[Buddha-l] Dependent arising variants

[Dan Lusthaus]

Stephen,

> > This only proves that the Buddha (or his disciples etc.) liked to
> > vary the explanations of things in many different ways. And  we
> > already know that from many other examples.
>
> This is not unreasonable, but also seems to involve assumptions.  The
> problem is that we tend to take our own assumptions for granted and
discern
> assumptions in the views of others when they differ from our own.

I happen to agree with Lance on this. These supposedly variant versions
simply begin or end somewhere amid the twelve links, rather than reciting
the complete set of twelve. Viewed in context the reason they do so seems
obvious -- the particular link with which a particular explanation begins is
contextually related to the issue under discussion that elicited the need
for a recital of the links. So if the issue is consciousness, then
consciousness will be the starting link for that particular episode of
exposition, and so on. The twelve link version would then be the
more-or-less comprehensive version, while these others are partial
applications, occasionally modified according to circumstances. I don't
think, for instance, that a 13 link version occurs anywhere, much less a 16
or 32 link version.

Generally these analyses occur in something like the following. A
contentious issue arises in which someone asserts or maintains a position
contrary to the one Buddha himself promotes. Some analysis or clarification
of the wrong view and its problems ensues. Then the "correct" understanding
is given, usually by Buddha, starting with the most relevant link of the
pratitya-samutpada chain, and then following through in anuloma order to the
end, or to the concluding relevant link.

The more interesting variant cases are the ones in which some term, such as
aasava occur as a link, rather than well-known links, or the ones that treat
two nidaanas as mutually causative, e.g. consciousness gives rise to
nama-rupa and also nama-rupa gives rise to consciousness (with the remaining
links eventually recited, though omitting ignorance and sankhara, the two
that precede consciousness). These are only shocking if one is locked into
reciting the standard 12 without thinking about what those nidanas and their
relations entail.

But these two types of variants don't really suggest an *earlier* formula,
but rather that Buddha and/or the early Buddhist community applied the
pratitya-samutpada formula in various ways for various analyses, which is
precisely what one would expect of the central doctrine discovered by Buddha
during the watch of the night of his Awakening.

best,
Dan Lusthaus