title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: The principle of conditionality, which is real and stable, is contrasted with the "dependently arisen processes", which are described as "impermanent, conditioned, dependently arisen, of a nature to be destroyed, of a nature to vanish, of a nature to fade away, of a nature to cease." SA 296 describes them simply as "arising thus according to causal condition, these are called dharmas arisen by causal condition."


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: Regarding the arising of suffering, SN 12.10 discusses how before the Buddha's awakening, he searched for the escape from suffering as follows: "when what exists is there old age and death? What is a condition for old age and death?", discovering the chain of conditions as expressed in the twelve nidanas and other lists. MN 26 also reports that after the Buddha's awakening, he considered that dependent origination was one of the two principles which were "profound ("gambhira"), difficult to see, difficult to understand, peaceful, sublime, beyond the scope of mere reasoning ("atakkāvacara"), subtle." The other principle which is profound and difficult to see is said to be Nirvana, "the stopping, or transcending, of conditioned co-arising" (Harvey).


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: In the "Mahānidānasutta" (DN 15) the Buddha states that dependent origination is "deep and appears deep", and that it is "because of not understanding and not penetrating this teaching" that people become "tangled like a ball of string" in views ("diṭṭhis"), samsara, rebirth and suffering. SN 12.70 and its counterpart SA 347 state that “knowledge of Dhamma-stability" ("dhamma-tthiti-ñānam") comes first, then comes knowledge of nirvana ("nibbane-ñānam"). However, while the process which leads to nirvāna is conditioned, nirvāna itself is called “unborn, unbecome, unmade, unconstructed” (Ud. 80–1). The "Milinda Panha" compares to how a mountain is not dependent on the path that leads to it (Miln. 269)". According to Harvey, since it is "not co-arisen ("asamuppana") (It. 37–8), nirvāna is not something that is conditionally arisen, but is the stopping of all such processes."


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: A well-known early exposition of the basic principle of causality is said to have led to the stream entry of Sariputta and Moggallāna. This "ye dharmā hetu" phrase, which appears in the Vinaya (Vin.I.40) and other sources, states:Of those dharmas which arise from a cause, the Tathagata has stated the cause, and also their cessation.A similar phrase is uttered by Kondañña, the first convert to realize awakening at the end of the first sermon given by the Buddha: "whatever is of a nature to arise ("samudaya dhamma") is all of a nature to pass away ("nirodha dhamma")."


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: The early Buddhist texts also associate dependent arising with emptiness and not-self. The early Buddhist texts outline different ways in which dependent origination is a middle way between different sets of "extreme" views (such as "monist" and "pluralist" ontologies or materialist and dualist views of mind-body relation). In the "Kaccānagottasutta" (SN 12.15, parallel at SA 301), the Buddha states that "this world mostly relies on the dual notions of existence and non-existence" and then explains the right view as follows:


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: The "Kaccānagottasutta" then places the teaching of dependent origination (listing the twelve nidanas in forward and reverse order) as a middle way which rejects these two "extreme" metaphysical views which can be seen as two mistaken conceptions of the self.


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: According to Hùifēng, a recurring theme throughout the "Nidānasamyutta" (SN 12) is the Buddha's "rejection of arising from any one or other of the four categories of self, other, both or neither (non-causality)." A related statement can be found in the "Paramārthaśūnyatāsūtra" (Dharma Discourse on Ultimate Emptiness, SĀ 335, parallel at EĀ 37:7), which states that when a sense organ arises "it does not come from any location...it does not go to any location", as such it is said to be "unreal, yet arises; and on having arisen, it ends and ceases." Furthermore this sutra states that even though "there is action ("karma") and result ("vipāka")" there no "no actor agent" ("kāraka"). It also states that dharmas of dependent origination are classified as conventional.


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: The "Kaccānagottasutta" and its parallel also associates understanding dependent origination with avoiding views of a self (atman). This text states that if "you don’t get attracted, grasp, and commit to the notion ‘my self’, you’ll have no doubt or uncertainty that what arises is just suffering arising, and what ceases is just suffering ceasing." Similarly, the "Mahānidānasutta" (DN 15) associates understanding dependent origination with abandoning various wrongs views about a self, while failing to understand it is associated becoming entangled in these views. Another sutra, SĀ 297, states that dependent origination is "the Dharma Discourse on Great Emptiness," and then proceeds to refute numerous forms of “self-view” ("ātmadṛṣṭi").


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: SN 12:12 (parallel at SĀ 372) the Buddha is asked a series of questions about the self (who feels? who craves? etc.), the Buddha states that these questions are invalid, and instead teaches dependent origination. SĀ 80 also discuss an important meditative attainment called the emptiness concentration ("śūnyatāsamādhi") which in this text is associated contemplating how phenomena arise due to conditions and are subject to cessation.


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: According to early suttas like AN 3.61, the second and third noble truths of the four noble truths are directly correlated to the principle of dependent origination. The second truth applies dependent origination in a direct order, while the third truth applies it in inverse order. Furthermore, according to SN 12.28, the noble eight-fold path (the fourth noble truth) is the path which leads to the cessation of the twelve links of dependent origination and as such is the “best of all conditioned states” (AN.II.34). Therefore, according to Harvey, the four noble truths "can be seen as an application of the principle of conditioned co-arising focused particularly on dukkha."


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: In the early Buddhist texts, dependent origination is analyzed and expressed in various lists of dependently originated phenomena "(dhammas)" or causes "(nidānas)". "Nidānas" are co-dependent principles, processes or events, which act as links on a chain, conditioning and depending on each other. When certain conditions are present, they give rise to subsequent conditions, which in turn give rise to other conditions. Phenomena are sustained only so long as their sustaining factors remain.


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: The most common one is a list of twelve causes (Pali: "dvādasanidānāni," Sanskrit: "dvādaśanidānāni"). Bucknell refers to it as the "standard list". It is found in section 12 of the "Samyutta Nikaya" and its parallels, as well as in other suttas belonging to other Nikayas and Agamas. This list also appears in Mahasamghika texts like the "Salistamba Sutra" and in (later) works like Abhidharma texts and Mahayana sutras. According to Eviatar Shulman, "the 12 links "are paticcasamuppada,"" which is a process of mental conditioning. Cox notes that even though the early scriptures contain numerous variations of lists, the 12 factor list became the standard list in the later Abhidharma and Mahayana treatises.


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: The most common interpretation of the twelve cause list in the traditional exegetical literature is that the list is describing the conditional arising of rebirth in "saṃsāra", and the resultant "duḥkha" (suffering, pain, unsatisfactoriness). An alternative Theravada interpretation regards the list as describing the arising of mental formations and the resultant notion of "I" and "mine," which are the source of suffering.


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: Understanding the relationships between these phenomena is said to lead to nibbana, complete freedom from the cyclical rebirth cycles of samsara. Traditionally, the reversal of the causal chain is explained as leading to the cessation of mental formations and rebirth. Alex Wayman notes that "according to Buddhist tradition, Gautama discovered this formula during the night of Enlightenment and by working backward from "old age and death" in the reverse of the arising order." Wayman also writes that "in time, the twelve members were depicted on the rim of a wheel representing samsara."


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: The popular listing of twelve "nidānas" is found in numerous sources. In some of the early texts, the "nidānas" themselves are defined and subjected to analysis ("vibhaṅga"). The explanations of the "nidānas" can be found in the Pali SN 12.2 ("Vibhaṅga" "Analysis" "sutta") and in its parallel at SA 298. Further parallels to SN 12.2 can be found at EA 49.5, some Sanskrit parallels such as the "Pratītyasamutpādādivibhaṅganirdeśanāmasūtra" (The Discourse giving the Explanation and Analysis of Conditional Origination from the Beginning) and a Tibetan translation of this Sanskrit text at Toh 211.


