Q: What are the two original roots?
A: Ignorance (Avijjā) and Craving (Taṇhā).
Q: What are the two truths (Sacca)?
A: The Truth of Suffering (Dukkha Sacca) and the Truth of the Origin of Suffering (Samudaya Sacca).
Q: What are the four layers?
A: 1) Past causes, 2) Present results, 3) Present causes, 4) Future results.
Q: What are the twelve factors (links)?
A: Avijjā (ignorance), Saṅkhāra (volitional formations), Viññāṇa (consciousness), Nāma-rūpa (name-and-form), Saḷāyatana (six sense bases), Phassa (contact), Vedanā (feeling), Taṇhā (craving), Upādāna (clinging), Bhava (existence), Jāti (birth), Jarāmaraṇa (aging and death).
Q: What are the Dhamma elements involved?
A: From the beginning (Avijjā) to the end (Jarāmaraṇa).
Q: What are the three connections (linkages)?
A: Between Saṅkhāra and Viññāṇa, Vedanā and Taṇhā, Bhava and Jāti.
Q: What are the two fundamental causes?
A: Craving (Taṇhā) and Ignorance (Avijjā).
Q: What are the three cycles (vaṭṭa)?
A: 1) Defilement cycle (Kilesa Vaṭṭa), 2) Kamma cycle (Kamma Vaṭṭa), 3) Result cycle (Vipāka Vaṭṭa).
Q: What are the three periods of time?
A: Past, Present, and Future.
Q: What are the 20 components (in 4 groups of 5)?
A: 5 past causes, 5 present results, 5 present causes, 5 future results.
Q: What are the 5 past causes?
A: Avijjā, Saṅkhāra, Taṇhā, Upādāna, Bhava.
Q: Which vaṭṭa (cycle) do these belong to?
A: Avijjā, Taṇhā, and Upādāna belong to Kilesa Vaṭṭa; Saṅkhāra and Bhava belong to Kamma Vaṭṭa.
Q: What truth do the five past causes represent?
A: The Truth of the Origin of Suffering (Samudaya Sacca).
Q: Which quadrant are they in?
A: The first quadrant.
Q: What are the five present causes?
A: Taṇhā, Upādāna, Bhava, Avijjā, Saṅkhāra.
Q: What are the five present results?
A: Viññāṇa, Nāma-rūpa, Saḷāyatana, Phassa, Vedanā.
Q: What truth do the present results represent?
A: The Truth of Suffering (Dukkha Sacca).
Q: Which quadrant is that in?
A: The second quadrant.
Q: What are the five future results?
A: Viññāṇa, Nāma-rūpa, Saḷāyatana, Phassa, Vedanā.
Q: What truth do these represent?
A: The Truth of Suffering (Dukkha Sacca).
Q: Which quadrant?
A: The fourth quadrant.
Q: How many quadrants are in Dependent Origination?
A: Four quadrants.
Q: How many factors per quadrant?
A: Five each.
Teacher: Five-fours make twenty.
Yogis: Understand these twenty well and easily.
Teacher: These eight branches should be memorized well by Yogis.
Yogis: For only thus can one be liberated from Saṃsāra (cycle of rebirth).
Miscellaneous Clarifications:
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Ignorance (Avijjā) is the root of not knowing the Four Noble Truths, the Five Aggregates (Khandha), the Twelve Sense Bases (Āyatana), the 18 Elements (Dhātu), etc.
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When one knows, it's called Knowledge (Vijjā).
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Misconception of self in aggregates and clinging to identity is rooted in Avijjā.
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All these conditioned phenomena (Khandha, Āyatana, etc.) are impermanent (anicca), suffering (dukkha), and non-self (anattā).
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Misconstruing them as pleasurable or self leads to craving (Taṇhā), clinging (Upādāna), and actions (Kamma).
Summary of Cycles (Vaṭṭa):
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Kilesa Vaṭṭa (Defilement Cycle): Avijjā, Taṇhā, Upādāna
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Kamma Vaṭṭa (Kamma Cycle): Saṅkhāra, Bhava
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Vipāka Vaṭṭa (Result Cycle): Viññāṇa, Nāma-rūpa, Saḷāyatana, Phassa, Vedanā, Jāti, Jarā, Maraṇa
Each set corresponds to particular truths and time quadrants.
Closing words:
Teacher: Five-fours make twenty.
Yogis: Understand them clearly.
Teacher: Memorizing these eight strands is essential.
Yogis: Only then can one attain liberation from Saṃsāra.
(Sādhu, Sādhu, Sādhu – Well said!)
