The Foundations of Buddhism

No Self I 57

the ceasing of the six senses is the ceasing of sense-contact, with the

ceasing of sense-contact is the ceasing of feeling, with the ceasing offeel-

ing is the ceasing of craving, with the ceasing of craving is the ceasing

of grasping, with the ceasing of grasping is the ceasing of becoming, with

the ceasing of becoming is the ceasing of birth, with the ceasing of birth

is the ceasing of old age and death-grief, lamentation, pain, sorrow and

despair cease. Thus is the ceasing of this entire mass of suffering.

Thus not only does dependent arising hold the key to the way in

which beings become enmeshed in suffering, it also points to the

way in which they can free themselves from suffering. Precisely

because all things occur in accordance with the law of dependent

arising, small changes in the nature of the conditions that con-

stitute the process can produce different effects. And because

the mind contains the seeds of wholesome action-namely non-

attachment, friendliness, and wisdom~as well as of unwhole-

some action, the root causes of suffering-namely ignorance

and craving-can be gradually undermined and eradicated. It is

because selfhood or personal continuity resides in the causal

conditioning that is circumscribed by dependent arising that we

can change, that we can bring about the cessation of suffering.

Indeed, if I were an unchanging 'self', what would be the point

of trying to change myself? The spiritual life would be meaningless.

The work of Buddhist practice then is quite simply to cultivate

those conditions that set in motion and bring about the process

of the ceasing of ignorance leading to the ceasing of suffering.

A significant ancient variation on the formula of dependent aris-

ing, having detailed the standard sequence of conditions lead-
ing to the arising of this whole mass of suffering, thus goes on to
state that:

Conditioned by (1) suffering, there is (2) faith, conditioned by faith, there
is (3) gladness, conditioned by gladness, there is (4) joy, conditioned
by joy, there is (5) tranquillity, conditioned by tranquillity, there is (6)
happiness, conditioned by happiness, there is (7) concentration, condi-
tioned by concentration, there is (8) knowledge and vision of what truly
is, conditioned by knowledge and vision of what truly is, there is (9) dis-
enchantment, conditioned by disenchantment, there is ( IO) dispassion,
conditioned by dispassion, there is (II) freedom, conditioned by free-
dom, there is (12) knowledge that the defilements are destroyed.^41