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: The twelve branched list, though popular, is just one of the many lists of dependently originated dharmas which appear in the early sources. According to Analayo, the alternative lists of dependently arisen phenomena are equally valid "alternative expressions of the same principle."


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: Choong notes that some discourses (SN 12.38-40 and SA 359-361) contain only 11 elements, omitting ignorance and starting out from willing ("ceteti"). SN 12.39 begins with three synonyms for "saṅkhāra," willing, intending ("pakappeti") and carrying out ("anuseti"). It then states that "this becomes an object ("arammanam") for the persistence of consciousness ("viññanassa-thitiya")" which leads to the appearance of name and form. The standard listing then follows.


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: SN 12.38 (and the parallel at SA 359) contain a much shorter sequence, it begins with willing as above which leads to consciousness, then following after consciousness it states: "there is in the future the becoming of rebirth ("punabbhavabhinibbatti")", which leads to "coming-and-going ("agatigati")", followed by "decease-and-rebirth ("cutupapato")" and following that "there arise in the future birth, ageing-and-death, grief, lamentation, pain, distress, and despair." Another short sequence is found at SN 12. 66 and SA 291 which contain an analysis of dependent origination with just three factors: craving ("tanha"), basis ("upadhi", possibly related to upadana), and suffering ("dukkha").


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: In SN 12.59 and its counterpart SA 284, there is a chain that starts by saying that for someone who "abides in seeing [the Chinese has "grasping at"] the flavour in enfettering dharmas ("saññojaniyesu dhammesu"), there comes the appearance ("avakkanti") of consciousness." There then follows the standard list. Then it states that if someone abides by "seeing the danger" ("adinavanupassino") in the dharmas (the Chinese has "seeing impermanence"), there is no appearance of consciousness (Chinese has "mind").


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: SN 12.65 and 67 (and SA 287 and 288) begin the chain with both consciousness and name and form conditioning each other in a cyclical relationship. It also states that "consciousness turns back, it goes no further than name and form." SN 12.67 also contains a chain with consciousness and name and form being in a reciprocal relationship. In this sutta, Sariputta states that this relationship is like two sheaves of reeds leaning on each other for support (the parallel at SA 288 has three sheaves instead).


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: There are also several passages with chains that begin with the six sense spheres ("ayatana"). They can be found in SN 12. 24, SA 343, SA 352-354, SN 12. 13-14 and SN 12. 71-81. Another one of these is found in SN 35.106, which is termed the "branched version" by Bucknell because it branches off into six classes of consciousness:Eye consciousness arises dependent on the eye and sights. The meeting of the three is contact. Contact is a condition for feeling. Feeling is a condition for craving. This is the origin of suffering … [the same formula is repeated with the other six sense bases and six consciousnesses, that is, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind]Other depictions of the chain at SN 12.52 and its parallel at SA 286, begin with seeing the "assada" (taste; enjoyment; satisfaction) which leads to craving and the rest of the list of nidanas. Meanwhile, in SN 12.62 and SA 290, dependent origination is depicted with just two nidanas, contact ("phassa") and feeling ("vedana"). SN 12.62 says that when one becomes disenchanted with contact and feeling, desire fades away.


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: The "Kalahavivāda Sutta" of the "Sutta Nipāta" (Sn. 862-872) has the following chain of causes (as summarized by Doug Smith):"name-and-form conditions contact, contact conditions feeling, feeling conditions desire, desire conditions clinging, and clinging conditions quarrels, disputes, lamentations, and grief."


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: Similarly, the "Madhupiṇḍikasutta" (MN 18) also contains the following passage:Eye consciousness arises dependent on the eye and sights. The meeting of the three is contact. Contact is a condition for feeling. What you feel, you perceive. What you perceive, you think about. What you think about, you proliferate ("papañca"). What you proliferate about is the source from which a person is beset by concepts of identity that emerge from the proliferation of perceptions. This occurs with respect to sights known by the eye in the past, future, and present. [The same process is then repeated with the other six sense bases.]The "Mahānidānasutta" (DN 15) and its Chinese parallels such as DA 13 describe a unique version which is dubbed the "looped version" by Bucknell (DN 14 also has a similar looped chain but it adds the six sense fields after name and form):Name and form are conditions for consciousness. Consciousness is a condition for name and form. Name and form are conditions for contact. Contact is a condition for feeling. Feeling is a condition for craving. Craving is a condition for grasping. Grasping is a condition for continued existence. Continued existence is a condition for rebirth. Rebirth is a condition for old age and death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, sadness, and distress to come to be. That is how this entire mass of suffering originates.The "Mahahatthipadopama-sutta" (M 28) contains another short explanation of dependent origination:these five grasping aggregates are indeed dependently originated. The desire, adherence, attraction, and attachment for these five grasping aggregates is the origin of suffering. Giving up and getting rid of desire and greed for these five grasping aggregates is the cessation of suffering.


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: Mathieu Boisvert correlates the middle nidanas (3-10) with the five aggregates. According to Boisvert, the consciousness and feeling aggregates correlate directly with the corresponding nidana, while the rupa aggregate correlates with the six sense objects and contact. The samskara aggregate meanwhile, correlates with nidana #2, as well as craving, clinging and bhava (existence, becoming).


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: Boisvert notes that while "sañña" ("perception" or "recognition") is not explicitly found in the twelvefold chain, it would fit in between feeling and craving. This is because unwholesome perceptions (such as delighting in pleasurable feelings) are responsible for the arising of unwholesome "samskaras" (like craving). Likewise, skillful perceptions (such as focusing on the three marks of existence) lead to wholesome samskaras.


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: According to Analayo, each of the twelve nidanas "re-quires all five aggregates to be in existence concurrently." Furthermore:The teaching on dependent arising does not posit the existence of any of the links in the abstract, but instead show how a particular link, as an aspect of the continuity of the five aggregates, has a conditioning influence on another link. It does not imply that any of these links exist apart from the five aggregates.


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: Alex Wayman has argued that the ideas found in the dependent origination doctrine may precede the birth of the Buddha, noting that the first four causal links starting with avidya in the Twelve Nidānas are found in the cosmic development theory of the "Brihadaranyaka Upanishad" and other older Vedic texts.


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: According to Kalupahana, the concept of causality and causal efficacy where a cause "produces an effect because a property or "svadha" (energy) is inherent in something" along with alternative ideas of causality, appear extensively in the Vedic literature of the 2nd millennium BCE, such as the 10th mandala of the "Rigveda" and the Brahmanas layer of the Vedas.


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: A similar resemblance has been noted by Joanna Jurewicz, who argues that the first four "nidanas" resemble the "Hymn of Creation" (RigVeda X, 12) and other Vedic sources which describe the creation of the cosmos. Jurewicz argues that dependent origination is "a polemic" against the Vedic creation myth and that, paradoxically, "the Buddha extracted the essence of Vedic cosmogony and expressed in explicit language." Richard Gombrich agrees with this view, and argues that the first four elements of dependent origination are the Buddha's attempt to "ironize and criticize Vedic cosmogony." According to Gombrich, while in the Vedic creation theory "the universe is considered to be grounded on a primordial essence which is endowed with consciousness," the Buddha's theory avoids this essence ("atman-Bahman").


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: Jurewicz and Gombrich compare the first nidana, ignorance ("avijja"), with the stage before creation that is described in the Rigveda's "Hymn of Creation". While the term "avidya" does not actually appear in this Hymn, the pre-creation stage is seen as unknowable and characterized by darkness. According to Gombrich, at this stage "consciousness is non-dual, which is to say that it is the ability to cognize but not yet consciousness of anything, for there is no split yet into subject and object." This is different from the Buddha's point of view, in which consciousness is always consciousness of something. Jurewicz then compares the Vedic creator's desire and hunger to create the atman (or "his second self") with volitional impulses ("samskara"). According to Jurewicz, the third nidana, "vijñana", can be compared to the atman's "vijñanamaya kosha" in Vedic literature, which is the consciousness of the creator and his subjective manifestations.


