Chapter 26. Investigation of the Twelve Links

Shrouded in ignorance, he produces the formations in three ways for the sake of a new existence; and it is by these very deeds that he goes on to one destiny or another.

Consciousness, conditioned by the formations, enters that destiny; and once consciousness has entered, name-and-form is infused.

And when name-and-form has been infused, the six sense-fields come to be; and having reached the six sense-fields, contact unfolds.

Depending on the eye and on form, and on the turning of attention as well, depending precisely on name-and-form — thus does consciousness unfold.

The coming together of the three — form, consciousness and the eye — that is contact; and from that contact feeling unfolds.

Craving is conditioned by feeling, for one craves for the sake of feeling; and the one who craves takes up clinging of four kinds.

When there is clinging, the becoming of the one who clings unfolds; for if he were without clinging, he would be freed, and becoming would not arise.

The five skandhas are precisely that becoming; from becoming birth unfolds, and from birth come ageing-and-death, suffering and the rest: sorrows together with lamentations,

dejection of spirit and despair — all this unfolds from birth. Such is the arising of this whole mass of suffering.

Therefore it is the ignorant one who produces the formations that are the root of saṃsāra; the doer, then, is the ignorant one, and not the wise one, because he sees things as they are.

When ignorance has ceased, the formations do not arise; and the ceasing of ignorance comes about precisely through the cultivation of this knowledge.

Through the ceasing of this and that, this and that unfolds no further; and so this whole mass of suffering ceases completely.