If one were to admit the existence of a universal Law, it would be the "law of causality", which explains the relationship between cause and effect.

Human beings, however unwise they may be, did not wait for the Buddha to appear before knowing that if we sow carrots at the end of winter, we will have a harvest in June-July, whereas if we sow them in autumn, the harvest will be in May-June.

All our daily life is thus governed by the law of cause and effect, even without thinking about it. When we turn the tap on the left, we know that we will have hot water and when we turn the tap on the right, it will be cold water. Doctors know that a certain symptom is the effect of a certain pathology and prescribe the medication that will have the effect of relieving the pathology.

Strangely enough, however, since humans have been able to think and have asked themselves "why things happen", they have found answers that are completely opposed to the logic of the notion of causality, namely "God's will", "chance", "destiny".

When Siddhartha Gautama, then still a prince, sought the true aspect of things and went to train with the recognized masters of his time, he undoubtedly had, if only intuitively, this need that the answers correspond to the law of causality. However, these answers were, as we still find today, "the will of God", "chance", "destiny", completely irrational answers which did not satisfy him.

Disappointed, he searched for himself and finally awakened to the absolute, the true aspect of things. The absolute, the ultimate truth, the true principle, all names for the same thing which, by definition, is indefinable, ineffable, unimaginable. Gautama spent the rest of his life trying to transmit to others what he had awakened to and how to awaken to it.

His teachings were later taken up and developed by his disciples. The result is an abundance of principles. All of them are the observation of the same thing, the awakening of the Buddha, from different angles.

However, if one were to summarize the Buddha's fifty years of preaching and the two millennia of research that followed with a single expression, which would therefore be the conclusion, the very essence of the Buddha's awakening, it would undoubtedly be "Pratītya-samutpāda," translated (among other things) as "conditioned production."

In his "Treatise on the Middle", Nāgārjuna says:

"I prostrate myself at the feet of the most eminent preacher, the true Awakened One who taught the praiseworthy conditioned production, appeasing useless assumptions."

This true enlightened one is of course Gautama, the "muni" of the "shakya" clan. Shakyamuni, then, himself said in the Middle Instructions Sutra (j. chū agon kyō - 中阿含経):

"Seeing the conditioned production is the same as seeing the Dharma; if one sees the Dharma, then one sees the conditioned production."

Thus, while others evoked a creator God or, at the other extreme, chance, destiny (had written itself), the Buddha expressed the conclusion of his enlightenment through what later came to be called the principle of conditioned production (j. engi - 縁起).

 

The principle of conditioned production underwent various developments throughout the history of Buddhism, eventually becoming "the absence of one's own nature" (j. mujishō - 無自性), "emptiness" (j. kū - 空), "the real aspect of things" (j. shohō jissō - 諸法実相), A Thought Three Thousand (j. Ichinen sanzen (一念三千). However, the benchmark definition is the one found in the "Choices of Instructions" (p. sutta nipāta), one of the canons of early Buddhism, written in Pali:

 

"O, monks, what is conditioned production? O monks, life and death are produced by birth.

(...)

When this is, that is. When this is born, that is born.

When this is not, that is not. When this disappears, that disappears".

 

This implies that everything is relative, existing interdependently with another existence.

 

A very similar definition is found in the "Sutra of Long Instructions" (j. zô agon kyô - 雑阿含経):

 

"The Dharma of conditioned production is not my work. (...) It means that: because this is, that is; because this appears, that appears. Thus, actions are conditioned by ignorance and so on, causing the accumulation of great suffering. When ignorance disappears, actions disappear and so on, causing the accumulation of great suffering to disappear.

 

The important thing in this last passage is the expression: "because this is, that is; because this appears, that appears". We can see in this the causal relationship existing between things: ignorance generates action. In these passages, "this" is the cause and "that" is the effect. We can therefore read: "when there is a cause, there is an effect, when there is no cause, there is no effect".

 

Just as an effect depends on a cause, every existence depends on another existence, hence its impermanent character. Let's take some examples to explain conditioned production from the point of view of the impermanence (interdependence) of things.

