[Buddha-l] Re: Dependent arising variants

[Benito Carral]

In  the  book  I  use  with newcomers to Buddhism, _The
Heart  of  the  Buddha's  Teachings_ by Thich Nhat Hanh
(1998),   Thây   talks   about  different  chains  with
different  number of links. He mentions the _Mahanidana
Sutta_  (9  links) and also the different chains in the
Sarvastivada's  Abbhidharma. Then Thâys says (although,
it's  somewhat  odd,  I'm  going  to translate from the
Spanish version because I have not the original English
one at hand):

       The  Buddha never wanted that we take the twelve
       links  in  a  lineal  way,  like a straight line
       going  from ignorance to aging and dying or like
       that  there  are only twelve links. Ignorance is
       not   the  only  one  that  originates  volitive
       actions,  but  these can give rise to ignorance.
       Each   and  every  link  of  the  interdependent
       co-arising chain is both cause and effect of all
       the  other  links in the chain. The twelve links
       inter-are.

   I  really  like  this  book  as  an  introduction to
Buddhism.

   Best wishes,

   Beni