Overview of Rebirth and the Twelve Links

There are many different ways to examine rebirth. The most profound way is to understand continuities. This means that things arise dependently on causes and condition. If that is the case, we can think in terms of the mind or consciousness; however that too can become a bit problematic because many Western scientists don’t accept the mind or consciousness as being something different from just a physical property of the brain, chemicals, electrical impulses, hormones and so on. Nevertheless, if we think of mind or consciousness in terms of the subjective individual experiencing of things, then if it’s continuity from moment to moment, there must be causes and conditions driving it. Consequently, we would have to examine if there is an absolute beginning and end to this stream of continuity. Only by analyzing in that way can we conclude that there is no beginning and no end. Dealing with the concept of infinity is not so easy for most of us. The logic is something that requires getting used to. As mentioned, this approach is the most profound or deepest way to become convinced of rebirth.

An easier way of approaching it is to understand how it works and that is what the twelve links of dependent arising explain. With this information we can examine how it arises and whether it is something helpful that we can work with or just some impractical theoretical explanation. After all, everything that Buddha taught was intended to help us to overcome difficulties and suffering. We always need to look at any Buddhist teachings in terms of how it can help us overcome suffering and not creating more suffering and problems. 

In our discussion of rebirth, we are talking about sentient beings. If we look at the term, the actual meaning is someone with a limited mind and body. This isn’t in the sense of being handicapped, but more like a magnet, we attract problems, sickness, and old age. As Shantideva describes, we become like a slave taking care of the body. We have to feed it, wash it, clothe it, and give it rest. We are constantly serving our bodies. It is an unending task. If we are human, with rebirth, we have to relearn everything that was learned previously including how to walk, talk, let alone go to school again. 

In the Mahayana practices of the four close placements of mindfulness, when focused on the body, we aren’t focusing on the sensations of the body as in the Theravada method. Instead, we focus on the body from the perspective of the first noble truth, that this body is really problematic. As a sentient being we have a limited body and mind. We can only see out of these two holes in the front of our faces, and we aren’t able to understand so many things. As we age, our memory and mindfulness decrease, and all our senses weaken. There are so many limitations. A Buddha is not a sentient being; a Buddha has unlimited body and mind. 

The twelve links explain how this constantly occurs, how we repeatedly have this type of body and mind. It is generated from our unawareness of ignorance, contains more of this unawareness and ignorance and perpetuates itself in this way. The twelve links provide a profound and sophisticated explanation of how uncontrollably recurring rebirth works and how we can stop it. We can deal with this on the actual Dharma level of wanting to stop rebirth, but it can also help us in our daily life even without the confidence that there is such a thing as rebirth. 

In this series of talks, we won’t be discussing in great depth the details about the twelve links. There are many comprehensive articles about this on the website for example. Instead, we will have a shorter presentation of these details and thereafter examine more deeply how we can actually work with this material on a practical level in our daily lives.

We start with three links that are known as the causal links that throw the consciousness into future life. These twelve links are divided into four groups, and this is the first. 

Unawareness

We begin this group with unawareness. The rather literal translation of the term is “unawareness,” meaning that we just don’t know. It is usually translated as ignorance; but, at least in English, it implies being stupid. It’s not that we are stupid. The definition of unawareness is not knowing something. We just don’t know and we are confused because the ways things appear don’t correspond to reality. We tend to believe how our limited minds make things appear, constantly projecting nonsense onto everything that we perceive. Doing so blinds our minds and thus obstructs our correctly knowing reality.

We are unaware on two levels. This is not discussing being unaware of someone’s telephone number. We are unaware of cause and effect, how reality works, and we are also unaware of how things actually exist and how they don’t exist as these impossible ways of existing that our minds project, that we believe. Unawareness in the twelve links is specifically referring to the level of how things exist. 

In the Buddhist context we have two aspects of that, the unawareness of how persons exist and how everything else exists. These twelve links are a very basic teaching found in all aspects of Buddhism from the Hinayana to Mahayana schools. They are explained in a basic way that fit into any of the assertions of the different schools. In this case, we’re talking about unawareness specifically about how persons exist. That refers to ourselves and to everybody else. Either we simply don’t know, or we think we know, but we are incorrect. In either case, our ignorance blinds our ability to discriminate correctly and prevents us from knowing the reality of our existence. We have a mental block.

