Transcendental Dependent Arising
A Translation and Exposition of the Upanisa Sutta
By Bhikkhu Bodhi
The Wheel Publication No. 277/278
SL ISSN 0049-7541
Copyright © 1980 Buddhist Publication Society
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This edition was transcribed from the print edition in 1995 by Greg Smith under the auspices of the Dharma Net Dharma Book Transcription Project, with the kind permission of the Buddhist Publication Society.
Preface
Tucked away in the Samyutta Nikáya among the "connected sayings on causality" (Nidanasamyutta) is a short formalized text entitled the Upanisa Sutta, the "Discourse on Supporting Conditions." Though at first glance hardly conspicuous among the many interesting Suttas in this collection, this little discourse turns out upon repeated examination to be of tremendous doctrinal importance. Its great significance derives from the striking juxtaposition it makes of two applications of "dependent arising" (paticcasamuppada), the principle of conditionality, which lies at the heart of the Buddha”s doctrine. The first application is the usual one, setting forth the causal sequence responsible for the origination of samsaric suffering. Apart from a slight change it is identical with the twelve-factored formulation recurring throughout the Pali Canon. The change -- the substitution of "suffering" for "aging-and-death" as the last member of the series -- becomes the lead for the second application of dependent arising. This application, occurring only sporadically in the Pali Canon, allows the same principle of conditionality to structure the path leading to deliverance from suffering. It begins with faith, emerging out of the suffering with which the first series ended, and continues through to the retrospective knowledge of liberation, which confirms the destruction of the binding defilements. By linking the two series into a single sequence, the Sutta reveals the entire course of man”s faring in the world as well as his treading of the path to its transcendence. It shows, moreover, that these two dimensions of human experience, the mundane and the transcendental, the dimensions of world involvement and world disengagement, are both governed by a single structural principle, that of dependent arising. Recognizing this broader range of the principle, the Nettipakarana, a Pali exegetical treatise, has called the second application "transcendental dependent arising" (lokuttara-paticcasamuppada).
Despite the great importance of the Upanisa Sutta, traditional commentators have hardly given the text the special attention it would seem to deserve. Perhaps the reason for this is that, its line of approach being peculiar to itself and a few related texts scattered through the Canon, it has been overshadowed by the many other Suttas giving the more usual presentation of doctrine. But whatever the explanation be, the need has remained for a fuller exploration of the sutta”s meaning and implications. We have sought to remedy this deficiency with the following work offering an English translation of the Upanisa Sutta and an exposition of its message. The exposition sets out to explore the second, "transcendental" application of dependent arising, drawing freely from other parts of the Canon and the commentaries to fill out the meaning. Since full accounts of the "mundane" or samsaric side of dependent arising can be readily found elsewhere, we thought it best to limit our exposition to the prin…
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