十二因缘

(十二因緣, 十二因缘)

Dvādaśaṅga pratītyasamutpāda; the twelve nidānas; v. [lang id =1028]尼 and [lang id =1028]因; also [lang id =1028]十二緣起; [lang id =1028]因緣有支; [lang id =1028]因緣率連; [lang id =1028]因緣棘園; [lang id =1028]因緣輪; [lang id =1028]因緣重城; [lang id =1028]因緣觀; [lang id =1028]支佛觀. They are the twelve links in the chain of existence:

(1)　[lang id =1028]無明avidyā, ignorance, or unenlightenment;

(2) [lang id =1028]行 saṃskāra, action, activity, conception, "dispositions," Keith;

(3) [lang id =1028]識 vijñāna, consciousness;

(4) [lang id =1028]名色 nāmarūpa, name and form;

(5) [lang id =1028]六入 ṣaḍāyatana, the six sense organs, i.e. eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind;

(6) [lang id =1028]觸 sparśa, contact, touch;

(7) [lang id =1028]受 vedanā, sensation, feeling;

(8) [lang id =1028]愛 tṛṣṇā, thirst, desire, craving;

(9) [lang id =1028]取 upādāna, laying hold of, grasping;

(10) [lang id =1028]有 bhava, being, existing;

(11) [lang id =1028]生 jāti, birth;

(12) [lang id =1028]老死 jarāmaraṇa, old age, death. The "classical formula" reads "By reason of ignorance dispositions; by reason of dispositions consciousness", etc. A further application of the twelve nidānas is made in　regard to　their causaton of rebirth:

(1) ignorance, as inherited passion from the beginningless past ;

(2) karma, good and evil, of past lives;

(3) conception as a form of perception;

(4) nāmarūpa, or body and mind evolving (in the womb);

(5) the six organs on the verge of birth;

(6) childhood whose intelligence is limited to sparśa, contact or touch;

(7) receptivity or budding intelligence and discrimination from　6 or 7 years;

(8) thirst, desire, or love, age of puberty;

(9) the urge of sensuous existence;

(10) forming the substance, bhava, of future karma;

(11) the completed karma ready for rebirth;

(12) old age and death. The two first are associated with the previous life, the other ten with the present. The theory is equally applicable to all realms of　reincarnation. The twelve links are also represented in a chart, at the centre of which are the serpent (anger), boar (ignorance, or stupidity), and dove (lust) representing the fundamental sins. Each catches the other by the tail, typifying the train of sins producing the wheel of life. In another circle the twelve links are represented as follows:

(1) ignorance, a blind woman;

(2) action, a potter at work, or man gathering fruit;

(3) consciousness, a restless monkey;

(4) name and form, a boat;

(5) sense organs, a house;

(6) contact, a man and woman sitting together;

(7) sensation, a man pierced by an arrow;

(8) desire, a man drinking wine;

(9) craving, a couple in union;

(10) existence through childbirth;

(11) birth, a man carrying a corpse;

(12) disease, old age, death, an old woman leaning on a stick. v. [lang id =1028]十二因緣論 Pratītya-samutpāda śāstra.