The History of Buddhist Thought c13.2

c13.2

ONE of the most discussed doctrines of Buddhism is the Formula of causal origin, the so-called Chain of Causation, the *paṭicca-samuppāda*, Skt. *pratītya-samutpāda*. The Formula is held to expound the two truths of the origin of pain and the cessation of pain. It was apparently Burnouf who first called it a chain, *enchaînement*, but this is a question-begging term, for the name merely means " arising or coming into existence causally ", and there are Buddhists who deny that it should be understood as a continuous chain. The term usually translated " link " is *nidāna*, " cause," but each link is said to arise by having the previous one as cause (*paccaya*). There is an abundance of terms for cause which are never strictly distinguished. Another point which has not always been recognized is that the scheme with twelve " links " is only the stereotyped form which it finally assumed. There are several other shorter variants in the Canon, and they raise the question whether they are adapted from the longer form, or whether the longer is an inorganic combination of independent elements.¹ It will be convenient to give first the classical form in which the Formula is best known. This is found in the description of the attainment of arahatship, when the disciple having passed through the stages of morality and concentration reaches the knowledge of the destruction of the *āsavas*, and knows pain, its cause, its cessation, and the Way leading thereto. In what is probably the oldest form of this description² there is no mention of the Chain, but merely the statement that the truths are known. But we also find this statement expanded by the insertion of the Formula of causal origin, and its repetition, in which each item is stated positively as a cause, is said to explain the cause of pain, and its repetition negatively, in which each item is said not to exist, explains the cessation of pain. The following is the Formula in the *Lalita-vistara*,¹ where after telling of the rebirth of beings it continues :