The world of dependent origination is this very world of birth and death. It is also the world of time or the same, samsara, in which there is no ultimate reality to be experienced. There is just a succession of rebirths. The counterpart of dependent origination is nirvana which is timeless and beyond the pale of phenomena. Nirvana also transcends birth and death. It is the end of rebirth.
We might think of nirvana this way. A clay pot appears as a result of giving clay form on a potter’s wheel. It thus becomes a dependent origination. When clay is in the form of a pot, the pot is now subject to breakage. By the same token, what is not subject to breakage—which possesses zero pot-ness—is the clay, itself.
Applying this analogy to mind, when the unborn mind attaches itself to mind-phenomena it enters samsara, which is also dependent origination. This condition is the everyday world of birth and death in which we struggle to live.
On the other hand, if mind turns away from its phenomena, seeing its pure animative nature which is unborn and unconditioned, it attains nirvana which transcends the world of dependent origination.
Comments