What is the “Twelve Causes and Conditions''?

　

    When the Buddha enlightened to the truth and became a Buddha under the Bodhi tree, what truth did he enlighten? The answer is: Twelve Causes and Conditions; as long as you thoroughly understand the Twelve Causes and Conditions, and then practice to eliminate all "Ignorance", you can enter No-remained Nirvana and become a Buddha.

　

    To say that, the environment in which we live — the universe — manifests and exists according to the law of Twelve Causes and Conditions, so if you want to understand the truth of life and the universe, you must understand the Twelve Causes and Conditions. Enlightening the Twelve Causes and Conditions can help us cut off suffering, annoyances, birth, old age, sickness and death, and finally become enlightened people like the Buddha. "Cause and Condition", simply put, is the rule of cause and effect; if there is a "cause", there will be an "effect". If we plant the cause (seed) of the "melon", and the effect (fruit) will be the "melon", will not be a "bean". There are certain laws for the manifestation and existence of all things: because the sun shines, therefore hot air rises; because the rising hot air encounters cold, therefore it becomes a cloud; because the water droplets that make up the cloud accumulate more and more, therefore they cannot bear the weight, falls to the ground and becomes rain — that’s the reason of rains; behind everything, there is a cause and effect for its manifestation and existence. If a cause is lacking, there will be no relative effect, such as sunshine, air and water are the causes of plant growth; if there is no water, then the conditions for plant growth are not complete, plants will die and disappear. So, according to the law of cause and effect, if the cause that produced something disappears, then that thing or event will not exist or happen.

　

    We can apply this principle to our practice: if we want to solve the problems of birth, old age, sickness and death, sorrow, sadness, pain, and annoyance, we must know their cause, and eliminate their cause, and then the birth, old age, sickness and death,and annoyances will disappear. The cause of this "birth, old age, sickness, death, sorrow, sadness, pain, and annoyance", after being observed by the Buddha, is "Ignorance" among the Twelve Causes and Conditions.

　

    How to understand where birth, old age, sickness and death, pain, and annoyance come from? What are their causes? It turns out that all living beings will grow old, fall ill, die, and suffer from all kinds of pains. This is the law of the circulation (reincarnation) of life. Therefore, "life" is the cause of annoyances such as birth, aging, sickness and death. Then, where does "life" come from? The cause of "life" is the "existence of being" —— with "the existence of self", there will be "life", so "the existence of self" is the cause of "life"; and where does "the existence of self" form? Because we "think that we exist", then the self  exists, so "thinking that we exist" is the cause of "the existence of self"; and look for the next one, then why do we "think that we exist"? Because we "like that we exist": all beings cherish their existence, hate death, and are afraid of disappearing from the world, so "like that we exist" is the cause of "think that we exist"; then, why do we "like ourselves to exist"? Because we have various "happy feelings", that is to say, because we have "happy feelings", we will "like that we exist"; then, where does the "happy feeling" come from? Because we have "mutual contact and interaction" with the world, therefore we can produce "happy feelings", so "mutual contact and interaction" with the world is the cause of "happy feelings"; and why can we contact and interact with our environment? Because we have six "sense organs", so we can "contact and interact" with the world; then, where do the six "sense organs" come from? They are all produced by our "knowledge of all things" —— because we can clearly "know the names and characteristics of various things", therefore we produce six various "sense organs" with different characteristics; and, how did the "knowledge of all things" come from? Because we have "perception to recognize things" —— eyes can recognize light, ears can recognize sounds, nose can recognize smells, etc., therefore we have " the "knowledge of all things", so "perception to recognize things" is the cause of  the "knowledge of all things”; then, why is there “perception that recognizes things”? Because there are "acts, habits of recognizing things" —— we are "recognizing various kinds of different things" all the time: thinking "it's morning", looking at the clock on the wall, knowing "that's my car", deciding to walk to work... etc. In a broad sense, all behaviors are regarded as "acts and habits of recognizing things"; in the end, we will find that there are "acts and habits of recognizing things" because we "don't understand the essence of everything is illusory”. After discussing this, we will find the root cause of birth, aging, sickness, death, annoyance, and suffering turns out to be “not understanding the essence of everything is illusory”. We “wrongly believe that everything in the universe exists”, but In fact, all things do not really exist. According to the "the rule of cause and effect" mentioned earlier, as long as we eliminate the root cause of "doing not understand the essence of all things is illusory", we can make a series of causes and conditions disappear, and then eliminate all birth, aging, sickness, death, pain, and annoyance. That is to say, when we no longer "wrongly think that everything in the universe exists", we can eliminate all pain and annoyance. This principle is the so-called "Twelve Causes and Conditions".

　

    Although we cannot fully realize the Twelve Causes and Conditions in a short period of time, we can use our preliminary understanding of the Twelve Causes and Conditions to ease our annoyance and suffering; try to understand why “the essence of everything is illusory” ”, the deeper the understanding, the less annoyance there will be. In addition, we can also try to reduce the "liking that we exist" in the twelve causes and conditions and not to be too attached about the " happy feelings" in it. In fact, this is what Buddhist Dharma says: reduce "self-attachment" and "craving". These practices can reduce our annoyances and pains.

　

    Buddhism cares a lot about both theory and practice. After we know the theory, we must practice it ourselves in order to obtain real benefits. If you can understand and break the Twelve Causes and Conditions, you will be able to get rid of suffering and gain happiness and obtain true ease and freedom.