At a recent talk, His Holiness the Dalai Lama explained the way that misconception about persons arose in India in ancient times. Occasionally, even today, there are young children who remember previous lives. In India, when people investigated the details such as who their parents were and where they lived, the information was actually confirmed as accurate. It needed some explanation of that, and the explanation was rebirth. The theory that these ancient philosophers came up with to explain rebirth was that there was some sort of entity, an atman, or the equivalent in the West would be a soul. It’s usually translated as a “self,” but it’s a bit like our term “soul” or a combination of these two. This atman, or soul, never changed, didn’t have any parts, and could exist independently of a body and mind. It came into a body and mind and sort of activated it, used it and left. 

Following that, an entire philosophy developed, and different schools of philosophy. Some schools said that the atman had consciousness while others said that it didn’t and just used the brain for consciousness. What they all asserted, except for one obscure school, was that because the nature of the self wasn’t understood, that caused uncontrollably recurring rebirth filled with suffering and problems. The way to overcome that was correct understanding of how the self existed. All these schools had in common training in discipline and perfect concentration. They all had methods to attain shamatha, a stilled and settled state of mind and vipashyana, an exceptionally perceptive state of mind. In shamatha, we understand with a rough understanding of something and with vipashyana it is very detailed. They also asserted that liberation could be attained, and with that liberation, that self would continue to exist and be known entirely separate from a body and mind.

Many of these schools proposed that if one attained perfect shamatha and the dhyanas, the even more deep states of meditative absorption – in a sense, a little bit similar to tantra – this was the path to liberation. Buddha examined this and saw that shamatha was not enough by itself. It could be filled with attachment to the states and so on. There were still problems, and one still wasn’t free. Buddha followed the same structure as we find in these Indian schools; but with the four noble truths, he defined the true problem and the true state of being free. He realized that this atman, this type of self that these schools were asserted didn’t correspond to reality. There is no such thing. 

Doctrinally Based Unawareness

That doesn’t mean that there’s no such thing as a self. After all, we do experience things happening subjectively. We do make decisions and so on; but we are confused about how that self exists. There are two levels of this confusion. One is called doctrinally based. This means that we were taught that we existed as an atman, this self that never changed, is never affected by anything, has no parts, and can exist in a state of liberation independently of a body and mind. We had to be taught that. When we discuss rebirth, we include being born as a dog or a fly, let alone the other states of existence. Leaving that aside, a dog or a fly wouldn’t have the belief that they exist as an atman. One has to be taught it and believe it. This is the first level in that we are unaware that what we have been taught and what we believed is nonsense and doesn’t correspond to reality.

The doubt that might come up is that being born in the West, we never studied any of the Indian philosophical systems, nor do we believe in any of that. However, we have pieces of these beliefs that come into the category of incorrect consideration. For example, we think that something that changes doesn’t change. We think, “It’s me and this ‘me’ is always the same; I went to sleep last night and here I am again, same ‘me.’” We do have pieces of that. Tibetan sources say that everybody has this doctrinally based belief, even if we didn’t study it in this lifetime. This follows from no beginning; we must have learned it in some previous lifetime. This is how we can understand how everybody has the tendency to have this first level of confusion that we need to get rid of.

Automatically Arising Unawareness

The next level of this unawareness is automatically arising. Everyone has that, including the dog. This type of self can be known independently of a body and mind, just by itself. From the point of view of a dog, “I see my master.” From the point of view of a cow, “I’m hungry.” We think of ourselves independently of the body and the mind. We think, “I’m hungry,” and not that there is this sensation in the stomach. When we see ourselves in the mirror, we are really just seeing an image, but based on that we say, “I see myself.” “I know myself or I don’t know myself” – what is it that we don’t know? Myself. Another favorite example of this is “I want you to love me just for myself; not for my money, my looks, or anything. Just love me for me.” This is impossible. This automatically arises and no one has to teach us that.

Disturbing Emotions and Attitudes

These are the two levels of unawareness, and it is directed at persons, limited sentient beings, ourselves and everybody else. This comprises the first link, and based on that we get all the disturbing emotions and attitudes. This is sometimes translated as “emotional afflictions,” but something a bit closer to the definition is an emotion or an attitude or some state of mind that, when it arises, it makes us lose self-control and peace of mind. It’s disturbing. This occurs because we believe that we are, in simple terms, this solid being. In addition, we have the basic principle that everybody wants to be happy and nobody wants to be unhappy; however, with the other kind of unawareness, that of cause and effect, we don’t know what is going to actually bring happiness and not just more problems. 