 

Let's first take a bud. The bud is born from a seed. Without a seed, the bud cannot be born. In addition to the direct cause of the seed, indirect causes representing the "conditions", such as sunshine, soil, humidity, are also necessary for the bud effect to appear. The birth of the bud is the result of the harmonious union of these causes and conditions. The existence of the bud is thus conditioned by causes and conditions, and is therefore not an independent existence existing by itself. The bud is caused by causes. Being dependent on others, represented by these causes, it has not become a bud by itself. When this (seed, sunlight) is not, that (bud) cannot be. Thus governed by the presence of various causes such as sun, earth and water, the lack of permanence of the bud is evident. The bud is an impermanent existence.

 

This principle is the same for the example of the earthen pot: it is formed by causes consisting of earth, water and the skill of the potter. Therefore, the pot depends on these causes. It is not an independent existence that has become a clay pot by itself. It is therefore an existence governed by the condition of certain causes.

 

Thus, through the axiom: "when there is a cause, there is an effect, when there is no cause, there is no effect", in other words "an effect appears through the combination of causes and conditions", conditioned production teaches that all existences, such as the bud or the earthen pot, are impermanent because they are dependent on and governed by causes.

 

Finally, conditioned production, according to which when there are causes (the earth, the water, the potter) there is an effect (the pot), is a law that has a direct relationship with ourselves who attach ourselves to the permanent notion of the pot. It is not a law of natural causality unrelated to us. In fact, conditioned production is our law, we who, while facing impermanence, are attached to permanence. We think that the conditioned production of the bud, the pot of earth, the Eiffel Tower or the world economic crisis is a simple natural causality independent of our own attitude. But in Buddhism, the bud, the pot and the rest are the objects of our attachment.

 

When we see a space surrounded by wooden boards, bricks, a garden, we immediately have the idea of "house". Similarly, when we see a space surrounded by flesh, muscle, hair, the concept "human body" comes to mind. Now, the wooden boards, the tiles, the garden are the objective causes, the reasons of our subjective conceptualization of the notion of "house", the bones, the muscles, the skin are those of our notion of "body". Thus, our subjective concepts (house, body, Eiffel Tower) depend on objective causes, independently of which these notions cannot exist. In other words, our subjective notions of house, of body to which we attach ourselves, are in fact impermanent and devoid of self. Conditioned production does not regard the bud, the pot, the house, the body, or any form of existence as absolute, but as subjective and relative. "One gets the name" means that the pot, the bud, the house, the body are subjective conceptualizations while conditioned production teaches that "the objective (cause) causes the subjective (effect)". All these subjective notions are temporary, changing phenomena. They all fall under the laws of conditioned production, impermanence, selflessness and transformation.

 

The fact that our subjective conceptualizations appear in dependence on objective causes is referred to in the "Mahātanhāsankhaya Sutra" also part of the "Middle Instructions":

 

"Oh monks! Without condition, the heart is not born. On the other hand, when, due to various conditions, consciousness is born, one obtains the name of consciousness: when, through the condition of sight and form, consciousness is born, then one obtains the name of visual consciousness. When, by the condition of the hearing and the sound, the conscience is born, we obtain the name of auditory conscience. (...) When, through the condition of mind and dharmas, consciousness is born, one obtains the name of discriminating consciousness. Oh, monks! It is like when, due to various conditions, a fire burns, one obtains the name of fire: when a fire burns by the condition of logs, one obtains the name of log fire. When a fire burns by the condition of wood chips, we get the name of wood chip fire. When a fire burns by the condition of grass, one gets the name grass fire".

 

This sutra also uses the expression "getting the name". It clearly shows the main meaning of conditioned production. The difference between logs, wood chips and grass, gives rise to the difference between log fire, wood chip fire and grass fire. Thus, the difference in objective cause leads to the difference in subjective conception. This sutra demonstrates that consciousness is not the autonomous subject of a permanent cycle maintaining itself independently. From this it follows that just as fire is a relative concept, dependent on the fuel, consciousness is also a relative concept dependent on the six roots (sense organs plus discriminating consciousness) and the six objects (of consciousness: colors and shapes, sounds, smells, tastes, tangible objects and objects of the mind) and therefore not an independent, absolute existence, worthy of attachment as if it were permanent.

