The Chain of Dependent Origination

How Consciousness Creates Experience — and How Awareness Frees Itself

By The Dancing Buddha at Light Manor Hypnotherapy

The Buddha described twelve interdependent links that explain how suffering and rebirth arise in every moment.

They are not separate events but movements of a single process—like twelve currents in one river.

When seen in stillness, each link becomes not a prison, but a point of awakening.

Understanding this process is the key to ending the trance of addiction and returning to natural balance.

1. Ignorance (Avijjā)

Ignorance is forgetting our true nature.

It is the belief in separation, that consciousness is divided into “me” and “the world.”From this misconception, craving begins. We seek outside what already exists within.In addiction, this is the root moment—the inner thought that something is missing, that peace must be found elsewhere.In hypnotherapy this is often the client’s starting trance, the trance of lack.

2. Volitional Formations (Saṅkhāra)

From ignorance, the mind begins to move. Thoughts, intentions, and tendencies form.

These are the deep mental habits and learned responses that drive behavior.

They are not wrong, but when powered by ignorance they produce reaction instead of creation.

This is the conditioning that hypnotherapy helps to soften—turning blind compulsion into conscious choice.

3. Consciousness (Viññāṇa)

Formations give rise to a stream of consciousness shaped by habit.

In this moment “the drinker,” “the worrier,” “the rescuer,” or “the seeker” comes into being.

Each identity is awareness taking form according to past tendencies.

Freedom begins by seeing that the awareness noticing the identity is already free of it.

4. Name-and-Form (Nāma-rūpa)

Consciousness now manifests as mind and body.

Name represents the inner world—perception, feeling, recognition, intention.

Form represents the outer world—the body and environment.

Together they create a living theater where experience plays out.

Here thought becomes chemistry and imbalance begins to show itself physically.

5. The Six Sense Bases (Saḷāyatana)

The mind-body complex develops six gateways: eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind.

Through these, contact occurs. Each is neutral, a doorway through which awareness can either remain free or become bound.

When the senses are flooded with stimulation, craving begins to grow.

6. Contact (Phassa)

Contact is where the inner and outer worlds meet.

A sight is seen, a sound is heard, a thought arises.

This is the spark that can ignite either freedom or bondage.

If contact is received with stillness and right thinking, it becomes the beginning of wisdom.

If received with restlessness, it becomes the beginning of craving.

Here lies the first true point of choice—not control, but awareness.

7. Feeling (Vedanā)

From contact arises feeling—pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral.

In ignorance, we chase pleasure and flee pain.

In wisdom, we see feeling as weather—arising, passing, and never personal.

The one who can sit with feeling without needing to change it has already stepped out of the chain.

8. Craving (Taṇhā)

If feeling is met with attachment, craving begins.

The mind says, “I want more,” or “I want this gone.”This is the fuel of addiction, the illusion that fulfillment lies in repetition.

Like drinking salt water, it promises satisfaction but deepens the thirst.

9. Clinging (Upādāna)

Craving hardens into identity.

We no longer just want the experience—we become the one who needs it.

Clinging is not to things but to stories about things.

When the story loosens, the addiction weakens.

Awareness sees, “I am not this habit. I am the consciousness watching it.”

10. Becoming (Bhava)

Through clinging, we create a new state of being.

Our repeated thoughts, emotions, and actions shape the next moment of existence.

In one instant we are angry, in another calm.

Each “becoming” gives birth to a new reality.

When awareness is clear, becoming turns into unfolding—not compulsion, but flow.

11. Birth (Jāti)

From becoming arises birth—the full manifestation of a new identity.

The urge becomes behavior, the thought becomes speech, the energy becomes embodiment.

Addiction is rebirth in a lower realm; compassion is rebirth in a higher one.

Every action is a small reincarnation of consciousness.

12. Aging and Death (Jarā-maraṇa)

Whatever is born must fade.

Each state, each emotion, each identity dissolves.

When awareness is absent this fading feels like loss.

When awareness is present it is liberation—the moment when impermanence is seen as mercy.

Thus the chain ends where it began: in the choice between ignorance and awakening.

The Reversed Chain of Liberation

How Right Thinking, Right Action, and Stillness Unwind the Cycle

The same process that leads to addiction and suffering can, when met with awareness, lead to freedom.

The Buddha taught that by reversing the chain through understanding, craving ends and peace is restored.

Here’s how each link transforms when met with Right View and Stillness.

1. Stillness Replaces Ignorance

When ignorance fades, stillness arises.

The mind remembers its source and no longer believes in separation.

From this quiet knowing, all actions begin in truth rather than need.

2. Formations Become Intention

Volitional formations become clear intention.

Thoughts no longer create turmoil but serve awakening.

Mind becomes a craftsman shaping peace instead of reaction.

3. Consciousness Becomes Pure Awareness

Awareness recognizes itself.

Instead of identifying with the flow of thoughts, it observes them.

The observer and the observed reunite as one field of consciousness.

4. Name-and-Form Become Transparency

Mind and body remain, but they are seen as expressions of awareness.

The body moves in harmony, the mind rests in service of truth.

Experience becomes transparent—light passing through form.

5. The Senses Become Gateways of Presence

The six senses are no longer distractions but sacred doors.

Each sight, sound, and touch becomes an invitation to return to now.

Awareness moves through the world without being caught by it.

6. Contact Becomes Communion

When the mind is still, contact is no longer collision but communion.

We meet the world as part of ourselves.

Right Thinking meets each moment without judgment, and wisdom is born.

7. Feeling Becomes Sensitivity

Pleasure and pain are felt deeply but not owned.

Every sensation becomes a message rather than a command.

Compassion replaces reactivity.

8. Craving Becomes Understanding

Desire transforms into inquiry.

Instead of grasping, the mind asks, “What is this feeling teaching me?”Energy once wasted in pursuit becomes the light of insight.

9. Clinging Becomes Release

The hand that once grasped now opens.

Action flows naturally as Right Action—ethical, balanced, kind.

There is nothing left to defend, nothing left to prove.

10. Becoming Becomes Being

Without clinging, there is no forced becoming.

The mind abides in presence.

This is life as meditation—each breath complete in itself.

11. Birth Becomes Awakening

What once was the birth of identity is now the birth of realization.

Each moment reveals itself as new and whole.

The self is reborn not into illusion but into truth.

12. Death Becomes Release

Every moment ends gracefully.

Nothing is lost because nothing was possessed.

The cycle completes in freedom, and awareness rests in peace.

Seeing the Whole Chain at Once

To see this process clearly is the beginning of liberation.

Each link is an invitation to awaken, and each can be met with awareness instead of reaction.

The purpose is not to stop the chain but to see through it—to recognize that consciousness has never been bound by it.

When ignorance fades, the chain collapses like a web cut at its center.

What remains is stillness—clear, luminous, aware.

Reflection for Practice

Sit quietly and observe your next craving, however small.

Notice the contact, the feeling, the thought that follows.

Do not fight it—simply watch the chain unfold.

Then breathe into stillness and let awareness interrupt the pattern.

You will see how quickly illusion dissolves when it is no longer fed.

This is the living practice of freedom.