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: According to Jurewicz, "in Vedic cosmogony, the act of giving a name and a form marks the final formation of the creator's atman." This may go back to the Vedic birth ceremony in which a father gives a name to his son. In Vedic creation pure consciousness creates the world as name and form ("nama-rupa") and then enters it. However, in this process, consciousness also hides from itself, losing sight of its real identity. The Buddhist view of consciousness entering name and form depicts a similar chain of events leading to deeper ignorance and entanglement with the world.


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: Jurewizc further argues that the rest of the twelve nidanas show similarities with the terms and ideas found in Vedic cosmogeny, especially as it relates to the sacrificial fire (as a metaphor for desire and existence). These Vedic terms may have been adopted by the Buddha to communicate his message of not-self because his audience (often educated in Vedic thought) would understand their basic meaning. According to Jurewizc, dependent origination replicates the general Vedic creation model, but negates its metaphysics and its morals. Furthermore, Jurewizc argues that:This deprives the Vedic cosmogony of its positive meaning as the successful activity of the Absolute and presents it as a chain of absurd, meaningless changes which could only result in the repeated death of anyone who would reproduce this cosmogonic process in ritual activity and everyday life.According to Gombrich, the Buddhist tradition soon lost sight of their connection with the Vedic worldview that the Buddha was critiquing in the first four links of dependent origination. Though it was aware that at the fourth link there should be an appearance of an individual person, the Buddhist tradition equated "rupa" with the first skandha, and "nama" with the other four skandhas. Yet, as Gombrich notes, "samkhara", "vijnana", and "vedana" also appear as separate links in the twelvefold list, so this equation can't be correct for this "nidana".


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: According to Erich Frauwallner, the twelvefold chain resulted from the Buddha's combination of two lists. Originally, the Buddha explained the appearance of "dukkha" from "tanha", "thirst," craving. Later on, the Buddha incorporated "avijja", "ignorance," as a cause of suffering into his system. This is described in the first part of dependent origination. Frauwallner saw this "purely mechanical mixing" as "enigmatical", "contradictory" and a "deficiency in systematization."


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: Paul Williams discusses Frauwallner's idea that the 12 links may be a composite. However, he ultimately concludes that "it may be impossible at our present stage of scholarship to work out very satisfactorily what the original logic of the full twelvefold formula was intended to be, if there ever was one intention at all."


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: Hajime Nakamura has argued that we should search the "Sutta Nipata" for the earliest form of dependent origination since it is the most ancient source. According to Nakamura, "the main framework of later theories of Dependent Origination" can be reconstructed from the "Sutta Nipata" as follows: avidya, tanha, upadana, bhava, jaramarana. Lambert Schmitthausen has also argued that the twelve-fold list is a synthesis from three previous lists, arguing that the three lifetimes-interpretation is an unintended consequence of this synthesis.


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: According to Mathieu Boisvert, nidana 3-10 correlate with the five skandhas. Boisvert notes that while "sañña", "perception," is not found in the twelvefold chain, it does play a role in the processes described by the chain, particularly between feeling and the arising of samskaras. Likewise, Waldron notes that the "anusaya", "underlying tendencies, are the link between the cognitive processes of "phassa" ("contact") and "vedana" (feeling), and the afflictive responses of "tanha" ("craving") and "upadana" ("grasping").


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: Hans Wolfgang Schumann argues that a comparison of the twelve nidanas with the five skhandhas shows that the 12 link chain contains logical inconsistencies, which can be explained when the chain is considered to be a later elaboration. Schumann thus concluded that the twelvefold chain was a later synthesis composed by Buddhist monks, consisting of three shorter lists. These lists may have encompassed "nidana" 1–4, 5–8, and 8-12. Schumann also proposes that the 12 nidanas are extended over three existences, and illustrates the succession of rebirths. While Buddhaghosa and Vasubandhu maintain a 2-8-2 schema, Schumann maintains a 3-6-3 scheme.


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: According to Richard Gombrich, the twelve-fold list is a combination of two previous lists, the second list beginning with "tanha", "thirst," the cause of suffering as described in the second noble truth". The first list consists of the first four "nidanas", which reference Vedic cosmogony, as described by Jurewicz. According to Gombrich, the two lists were combined, resulting in contradictions in its reverse version.


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: Roderick S. Bucknell analysed four versions of the twelve nidanas, to explain the existence of various versions of the "pratitya-samutpada" sequence. The twevefold version is the "standard version," in which "vijnana" refers to sensual consciousness. According to Bucknell, the "standard version" of the twelve nidanas developed out of an ancestor version, which in turn was derived two different versions that understand consciousness ("vijñana") and name and form ("namarupa") differently.


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: According to Bucknell, SN 35.106 describes a non-linear "branched version" of dependent origination in which consciousness is derived from the coming together of the sense organs and the sense objects (and thus represents sense perception). The "Mahānidānasutta (DN 15)" describes a "looped version," in which consciousness and "nama-rupa" condition each other. It also describes consciousness descending into the womb. According to Bucknell, "some accounts of the looped version state explicitly that the chain of causation goes no further back than the loop.


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: Waldron also mentions idea that in early Buddhism, consciousness may have been understood as having these two different aspects (basic consciousness or sentience and cognitive sense consciousness). While these two aspects were largely undifferentiated in early Buddhist thought, these two aspects and their relation was explicated in later Buddhist thought, giving rise to the concept of "alaya-vijñana".


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: In yet another linear version, dubbed the "Sutta-nipata version", consciousness is derived from "avijja" ("ignorance") and "saṅkhāra" ("activities" also translated as "volitional formations").


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: According to Bucknell, while the "branched version" refers directly to the six sense objects, the "looped version" and the standard version instead use the term "nama-rupa" as "a collective term for the six types of sense object." He cites various passages from the early sources and the scholarship of Yinshun, Reat and Watsuji in support. Bucknell thinks that name and form was eventually misinterpreted as referring to "mind and body", causing discrepancies in the 12 fold series and making it possible to interpret the beginning of the chain as referring to rebirth. According to Bucknell, the linear list, with its distortions and changed meaning for consciousness and name and form, may have developed when the list came to be recited in reverse order. Bucknell further notes that the "branched version," corresponds with the interpretation of the twelve nidanas as mental processes while the "looped version," (which sees consciousness as the "rebirth consciousness") corresponds with the "three lives" interpretation.


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: Against the view that the 12 link chain is later, Alex Wayman writes "I am convinced that the full twelve members have been in Buddhism since earliest times, just as it is certain that a natural division into the first seven and last five was also known."


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: Bhikkhu Bodhi writes that the suggestions of some scholars the twelvefold formula is a later expansion of a shorter list "remain purely conjectural, misleading, and objectionable on doctrinal and textual grounds."


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: Choong, in his comparative study of SN and SA also writes that the different accounts of dependent origination existed at an early stage and that they are simply different ways of presenting the same teaching which would have been used for different times and with audiences. Choong writes that the various versions of dependent arising "are unlikely to represent a progressive development, with some being earlier and others later" and that "the comparative data revealed here do not provide evidence to support the speculative suggestion that there was just one original (or relatively early) account of the series, from which the other attested accounts developed later."


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: The following chart compares different lists of nidanas from the early sources with other similar lists:


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: Understanding dependent origination is indispensable for realizing nirvana since it leads to insight into how the process of dependent arising can be brought to an end (i.e. nirvana). Since the process of dependent origination always produces suffering, the reversal or deactivation of the sequence is seen by Buddhists as the way to stop the entire process. Traditionally, the reversal of the sequence of the twelve nidanas is explained as leading to the cessation of rebirth and suffering. The early Buddhist texts state that on the arising of wisdom or insight into the true nature of things, dependent origination ceases. Some suttas state that "from the fading and cessation of "ignorance" without remainder comes the cessation of "saṅkhāras..."" et cetera (this is said to lead to the cessation of the entire twelve-fold chain in reverse order).


