འཕགས་པ་རྟན་ཅང་འབྲལ་པར་འབྱང་བ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད intro.4
The Sūtra on Dependent Arising intro.4
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intro.4
The topic of this sūtra, as is evident from its title, is the Buddhist doctrine of the dependent arising of conditioned phenomena. This concept is considered by many Buddhists to be the essence of the teaching, the Dharma. Dependent arising is often presented as a series of twelve links (nidāna) of causes and effects that begins with ignorance and ends with death. This schema is found in many canonical texts, and is the principal topic of the two works that precede the present sūtra in the Degé Kangyur, the Rice Seedling Sūtra (Śālistambhasūtra, Toh 210), and the Sūtra Teaching the Fundamental Exposition and Detailed Analysis of Dependent Arising (Pratītyasamutpādādivibhaṅganirdeśasūtra, Toh 211).¹