A Level Religious Studies - Buddhism Causal Links

The 12 Causal Links

The First Link – Ignorance (avijja)

The link is pictured through a blind whoman who struggles to move forwards. She cannot see where she is going. Ignorance is blindness, which means it is different to seeing. Ignorance is a lack of insight into the reality of things.

The Second Link – Karma

This link is shown by a potter. The significance of this is how the clay can be formed into something new, just like how karma can affect oneself in the future. This relates to the potter's wheel because once it starts to spin, it continues to do so much like how karma does not stop.

The Third Link – Consciousness (vinnana)

This link is represented by a monkey going from window to window. It shows a single consciousness interpreting things through different sensory organs. The monkey shows the primitive spark of sense-consciousness.

The Fourth Link – Body (nama-rupa)

This is shown by people sitting in a boat, with one of these people steering the ship. It represents form and its occupants which are the “mental aggregates”. The mind is a compound of feeling, perception, volition (using power at one's own will) and consciousness.

The Fifth Link – Six Sense – Spheres (salayatana)

Shown by a house with six windows and a door, the image shows the senses which are a way of perceiving the world. The senses allow everyone to feel, hear, smell, taste, touch and think in a different way. Our experience is limited by senses and the sixth is the mind.

The Sixth Link – Contact (phassa)

The image to go alongside this link is a couple holding each other. This shows how people interact with the world. The kiss shows that there is a meeting with the object prior to feeling it. Contact between the six senses and the world as we know it.

The Seventh Link – Feeling (vedana)

A person has an eye in their eye socket. It shows the strong feelings a person gets from their senses. Pain is the strong feeling implied via the picture, but it can be a good feeling too. Feeling is what we are driven and conditioned by.

The Eight Link – Craving (tanha)

Craving is shown by someone with alcohol. This shows the addictive side of the drink which gives us the message – even though it harms you, you keep on drinking. This link can also be called attachment. The link is a mental factor which increases desire but is not beneficial to the actual person.

The Ninth Link – Grasping (upadana)

There is a monkey reaching for fruit. It is clinging to the object, which shows craving. This leads to a person becoming a slave to passion and being driven by their desires. There are four types: attachment to sensual pleasures, wrong and evil views, rites and rituals and attachment to oneself.

The Tenth Link – Becoming (bhava)

A woman is in her third trimester of pregnancy. She is going to give birth soon and will bring a life onto the world whos full potential is not yet known. 'Becoming' means in the direction of purity and following the white path.

The Eleventh Link – Birth (jati)

A lady has given birth to a child. The birth shows how pain cannot be avoided and so dukkha is inescapable. We must bring the wheel to a stop in the human realm because it isn't certain we will be born here again.

The Twelfth Link – Ageing and Death (jara-marana)

The link is shown by a person dying. We age throughout our lives which shows we progress, but it ultimately leads to death. Death is not always the end, as a person is reborn into a new realm (or the same realm) depending on their karma. If a person has been enlightened, they will go to parinirvana at death.