About the Circle of Life and the Dependent Origination

By Victor M Fontane

The 12 nidanas, which are pictured as the outer circle in the Wheel of Life, describe the chain of causation by which the cycle of death and rebirth known as samsara is created. They are also known as the 12 links of dependent origination. With basic ignorance as the first cause, each link in the chain is both the result of the previous nidana and the cause of the next. This sequence operates moment to moment as well as lifetime to lifetime.

1. Fundamental ignorance (Pali: avidya)

2. Formation (sankhara)

3. Consciousness (vinnana)

4. Name and form (namarupa)

5. Sense faculties (salayatana)

6. Contact (phassa)

7. Feeling or sensation (vedana)

8. Craving or thirst (tanha)

9. Clinging or grasping (upadana)

10. Becoming or worldly existence (bhava)

11. Birth or becoming (jati)

12. Old age and death (jaramarana)

Then we start all over again and be reborn in the next life.

The twelve Nidanas are related to the planets in our solar system (That is why we call them the lords of karma) and also the twelve houses of the Astrology horoscope.