Concurrence of Logical Antecedents (Paṭicca Samuppāda)
This Concurrence of Logical Antecedents is an extraordinary explanation of how the “world” and the “self” came into being through a simultaneously occurring series of subjective mental processes, which are logical antecedents. The physical world we are aware of is a product of a mental process going on within us. According to this explanation, we are constantly watching a moving cinema throughout our lives. All that we know is known through this cinematography, which is a subjective mental process of experiencing.
What we call an experience is a mental process of perception and conception that begins at the five sense bases and is carried to the brain as the sixth sense through nerve impulses. Though we call it a mental process it is really a physical activity. Experience as understood normally is of two kinds: 1) subjective experience and 2) objective experience. The world that we are aware of is normally understood to be an objective experience, and the mind we are aware of is a subjective experience. What the Buddha points out is that the objectively experienced world is really a subjective experience because the eye works like a camera. The picture is inside the camera and not outside. All that is experienced though the senses is inside and not outside.
This process of perception and conception is a series of antecedents, one coming after the other. An antecedent is an incident that comes before another incident. In speaking of “the concurrence of antecedents,” we are referring to a series of antecedents occurring at the same time. Of course then a question arises: “If it is a series of incidents one coming before the other, how can they occur at the same time?”
In order to answer this question, we have to point out that there are three kinds of antecedents: spatial, temporal, and logical.
(1) If we speak of a row of pillars that come one after another, that is a series of spatial antecedents.
(2) If we speak of the ringing of a bell where a series of sounds come one after another, that is a series of temporal antecedents.
(3) If we simply count 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, we are referring to a series of logical antecedents. They are not in space or time. Logically 1 comes before 2, and 2 comes before 3, and so on.
This means when we speak of our “concurrence of logical antecedents,” we are really speaking of a series of logical antecedents that occur at the same time. This is why it is called the concurrence of logical antecedents.
DHAMMA, the teaching of the Buddha, is called ākalika, which means “not-temporal” because it is independent of time and space. Dhamma is an explanation of how time and space come into being. Therefore Dhamma is the foundation of time and space. Time and space are dependent on the Dhamma, not vice versa.
Dhamma really means “experience,” or even better, it is the process of experiencing. In more detail, experience is the perceptual and conceptual process of seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching, thinking and feeling. The concept “existence” is a product of the process of experiencing, and therefore experience precedes existence. To exist is to occupy space and time. Therefore space and time are products of experience.
Experience is dichotomous. It is divided into two parts subjective and objective. The subjective part we tend to personalize as “mine” and the objective part is alienated as “other.” Personalization creates a personal “self” or personality, which is separate from the alienated external “world.” This dichotomy becomes the foundation for an emotional relationship between the subjective “self” and the objective “other.”
What we call matter is an objective experience. What we call mind is a subjective experience. What I call “I,” “me,” “mine,” or “self,” are subjective experiences. What I call world, matter, energy, people, animals, plants, or inanimate objects are objective experiences.
What we call the concurrence of logical antecedents is therefore nothing but an account of the process by which we experience the objective world and the subjective self. It is how the Buddha saw the genesis of the common reality perceived by mankind. It is the process of experiencing the “world” and the “self” and the resulting “suffering” (Evametassa kevalassa dukkhakkandassa samudayo hoti). It also points the way out of suffering (Evametassa kevalassa dukkhakkandassa nirodo hoti).
It also points out that the world we are aware of, as well as the “self” we are aware of is only a dream. We can awaken from this dream, and thereby both “self” and the “world” can disappear. What we experience then will be only the experience – DHAMMA. Therefore the Buddha said:
Non-manifest perception, limitless, and all clear
No solid, liquid, heat or motion is cognized
Not even a trace of an image or name met
When perception is stopped, all objects disappear
Anidassana viññānaη anantaη sabbato pabaη
Etta paṭhavi ca apo ca tejo vayo nagādati
Etta nāmaη ca rūpaη ca asesaη uparujjati
Viññāṇassa nirodena etta etaη uparujjati
Once a deva (celestial being) visited the Buddha and asked a question. “If a person could travel in space at an extremely high speed, can he reach the end of the world?”
“No,” was the Buddha’s answer.
“Yet, without reaching the end of the world, one cannot bring suffering to an end,” continued the Buddha.
Then, he said further: “The world, the beginning of the world, the end of the world, and the way leading to the end of the world is in this fathom long body itself, along with its perceptions and conceptions (saññimhi samānake). In other words, this “world” and the “self” are products of the process of perception and cognition, which are activities of the body.
Immediately after his awakening, the Buddha is supposed to have said:
Innumerable lives, in saɳsāra, did I run
Seeking the builder of this painful existence
But never did I meet him, this terrible being
So painful is repeated birth and death.
O Creator now I see you
No more shall you create
Your structure is dismantled
Your foundation destroyed
My mind has stopped creating
The emotional urge is no more.
Comment: In other words his mind was the creator.