Genesis revealed by the Buddha
Although critics imagine that the Buddha was ignorant of how the world has come into being, it is in this explanation called paṭicca samuppāda that he reveals how the world is created by each individual by oneself and for oneself. In short, we are living in a world of our own creation. Each one’s world is separate from that of others, although we think we live in an external world common to all, created by an external agent. All human beings are the creators of their own world. Each one creates one’s own world. The world they create is a similar world because of the similar structure of their body, and they are able to communicate with others through language and share their experience with others. The result of this unconscious process of creation of a world and a self, through the process of cognition and affection, is that it creates “the problem of existence,” which is the “miserable insecurity of life.”
Thus “the problem of existence,” comes into being, depending on the necessary conditions, following the natural law of determinism. This natural law is that every natural occurrence in the world is determined by the presence of the necessary conditions. It is the law on which all modern scientific technology is based. This law came to be known in the West only in the 18th century, when science began. Therefore people in the West call this period the age of enlightenment. They used this law to conquer nature and gratify their desire for comfort, convenience, security, and even to kill their enemies.
It was this same law, however, that was introduced to the world by the Buddha in India more than twenty five centuries earlier. He did not use this law to conquer objective external nature. He used this same law to transform the subjective mental nature and solve the problem of existence. He called this law the Concurrence of Antecedents (paṭicca samuppāda) described as: “When conditions are present it comes into being, but when conditions are absent it ceases to be” (hetuη paṭicca saηbhūtaη hetu bhaηgā nirujjati).
This Concurrence of Antecedents (paṭicca samuppāda) described by the Buddha is more than mere determinism, which points to the fact that things happen only due the presence of the necessary conditions. Concurrence of Antecedents, on the other hand, is also a description of how things come to be, including how the world as well as the self come to be based on a series of antecedents, which are subjective mental processes. This process brings about an awareness of a “world” and a “self.” This means, the world that we are aware of is the product of a subjective mental process rather than an independent existence of an objective reality. In existential terminology, it is an existence without an essence, where existence denotes that it is, and essence denotes what it is. In Kantian terminology, the world and self are phenomena without a noumenon. In still another way of speaking, the world and self are appearances and not realities.
Therefore what is called the Concurrence of Antecedents (paṭicca samuppāda) is a natural mental process by which the “world” and the“self” come into being, along with the “miserable insecurity of life.” This is a series of logical antecedents that takes place simultaneously, all at the same time. This is why it is called The Concurrence of Antecedents.