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: According to Jayarava Atwood, while some dependent origination passages (termed "lokiya", worldly) "[model] beings trapped in cycles of craving and grasping, birth and death", other passages (termed "lokuttara", ‘beyond the world’) "[model] the process and dynamics of liberation from those same cycles." According to Bodhi, these are also classified as "exposition of the round" ("vaṭṭakathā") and "the ending of the round" ("vivaṭṭakathā"). Beni Barua called these two different kinds of dependent origination "cyclic" and "progressive". Various early Buddhist texts present different sequences of transcendental dependent origination ("lokuttara paṭicca-samuppāda") or reverse dependent origination ("paṭiloma-paṭiccasamuppāda"). The "Upanisā Sutta" (and its Chinese parallel at MĀ 55) is the only text in which both types of dependent origination appear side by side and therefore it has become the main source used to teach reverse dependent origination in English language sources. Jayarava cites numerous other Pali suttas which contain various lists of dependently originated phenomena that lead to liberation, each one being a "precondition" ("upanisā") for the next one in the sequence.


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: According to Jayarava, AN 11.2 (which has a parallel at MA 43) is a better representative of transcendental dependent origination passages and better conforms "to the general outline of the Buddhist path as consisting of ethics, meditation and wisdom." AN 11.2 states that once someone has fulfilled one element of the path, it naturally leads to the next one. Therefore, there is no need to will or wish (Pali: "cetanā", intention, volition) for one thing to lead to the other one, since this happens effortlessly. Therefore, the sutta states that "good qualities flow on and fill up from one to the other, for going from the near shore to the far shore." The process begins with the cultivation of ethics, using the following formula which is then applied to each further factor sequentially: "Mendicants, an ethical person, who has fulfilled ethical conduct, need not make a wish: ‘May I have no regrets!’ It’s only natural that an ethical person has no regrets...etc."


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: The following chart compares various transcendental dependent arising sequences found in Pali and Chinese sources:


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: There are numerous interpretations of the doctrine of dependent origination across the different Buddhist traditions and within them as well. Various systematizations of the doctrine were developed by the Abhidharma traditions which arose after the death of the Buddha. Modern scholars have also interpreted the teaching in different ways. According to Ajahn Brahm, a fully correct understanding of dependent origination can only be known by awakened being or ariyas. Brahm notes that "this goes a long way to answering the question why there is so much difference of opinion on the meaning of dependent origination."


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: Collett Cox writes that the majority of scholarly investigations of dependent origination adopt two main interpretations of dependent origination, they either see it as "a generalized and logical principle of abstract conditioning applicable to all phenomena" or they see it as a "descriptive model for the operation of action (karman) and the process of rebirth." According to Bhikkhu Analayo, there are two main interpretative models of the 12 nidanas in the later Buddhist exegetical literature, a model which sees the 12 links as working across three lives (the past life, the present life, the future life) and a model which analyzes how the 12 links are mental processes working in the present moment. Analayo argues that these are not mutually exclusive, but instead are complementary interpretations.


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: Alex Wayman has argued that understanding the dependent origination formula requires understanding its two main interpretations. According to Wayman, these two are: (1) the general principle of dependent origination itself, its nidanas and their relationships and (2) how it deals with the particular process of the rebirth of sentient beings.


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: The general principle of conditionality is expressed in numerous early sources as "When this is, that is; This arising, that arises; When this is not, that is not; This ceasing, that ceases." According to Rupert Gethin, this basic principle is neither a direct Newtonian-like causality nor a singular form of causality. Rather, it asserts an indirect and plural conditionality which is somewhat different from classic European views on causation. The Buddhist concept of dependence is referring to conditions created by a plurality of causes that necessarily co-originate phenomena within and across lifetimes, such as karma in one life creating conditions that lead to rebirth in a certain realm of existence for another lifetime.


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: Bhikkhu Bodhi writes that the Buddhist principle of conditionality "shows that the "texture" of being is through and through relational." Furthermore, he notes that dependent arising goes further than just presenting a general theory about conditionality, it also teaches a "specific conditionality" ("idappaccayatā"), which explains change in terms of specific conditions. Dependent arising therefore also explains the structure of relationships between specific "types" of phenomena (in various interlocking sequences) which lead to suffering as well as the ending of suffering.


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: Ajahn Brahm has argued that the Buddhist doctrine of conditionality includes two main elements of the logical concepts of conditionality: necessity and sufficiency. According to Brahm, “when this is, that is; from the arising of this, that arises.” refers to a "sufficient condition" while “when this is not, that is not; from the ceasing of this, that ceases” refers to a "necessary condition". Like Brahm, Bodhi also argues that there are two main characterizations of conditionality in the early sources. One is positive, indicating "a contributory influence passing from the condition to the dependent state," while the other is negative, indicating "the impossibility of the dependent state appearing in the absence of its condition." He compares these two with the first and second phrases of the general principle definition respectively. Regarding the second, positive characterization, other early sources also state that a condition "originates ("samudaya") the dependent state, provides it with a source ("nidāna"), generates it ("jātika"), gives it being ("pabhava"), nourishes it ("āhāra"), acts as its foundation ("upanisā"), causes it to surge ("upayāpeti")" (see: SN 12.11, 23, 27, 66, 69).


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: However, according to Harvey and Brahm, while the 12 nidanas are necessary conditions for each other, not all of them are necessary "and" sufficient conditions (some are, some are not). As Harvey notes, if this was the case, "when a buddha or arahat experienced feeling they would inevitably experience craving" (but they do not). As such, feeling is only one of the conditions for craving (another one is ignorance). Therefore, in this Buddhist view of causality, nothing has a single cause. Bodhi agrees with this, stating that not all conditional relations in dependent arising are based on direct causal necessitation. While in some cases there is a direct necessary relationship between the phenomena outlined in the lists (birth will "always" lead to death), in other cases there is not. This is an important point because as Bodhi notes, "if dependent arising described a series in which each factor necessitated the next, the series could never be broken," and liberation would be impossible.


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: The Buddhist abhidharma traditions developed a more complex schematization of conditionality than that found in the early sources. These systems outlined different kinds of conditional relationships. According to K.L. Dhammajoti, vaibhāṣika abhidharma developed two major schemes to explain conditional relations: the four conditions ("pratyaya") and the six causes ("hetu"). The vaibhāṣika system also defended a theory of simultaneous causation. While simultaneous causation was rejected by the sautrāntika school, it was later adopted by yogācāra. The Theravāda abhidhamma also developed a complex analysis of conditional relations, which can be found in the "Paṭṭhāna". A key element of this system is that nothing arises from a single cause or as a solitary phenomenon, instead there are always a plurality of conditions giving rise to clusters of dhammas (phenomena). The Theravāda abhidhamma outlines twenty four kinds of conditional relations.


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: As a result of their doctrinal development, the various sectarian Buddhist schools eventually became divided over the question of whether or not the very principle of dependent origination was itself conditioned (saṃskṛta) or unconditioned (asaṃskṛta). This debate also included other terms such as “stability of dharma” (dharmasthititā) and “suchness” (tathatā), which were not always seen as synonymous with "dependent origination" by all schools. The Theravāda, vātsīputriya and sarvāstivāda school generally affirmed that dependent origination itself was conditioned. The mahāsāṃghikas and mahīśāsakas accepted the conditioned nature of the “stability of dharma,” but both held that dependent origination itself was unconditioned. The Dharmaguptaka's "Śāriputrābhidharma" also held that dependent origination was unconditioned.


