The Great Discourse on Causation: The Mahanidana Sutta and Its Commentaries

by Bhikkhu Bodhi

The Mahanidana Sutta, "The Great Discourse on Causation," is the longest and most detailed of the Buddha's discourses dealing with dependent arising (paticca samuppada), a doctrine generally regarded as the key to his entire teaching. The Buddha often described dependent arising as deep, subtle, and difficult to see, the special domain of noble wisdom. So when his close disciple Ananda comes to him and suggests that this doctrine might not be as deep as it seems, the stage is set for a particularly profound and illuminating exposition of the Dhamma.

This book contains a translation by Bhikkhu Bodhi of the Mahanidana Sutta together with all the doctrinally important passages from its authorized commentary and subcommentary. A long introductory essay discusses the rich philosophical implications of the sutta; an appendix explains the treatment of dependent arising according to the Abhidhamma system of conditional relations.

Genres: Buddhism, Philosophy, Religion

211 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

Bhikkhu Bodhi is an American Buddhist monk from New York City. Born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1944, he obtained a BA in philosophy from Brooklyn College (1966) and a PhD in philosophy from Claremont Graduate School (1972).

Drawn to Buddhism in his early 20s, after completing his university studies he traveled to Sri Lanka, where he received novice ordination in 1972 and full ordination in 1973, both under the late Ven. Ananda Maitreya, the leading Sri Lankan scholar-monk of recent times.

He was appointed editor of the Buddhist Publication Society (in Sri Lanka) in 1984 and its president in 1988. Ven. Bodhi has many important publications to his credit, either as author, translator, or editor, including the Buddha — A Translation of the Majjhima Nikaya (co-translated with Ven. Bhikkhu Nanamoli (1995), The Connected Discourses of the Buddha — a New Translation of the Samyutta Nikaya (2000), and In the Buddha’s Words (2005).

In May 2000 he gave the keynote address at the United Nations on its first official celebration of Vesak (the day of the Buddha’s birth, enlightenment, and passing away). He returned to the U.S. in 2002. He currently resides at Chuang Yen Monastery and teaches there and at Bodhi Monastery. He is currently the chairman of Yin Shun Foundation.

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid if rather technical work on this key teaching of the Buddha. The ancient commentaries on the sutta are helpful, but again what makes this book especially worth reading is the material written by Bhikkhu Bodhi himself. His long introduction provides an excellent overview of the teaching of dependent arising, and the book closes with a brief but authoritative summary of the 24 kinds of conditional relation and how these apply to the 12 links of the cycle of dependent arising.

In all, a valuable addition to the library of the serious student of the Buddha dharma.

[Totochelamouche · Rating 3 out of 5]

The place in the sequence of conditions where that margin takes on the greatest importance is the link between feeling and craving. It is at that brief moment when the present resultant phase has come to a culmination in feeling, but the present causal phase has not yet begun, that the issue of bondage and liberation is decided. If the response to feeling is governed by ignorance and craving, the round continues to revolve; if the response replaces craving with restraint, mindfulness, and methodical attention, a movement is made in the direction of cessation.

Craving also gives rise to the clinging to views, generally to the view that favours its dominant urge. Thus craving for existence leads to a belief in the immortality of the soul, craving for non-existence to a theory of personal annihilation at death.

Craving leads to the pursuit of the objects desired, and through pursuit they are eventually gained. When gained one makes decisions about them: what is mine and what is yours, what is valuable and what disposable, how much I will keep and how much I will enjoy. Because of these decisions, thoughts of desire and lust arise. One develops attachment to the objects, adopts a possessive attitude towards them, and falls into stinginess, refusing to share things with others. Regarding everyone else with fear and suspicion, one seeks to safeguard one’s belongings. When such greed and fear become widespread, they need only a slight provocation to explode into the violence, conflicts, and immorality spoken of in the sutta as “various evil, unwholesome phenomena.”

The two terms, impingement and designation, have a fundamental importance which ties them to dependent arising as a whole. They again indicate the basic oscillatory pattern of experience referred to earlier, its movement back and forth between the phases of reception and response. The receptive phase sees the maturation of the kammic inflow from the past; it is represented here by impingement issuing in sense consciousness. The responsive phase involves the formation of new kamma; it is represented by designation issuing in action.

This disclosure of the essential interdependence of consciousness and mentality-materiality has momentous consequences for religious and philosophical thought. It provides the philosophical “middle way” between the views of eternalism and annihilationism, the two extremes which polarize man’s thinking on the nature of his being. Each side of the conditioning relationship, while balancing the other, at the same time cancels out one of the two extremes by correcting its underlying error.

When feeling is seized upon as food for desire, when perception becomes a scanning device for finding pleasure and avoiding threats to the ego, when volition is driven by greed and hate and attention flits about unsteadily, one can hardly expect the mental body to mirror the world “as it really is” in flawlessly precise concepts and expressions.

In the ocean there is a fish called the Timirapingala, 500 yojanas long.

“The deep meaning of ignorance being a condition for volitional formations”: the mode (ākāra) through which, and the stage (avatthā) at which, ignorance becomes a condition for volitional formations, and the stage at which it does so, are difficult to comprehend. As both of these are difficult to comprehend, the meaning of ignorance being a condition for volitional formations through nine modes is “deep” in the sense of fathomless [...].

“Craving for existence” is desire accompanied by the eternalist view, “craving for non-existence” desire accompanied by the annihilationist view.

Not clinging, he is not agitated.

[retroj · Rating 5 out of 5]

A slim, dense volume on a most fascinating topic of Buddhist philosophy, dependent origination. Bikkhu Bodhi's introduction and the sutta itself are very accessible, while the commentaries are rough-going for one without academic knowledge of the Abhidhamma, though still helpful with a little persistance.