the fruit, then develops insight until he does so. The highest fruit is the fruit of arahantship. The arahant knows with certainty that his mind is devoid of defilements. He has penetrated the Four Noble Truths. He becomes neither despondent nor elated through contact with the eight worldly conditions — gain and loss, honor and dishonor, happiness and misery, praise and blame. He is free from sorrow, stainless, and safe. "Free from sorrow" because he no more weeps and laments; "stainless" because he has no more defilements; "safe" because there is no more birth for him.

Though the mind of the arahant is free from defilements, his body is still subject to decay, disease and injury, to pain and discomfort. He can overcome these by inducing supramundane consciousness, which is always at his disposal, but it would be impracticable for him to do so for any length of time. Therefore, during life, the arahant can enjoy only an intermittent release from suffering. This is called sa-upaadi-sesa-nibbaana, nibbaana with the groups of existence still remaining, since he still exists as an individualized personality subject to the results of residual kamma. Thus, the Buddha met a foot injury when Devadatta hurled a rock at him, the Venerable Mahaa Moggallaana was battered to death by professional criminals, and the Venerable Angulimaala was hit by sticks and stones while on his alms round.

When the arahant dies he attains an-upaadi-sesa-nibbaana, nibbaana without the aggregates remaining. He will not be reborn anywhere. Earlier he severed the chain of dependent origination at the link where feeling is followed by craving. Now he severs it at the link where becoming leads to new birth.

There has been much speculation as to what happens to the arahant after death — whether he exists, or does not exist, or both, or neither. This confusion arises from thinking in terms of an abiding entity that passes from life to life. The Buddha taught that such an abiding entity does not exist. It is an illusion. Life is a process of becoming, perishing at every moment, generated by kamma. Since there is no ego-entity, there is nothing to be annihilated and nothing to enter a state of eternal existence. When the arahant dies, the physio-mental process comes to an end for lack of the "fuel" needed to keep it going. This fuel is craving (ta.nhaa), which leads to grasping, which in turn leads to further becoming. If craving is totally extinguished, there can be no further becoming. When the body dies at the expiration of the life span, no new rebirth takes place. If there is no rebirth in any plane, then there is no decay, disease, and death; there is no sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, or despair. This is the end of suffering.

To conclude we shall recall those four existential aspects mentioned at the outset:

1. What are we? Each of us is a mind-body combination whose constituent parts arise and perish from moment to moment, depending on conditions. There is no abiding entity found in this process of becoming. The mind and the body are reciprocal. With death, the body disintegrates into the four primary elements but the flow of consciousness goes on finding a material base in another existence in accordance with kamma. We are owners of our kamma, heirs to our kamma, kamma is the womb from which we are born, kamma is our friend, our refuge. The present mind-body combination will last as long as the reproductive kamma supports it, but this could be cut off at any time by a strong opposing kamma. In spite of the transient happiness we enjoy, there is no means by which we can avoid decay, ill-health, association with the unpleasant, dissociation from the pleasant, and not getting what we desire.

2. What do we find around us? Around are sentient and non-sentient objects which provide stimuli for our senses and minds. The material nature of our bodies is the same as that of the objects around us, all made up of the four primary elements and their derivatives.

3. How and why do we react to what is within and around us? We react in response to the six kinds of stimuli that we make contact with through the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind. The nature of our reaction depends on our defilements which manifest as craving and grasping.

4. What should we aspire to reach as a spiritual goal? We should aspire to eliminate craving and thereby end this process of repeated becoming, always fraught with suffering. This is the attainment of nibbaana. The way is the Noble Eightfold Path.

