Page 66 - Because I know, I can let go

The word ‘paticca’ means ‘dependent,’ while the word ‘samupāda’ means ‘co-origination.’
One thing arising in dependence on some other thing which allows it to do so, this is
paticcasamupāda, dependent origination, or co-origination.

Now, something we need to know is that there isn’t anything - a being, a person, a self,

an us, a them – cycling around here, it’s just nature doing the arising, the persisting, and
the quenching away. If we can understand paticcasamupāda then we’ll know that there
isn’t a person, a ‘self,’ an ‘us,’ a ‘them,’ there isn’t anything called ‘me’ involved anywhere in

nature. If we don’t understand then we’ll live life with the ignorance-dominated thinking
that there is a person, a ‘self,’ an ’us,’ a ‘them.’

Thus the purpose of paticcasamupāda is to reveal how dukkha rises and how dukkha can
quench, how this arising and quenching is a case of dependent co-arising or dependent

co-quenching, and that the whole performance takes place without there being a creature,
a person, a ‘self,’ an ‘us,’ a ‘them,’ involved at all.

Now, there’s something else we can mention, in that this dependent co-arising and
quenching is very fast, something like a flash of lightning, so it happens very quickly.
Hence the arising of dukkha during the course of our day-to-day life is lightning-fast. If we
can see this then it’s scary, frightening, but if we can’t see it then it’s as nothing.

Here, if we ask what paticcasamupāda is minus the mumbo-jumbo? The answer is that it
describes the sort of mental behaviour which causes
1) the arising of dukkha

2) that it’s very fast, like lightning
3) that it happens repeatedly during the course of our daily lives.

66 Because I Know...