28 CHAPTER ONEThe prescription is as follows: When ignorance ceases, formations cease,
and so on, until aging and dying cease. Thus is the cessation of the entire mass
of suffering. This is also called knowledge of the ending of the asravas, be-
cause the four asravas are sensual intentions and views, both of which would
fall under the category of sustenance, along with becoming and ignorance.
These asravas all cease with the unraveling of the causal process, leaving simply
the experience of the unconditioned.
If ignorance is not overcome, however, the process of dependent co-aris-
ing gives rise to repeated suffering indefinitely because of its many feedback
loops. For instance, the suffering of birth, aging, and death would count as
feeling; as long as ignorance remains operative, this feeling could reenter the
series as a mental formation (precondition 2), a factor of name-and-form (pre-
condition 4), or as feeling itself (precondition 7). This adds a complex cyclic
dimension to the series and explains how it came to be represented in Bud-
dhist art as the Wheel of Life. Later commentaries attempted to make the
causal pattern into a simple circle by asserting that the sorrow of aging and
dying gives rise to ignorance. Although an early discourse does note that there
are times when suffering can lead to bewilderment (A.VI.63), the series has so
many points of feedback that the image of a circle does little justice to its com-
plexity. The Pali Canon never characterizes the series as a wheel, but instead
compares it to streams flowing down the mountains to fill lakes, which in turn
fill rivers, which lead to the ocean (S.XII.21). This description provides a
more fluid image of the interplay of interdependent forces.
The formal complexity of the series is shown by its synopsis as given in
the Pali Suttas (S.XII.23): "[1] When this is, that is; [2] from the arising of this
comes the arising of that; [3] when this isn't, that isn't; [ 4] from the cessation
of this comes the cessation of that." As a theory of causation, this formula re-
sembles modern chaos theory in that it is both linear and synchronistic. The
linear pattern (taking [2] and [4] as a pair) connects events, rather than objects,
over time; the synchronistic pattern ([1] and [3]) connects objects and events
in the present moment. This combination of two causal patterns-influences
from the past interacting with those occurring in the immediate present-re-
flects the relation between Gautama's second and third cognitions on the night
of his Awakening. It also accounts for the complexity and diversity of causal
explanations given in the Pali Canon. At the same time, these two causal pat-
terns distinguish the Buddhist interpretation of causality from the determinis-
tic teachings of some of its rivals. Even though the past may exert influence
over the present, the possibility of modifYing those influences through one's
present actions means that there is an opening for free will.
Furthermore, the combination of two patterns explains a number of facts
connected with the process of Gautama's third cognition itself. On the one
hand, the synchronous pattern of causality explains why he experienced the
Deathless at the very moment he was able to overcome ignorance of the Four
Noble Truths and thus did not have to wait for some far distant time for his
previous karma to run out. On the other hand, the linear pattern over time
explains why he did not die at the moment of Awakening. Although he no