1. Chúng ta là gì? Mỗi chúng ta là một kết hợp thân-tâm mà các yếu tố thành phần sinh diệt từ sát na này đến sát na khác, tùy vào các duyên. Không có một thực thể thường tồn trong tiến trình sinh thành này. Tâm và thân là tương hỗ. Với cái chết, thân tan rả thành tứ đại nhưng dòng tâm thức tiếp tục tìm cơ sở vât chất mới (sắc) trong kiếp khác phù hợp với nghiệp. Chúng ta là chủ sở hữu của nghiệp của chúng ta, người thừa kế của nghiệp của chúng ta, nghiệp là tử cung mà từ đó chúng ta được sanh ra, nghiệp là bạn, là nguồn trợ lực của chúng ta. Kết hợp thân-tâm hiện tại sẽ tồn tại cho đến khi nào nghiệp tái sản sinh còn nâng đỡ nó, nhưng điều này có thể bị cắt ngang bất cứ lúc nào bởi một nghiệp đối lập mạnh. Dù những hoan lạc phù du mà chúng ta được hưởng, không có cách gì để chúng ta tránh được già, bịnh, đi cùng với khổ đau, tách rời khỏi vui thú, và không có được điều ta mong muốn.

2. Chúng ta thấy quanh ta những gì? Chung quanh ta là những đối tưởng hữu tình và vô tình đem lại những kích thích cho giác quan và các tâm của chúng ta. Bản chất vật chất của thân của chúng ta cũng giống như bản chất của các đối tượng quanh ta, tất cả đều làm bằng tứ đại chủng và các đại phái sanh của chúng.

3. Bằng cách nào và tại sao chúng ta phản ứng lại với những gì trong và chung quanh ta? Chúng ta phản ứng đáp lại sáu kích thích mà chúng ta tiếp xúc qua mắt, tai, mũi, lưỡi, thân và ý. Bản chất của phản ứng của chúng ta tùy thuộc vào những ô nhiễm biểu lộ thành ái và thủ.

4. Chúng ta mong đạt được gì để làm mục tiêu tinh thần? Chúng ta nên mong muốn lọai bỏ ái và theo đó chấn dứt tiến trình sinh thành lập đi lập lại này, luôn đầy những khổ. Đó là chứng đạt nibbaana niết bàn. Con đường là Bát Chánh Đạo.

The arahant Ra.t.thapaala told King Koravya why he went forth from the home life into homelessness. He said that life in any world:

1. is unstable and is swept away;
2. has no shelter and no protector;
3. has nothing of its own, it has to leave everything and pass on; and
4. is incomplete, insatiate, and the slave of craving.

Facts are stubborn, often unpalatable. No purpose is served by behaving like the proverbial ostrich or by sweetening the true taste of existence with a sprinkling of ambrosia. But there is no need to be despondent. Peace and happiness are possible, always available to us, if we make the effort to find them. To find them we have to get to know "things as they really are." "Things as they really are" is the subject dealt with in the Abhidhamma. By studying the Abhidhamma and turning these studies into personal experience by meditation, we can reach the liberating knowledge that gives peace.

1. không bền vững và bị quét phăng đi;
2. không có chỗ trú ngụ, không có người bảo hộ;
3. không có gì là của tự nó, nó phải rời bỏ mọi thứ và trôi đi; và
4. bất tòan, không thỏa mãn, và nô lệ cho ái.

Các dữ kiện rất phi lý,lợm giọng. Chẳng đi đến đâu dù là ta ứng xử như con đà điểu trong chuyện ngụ ngôn hoặc làm ngọt ngào cho hương vị chân thật của cuộc sống bằng rưới lên thực phẩm trường sinh. Nhưng cũng không cần phải chán ngán. An lạc là có thể, luôn sẵn sàng đối với chúng ta, nếu chúng ta nỗ lực tìm chúng. Muốn tìm thấy chúng, chúng ta phải biết "vạn pháp y như chúng là. "Vạn pháp y như chúng là" là chủ đề mà Vi Diệu Pháp bàn đến. Bằng cách nghiên cứu Vi Diệu Pháp và biến những nghiên cứu này thành kinh nghiệm cá nhân bằng thiền định, chúng ta có thể đạt được tri kiến giải thóat đem lại an vui.