Dialogues of the Buddha, Part II — trans. T. W. and C. A. F. Rhys Davids (1910)

1 If you, Ananda, were asked : — " Is contact due to a particular cause ? " you should say : — " It is." And to the question : — " From what cause is contact ? " you should say:—'' Name-and-form is the cause of contact."

' If you, Ananda, were asked : — " Is name-and-form due to a particular cause ? " you should say : — " It is." And to the question : — " From what cause is nameand-form ? " you should say : — " Cognition is the cause of name-and-form."

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3. ' Thus then is it, Ananda, that cognition, with name-and-form as its cause ; name-and-form, with cognition as its cause ; contact, with name-and-form as its cause ; sensation with contact as its cause ; craving, with sensation as its cause ; grasping, with craving as its cause ; becoming, with grasping as its cause ; birth, with becoming as its cause ; old age and death, with birth as its cause ; grief, lamentation, ill, sorrow and despair, all come into being. [57] Such is the coming to pass of this whole body of 111.

4. ' I have said that birth is the cause of old age and death. Now in what way that is so, Ananda, is to be understood after this manner. Were there no birth of any sort or kind whatever of any one anywhere — that is to say, of gods to godhood, of Gandharvas ' after their kind, of Yakshas after their kind, of goblins 2 after their kind, of humans to humanity, of quadrupeds to the animal kingdom, of birds to winged things, or of insects to the insect-world — were there no birth after the several kind of every one of these classes of beings, then, there being no birth whatever, would there, owing to this cessation of birth, be any appearance of old age and death ? '

' There would not, lord.' .

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'Wherefore, Ananda, just that is the groujncl, that

1 The Cy., following S. Ill, 250, speaks of these beings as fairies residing in the perfumes given out by roots and other parts of trees and flowers, saying nothing of their ' celestial musicianship ' (see Hardy, ' Manual of Buddhism,' 43), or of Sakka as their king (see Jat. VI, 260).

2 Bhutci.

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is the basis, that is the genesis, that is the cause of old age and death, to wit, birth.

5. ' I have said that becoming1 is the cause of birth. Now in what way that is so, Ananda, is to be understood after this manner. Were there no becoming of any sort or kind whatever of any one anywhere, that is to say, no coming to be of any sentient, formed, or formless being 2, then there being no becoming whatever, would there, owing to this cessation of becoming, be any appearance of birth ? '

' There would not, lord/

' Wherefore, Ananda, just that is the ground, that is the basis, the genesis, the cause of birth, to wit, becoming.

6. ' I have said that grasping 3 is theA cause of becoming. Now in what way that is so, Ananda, is to be understood after this manner. Were there no grasping of any sort or kind whatever by any one at anything — [58] that is to say, no grasping at the things of sense, no grasping through speculative opinions, no grasping after mere rule and ritual, no grasping through theories of soul — then there being no grasping