Unfolding dependent origination: A psychological analysis for disclosing the root of the afflictive state of mind
Issued Date
2022-01-01
Resource Type
ISSN
19066244
eISSN
25869620
Scopus ID
2-s2.0-85145745327
Journal Title
Journal of International Buddhist Studies
Volume
13
Issue
1
Start Page
11
End Page
43
Rights Holder(s)
SCOPUS
Bibliographic Citation
Journal of International Buddhist Studies Vol.13 No.1 (2022) , 11-43
Suggested Citation
Chowdhury S.B. Unfolding dependent origination: A psychological analysis for disclosing the root of the afflictive state of mind. Journal of International Buddhist Studies Vol.13 No.1 (2022) , 11-43. 43. Retrieved from: https://repository.li.mahidol.ac.th/handle/20.500.14594/95558
Title
Unfolding dependent origination: A psychological analysis for disclosing the root of the afflictive state of mind
Author(s)
Author's Affiliation
Corresponding Author(s)
Other Contributor(s)
Abstract
Based on Pāli and Sanskrit scriptures, early Buddhist teachings postulate that the doctrine of dependent origination (Pāli: Paṭiccasamuppāda, Skt. pratītyasamutpāda) clarifies the cycle of life, in addition to fulfilling its doctrinal demand of the Buddha’s highest wisdom. What comes to light is a precise assessment of a concrete model of dependent origination which unfolds a clear picture of an unsatisfactory mental state between a being’s birth and death. Through the psychological analysis of the twelvefold links in the law of causation, both the Pāli canon (Nikāya) and the commentary (Aṭṭhakathā) demonstrate the three taproots of unsatisfactory mental state and the afflictive state of mind, including: Ignorance (avijjā), expectation (taṅhā) and clinging (upādāna). Following early Buddhism, Nāgārjuna’s Mūlamadhyamakakārikā offered a scholarship where the state of ‘no self-nature (Skt. nisvabhāva)’ incorporated by dependent origination leads to the lucid state of mind from mental dissatisfaction, i.e., emptiness (Skt. śūnyatā). Nāgārjuna illuminates nisvabhāva as an absence (empty) of existence, which he indirectly referred to as ‘non-self’ (P. anattā or Skt. anatman) as found in early Buddhism. Prior to disclosing the taproot of the afflictive state of mind, the proposed paper examines the nature of dependent origination with its psychological analysis stemming from Buddhist philosophical thought