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: According to Bhikkhu Bodhi, Peter Harvey and Paul Williams, dependent arising can be understood as an ontological principle; that is, a theory to explain the nature and relations of being, becoming, existence and ultimate reality. (Theravada) Buddhism asserts that there is nothing independent, except nirvana. This ontology holds that all physical and mental states depend on and arise from other pre-existing states, and in turn from them arise other dependent states while they cease. These 'dependent arisings' are causally conditioned, and thus "pratityasamutpada" is the Buddhist belief that causality is the basis of ontology. As Williams explains, "all elements of samsara exist in some sense or another relative to their causes and conditions. That is why they are impermanent, for if the cause is impermanent then so too will be the effect."


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: Gombrich describes dependent origination as the idea that "nothing accessible to our reason or our normal experience exists without a cause". Furthermore, this can be seen as a metaphysical middle way which does not see phenomena as existing essentially nor as not-existing at all. Instead it sees the world as "a world of flux and process", a world of "verbs, not nouns."


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: According to Rupert Gethin, the ontological principle of dependent origination is applied not only to explain the nature and existence of matter and empirically observed phenomenon, but also to the causally conditioned nature and existence of life. Indeed, according to Williams, the goal of this analysis is to understand how suffering arises for sentient beings through an impersonal law and thus how it can also be brought to an end by reversing its causes. Understood in this way, dependent origination has no place for a creator God nor the ontological Vedic concept called universal Self (Brahman) nor any other 'transcendent creative principle'. In this worldview, there is no ‘first cause’ from which all beings arose, instead, every thing arises in dependence on something else.


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: Though Eviatar Shulman sees dependent origination as mainly being concerned with mental processes, he also states that it "possessed important ontological implications" which "suggest that rather than things being conditioned by other things, they are actually conditioned by consciousness." This is implied by the fact that form ("rūpa") is said to be conditioned by consciousness and willed activities ("saṇkhara") as well as by how grasping is said to condition existence ("bhava"). For Shulman, "these forms of conditioning undermine the realistic ontology normally attributed to early Buddhism" and furthermore "suggest that the mind has power over objects beyond what we normally believe" as well as implying that "ontology is secondary to experience."


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: While some scholars have argued that the Buddha put aside "all" metaphysical questions, Noa Ronkin argues that, while he rejected "certain" metaphysical questions, he was not an anti-metaphysician: nothing in the texts suggests that metaphysical questions are completely meaningless. Instead, the Buddha taught that sentient experience is dependently originated and that whatever is dependently originated is conditioned, impermanent, subject to change, and lacking independent selfhood.


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: The view that the application of dependent origination in the twelve nidanas is closely connected with rebirth is supported by passages from the early sources. Both the "Sammādiṭṭhisutta" and the "Mahānidānasutta" specifically mention the factors of dependent origination as being related to the process of conception in the womb. Bhikkhu Bodhi affirms the centrality of rebirth for dependent origination. Bodhi writes that "the primary purpose, as seen in the most archaic Buddhist texts, is to show the causal origination of suffering, which is sustained precisely by our bondage to rebirth."


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: Ajahn Brahm agrees, writing that the main purpose of dependent origination is to explain "how there can be rebirth without a soul" and "why there is suffering, and where suffering comes to an end." Brahm cites the definitions of the nidanas in the "Vibhaṅgasutta" (SN 12.2) which clearly indicate that birth and death is meant literally. According to Brahm,Paṭicca-samuppāda shows the empty process, empty of a soul that is, which flows within a life and overflows into another life. It also shows the forces at work in the process, which drive it this way and that, even exercising sway in a subsequent life. Dependent origination also reveals the answer to how kamma done in a previous life can affect a person in this life. Brahm argues that there are two parallel processes at work in dependent origination (which are really one process looked at from different angles), one is delusion and kamma leading to rebirth consciousness (nidanas # 1 - 3) and the other is craving and clinging leading to existence and rebirth (# 8 - 11). Brahm describes this as follows: "deluded kamma and craving produce the fuel which generates existence and rebirth (into that existence), thereby giving rise to the start of the stream of consciousness that is at the heart of the new life."


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: Furthermore, dependent origination explains rebirth without appeal to an unchanging self or soul ("atman"). Paul Williams sees dependent origination as closely connected with the doctrine of not-self ("anatman") which rejects the idea there is a unchanging essence that moves across lives. Williams cites the "Mahatanhasankhaya Sutta" as showing how dependent origination is to be seen as an alternative theory to such views. According to Williams, dependent origination allows the Buddha to replace a view of the world based on unchanging selves "with an appeal to what he sees as being its essentially dynamic nature, a dynamism of experiences based on the centrality of causal conditioning."


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: Bhikkhu Analayo writes that "dependent arising is the other side of the coin of emptiness, in the sense of the absence of a substantial and unchanging entity anywhere in subjective experience. Experience or existence is nothing but conditions. This leaves no room for positing a self of any type."


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: According to Eisel Mazard, the twelve Nidanas are a description of "a sequence of stages prior to birth," as an "orthodox defense against any doctrine of a 'supernal self' or soul of any kind [...] excluding an un-mentioned life-force ("jīva") that followers could presume to be additional to the birth of the body, the arising of consciousness, and the other aspects mentioned in the 12-links formula." According to Mazard, "many later sources have digressed from the basic theme and subject-matter of the original text, knowingly or unknowingly."


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: In the Buddhist Abhidharma traditions like the Theravāda, more systematized explanations of the twelve nidanas developed. As an expository device, the commentarial traditions of the Theravāda, sarvāstivāda-vaibhasika and sautrantika schools defended an interpretation which saw the 12 factors as a sequence that spanned three lives. This is sometimes referred to as the "prolonged" explanation of dependent origination.


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: The three life interpretation can first be seen in the "Paṭisambhidāmagga" (I.275, circa 2nd or 3rd c. BCE). It is also defended by the Theravāda scholar Buddhaghosa (c. fifth century CE) in his influential "Visuddhimagga" (Vism.578–8I) and it became standard in Theravada. The three-lives model, with its "embryological" interpretation which links dependent origination with rebirth was also promoted by the Sarvāstivāda school as evidenced by the "Abhidharmakosa" (AKB.III.21–4) of Vasubandhu (fl. 4th to 5th century CE) and the "Jñanaprasthana". Wayman notes that this model is also present in Asanga's "Abhidharmasamuccaya" and is commented on by Nagarjuna.


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: Bhikkhu Bodhi notes that this distribution of the 12 nidanas into three lives "is an expository device employed for the purpose of exhibiting the inner dynamics of the round. It should not be read as implying hard and fast divisions, for in lived experience the factors are always intertwined." Furthermore, Bodhi argues that these twelve causes are not something hidden, but are "the fundamental pattern of experience" which "always present, always potentially accessible to our awareness."


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: Nagarjuna's "Pratityasamutpada-hrdaya-karika" also outlines the 12 nidanas as a rebirth process. According to Wayman, Nagarjuna's explanation is as follows: "the three defilements - nescience, craving, and indulgence - give rise to the two karmas - motivations and gestation - and that these two give rise to the seven sufferings - perception, name-and-form, six sense bases, contact, feelings, re-birth, and old age and death.""" Vasubandhu's presentation is fully consistent with Nagarjuna's: "nescience, craving, and indulgence are defilement; motivations and gestations are karma; the remaining seven are the basis (asraya) as well as the fruit (phala).


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: As outlined by Wayman, Asanga's "Abhidharma-samuccaya" divides the nidanas into the following groups:


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: According to Gombrich, the "contorted" three lives interpretation is rendered unnecessary by the analysis provided by Jurewicz and other scholars which show that the 12 link chain is a composite list.


