Paticcasamuppada - excerpts from Visuddhimagga (including tika translation by Nina van gorkom)

Textual Scholarship
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The Path of Purification" (Visuddhimagga), Ch. XVII

  1. When he is confused about dependently-arisen states, instead of
    taking the occurrence of formations to be due to ignorance, etc., he
    figures that it is a self that knows or does not know, that acts and
    causes action, that appears in rebirth-linking, and he figures that
    atoms, an Overlord, etc., shape its body in the various states of the
    embryo and endow it with faculties, and that when it has been endowed
    with faculties it touches, feels, craves, clings, and endeavours, and
    that it becomes anew in the next becoming; or he figures thus, ‘All
    beings … [are] moulded by fate, coincidence and nature’ (D.i,53).

paṭiccasamuppannadhammesu vimūḷho avijjādīhisaṅkhārādīnaṃ pavattiṃ agaṇhanto attā jānāti vā na jānāti vā, so eva karoti ca kāreti ca. so paṭisandhiyaṃ upapajjati, tassa aṇuissarādayo kalalādibhāvena sarīraṃ saṇṭhapento indriyāni sampādenti. so indriyasampanno phusati, vediyati, taṇhīyati, upādiyati, ghaṭiyati. so puna bhavantare bhavatī’'ti vā, sabbe sattā niyatisaṅgatibhāvapariṇatā´´ti (dī0 ni01.168) vā vikappeti.

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i edited your pali… you can use TPR and paste velthuis into the dictionary lookup. It will convert.

Why did you post this?

Any discussion?

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From NINA VAN GORKOM
Vis. Ch XVII, 117.

Intro:
Also this section reminds us of the danger of different kinds of
wrong view that arise due to ignorance. One is bound to take
understanding and ignorance for self. Or one may believe in fatalism:
everything has been fixed by fate and this cannot be altered.

Text Vis.: When he is confused about dependently-arisen states,
instead of
taking the occurrence of formations to be due to ignorance, etc., he
figures that it is a self that knows or does not know,

Nina: He takes understanding and ignorance for self. The Tiika adds that
he has desire to have the quality of wisdom (buddhigu.na).
He desires to have the wisdom leading to enlightenment without
cultivating the right conditions leading to it.

Text Vis.: that acts and causes action, that appears in rebirth-linking,

Nina: The Tiika adds that he, hereafter, will experience happiness and
sorrow.
He thinks of a self who will be reborn and experience happiness and
sorrow.
Therefore, he performs kusala and akusala with the wrong view of self.

Text Vis.: and he figures that atoms, an Overlord, etc., shape its
body in the various states of the embryo and endow it with faculties,

Nina: As to the expression “shape his body” (sa.n.thapenta, shaping)
this refers to being generated, and the word “endow”(sampaadenta,
endowing) this refers to his desire.
When he is endowed with the sense faculties he clings to all the
sense objects that he experiences.
The Tiika comments on “he” (so) as a being with the wrong perception
of self
(attasa~n~nito).

Text Vis.: and that, when it has been endowed with faculties, it
touches, feels, craves, clings, and endeavours, and that it becomes
anew in the next becoming;

N: As to the expression, endowed with faculties (indriyasampanno),
the Tiika adds, with the eye etc. and it states that by this the
occurring of six aayatanas is taught. All this occurs according to
conditions (yathaapaccaya.m) and due to ignorance he performs kamma,
while he is bewildered with wrong view (di.t.thigatiko vimuyhati).

Text Vis.: or he figures thus, 'All beings … [are] moulded by fate,
coincidence and nature’ (D.i,53).

N: The Tiika compares being moulded by fate with a row of
unbreakable jewels strung along an uncuttable thread.
Fate (niyati) fixes beings destiny very firmly, according to a
person who has such belief.
The Tiika adds that (according to his belief) fate fixes the past and
the future pubbaapariya).

