he aw of the welve auses
is Law is also known as the Law of Dependent Origination
or the Wheel of Life (Paticca-Samuppada) and is a discourse on
the process of birth and death, and not a philosophical theory of
the evolution of the world. It deals with the cause of rebirth and
suffering with the view of helping mankind to get rid of their
ills of life. It is not an attempt to solve the riddle of an absolute
origin of life. It merely explains the ‘simple happening of a state,
dependent on its antecedent state’.Ignorance of the truth of suffering, its cause, its end, and the way
to its end, is the main cause that sets the Wheel of Life in mo-
tion. e Buddha said: “Ignorance is the deep delusion wherein
we here so long are circling round’.When ignorance is destroyed and turned into wisdom, all causal-
ity is shattered as in the case of the Buddhas and the Arahants.
is Law was preached especially for the benefit of those who
wish to attain Pratyekabuddhahood. By contemplating on it, they
will come to an understanding of the birth and death of all things
which results in the arising of their great inherent wisdom.e Twelve Causes and their interdependent relationship are as
follows:
I causes A (Karma)
A causes C
C causes N and F (Individuality)
N and F causes the S E (Six spheres of Sense)
e S E causes C