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: The twelve nidanas have also been interpreted within various Buddhist traditions as explaining the arising of psychological or phenomenological processes in the present moment or across a series of moments.


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: Prayudh Payutto notes that in Buddhaghosa's "Sammohavinodani", a commentary to the "Vibhaṅga", the principle of dependent origination is explained as occurring entirely within the space of one mind moment. Furthermore, according to Payutto, there is material in the "Vibhaṅga" which discusses both models, the three lifetimes model (at Vibh.147) and the one mind moment model. Similarly, Cox notes that the Sarvastivadin "Vijñānakāya" contains two interpretations of dependent origination, one which explains the 12 nidanas as functioning in a single moment as a way to account for ordinary experience and another interpretation that understands the 12 nidanas as arising sequentially, emphasizing their role in the functioning of rebirth and karma.


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: Wayman notes that an interpretation referring to mental processes (referred to as dependent origination with a transient character) can also be found in northern sources, such as the "Jñānaprasthāna", the "Arthaviniscaya-tika" and the "Abhidharmakosa" (AKB.III.24d). The "Jñānaprasthāna", explains the nidanas with the example of the act of killing. Ignorance leads to the motivation to kill, which is acted on through consciousness, name and form and so on. This leads to mental karma being generated (bhava) which leads to the movement of the hand to kill (birth).


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: The different interpretations of dependent origination as understood in the northern tradition can be found in the "Abhidharmakosa", which outlines three models of the twelve nidanas:


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: The interpretation of dependent origination as mainly referring to mental processes has been defended by various modern scholars such as Eviatar Shulman and Collett Cox.


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: Eviatar Shulman argues that dependent origination only addresses "the way the mind functions in samsara, the processes of mental conditioning that transmigration consists of." He further argues that it "should be understood to be no more than an inquiry into the nature of the self (or better, the lack of a self)." Shulman grants that there are some ontological implications that may be gleaned from dependent origination. However, he argues that at its core dependent origination is concerned with "identifying the different processes of mental conditioning and describing their relations". For Shulman, dependent origination does not "deal with how things exist, but with the processes by which the mind operates."


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: Shulman argues that the general principle of dependent origination deals exclusively with the processes outlined in the lists of nidanas (not with existence per se, and certainly not with all objects). Shulman writes that seeing dependent origination as referring to the nature of reality in general "means investing the words of the earlier teachings with meanings derived from later Buddhist discourse" which leads to a misrepresentation of early Buddhism.


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: Sue Hamilton presents a similar interpretation which sees dependent origination as showing how all things and indeed our entire "world" (of experience) are dependently originated through our cognitive apparatus. As such, Hamilton argues that the focus of this teaching is on our subjective experience, not on anything external to it. Collett Cox also sees the theory of dependent origination found in the early Buddhist sources as an analysis of how suffering is produced in our experience. Cox states that it is only in later Abhidharma literature that dependent origination became an abstract theory of causation.


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: A similar interpretation has been put forth by Bhikkhu Buddhadasa who argues that, in the list of the twelve nidanas, "jati" and "jaramarana" refer not to rebirth and physical death, but to the birth and death of our self-concept, the "emergence of the ego". According to Buddhadhasa,


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: Ñāṇavīra Thera is another modern Theravada Bhikkhu known for rejecting the traditional interpretation and instead explaining the 12 links as a structural schema which does not happen in successive moments in time, but is instead a timeless structure of experience.


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: Mahāyāna Buddhism, which sees dependent arising as closely connected with the doctrine of emptiness, strongly expresses that all phenomena and experiences are empty of independent identity. This is especially important for the madhyamaka school, one of the most influential traditions of Mahayana thought. The yogacara school meanwhile, understands dependent origination through its idealistic philosophy and sees dependent origination as the process that produces the illusory subject-object duality.


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: One of the most important and widely cited sutras on dependent origination in the Indian Mahayana tradition was the "Śālistamba Sūtra" (Rice Seedling Sutra). This sutra introduced the well-known Mahayana simile of a rice seed and its sprout as a way to explain conditionality. It also contains the influential passage: "He who sees dependent arising sees the dharma. He who sees the dharma sees the Buddha." This sutra contains numerous passages which parallel the early Buddhist sources (such as MN 38) and outlines the classic 12 nidanas. It also contains some unique elements such as the figure of Maitreya, the idea of illusion (māyā) and the idea of the "dharmaśarīra" (dharma-body). Numerous commentaries were written on this sutra, some of which are attributed to Nāgārjuna (but this is questionable).


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: Some Mahāyāna sūtras contain statements which speak of the "unarisen" or "unproduced" ("anutpāda") nature of dharmas. According to Edward Conze, in the "Prajñāpāramitā sutras," the ontological status of dharmas can be described as having never been produced ("anutpāda"), as never been brought forth ("anabhinirvritti"), as well as unborn ("ajata"). This is illustrated through various similies such as a dream, an illusion and a mirage. Conze also states that the "patient acceptance of the non-arising of dharmas" ("anutpattika-dharmakshanti") is "one of the most distinctive virtues of the Mahāyānistic saint."


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: Perhaps the earliest of these sutras, the "Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā", contains a passage which describes the suchness ("tathatā") of dharmas using various terms including shūnyatā, cessation ("nirodha") and unarisen ("anutpāda"). Most famously, the "Heart Sutra" states:Sariputra, in that way, all phenomena are empty, that is, without characteristic, unproduced, unceased, stainless, not stainless, undiminished, unfilled.The "Heart Sutra" also negates the 12 links of dependent origination: "There is no ignorance, no extinction of ignorance, up to and including no aging and death and no extinction of aging and death."


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: Some Mahāyāna sūtras present the insight into the non-arisen nature of dharmas as a great achievement of bodhisattvas. The "Amitāyurdhyāna Sūtra" mentions that Vaidehi had, on listening to the teaching in this sutra, attained "great awakening with clarity of mind and reached the insight into the non-arising of all dharmas." Similarly, the "Vimalakirti sutra" mentions various bodhisattvas (including Vimalakirti) that have attained "the forbearance of the nonarising of dharmas." The "Lotus Sutra" states that when the "thought of the highest path" arises in sentient beings "they will become convinced of the nonarising of all dharmas and reside in the stage of non-retrogression."


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: The "Samdhinirmochana Sutra""'s" chapter 7 mentions a teaching which states: "All phenomena are without an essence, unborn, unceasing, primordially in the state of peace, and naturally in the state of nirvāṇa." However, it states that this teaching is that of the "discourses of provisional meaning," and that it should be taught along with the teachings of the third turning of the wheel of Dharma. Similarly, the "Lankavatara sutra" explains the doctrine of the unborn and unoriginated nature of dharmas through the idealistic philosophy of mind-only. Since all things are illusory manifestations of the mind, they do not really originate or arise.


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: In madhyamaka philosophy, to say that an object dependently originated is synonymous with saying that it is "empty" ("shunya"). This is directly stated by Nāgārjuna in his "Mūlamadhyamakakārikā" (MMK): Whatever arises dependently, is explained as empty. Thus dependent attribution, is the middle way. Since there is nothing whatever, that is not dependently existent. For that reason, there is nothing whatsoever that is not empty. -- MMK, Ch. 24.18-19 According to Nāgārjuna, all phenomena ("dharmas") are empty of "svabhāva" (variously translated as essence, intrinsic nature, inherent existence, and own being) which refers to a self-sustaining, causally independent and permanent identity. Nāgārjuna's philosophical works analyze all phenomena in order to show that nothing at all can exist independently, and yet, they are also not non-existent since they exist conventionally, i.e. as empty dependent arisings. In the very first (dedicatory) verse of the MMK, dependent origination is also described apophatically through "the eight negations" as follows "there is neither cessation nor origination, neither annihilation nor the eternal, neither singularity nor plurality, neither the coming nor the going of any dharma, for the purpose of nirvāṇa characterized by the auspicious cessation of hypostatization ["prapañca"]."