As to the expression ’ fate, coincidence and
nature’ (niyatisa�ngatibhaava), the text refers to D., no 2, The
Fruits of the Life of a Recluse. This is translated here (by Ven.
Bodhi) as: “undergoing transformation by destiny, circumstance and
nature…”
The Commentary to this sutta explains circumstance (sangati) as:
“going here and there among the six classes of men.”
The Tiika to the Visuddhimagga elaborates that he comes to rebirth
among men or devas that are going through the air (manussadevavihanga).
The Commentary to the Diigha Nikaaya, explains “nature” (bhaava), as
the inner nature (sabhaava).
The translator, Ven. Bodhi, states in a footnote:

NINA: Conclusion:
The words of the text, “instead of taking the occurrence of
formations to be due to ignorance, etc., he figures that it is a self
that knows or does not know” are a pertinent reminder not to take
both understanding and ignorance for self. These are realities of
daily life and when they occur they should not be neglected as
objects of awareness and understanding. There are bound to be many
moments of unawareness and ignorance but such moments can be realized
as dhammas arising because of their own conditions. Instead of trying
to change them they should be understood as they are. Gradually we
may be able to see the difference between the moments of unawareness
and of awareness. When it is understood what sati is, there are
conditions for its growth.

In this section it is explained that ignorance can lead to many kinds
of wrong view, such as the belief that atoms or a creator endows a
person with the sense faculties, or fatalism.
As we read, “when it has been endowed with faculties, it touches,
feels, craves, clings, and endeavours, and that it becomes anew in
the next becoming”. With these words, the Dependent Origination has
been rendered in brief, but due to wrong view it seems that a lasting
being traverses the cycle. We read that a person, endowed with the
faculties, experiences objects, and that due to phassa, contact,
there is feeling. Feeling leads to craving (tanhaa), and this leads
to clinging (upaadana), and this to activity. Kamma that is performed
produces rebirth. It is explained here that a person with wrong view
believes that a self contacts an object, feels, craves, clings, and
endeavours, and that it becomes anew in the next becoming.
Or, he figures, as the text states, that this whole process occurring
in the cycle is fixed by fate, circumstance and nature.

We are bound to think with anxiety of our next life and the
happiness or sorrow we shall experience in the future. However this
is not according to the truth.
Also at this moment there is no being that exists, there are nama and
rupa arising and falling away. Kusala and akusala arising in this
life are accumulated and will condition the arising of kusala and
akusala in the future, also in future lives. Right understanding of
conditions for whatever arises now and in the future will prevent
fatalism. The Buddha taught the eightfold Path and the right
conditions leading out of the cycle can be cultivated. We can begin
with its development from this moment on.

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Visuddhimagga Ch XVII, 309, 310

NINA van GORKOM: Intro: In the following sections it has been explained that by seeing
the Dependent Origination wrongly, one adopts different kinds of
wrong views, such as annihilation belief, eternity belief, the wrong
view of inaction, no kamma that produces result. In seeing the
Dependent Origination rightly, one abandons such wrong views.

Text Vis. 309: [As to methods:] Then there are four methods of
treating the
meaning here. They are (a) the method of identity, (b) the method of
diversity, (c) the method of uninterest, and (d) the method of
ineluctable regularity. So this Wheel of Becoming should also be known
accordingly ‘as to the kinds of method’.

N: The Tiika elaborates on the term nayo, method, derived from
nayaati, to lead. One is rightly or wrongly led by the method of
identity and the other methods.

Text Vis. 310: (a) Herein, the non-interruption of the continuity in
this way,
'With ignorance as condition there are formations; with formations as
condition, consciousness’, just like a seed’s reaching the state of a
tree through the state of a shoot, etc., is called the method of
identity’.

N: The Tiika elaborates on the seed becoming a shoot, and then
acquiring stalks, branches, sprouts of leaf and foliage. There is an
unbroken continuity of the constituents in the development from seed
to tree. Evenso the method of identity is taught with regard to the
Dependent Origination: 'With ignorance as condition there are
formations… There is an unbroken continuity of the causes and
their fruits that arise.

Text Vis.: One who sees this rightly abandons the annihilation view by
understanding the unbrokenness of the continuity that occurs through the
linking of cause and fruit.
And one who sees it wrongly clings to the eternity view by
apprehending identity in the non-interruption of the continuity that
occurs through the linking of cause and fruit.

N: Without cause there would not be any fruit, thus, they are
connected. But, as the Tiika explains, by not considering cause and
fruit as different and seeing them as one state one clings to the
eternity view, thinking, “consciousness transmigrates in the cycle
of birth and death”

Conclusion:
We should remember Vis.165:

An echo, or its like, supplies
The figures here; connectedness
By continuity denies
Identity and otherness.

