It Starts With Suffering
One of my favorite topics at the final DPP retreat was the Twelve Links of Transcendent Dependent Arising. Basically, these links diverge from the rounds of samsara as described in the Twelve Links of Dependent Origination, which start with Ignorance and lead repeatedly to Suffering. But this chain of arising leads AWAY from that endless cycle of suffering….and goes all the way to Liberation!
The path to liberation starts with suffering (dukkha). Which is good news…because that’s what we’ve got! Things are not the way we want them to be; we don’t get what we want; we have to deal with all kinds of stuff we don’t want; etc. etc. etc.
So we start with suffering. But then we move AWAY from it. By gaining confidence and trust….faith….in what we can see for ourselves through the practices of meditation.
More on that tomorrow.
And then on to the next link, then to the next, one each day until we get to the last — which is total freedom.
Here’s the whole list:
Suffering (dukkha)
Faith (saddha)
Joy (pamojja)
Rapture (piti)
Tranquility (passaddhi)
Happiness (sukha)
Concentration (samadhi)
Knowledge and Vision of Things As They Are (yathabhutananadassana)
Disenchantment (nibbida)
Dispassion (viraga)
Emancipation (vimutti)
Knowledge of Destruction of the Taints (asavakkhaye nana)
(image: Phantasmagoric Theater Tarot)