The twelve
links of dependent origination (Skt. dvādaśāṅga-pratītyasamutpāda; Tib. རྟེན་འབྲེལ་ཡན་ལག་བཅུ་གཉིས་,
tendrel yenlak chunyi, Wyl. rten 'brel yan lag bcu gnyis) also referred to as
the twelve nidanas (Skt. nidāna) are:
1.
Ignorance (Skt. avidyā; Tib. མ་རིག་པ་, ma
rigpa, Wyl. ma rig pa): Fundamental ignorance of the truths and the delusion
of mistakenly perceiving the skandhas as a self.
2.
Formation (Skt. saṁskāra;
Tib. འདུ་བྱེད་, duje,
Wyl. 'du byed): As long as there is ignorance there is the formation
of karma: positive, negative and neutral. This forms the rebirths in
the various realms.
3.
Consciousness (Skt. vijñāna; Tib. རྣམ་པར་ཤེས་པ་,
nampar shepa, Wyl. rnam par shes pa): Formations cause the consciousness of the
next existence. The consciousness which propels one towards the next existence
is called the impelling consciousness. And the consciousness that
is led to that particular state, once the conditions have come together, is
known as the consciousness of the impelled result. These two aspects of
consciousness are counted as a single link since together they establish the
link between two lives.
4.
Name-and-form (Skt. nāma-rūpa; Tib. མིང་དང་གཟུགས་, ming
dang zuk, Wyl. ming dang gzugs): The five skandhas. By the power of
consciousness one is linked to a womb, and there the body develops: the form
and the four ‘name’ skandhas of sensation, perception, formation and
consciousness.
5.
The six ayatanas (Skt. ṣaḍāyatana; Tib. སྐྱེ་མཆེད་དྲུག་,
kyemche druk, Wyl. skye mched drug): The six inner ayatanas of the sense
faculties then arise.
6.
Contact (Skt. sparśa; Tib. རེག་པ་,
rekpa, Wyl. reg pa): The coming together of objects,
sense faculty and consciousness is contact.
7.
Sensation (Skt. vedanā; Tib. ཚོར་བ་,
tsorwa, Wyl. tshor ba): From contact arises sensation: pleasurable, painful and
neutral.
8.
Craving (Skt. tṛṣṇā; Tib.
སྲེད་པ་, sepa,
Wyl.
sred pa): There then develops a desire not to be separated from pleasurable
sensations and to be free from painful sensations.
9.
Grasping (Skt. upādāna; Tib. ལེན་པ་,
lenpa, Wyl. len pa): As craving increases, it develops into grasping, i.e.
actively striving never to be separated from what is pleasurable and
to avoid what is painful.
10.
Becoming (Skt. bhava; Tib. སྲིད་པ་, sipa,
Wyl. srid pa): Through this grasping one acts with body, speech and mind, and
creates the karma that determines one’s next existence.
11.
Rebirth (Skt. jāti; Tib. སྐྱེ་བ་,
kyewa, Wyl. skye ba): Through the power of this becoming, one is reborn in a
particular birthplace whenever the necessary conditions are assembled.
12.
Old age and death (Skt. jarā-maraṇa; Tib. རྒ་ཤི་, ga
shi,
Wyl. rga shi): Following rebirth there is a continual process of aging as the
aggregates change and develop; and eventually there is death when the
aggregates finally cease.