Therefore, we have longing desire. We think if we can just get something, perhaps enough “likes” on my Facebook page or Instagram post, that’s going to make us happy. Of course, it never does. There are other variants of this, such as attachment. If we have something, we don’t want to let go. Also, there is greed in that no matter how much we have, we want more. It’s not enough and it never satisfies. All of this occurs in this pursuit of happiness. We think it will make us happy, but it doesn’t.

Next, we have aversion or anger or hostility. We think if we can just get this away from us, that somehow will make us secure. This is the indication that this belief in a solid self is faulty. How we experience this is as insecurity. We feel insecure about “me,” about ourselves. Somehow we have to make that secure – me, me, me! It seems independent from everything else and it’s disturbing. To make ourselves secure, we think to get all this money, and get all these possessions, and get everything away that we don’t like.

Also, there is naivety. We put up the walls with denial. We don’t want to deal with something to sort of protect ourselves, that solid “me.” Of course, this doesn’t work so we feel insecure.

Affecting Impulses

Based on these disturbing emotions and attitudes, then karma comes into play. That’s the second link, translated literally as “affecting impulses.” Karma is not that easy to understand. Buddha said it’s the most difficult in all its details. There are two major explanations, but the simpler presentation is talking about the mental impulse that arises from causes and conditions. It is affected and it affects our behavior. It’s an impulse that brings us into an act of doing something, saying something, or thinking something. It’s compelling and this is essential to understand.

We are talking about the compulsiveness of our behavior. It’s out of our control. We are just acting compulsively out of habit. Sometimes, the word for karma is translated as “actions” because it is the colloquial Tibetan word of action. If we analyze, if the problem was action and that was the troublemaker, all we would need to do is to stop doing anything and then we would be freed from suffering. Clearly, it doesn’t mean that. What it means is compulsive behavior and we want to stop acting compulsively under the influence of this unawareness and ignorance and the disturbing emotions and attitudes. 

Karma is referring to that impulse, that compelling impulse, that when we feel like doing something, we actually do it. For example, we feel like yelling at you or hugging you. This is the first thing that arises; but then, compulsively we do it. It’s the compelling impulse that draws us into hugging or yelling at the person, and it can be positive or negative.

This compelling impulse can be destructive in the sense of being based on a disturbing emotion. That can be attachment and clinging and because of that we say all sorts of stupid things that drive the other person away. It can be anger, with which we yell at someone, or naivety, when we say things without thinking of the effects on the other person. We can just ignore others and think it doesn’t matter. We’re not talking about the action itself, but the impulse that leads us into doing that.

It can also be constructive in a neurotic type of way. For instance, we might be a perfectionist constantly cleaning the house. It’s not negative to clean the house, but when it’s compulsive, it’s out of control. It could be something like being a grammar-Nazi, constantly correcting everybody’s grammar. It’s not destructive, but it’s based on “me, me, me,” and the compulsion to be perfect and to make everything correct. We have to make everything clean or perfect and correct and of course, it’s never clean enough. This is also karmic and compulsive and is part of the second part of the twelve links.

First Part of Loaded Consciousness

The third link is loaded consciousness. It’s loaded with the karmic aftermath of what is left after we actually act in compulsive ways based on the karmic impulse. This is a little bit complex. Again, there are different explanations, but we can have what are called karmic potentials, both positive and negative. These are potentials to repeat an action. There is also something slightly different, a tendency to repeat the action. We don’t need to go into a detailed analysis of the types of aftermath at this time. The tendency is translated literally from the word “seed.” There is also a constant habit to believe in all the appearances that we project as asserted in the Mahayana explanation; however, in a more general way also accepted by the Hinayana, we wouldn’t include the constant habit. 

We have these potentials and tendencies and they are loaded onto consciousness. They are not something physical that is planted in our consciousness. There could be a neural pathway or some physical basis, but what we are discussing is an imputation on the mental continuum. We will explain later on what an imputation is. It’s a crucial type of phenomenon that we need to understand. It isn’t a wonderful translation of the term, but there isn’t a more decent word for what this is referring to. 

Just to have a general idea of it, for example, if we drank coffee yesterday and this morning and again before we came here, there is a tendency to drink coffee. There is a potential to drink coffee again. That potential or tendency isn’t something physical or something conscious. It’s a bit less concrete and more abstract than that. This is what the third link, loaded coconsciousness refers to. 