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: The first chapter of the MMK focuses on the general idea of causation and attempts to show how it is a process that is empty of any essence. According to Jay Garfield, in the first chapter, Nāgārjuna argues against a reified view of causality which sees dependent origination in terms of substantial powers ("kriyā") of causation ("hetu") that phenomena have as part of their intrinsic nature ("svabhāva"). Instead, Nāgārjuna sees dependent origination as a series of conditional relationships ("pratyaya") that are merely nominal designations and "explanatorily useful regularities." According to Nāgārjuna, if something could exist inherently or essentially from its own side (and thus have its own inherent causal powers), change and dependent arising would be impossible. Nāgārjuna states that "if things did not exist without essence, the phrase, "when this exists so this will be," would not be acceptable."


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: Jan Westerhoff notes that Nāgārjuna argues that cause and effect are "neither identical nor different nor related as part and whole, they are neither successive, nor simultaneous, nor overlapping." Westerhoff states that Nāgārjuna thinks all conceptual frameworks of causality that make use of such ideas are based on a mistaken presupposition which is that "cause and effect exist with their own svabhāva". Westerhoff further argues that for Nāgārjuna, causes and effects are both dependent on one another (conceptually and existentially) and neither one can exist independently. As such, he rejects four ways that something could be causally produced: by itself, by something else, by both, by nothing at all. Westerhoff also notes that for Nāgārjuna, cause and effect do not exist objectively, that is to say, they are not independent of a cognizing subject. As such, cause and effect are "not just mutually interdependent, but also mind-dependent." This means that for Nāgārjuna, causality and causally constructed objects are ultimately just conceptual constructs.


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: Nāgārjuna applies a similar analysis to numerous other kinds of phenomena in the MMK such as motion, the self, and time. Chapter 7 of the MMK attempts to argue against the idea that dependent arising exists either as a conditioned entity or as an unconditioned one. Rejecting both options, Nāgārjuna ends this chapter by stating that dependent arising is like an illusion, a dream or a city of gandharvas (a stock example for a mirage). Chapter 20 tackles the question of whether an assemblage of causes and conditions can produce an effect (it is argued that it cannot). This analysis of dependent arising therefore means that "emptiness itself" is empty. As Jay Garfield explains, this means that emptiness (and thus dependent origination) "is not a self-existent void standing behind the veil of illusion represented by conventional reality, but merely an aspect of conventional reality."


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: The yogācāra school interpreted the doctrine of dependent origination through its central schema of the "three natures" (which are really three ways of looking at one dependently originated reality). In this schema, the constructed or fabricated nature is an illusory appearance (of a dualistic self), while the "dependent nature" refers specifically to the process of dependent origination or as Jonathan Gold puts it "the causal story that brings about this seeming self." Furthermore, as Gold notes, in Yogacara, "this causal story is entirely mental," and so our body, sense bases and so on are illusory appearances. Indeed, D.W. Mitchell writes that yogācāra sees consciousness as "the causal force" behind dependent arising.


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: Dependent origination is therefore "the causal series according to which the mental seeds planted by previous deeds ripen into the appearance of the sense bases". This "stream of dependent mental processes" as Harvey describes it, is what generates the subject-object split (and thus the idea of a '"self" and "other" things which are not the self). The third nature then, is the fact that dependent origination is empty of a self, the fact that even though self (as well as an "other", that which is apart from the self) appears, it does not exist.


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: Alex Wayman writes that Mahāyāna texts such as "Śrīmālādevī Siṃhanāda Sūtra" present an alternative interpretation of the twelve nidanas. According to Wayman, this interpretation holds that arhats, pratyekabuddhas, and bodhisattvas have eliminated the four kinds of clinging (nidana # 9), which are the usual condition for existence (or "gestation", nidana #10) and rebirth (#11) in one of the three realms. Instead of being reborn, they have a "body made of mind" ("manōmaya kāya"), which is a special consciousness ("vijñana"). This consciousness is projected by ignorance (nidana #1) and purified by a special kind of samskara (# 2) called "nonfluxional karma" ("anāsrava-karma")"." These mind-made bodies produce a reflected image in the three worlds, and thus they appear to be born.


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: According to Wayman, this view of dependent origination posits "a dualistic structure of the world, in the manner of heaven and earth, where the "body made of mind" is in heaven and its reflected image, or coarser equivalent, is on earth. Otherwise stated, the early members of Dependent Origination apply to the superior realm, the later members to the inferior realm. But the "Śrī-mālā"-"Sūtra" does not clarify how those members are allotted to their respective realms."


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: According to Wayman, similar interpretations appear in tantric texts, such as the "Caṇḍamahāroṣaṇatantra." This tantra contains a passage which appears to suggest that "the first ten terms of dependent origination are prenatal." He also notes that there is a tantric interpretation of dependent origination in the "Guhyasamājatantra," "in which the first three members are equivalent to three mystical light stages.


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: Tibetan Buddhist scholars rely on the north Indian works of scholars such as Asanga, Vasubandhu and Nagarjuna in their interpretation of the 12 nidanas. For example, according to Wayman, Tsongkhapa, attempted to harmonize the presentations of the 12 links found in Nagarjuna and in Asanga. Tsongkhapa also explains how the twelve nidanas can be applied to one life of a single person, two lives of a single person, and three lives of a single person.


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: Discussing the three lifetimes model, Alex Wayman states that the Theravada interpretation is different from the Vajrayana view, because the Vajrayana view places a "bardo" or an intermediate state (which is denied in Theravada) between death and rebirth. The Tibetan Buddhism tradition allocates the twelve nidanas differently between various lives.


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: Madhyamaka is interpreted in different ways by different traditions. Some scholars accept a version of the shentong view introduced by Dolpopa (1292–1361), which argues that buddha-nature and buddhahood was "not" dependently originated and thus not empty of itself (but empty of what is not itself). The Gelug school which follows Tsongkhapa's thought rejects this view, and instead holds that all phenomena are said to lack "inherent" existence ("svabhava") and thus, everything is empty and dependently originated. Other Tibetan madhyamakas like Gorampa argue for a more anti-realist view, negating the very existence of all phenomena and seeing them all as illusions. Meanwhile, scholars of the Nyingma school such as Ju Mipham have also attempted to interpret orthodox madhyamaka in a way that is compatible with the view of dzogchen.


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: The Huayan school taught the doctrine of the mutual containment and interpenetration of all phenomena ("yuánróng", 圓融), as expressed in the metaphor of Indra's net. One thing contains all other existing things, and all existing things contain that one thing. This philosophy is based on the "Avatamsaka Sutra" and the writings of the patriarchs of Huayan.


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: Thích Nhất Hạnh explains this concept as follows: "You cannot just be by yourself alone. You have to inter-be with every other thing." He uses the example of a sheet of paper that can only exist due to every other cause and condition (sunshine, rain, trees, people, the mind etc). According to Hanh "this sheet of paper is, because everything else is."


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: Sogyal Rinpoche states all things, when seen and understood in their true relation, are not independent but interdependent with all other things. A tree, for example, cannot be isolated from anything else. It has no independent existence.


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: According to Richard Gombrich, the East Asian interpretation of dependent origination as the idea that "all phenomena exert causal influence on each other" does not follow from the early Buddhist understanding of dependent origination. He further argues that this interpretation "would subvert the Buddha’s teaching of karma." This is because "if we were heirs of other people’s deeds, the whole moral edifice would collapse."


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: The concept of "pratītyasamutpāda" has also been compared to Western metaphysics, the study of reality. Schilbrack states that the doctrine of interdependent origination seems to fit the definition of a metaphysical teaching, by questioning whether there is anything at all. Hoffman disagrees, and asserts that pratītyasamutpāda should not be considered a metaphysical doctrine in the strictest sense, since it does not confirm nor deny specific entities or realities.


