Part 4 - What Dependent Origination Really Explains

“Whether Tathāgatas arise or not,
this principle stands:
Dependent Origination.”
— SN 12.20

A discovery, not an invention

There were spiritual teachers long before the Buddha.
They taught ethics, concentration, philosophical insight, even rebirth.

But none discovered:

  • the exact cause of suffering
  • the exact mechanism by which it sustains itself
  • the exact conditions that end it forever

What the Buddha uncovered was:

The causal law behind identity and suffering
— always operating, never seen clearly before

He did not create this principle.
He recognized it — and then taught it.

What others missed

Before the Buddha:

  • Some said suffering is fate
  • Some said suffering is random
  • Some said a soul suffers and escapes
  • Some said denial is liberation
  • Some said the world simply is

None explained:

  • why suffering arises
  • how it keeps arising
  • what stops it from arising

Dependent Origination answers all three.

The unique explanatory power of Dependent Origination

There is no suffering without causes.
There is no identity without conditions.
There is no freedom unless those conditions cease.

This principle explains:

Without Dependent Origination

With Dependent Origination

Suffering seems mysterious

Suffering becomes traceable

Identity seems solid

Identity becomes conditional

Practice seems vague

Practice becomes precise

Liberation seems distant

Liberation becomes immediate

The Dhamma becomes:

  • coherent
  • consistent
  • practical

Not philosophy — diagnostics

Dependent Origination is not speculation about the universe.
It is an exact diagnosis of the problem.

It shows the cause of suffering
so we can remove the cause of suffering.

Every link in the chain is a point of possible intervention:

  • understand one → weaken the chain
  • understand all → the chain collapses

This makes awakening predictable —
not luck, and not belief.

Seeing the Buddha through the principle

The Buddha did not say:

“Believe in me.”

He said:

“Understand this process,
and you will see what I saw.”

To understand Dependent Origination
is to step into the Buddha’s own insight.

Culmination Link for Part 4

The Buddha discovered:

  • what suffering depends on
  • how it keeps pretending to be “me”
  • where its support can be cut

Everything returns to Dependent Origination because:

In seeing causes clearly,
you see that suffering is optional.

This is the heart of the Dhamma.