The Tiika (to Vis. 166) states that sound is the cause of the echo.
Sound is the condition, paccaya, for the echo which is the
conditioned dhamma, paccayuppanna dhamma. The echo has not come here
from the past, but its arising is due to a condition of the past
(atiitahetusamuppaada).
The Tiika states that all things that arise because of conditions
were absent before and after their arising they do not go elsewhere.
It is the same with rebirth-consciousness. It was absent before and
after it has arisen because of conditions it falls away and does not
go elsewhere.
And this is also true for the citta arising at this moment: there are
conditions for its arising, but it did not come from anywhere nor
does it go anywhere. It arises just for a moment and then it falls
away to be succeeded by a following citta. If we do not study and be
aware of the reality arising at this moment we shall not understand
the meaning of the method of identity. When taking this in the wrong
way, one may continue to cling to an idea of self who exists.

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Thank you venerable.
Would you be able to give a simple step by step guide here on how to do that using TPR.

This topic can consider subtle aspects of paticcasamuppada that the Commentary and Tika highlight.

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Visuddhimagga Ch XVII, 311, 312.

NINA Intro: In the previous section it was explained that by rightly
seeing the continuity that occurs through the linking of cause and
fruit one abandons the annihilation view. By wrongly seeing identity
in the non-interruption of this continuity one clings to the eternity
view.

In the following section (311) it is demonstrated that by rightly
seeing the arising of each new dhamma with its own characteristic one
abandons the eternity belief. By not seeing continuity, one clings to
the annihilation view.

In section 312 it is explained that by rightly seeing that there are
only realities occurring according to conditions one understands that
there is no self, no creator, and by wrong understanding one clings
to the moral inefficiency of action, akiriya di.t.thi.

Text Vis. 311. (b) The defining of the individual characteristic of
ignorance, etc., is called the ‘method of diversity’.

Nina: One sees that the cause and the fruit in the Dependent Origination
have each a different characteristic (sabhaava lakkha.na), as the
Tiika explains.

Text Vis. : One who sees this rightly abandons the eternity view by
seeing the arising of each new state. And one who sees it wrongly
clings to the annihilation view by apprehending individual diversity
in the events in a single continuity as though it were a broken
continuity.

Nina: When someone sees the Dependent Origination wrongly he only sees
diversity, without continuity. He does not see that there is a
continuity as a cause produces its fruit. He believes that another
person is dead, and another person is born, and therefore, by taking
that a different being is destroyed and a different being has arisen,
without any connection, he clings to the annihilation view, as the
Tiika explains.

Text Vis. 312. (c) The absence of interestedness on the part of
ignorance, such as ‘Formations must be made to occur by me’, or on
the part of formations, such as 'Consciousness must be made to occur
by us’, and so on, is called the ‘method of uninterestedness’. One
who sees this rightly abandons the self view by understanding the
absence of a maker.

Nina: Thus, in not clinging to an idea of a self who causes the
occurrence of kamma formations, kusala or akusala kamma, is the
method of uninterestedness, or inactivity, abyaapaara.
P. Maung translates abyaapaara as “the method of non-occupation”. In
the Dispeller of Delusion (p. 243) this is translated as the method
of inactivity.

The Tiika explains that when seeing the method of inactivity rightly
one understands that there are only dhammmas (dhammamattaa), who are
inactive (niriiha), without a soul (nijjiiva).

Text Vis.: One who sees it wrongly clings to the moral-inefficacy-of-
action view, because he does not perceive that the causative function
of ignorance, etc., is established as a law by their respective
individual essences.

Nina: The cause or condition for what is conditioned is an established
fact, as the Tiika explains. The characteristics of cause and fruit
are fixed, niyama, they cannot be altered.
If one fails to see this rightly, one clings to the moral-inefficacy-
of-action view, akiriyadi.t.thi. That is the view that there are no
good or bad actions that produce results.

Conclusion: The text states repeatedly : when this is rightly seen,
when this is wrongly seen. Right understanding prevents going into
the extremes of eternalism or annihilism. There is a connection, a
continuity in the cycle of birth and death, but this should not be
misinterpreted as there being the same person who travels from the
past to the present life. When one fails to see continuity in cause
and fruit, one will cling to the annihilation belief. One believes
that the dying-consciousness is not succeeded by the rebirth-
consciousness in the next life.
As the Tiika states: there are mere dhammas, not a person who makes
formations occur. But, this does not mean that there are no kusala
dhammas and akusala dhammas that will produce their appropriate
results accordingly. If someone believes in the moral inefficacy of
action he will not be inclined to perform kusala, listen to the
Dhamma and develop understanding. Not a self or a person is doing so,
but mere dhammas, and these arise because of the appropriate condition

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