The Twelve Links of Interdependent Arising, or Dependent Origination, is a fundamental Buddhist teaching explaining how suffering arises and continues in a cycle of cause and effect. Each link is a stage demonstrating that all phenomena are connected and reliant on each other. By understanding these links, we learn that suffering doesn’t come from a fixed self but is a process influenced by various conditions. Breaking this cycle can lead to freedom from suffering and the understanding of emptiness, which means not having a permanent, separate self. Here are the links:
- Ignorance
- Volitional formations (Karma formations)
- Consciousness
- Name and form (Mind-body)
- Six sense bases (six sense organs)
- Contact
- Feeling (sensation)
- Craving
- Clinging (attachment)
- Becoming (existence)
- Birth
- Aging and death