Loaded consciousness actually has two parts, the first of which occurs within these three causal links that throw, meaning in this lifetime. These are the three links that cause the consciousness to continue and throw it, in a sense, into future lives. We have unawareness that leads to the disturbing emotions and attitudes, affecting impulses of karma, and then the karmic aftermath is what is loaded onto this third link at the time of the causes, the causal links that throw. This is building up all the time because all of our behavior is based on the unawareness of how we exist and how others exist. If we analyze deeply, we find we are compulsively acting in the way that we do because of this. There is unawareness, then affecting impulses that are going to affect what we experience and how we act; and then loaded consciousness that has the tendencies and potentials to repeat that type of behavior. It continues to be compulsive. 

Take a moment to digest these first three links. This process of thinking something over is not so easy. We start by trying to remember it and memorize it and repeat it. The three links are A, B, and C, but what we need to aim for is to internalize and recognize that it’s occurring. It’s not so crucial to say that it’s link number two or three. We need to recognize this ongoing process. For example:

• We are unaware of how we exist. 
• We feel insecure and want to somehow be happy and think if we get this or that – the big piece of chocolate – it is going to make us happy.
• Compulsively, we go to get this chocolate and, of course, it doesn’t satisfy. Maybe it makes us a little bit happy temporarily. Later we want more. It certainly builds up the habit and tendency when we are feeling low, to go for chocolate. 
• We notice ourselves doing this over and over and it’s the first thing that comes to mind when feeling a bit sad or depressed.
• The first thing that comes to mind isn’t refuge, for example; it’s chocolate. 
• This indicates how deeply embedded this loaded consciousness is.

The next set is the resultant links of what has been thrown. This refers to the process of the development of the fetus, primarily when we are born from a womb as a human or mammal, perhaps also from an egg. How we develop is interesting and to understand and appreciate this, we need to understand the five aggregates that make up each moment of our experience. Aggregates are just groupings of many different items. They don’t exist somewhere; it’s just a classification scheme that is useful and was created because it’s helpful. 

Consciousness

To list them, but not in the usual order, we have some type of consciousness. The Buddhist description is that we have individual types of consciousness such as visual, audio, olfactory, taste, physical sensations. 

Forms of Physical Phenomena

Next, there is some sort of object of these consciousnesses; not so much the external object, but what we experience. For example, we experience a sight, a sound, a smell, a taste, or physical sensations throughout the body. In every moment, there is some sort of object like that. This aggregate also includes the sensors, such as the photo sensitive cells of the eyes, the sound sensitive cells of the ears and so on.

Distinguishing

Sometimes this aggregate is referred to as recognition, but that is too advanced. Within a sense field in which we are perceiving pixels, or on a larger scale perceiving colored shapes, how are we able to put certain groups of pixels or colored shapes into objects? It’s quite amazing. We do this with distinguishing in that we are able to distinguish one object from another object within that sense field. We can distinguish one person’s face from the door behind the person. We don’t just put it all into one object. This is going on all the time, otherwise it’s impossible to deal with life and perception. 

Feeling a Level of Happiness or Unhappiness

We experience things with some level of happiness or unhappiness. This is the next aggregate. It doesn’t have to be dramatic. We will speak more about that later.

Other Affecting Variables

This is the aggregate of everything else, all the emotions, and almost mechanical things, the mental factors involved with cognition, such as attention, concentration, intention, and mindfulness.

In every moment there are at least one or more of these aggregates going on. We can see and hear at the same time and also feel the sensation of the temperature of the room. We might not pay much attention to all the information coming in from all our senses simultaneously; however, there’s always some attention, some emotions, and some level of how we experience all of this: happy, unhappy, don’t care. Something is always going on. 

Therefore, when we speak of the resultant links of what has been thrown, this is not merely explaining the arising and development of the fetus until we are actually born. It also explains how the aggregates emerge. Thereby, we get the full scope of these five aggregates. 

Second Part of Loaded Consciousness

We begin with loaded consciousness, actually the second half of loaded consciousness. There is nothing symmetrical about this system, so give up that attachment to symmetry as we study this, because the first grouping has two and a half links and the second grouping has four and a half. 

The second part of loaded consciousness is at the time of the resultant links of what has been thrown. This is the moment of conception, and at that moment basically it just lasts an instance. There is the consciousness, and it makes the connection with some physical substance, a sperm and an egg. We won’t get into the discussion of when this occurs because even scientists have difficulty specifying that. The focus is on the consciousness going into another rebirth.

