The Twelve Interconnected Causes

People ask about, all the time, tiredlessly,
the causes of sorrow, misery, tragedies
or even the origin of life.

Not knowing that a few thousands years ago,
Sakyamuni had already pointed out
the twelve essential steps that lead to all sufferings.

These twelve sequential steps or
the twelve interconnected causes (十二因緣)
indicate that we ourselves
are actually the source of all problems,
because we allow the following cascade of events to occur:

1. non-brightness [ignorance] (無明);
2. action (行);
3. consciousness (識);
4. name and form (名色);
5. the six sense organs (六入);
6. touch (觸);
7. feel (受);
8. craving (愛);
9. grasping (取);
10. becoming (有);
11. birth (生);
12. aging and death (老死)

Knowing the sequence above leads to sufferings,
in order to solve the problems in our lives,
the linkage above has to be disrupted.

Usually, the enlightened gurus will encourage
disrupting the linkage by

a. eliminating ignorance (i.e. awareness) and
b. eliminating craving (i.e. curbing greed)

It may sound easier said than done,
but at least now we know where to start from :)

Making strong vows to gain awareness and to reduce personal greed
will help sustain us throughout the difficult path of soul liberation.

That is one of the most important lessons
I have learnt in Dharma classes in the past few years.
All the time time,
I feel compelled to share this with family & friends around,
with the hope that their life quality will improve
with a bit of wisdom from Sakyamuni...


With metta,
Kee Yew


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