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Brickwall Unlimited

Between 'It Exists' and 'It Doesn't'

SN 12.15, the Kaccānagotta Sutta — set 4, Not-Self and Dependent Arising

Reading time: about 3 min · 432 words

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Before you read

Kaccānagotta asks what right view actually means. The answer is one of the shortest and most quoted passages in the canon.

The world leans on two ideas, the Buddha says — that things exist, and that they do not. Someone who really sees how things arise stops leaning on the second. Someone who really sees how they cease stops leaning on the first. In place of either: this comes to be because that comes to be.

A single page, and the cleanest doorway into dependent arising on this site.

Translation

The Setting

At Sāvatthī.

Then Venerable Kaccānagotta went to the Buddha, bowed, sat to one side, and said: "Bhante, they speak of 'right view, right view.' How far does right view extend?"

Right View

"Kaccāna, this world mostly relies on two opposing views: that things exist and that they do not. But for someone who truly sees the arising of the world with right discernment, the view of non-existence regarding the world does not occur. And for someone who truly sees the cessation of the world with right discernment, the view of existence regarding the world does not occur.

This world is for the most part bound by approach, taking personally, and insistence. But someone who — with regard to all that approach, taking personally, fixation of the heart, insistence, and underlying tendency — does not approach, does not take personally, does not fixate on 'my self': they have no doubt or uncertainty. What arises is just suffering arising; what ceases is just suffering ceasing. Their knowledge of this is independent of others.

This far, Kaccāna, is right view.

The Two Extremes and the Middle

'All exists' — this is one extreme. 'All does not exist' — this is the second extreme. Without approaching either of these two extremes, the Tathāgata teaches the Dhamma by the middle:

Ignorance is the condition for putting things together. Putting things together is the condition for knowing. Knowing is the condition for name-and-form. Name-and-form is the condition for the six sense fields. The six sense fields are the condition for contact. Contact is the condition for felt experience. Felt experience is the condition for ignorant wanting. Ignorant wanting is the condition for taking personally. Taking personally is the condition for becoming. Becoming is the condition for birth. Birth is the condition for ageing and death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, and despair to arise. This is how this entire mass of dissatisfaction originates.

With the remainderless fading and cessation of ignorance, putting things together ceases. With the cessation of putting things together, knowing ceases. With the cessation of knowing, name-and-form ceases. With the cessation of name-and-form, the six sense fields cease. With the cessation of the six sense fields, contact ceases. With the cessation of contact, felt experience ceases. With the cessation of felt experience, ignorant wanting ceases. With the cessation of ignorant wanting, taking personally ceases. With the cessation of taking personally, becoming ceases. With the cessation of becoming, birth ceases. With the cessation of birth, ageing and death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, and despair cease. This is how this entire mass of dissatisfaction ceases.

The fifth discourse is finished.

Words used in this translation (22)
becoming
This project's rendering of "bhava" -- the settling of experience into a way of being that feels like somebody being something. Often translated "existence."
Bhante
A respectful way of addressing a senior monastic, roughly "venerable sir." Left untranslated because English has no natural equivalent.
birth
This project's rendering of "jāti": birth, coming into being. In the dependent-arising sequence, ageing and dying depend on it. In MN 141 the word appears once in its everyday sense instead, in a simile about a mother.
cessation
The ending of dissatisfaction and its causes: what practice is finally for. Elsewhere on this site the same idea appears as "quenching". Both render the same Pali word, "nirodha", in different sentences.
contact
This project's rendering of "phassa" -- the meeting of a sense, its object, and the knowing of it. A technical link in the dependent-arising sequence, not physical touch specifically.
Dhamma
The Buddha's teaching taken as a whole -- both what he taught and the way things actually are, which the teaching describes.
dissatisfaction
This translation's rendering of "dukkha," the Buddhist term for the unsatisfying, unstable quality of ordinary experience. Often translated "suffering," but that can sound more dramatic than the everyday sense of things not quite being right.
doubt
Uncertainty and indecision, especially about the practice and the teaching. As one of the five hindrances, it keeps the mind wavering instead of committing.
fading
The fading away of attraction and investment in experience, as passion cools.
felt experience
This project's rendering of "vedanā", often translated "feeling". It is the immediate pleasant, painful, or mixed tone of an experience, before any story we build on top of it.
heart
This project's rendering of "citta": the feeling side of mind. It takes on moods, wants, leans, and reacts. Practice can gladden, steady, train, and release it. Some call it the "heart-mind" or "feeling mind". Here "heart" does not mean only emotion, or the physical organ.
ignorance
This project's rendering of "avijjā" -- not general stupidity, but specifically not seeing how dissatisfaction works and how it ends. The first link in the dependent-arising sequence.
ignorant wanting
Wanting something you can't have right now. This project's rendering of "taṇhā", often translated "craving". We call it ignorant because it comes from not seeing clearly; ordinary, sensible wanting is something else.
knowing
This project's rendering of "viññāṇa" (often translated "consciousness") -- bare awareness of an object through one of the senses or the mind.
name-and-form
The mental and physical sides of experience taken together: roughly, whatever you can name plus whatever has shape. One link in the dependent-arising sequence.
putting things together
This project's rendering of "saṅkhāra": the ongoing activity of assembling experience, and also what that activity assembles. Context shows which of the two the text means. Other translations often say "formations" or "fabrications", which this project avoids as needlessly opaque.
right discernment
Seeing accurately how something actually came about, rather than holding a correct opinion about it.
right view
Seeing how experience and practice actually work -- the first factor of the eightfold path. "Right" here means well-aimed and accurate, not morally righteous.
taking personally
This project's rendering of "upādāna" -- treating some piece of experience as "me" or "mine" and holding on to it. Usually translated "clinging" or "attachment."
Tathāgata
A title for the Buddha, traditionally left untranslated. It means roughly "the one who has arrived at things as they truly are."
underlying tendency
A reactive pattern that isn't necessarily active right now but is ready to reassert itself given the right conditions -- lying underneath rather than gone.
world
A word whose scope shifts with the teaching. It can mean the lived world we build through the senses and the mind, or the wider physical cosmos. The surrounding passage shows which sense it has.
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