Nameable Mental Faculties with or without Gross Form

“With or without gross form” means that it includes the formless realms where we have the subtlest type of form. In this fourth link things can be given a name; they are nameable. What we have is undifferentiated aggregates of consciousness and form. The other aggregates are in a potential. As the fetus first starts to develop, we just have consciousness. It’s not differentiated yet into seeing, hearing, smelling, or mental consciousness. The same thing is in terms of the form aggregate in that there is only the body basically. It’s analogous to speaking of the fertilized egg as having the potentials, or scientifically, the DNA to develop into a human or to develop into a fly. If we use that analogy, we can understand that everything that may develop further is only in a potential form at this level. In a sense, it is already set in that if it’s going to be a fly, it won’t be a human rebirth. That is what is involved in this fourth link.

Stimulators of Consciousness

As the fetus develops, we get the fifth link, the stimulators of consciousness. These are the physical things that will stimulate the consciousnesses. This is referring to the stage at which we move from undifferentiated into the specific different types of consciousness. The body, the form, has developed to the point in which we have the so-called cognitive sensors. We have some cells that are photo-sensitive, others to perceive sound, smell, taste, and physical sensation and thought in general. At this stage the stimulators are on the side of the form aggregate. The sensory cells are becoming specified to different senses and therefore there are different types of objects of the senses. The fetus is able to perceive, in a sense, even if it is darkness or some sense of sound. 

What this implies is that the aggregate of distinguishing begins to manifest and can begin to distinguish an object as a sound, a sight, a sensation, and so on.

Contacting Awareness

Then we have the sixth link, contacting awareness. It’s a mental factor; this isn’t referring to the physical contact with an object. Contacting awareness is the experiencing of an object as being pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral. It refers to how the consciousness is having contact with an object. In the link before, there were different objects and some degree of distinguishing the type of sensory object. Now, in this link, the fetus begins to interact with objects in a sense of experiencing it as pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral. This is already some type of ripening of karma. 

Obviously, once we are born, we experience things as pleasant, unpleasant and so on. One person finds a taste pleasant and another doesn’t. It’s clear that this is individual and thereby coming from karma. The contacting awareness is in the aggregate of other affecting variables, and these are starting to become more manifest.

Feeling Some Level of Happiness

In the seventh link, there is some feeling of happiness, unhappiness or a neutral feeling. Neutral refers to a state in the formless realms and what we might experience in very deep meditation, deeper than happy and unhappy. In response to pleasant contacting awareness, a pleasant sound, for example, when the mother plays nice music for the fetus. The fetus experiences that as pleasant. The mother might eat something very soothing, and this is a pleasant sensation. In this way the fetus has some experience with happiness and wanting it to continue. The mother might eat something with a lot of chili in it, and it’s an unpleasant sensation for the fetus and it experiences it with unhappiness and would like it to stop and go away. 

The aggregate of feeling has become manifest and now we have all five aggregates. These are the resultant links of what has been thrown, and they describe the development of the fetus and the emergence of the full scheme of the five aggregates from the potential just with the consciousness and then coming in contact with a sperm and egg in reference to being born from a womb. 

To review, we have: 

• The second half of loaded consciousness at the time of the resultant links of what has been thrown
• Nameable mental faculties with or without gross form
• Stimulators of consciousness
• Contacting awareness
• Feeling a level of happiness.

We can memorize these, of course, but more importantly try to relate it to the progression that is occurring. We have undifferentiated consciousness, and then the one fertilized cell and it develops into different types of cells that can perceive sensory objects and then begin to be able to distinguish things. Then, we can find these things pleasant or unpleasant with contacting awareness and then have the feeling of happiness or unhappiness based on that. This is the progression of the fetus.

If we look at another explanation of these twelve links, we can find this process happening all the time when we are alive as well. It’s a very helpful description of how our experience develops. Let’s digest that for a moment.

Basically, to put it very simply, we have confusion, unawareness, and we act compulsively based on that and disturbing emotions. This builds up potentials on the consciousness. We die and in the next rebirth, all these potentials go through a gradual process of becoming manifest. Included in that will be more ignorance, unawareness and compulsive behavior thrown by this unawareness and compulsive karma, it’s going to be very limited and problematic. It’s going to get sick, get old, and be confused. As a fly, we certainly won’t understand very much.