 

Our subjective concepts are born depending on objective causes. We also find the principle of conditioned production in the "Miscellaneous Instructions" of the "Agamas Sutras":

 

"As, for example, the word 'char' exists when parts are brought together, so the noun 'being' exists when the various aggregates are present."

 

Here, the name, the concept of "chariot" is obtained through objective causes (real elements) which are its various parts. In the same way, the name, the concept of "being" is obtained by means of objective causes (real elements) that are the various aggregates.

 

The preceding stanza is often used to demonstrate that all existences, objects of attachments (beings, cars) are in fact conditioned productions devoid of real self, to which we should in fact not attach ourselves.

 

In the previous chapter, we saw that sentient beings were made up of matter and spirit, divided into five aggregates: form, perception, conceptualization, reaction, and consciousness.

The "matter" aspect, represented by form, is subdivided into inner form, i.e. our six roots (sight, hearing, smell, touch, taste, mind) and outer form, i.e. the objects of our roots, which are colors, sounds, smells, tastes, contacts and immaterial phenomena.

In this process, as the previous sentence of the Sutra indicated, the objects are the cause, the roots, the perception, the conceptualization and the reaction are the conditions and the consciousness is the effect.

Let's take an example: a noise, object of hearing (cause), occurs. Our auditory root (condition to hear the noise and cause of consciousness) perceives it (condition), we conceptualize it (condition), react to it (condition) and, finally, become aware of it (effect).

However, if we do not perceive it, the effect of consciousness cannot occur and, as there can be no cause without effect, the cause (the object) does not exist either.

The difference between the external and the internal path is that, for the latter, if there is no consciousness, there is no object, nor root, whereas for the external path, the object exists independently of consciousness, which contravenes the law of causality.

It is appropriate here to open a parenthesis, because it will not have escaped anyone that what I have just said seems to contradict what I said in the preceding chapter. Indeed, I have just said that the objects are the cause, the roots are the condition and the consciousness is the effect. Now, in the previous chapter, I said that the roots were the cause, the objects the conditions and the consciousness the effect.

In fact, despite appearances, there is no contradiction, which I will explain in an accompanying video, the first of a new series in which I will answer your various questions.

So we have six consciousnesses: visual, auditory, olfactory, tactile, gustatory and mental. All sentient beings, whether human or animal, are endowed with these six consciousnesses. No animal will reject a fellow animal because it does not have the same color, or because it is old, none will have a complex because it is fat; humans do.

It is that behind these six consciousnesses, where primitive Buddhism stopped, there exists a seventh consciousness called "Manas", discovered in the course of the deepening of Buddhist thought by different masters and which is the seat of the ego, of the attachment to the self, the original source of the "bad passions" (j. bon'nō), which is not found in other animals.

It is also, in spite of everything, because of this seventh consciousness, the source of bad passions and therefore of the suffering of human beings, that the desire to awaken to the truth arises and leads us to the world of faith and the world of awakening. This Manas consciousness is not an innate "mind", but something that is formed after birth and whose presence increases as we grow.

Manas consciousness can be paraphrased as the mind unconsciously attached to itself. This mind works withoutcess, even when we are asleep or unconscious. To take an example, when you are given a meeting or class photo with several people in it, or a family photo, everyone, without exception, looks at themselves first and then at the other people in the photo. Even if it's a picture of you with your lover or with your beloved grandchildren, the first thing you do is identify yourself. This is because the unconscious mind, the Manas consciousness, is at work. It is the seat of the belief in the existence of the self, the attachment to mine (what belongs to me: my car, my wife, my country...) and its own one-sided opinions and perspectives. It is also the place of all duality, good and evil, life and death, being and non-being, everything that the Buddha had to eradicate to reach enlightenment. Monotheistic religions, with their notions of the existence of God, of good and evil, pour oil on the fire, further preventing their believers from freeing themselves from their attachments and evil passions.

The seventh consciousness is where the outer path ends and Buddhism begins, with the discovery of the eighth consciousness, called Alaya consciousness, which we will see in the next episode.