Nidānasaṁyutta

Linked Discourses on Causation

The “Linked Discourses on Causation” is a major collection containing 93 discourses on the core Buddhist teaching of dependent origination. Dependent origination presents a series of conditional links laying bare how suffering originates and how it ends. As such, it is an extended treatment of the second and third noble truths. It integrates psychological and existential aspects of suffering, showing how when bound by attachment we make choices that bind us to transmigrating into future lives. One of the core purposes is to explain how rebirth takes place without having to invoke metaphysical concepts such as a “soul”. The collection begins by defining each of the terms in the standard 12-linked chain, definitions which are assumed to apply throughout. Remaining discourses iterate on this theme, introducing new perspectives and formulations.

• BuddhavaggaThe Chapter on the Buddhas10 ข้อ
• ĀhāravaggaThe Chapter on Fuel10 ข้อ
• DasabalavaggaThe Chapter on the Ten Powers10 ข้อ
• KaḷārakhattiyavaggaThe Chapter with Kaḷāra the Aristocrat10 ข้อ
• GahapativaggaThe Chapter on Householders10 ข้อ
• DukkhavaggaThe Chapter on Suffering10 ข้อ
• MahāvaggaThe Great Chapter10 ข้อ
• SamaṇabrāhmaṇavaggaThe Chapter on Ascetics and Brahmins2 ข้อ
• AntarapeyyālaConsecutive Repetitions3 ข้อ