The next three links are the causal links that activate. The twelve links are not referring to a linear progression; again, don’t grasp for symmetry. These next three links include what activates the karmic potentials specifically at the time of death. However, as we discuss the practical application of these links, we will learn how we can apply this all the time. What activates karmic potentials? This material is very profound.

Craving or Thirst

Link number eight is usually translated as “craving.” That’s the Tibetan translation, while the original term in Sanskrit is the term for thirst or thirsty. However, the Tibetans translate it as craving and not as thirst. In any case, both terms are suggestive of the meaning and are helpful. A mental factor accompanies our cognition of something. In cognition of something there is a consciousness and the object of the consciousness, and the mental factors that accompany it, such as concentration etc. In this link, our consciousness is aimed at a feeling, link number seven. We are focusing on a feeling of happiness or unhappiness, or – if we are in one of the deep dhyanas, the states of absorption beyond shamatha – a more subtle neutral feeling beyond happy or unhappy. In a moment of experience there is the consciousness, the object, and the mental factors are the way of taking or perceiving the object. 

When the object of consciousness is taken with craving or thirsting, we want not to be parted from that happiness. It’s a subcategory of attachment, in that attachment can be aimed at anything, and this is superficially aimed at a feeling. What do we want? How is the object taken? It’s taken as wanting not to be parted from this happiness. If it involves unhappiness, it’s to be parted from this unhappiness. If it’s neutral, it’s for the non-declining of this deeper state so that we would start feeling things again. It’s not about “me,” it’s craving for the feeling of happiness not to go away, the feeling of unhappiness to go away, the feeling of neutrality not to decline.

Thirst is very suggestive of this. When we are really thirsty and we have one little sip of water, we don’t want that to go away. We want more. When we are really thirsty and we have nothing, we want that thirst to go away and have something to drink. When we are neutral, we’re not dying of thirst, for example; we’re fine and don’t need anything and we don’t want that to decline. The word “thirst” gives us a good suggestion of the desperation involved with this clinging. It all revolves around how we feel and doesn’t have to be dramatic. That’s the eighth link.

Grasping or Obtainer Disturbing Emotion

The ninth link is often translated as “grasping.” However, that can be confusing because we have terms like “grasping for true existence” or “grasping for a self,” and it’s not the same word. It’s a different word that literally means “an obtainer” or “to obtain something.” It’s a state of mind, an obtainer attitude or obtainer disturbing emotion. It will obtain the next rebirth for us. There is a list of disturbing emotions or attitudes that are this ninth link. We won’t delve into the entire list but just two of the important ones.

The first is obtainer desire. Remember, with craving or thirsting, we’re aimed at the feeling of happiness or unhappiness or neutral. In this link, the obtainer desire is aimed at the object. For example, we feel happy eating this food. We don’t want to be parted from the happiness, and therefore we don’t want to be parted from the food. There are two stages. On the other side, we want to be parted, for instance, from this terrible smell. We can apply this to what is going on at the time of death. We are seeing our loved ones and feel happy and don’t want to be parted from that happiness, the sight, or the sensation of holding their hand. 

The next, the really big troublemaker are the four types of deluded outlooks. The one that is most significant is literally, asserting our identity, referring to one specific disturbing attitude very difficult to translate from both Tibetan and Sanskrit. Translated literally, it means “a deluded outlook toward a transitory network.” A deluded outlook is a wrong idea or view of something; a network refers to the aggregates; and transitory means that it’s changing all the time. If we examine the definitions and explanations, what it describes is like throwing out a net of “me and mine” onto the aggregates. We’re identifying with it as “me.” It’s “me” that doesn’t want to be parted from this happiness. “I don’t want to be parted from the sight of my loved one.” It’s “me.” We are identifying completely with what is going on. “I don’t want to give up my body.” It is throwing out this net of “me” and “mine” onto something and asserting that as our identity. That image can be quite helpful. It can be our youthful body, our good looks, our intelligence, and we identify that one thing as “me.”

We apply this to other people as well. That person said something nasty. We forget about everything else about that person and just identify them with that. It’s a terrible person who said that to “me.” For example, it’s my friend or my computer – “don’t touch it.” We are doing this all the time. It’s this deluded attitude toward a transitory network, the aggregates basically. This is the obtainer.

These two links, craving and grasping, to put it in the usual, more common terminology, activate the karmic potentials and tendencies that will then throw the consciousness into the next rebirth.

