Part 17 - Tracing the Chain Backward: Where Can Freedom Begin?
“Where there is no clinging,
there is no becoming…”
— SN 12.2
Turning the cycle around
Up until now, we have followed the chain forward:
- how ignorance → formations → consciousness → … → suffering
This shows:
Why suffering exists
Now, we walk the chain backward:
- what can cease and where cessation can begin
This shows:
How suffering ends
If suffering has a cause, cessation has a doorway
Dependent Origination gives two full teachings:
- The arising of suffering
- The ceasing of suffering
They are mirror images:
Arising | Ceasing |
|---|---|
Ignorance → Birth → Suffering | End ignorance → No birth → No suffering |
This means:
- liberation is not random
- liberation is not gradual guesswork
- liberation is precise interruption of cause and effect
The question of entry
Where is the first point we can intervene?
Some think:
- “I must remove ignorance first.”
But ignorance is the blindness — how would one start there?
Some think:
- “I must cut craving first.”
But craving is subtle and fast — already active before we notice it.
The Buddha gave a practical answer:
Start where experience is vivid.
The easiest place to begin: Feeling (vedanā)
Why?
- every moment has it
- it is immediately knowable
- it directly triggers craving
- it happens before identity gets involved
- mindfulness can reliably observe it
Feeling (pleasant / unpleasant / neutral)
is the earliest visible turning point of the chain.
When feeling is seen clearly →
craving weakens
→ clinging cannot form
→ becoming loses power
→ birth does not occur
→ suffering does not arise
This is the exact reverse path:
Feeling → no craving → no clinging → no suffering
The interruption becomes liberation.
The Buddha’s teaching on the point of entry
“With the cessation of feeling as ‘mine,’
craving ceases.”
— SN 36.6
Not the cessation of feeling itself —
but the cessation of personalizing feeling:
- no ownership
- no story
- no self-reference
Feeling seen as a conditioned event only
is the doorway to freedom.
Practice instruction
Right at contact:
- notice the tone
- refuse the ownership
- watch it change
Ask:
“Is this feeling happening to a self —
or simply happening?”
The difference is everything.
Culmination Link for Part 17
Freedom begins:
- not at the start of the chain
- but at the earliest link we can actually observe
That link is:
Feeling becoming craving
Break the link once →
you have touched Nibbāna once.
Break it thoroughly →
the chain ends completely.
Dependent Origination is not merely understood —
it is dismantled.