Thursday, 7 May 2026

B. PSV sutta

 The Paticca-samuppada-vibhanga Sutta is a discourse from the Samyutta Nikaya, specifically SN 12.2.

Its title means “Analysis of Dependent Origination” or “Analysis of Dependent Co-Arising.”

The Buddha explains the chain by which suffering arises:

“From ignorance as condition, formations arise.
From formations as condition, consciousness arises…
…From birth as condition come aging and death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair.”

And then the reverse:

“With the fading away and cessation of ignorance, formations cease…
…Thus this whole mass of suffering ceases.”  

The sutta systematically defines each of the twelve links:

  1. Ignorance (avijjā)
  2. Formations (saṅkhāra)
  3. Consciousness (viññāṇa)
  4. Name-and-form (nāma-rūpa)
  5. Six sense bases
  6. Contact
  7. Feeling
  8. Craving
  9. Clinging
  10. Becoming
  11. Birth
  12. Aging-and-death

One of its central insights is:

“When this exists, that comes to be;
with the arising of this, that arises.
When this ceases, that ceases.”  

It is not merely a theory about rebirth; it is also a direct description of how suffering is created moment by moment through ignorance and craving.

A readable English translation:
Paticca-samuppada-vibhanga Sutta (Thanissaro Bhikkhu translation)

Audio recitation:


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