Further Existence or Becoming

The tenth link is often translated as “becoming,” a term which doesn’t communicate clearly. More literally, this means further existence. In Buddhist terminology there is a way of giving the name of the result to the cause. Further existence is the result, and this is being given as the name of the cause, the activated karmic potential. This is called throwing karma; it throws or hurls the consciousness into the next rebirth. The terminology is very graphic. This refers to the karmic impulse caused by the disturbing emotions of the thirsting and the deluded outlook of throwing out the net of “me” and “mine.” This activates the karmic potentials, so that the potential will bring about the next rebirth. It brings the four divisions including death, bardo, conception and then the existence in the next lifetime. 

These are the causal links that activate. This is what we will explore more deeply as these are very crucial. We do these things all the time and not just at the moment of death. But when the twelve links are describing the process of rebirth, it’s very specific to the moment of death. It all is aimed at feeling a level of happiness or unhappiness. Therefore, when we practice the four close placements of mindfulness in the Mahayana, as mentioned, we focus on the body as suffering, an example of first noble truth. We focus on the feelings, as the second noble truth. The feelings are the cause of our suffering. This is another example of giving the name of the result to the cause. Our disturbing attitudes and emotions towards our feeling are the cause of all the problems and suffering. How we deal with feelings of happiness and unhappiness is problematic and this is communicated in the system of these twelve links.

Our problems are caused by how we deal with happiness or unhappiness, and how we deal with the objects we are happy or unhappy about and then, “me” who is experiencing this. If we deal with it in a confused way, we are going to generate more samsaric further existence and rebirth. 

The last two links are the resultant links of what is actualized. This is just a resume of the whole process.

Conception

The eleventh link is conception, which is just for one moment. 

Aging and Dying

The twelfth link is aging and dying. The aging starts the moment after conception if we think about it. Our life span is like a bottle of milk with an expiration date, only we don’t know what our expiration date is. As soon as we buy a bottle of milk, we know it will expire at some point. It’s the same thing with this body; it’s going to expire. We just don’t know when and it’s a cause of suffering, isn’t it? With incorrect consideration, we think it will last forever and never going to degenerate when in fact it will. 

These are the twelve links of dependent arising, in brief. To review, we have the causal links that throw, including unawareness, affecting impulses, and loaded consciousness at the time that makes it thrown. This is going on all the time, and we are building up more and more karmic potentials because of compulsive behavior based on unawareness of how we and everyone else exists. It’s all about the attitude of “me, me, me” and “poor me.” Then depressing thoughts and so on follow. 

The causal links that activate are what will activate the potentials to cause more rebirths. They are focused on the second group, the resultant links of what has been thrown including the whole development in each lifetime of the fetus so that we actually have these experiences of happiness or unhappiness. That is what will activate our attitudes toward them, and those attitudes will activate more karmic potentials and then we have the resultant links of what is actualized. This includes conception, again and dying.

It works like that. When we think in terms of rebirth, this can be completed in two or three lifetimes. In two lifetimes, we build up these karmic potentials and we activate them in one lifetime in that the first and third sets occur in one lifetime, while the second and fourth sets occur in the next lifetime. We have the development of the fetus and conception, aging and dying in the second lifetime. It can also occur in three lifetimes, and of course there can be many lifetimes in between. In one lifetime, we build up a potential for a particular type of rebirth, and in another lifetime, we activate them, and in the third lifetime, we get the resultant life. In this way, there can be two or three lifetimes. This is the way it functions in terms of rebirth. 

Think about that for a little while.

When we think about it, of course, we could get a bit unsettled if we try to list and remember the twelve. Don’t get caught up in that as a first step. It takes a while to become fluent with this system. That’s okay; it is complex. To begin, the significant point is just to think in terms of our confusion about how we exist, and how thereby, we have disturbing emotions, act destructively, and build up potentials. We activate these potentials with more confusion and then we have rebirth. We continue with all this, and the sources of all the confusion. It just continues like that. This is the essence of the twelve links. 

This goes back to the discussion of becoming convinced of rebirth in that we can become convinced on a theoretical level of cause and effect. It makes no sense to have an absolute beginning and an absolute end. On a more conventional level, we can approach it by understanding how this perpetuates. We can begin to understand the causal process of making the consciousness go on and on, especially in terms of the continuity of suffering and problems. If we start to recognize that process in our daily lives, we can discover how we’re building up more and more potential because we act so compulsively. We are always thinking of “me, me, me,” and “you, you, you.” “You did this when I want that.” In fact, we really don’t handle our moods of happy and unhappy very well at all and that just perpetuates the ups and downs of our daily lives with all its problems.

