Āhārasutta
Fuel
The Buddha defines the four kinds of “food” or “nutriment”, which include edible food, contact, intention, and consciousness. These are all produced by craving, and hence connect with dependent origination.
Translations
Moḷiyaphaggunasutta
Phagguna of the Top-Knot
Venerable Moḷiyaphagguna asks who eats the consciousness food. The Buddha says the question is improper, as it assumes a self as agent. Rather, all the factors of dependent origination are simply natural conditions and have nothing to do with a “self”.
Translations
Samaṇabrāhmaṇasutta
Ascetics and Brahmins
One who does not understand dependent origination is no true ascetic.
Translations
Dutiyasamaṇabrāhmaṇasutta
Ascetics and Brahmins (2nd)
One who does not understand dependent origination is no true ascetic.
Translations
Kaccānagottasutta
Kaccānagotta
Venerable Kaccānagotta asks the Buddha about right view, and the Buddha answers that right view arises when one sees the origin and cessation of the world and is free of attachments. This sutta, brief but profound and difficult, became renowned as the only canonical reference named in Nāgārjuna’s Mūlamadhyamakakārikā, perhaps the most famous philosophical treatise in all Buddhism.
Translations
Dhammakathikasutta
A Dhamma Speaker
One is qualified to be called a “Dhamma speaker” if one teaches for the ending of suffering.
Translations
Acelakassapasutta
With Kassapa, the Naked Ascetic
A naked ascetic named Kassapa approaches the Buddha while he is on alms round and asks whether suffering is created by oneself, by another, by both, or by chance. Explaining why he rejects all these options, the Buddha asserts that suffering arises due to conditions.
Translations
Timbarukasutta
With Timbaruka
A wanderer named Timbaruka asks the Buddha whether pleasure and pain are created by oneself, by another, by both, or by chance. Explaining why he rejects all these options, the Buddha asserts that pleasure and pain arise due to conditions.
Translations
Bālapaṇḍitasutta
The Astute and the Foolish
Both the wise and the foolish have been reborn in this life due to their deeds conditioned by ignorance in past lives. But a fool continues to make the same mistakes and is reborn yet again, whereas a wise person does not.
Translations
Paccayasutta
Conditions
The Buddha distinguishes between “dependently originated phenomena”—the twelve factors—and “dependent origination”—the principle of conditionality. Someone who understands these things no longer worries about the past or future.