Co-dependent Aspects of a Living Process

The kind of attention required for liberation arises from a calm and clear mind and is called ‘insight’ (vipassanā).

What insight ‘sees’ on a wider scale is ‘co-dependency’ –idappaccayatā. This view reveals our world of direct experience and consciousness as arising in a mutual dependency. It’s a world-changing view because it undercuts the notion of consciousness being separate from the rest of Creation.

This subtle point has far-reaching consequences.

Intellectually, we can surmise that consciousness (viññāna) arises within a life form, a body; it’s not floating in a void. Furthermore, it is the process of consciousness that, through metabolism and respiration, sustains that life form and without which it is dead; it also supports the reproductive system that brings new bodies into existence.

Thus consciousness and its respective life form arise together. It’s not that one creates the other; they are co-dependent aspects of a living process. We can also widen this co-dependent view to cover social realities – i.e. that we affect and shape each other for good or bad – as well as ecology: that the planet is affected by our actions, and we are affected by its climate and elements.

If we live in accord with this principle, respect, gratitude and moral integrity become norms. This already is a big piece to comprehend and live out; and would bring around a huge transformation of the domination-exploitation mind-set.

This reflection by Ajahn Sucitto is from the book, Buddha Nature, Human Nature, (pdf) pp. 96-97. You may also wish to visit Ajahn Sucitto’s website.