If we begin to recognize this, it helps us realize how this whole process is self-perpetuating. When we understand how cause and effect operate with all these factors, then it becomes easier to deal with the viewpoint of no beginning and no end. Logically, this is because, if it’s being perpetuated moment to moment to moment by all the confusion, how could it start from nothing and then all of a sudden a nothing becomes a something? Alternatively, how could it be that something completely external randomly starts it all as if by pressing a button. That doesn’t make any sense. 

In this way we can start to become more comfortable with the idea of rebirth. However, all but one the non-Buddhist Indian schools also accept rebirth. However, we need to understand how the self exists that is taking rebirth and what is it that is continuing. When we misunderstand that or don’t know, that’s the first link, unawareness. In order to really understand rebirth, it’s not enough to just understand these links in terms of how it’s perpetuated. It is essential that we get rid of our unawareness of how we exist. Who is it, what is it that is being reborn? We’re not talking about some static, unchanging “me” that can be known all by itself as if “I want you to love me for ‘me.’”

The twelve links system is a start, and it indicates the importance of that understanding of how we exist and how everybody exists.

The formulation is that the karmic potentials are activated in future lives, but would it also be that they can be activated in the current lifetime?

The karmic potentials are activated at the time of death in this lifetime according to the explanation of rebirth. Let’s say, in this lifetime, we build up the karmic potential to be reborn as a human with various characteristics. But at the time of death, for example, we activate karmic potentials to be reborn as a fly. In the next lifetime, we are a fly, and at the end of that lifetime, we could activate a potential to be born as a human. It’s very unlikely as a fly, however. 

Aren’t we also always building up karma that has an influence on the present life? Would we use a different terminology for that?

This is exactly the point of what we discuss in the rest of this series. We can apply this entire analysis to our daily life and not just the time of death in regard to how we deal with our feelings. This is the practical application of these twelve links. The standard explanation is in terms of activating these things at the time of death. But also there is an alternative explanation in Theravada about how all the twelve links can occur at the same time all the time. In the rest of the seminar, through analysis we can examine and work with that to see how this would function. 

The fact that the traditional explanation is talking about the time of death underlies how important it is to die with peace of mind and not completely unsettled and upset about pain or not wanting to leave our loved ones and these sorts of things. That’s why in the highest class of tantra, we rehearse process of death and what is actually going to happen as we die. In this way, we can approach it calmly.

Let me share with you His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s advice about dying. In the higher tantra practices, there are all sorts of elaborate visualizations and things that one can familiarize oneself with that will occur in the process of dying. His Holiness has said that this is all very nice and helpful to know what is going to happen, but for the vast majority of us it is too difficult to actually try to do that when we are dying. This is especially if we are trying to visualize ourselves as some deity, and then become confused about what is being held in this or that arm and people freak out about not doing it right. His Holiness advises that unless we are super advanced, it is far more beneficial to die with thoughts of bodhichitta: “May I continue to have a precious human rebirth so that I can continue to work toward enlightenment to benefit all beings.” That’s the best thought for the vast majority of us to die with and become familiar with beforehand. It’s not going to be confusing.

This is very helpful advice because often we imagine that we are very advanced practitioners when in fact, in crucial moments like at death, we haven’t built up a strong enough habit to sustain these very complicated practices. If we accept the reality of that, we will be better able to deal with death. As the twelve links indicate, our attitude at the time of death is crucial in terms of what karmic cluster of potentials we are going to activate.

There is throwing karma and completing karma. Throwing karma is going to affect what life form we will have, whether human, dog, fly, ghost or whatever. Completing karma includes the circumstances of that such as level of intelligence, anger, etc. All of these mental factors have their own tendencies and potentials. Also, it includes the circumstances and environmental condition. Are we going to be a street dog in Calcutta or the pet of the Dalai Lama? Clearly, what is very important is the state of mind in which we die, even if we can’t focus on something like the voidness of the clear light mind. We need to take this seriously, and at least have the initial level of motivation for another precious human rebirth to continue on the path.

We think whatever understanding, whatever positive force has come from this, may it go deeper and deeper, and act as a cause for all beings to reach the enlightened state of a Buddha for the benefit of us all.