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: The Hellenistic philosophy of Pyrrhonism parallels the Buddhist view of dependent origination, as it does in many other matters (see: similarities between Phyrrhonism and Buddhism). Aulus Gellius in "Attic Nights" describes how appearances are produced by relative interactions between mind and body and how there are no self-dependent things. The ancient "Commentary on Plato's Theaetetus" also defends a kind of relativism which states that nothing has its own intrinsic character.


title: Pratītyasamutpāda

text: Jay L. Garfield states that Nagarjuna's "Mulamadhyamikakarika" uses the causal relation to understand the nature of reality, and of our relation to it. This attempt is similar to the use of causation by Hume, Kant, and Schopenhauer as they present their arguments. Nagarjuna uses causation to present his arguments on how one individualizes objects, orders one's experience of the world, and understands agency in the world.


title: Cognomen

text: A cognomen (; plural cognomina; from "con-" "together with" and "(g)nomen" "name") was the third name of a citizen of ancient Rome, under Roman naming conventions. Initially, it was a nickname, but lost that purpose when it became hereditary. Hereditary "cognomina" were used to augment the second name, the "nomen gentilicium" (the family name, or clan name), in order to identify a particular branch within a family or family within a clan. The term has also taken on other contemporary meanings.


title: Cognomen

text: Because of the limited nature of the Latin "praenomen", the "cognomen" developed to distinguish branches of the family from one another, and occasionally, to highlight an individual's achievement, typically in warfare. One example of this is Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, whose cognomen "Magnus" was earned after his military victories under Sulla's dictatorship. The "cognomen" was a form of distinguishing people who accomplished important feats, and those who already bore a "cognomen" were awarded another exclusive name, the agnomen. For example, Publius Cornelius Scipio received the agnomen "Africanus" after his victory over the Carthaginian general Hannibal at Zama, Africa ("Africanus" here means "of Africa" in the sense that his fame derives from Africa, rather than being born in Africa, which would have been "Afer"); and the same procedure occurred in the names of Quintus Caecilius Metellus "Numidicus" (conqueror of Numidia) and Quintus Caecilius Metellus "Macedonicus".


title: Cognomen

text: In contrast to the honorary "cognomina" adopted by successful generals, most "cognomina" were based on a physical or personality quirk; for example, "Rufus" meaning "red-haired" or "Scaevola" meaning "left-handed". Some cognomina were hereditary (such as Caesar among a branch of the Julii, Brutus and Silanus among the Junii, or Pilius and Metellus among the Caecilii): others tended to be individual. And some names appear to have been used both as "praenomen", "agnomen", or non-hereditary "cognomen". For instance, "Vopiscus" was used as both "praenomen" and "cognomen" in the Julii Caesares; likewise "Nero" among the early imperial Claudii, several of whom used the traditional hereditary Claudian cognomen as a praenomen.


title: Cognomen

text: In present academic context, many prominent ancient Romans are referred to by only their "cognomen"; for example, Cicero (from "cicer" "chickpea") serves as a shorthand for Marcus Tullius Cicero, and Caesar for Gaius Julius Caesar.


title: Cognomen

text: The term "cognomen" (sometimes pluralized "cognomens") has come into use as an English noun used outside the context of Ancient Rome. According to the 2012 edition of the "Random House Dictionary", cognomen can mean a "surname" or "any name, especially a nickname". The basic sense in English is "how one is well known". For example Alfred the Great. (This is more similar to the Roman use of agnomen than their use of cognomen.)


title: Cognomen

text: Catalan "cognom" and Italian "cognome," derived from the Latin "cognomen", mean "family name". Maltese "kunjom" is derived from the Italian version, retaining the same meaning.


title: Cognomen

text: The term "cognomen" can also be applied to cultures with a clan structure and naming conventions comparable to those of Ancient Rome; thus, hereditary "cognomina" have been described as in use among the Xhosa (Iziduko), the Yoruba (Oriki), and the Zulu (Isibongo).


title: Kizuna AI

text: Although the first channel to use a CG avatar for vlogging purposes on YouTube was the channel of English-Japanese Ami Yamato, who debuted her first video in 2011, Kizuna is the world's first virtual YouTuber with the characteristics as we know today, much like the one who coined the term Virtual YouTuber. Kizuna's video content is similar to many other YouTubers, consisting primarily of discussions, Q&A videos, and more traditional "Let's Play" videos, although in years later, she also began to livestream at least one time per week. Because Kizuna primarily communicates in Japanese, fans contributed translations for her videos, and there were entire unofficial communities built around these translators, filling the void of an official English community until 2020 when official subtitles began to be done. Kizuna has performed at various anime conventions, at virtual concerts, and has also worked with many game companies. She has also appeared on television shows and has starred in commercials not limiting herself to YouTube, to the point of appearing in mid-Shibuya. She has become a popular virtual celebrity worldwide.


title: Kizuna AI

text: Starting in 2016, Kizuna AI was originally managed directly by Activ8, the company that created her, under the name Project A.I. In 2018, the project was moved to in-house agency upd8. Following an announcement on 24 April 2020, Activ8 announced that Kizuna AI was moved from upd8 to a new subsidiary company dedicated exclusively to her, called Kizuna AI Inc. With the announcement, Japanese voice actress Nozomi Kasuga (春日望) also disclosed her role as the voice model of Kizuna AI and advisor of the new company. Kizuna AI Inc. formally started activities on 11 May 2020, with Eriko Matsumoto (松本恵利子) as the CEO.


title: Kizuna AI

text: Kizuna is an online virtual character completely constructed using software. As the identities of producers in the background are not revealed, video animators, producers, video editors, and players of games are unknown. Kizuna's YouTube channels are thought to be managed by an entire production crew, and the choice to remain anonymous comes from the wish to keep the concept of a virtual idol intact. Though this has caused speculation regarding the operation crew and technology. Kizuna's videos are produced by Tokyo-based digital production company Activ8.


title: Kizuna AI

text: All crew members known so far to be involved in Kizuna's design are already well known. These include En Morikura in character design, Tomitake in 3D modelling, and Tda in modelling supervision. Morikura is an artist well known for illustration. Tomitake has designed many 3D models, and works alongside Tda, an expert in the MikuMikuDance 3D modelling field.


title: Kizuna AI

text: The identity of Kizuna AI's voice model had long been unknown; however, on 24 April 2020 it was announced on Twitter that voice actress Nozomi Kasuga provides her voice.


title: Kizuna AI

text: Kizuna is aware that she is a virtual character, and claims that she is an independent artificial intelligence (hence the "AI" in her name). The main concept of a character in a virtual setting was created through Kizuna, so she is publicly recognized as the world's first "virtual YouTube user". An October 2018 article from BBC Capital noted a Mattel advertisement campaign for Barbie in 2015 with the same concept.


title: Kizuna AI

text: In her first video, Kizuna introduces herself. Apart from the general meaning of "artificial intelligence", "AI" is also a pun on the kanji "愛", meaning "love" while "Kizuna" (絆) means to bond, bind and/or connect. Kizuna is designed as a young and beautiful 2.5D animated girl with moe elements, which attracts many YouTube users. Kizuna's appearance age is roughly 16 years old, though she revealed that she is only five, with her birthday on 30 June. She has a height of 156 cm (~5'1"), a weight of roughly 46 kg (101 lbs.), and her three measurements are 85-59-83 (34-24-33).


title: Kizuna AI

text: Kizuna's overall appearance uses a pink and white color palette. She has long flowing hair, coupled with a futuristic gradient hair dye of pink. She wears a pink wobbly hairband with a butterfly knot. The hairband has a double-leaf heart-shaped design, corresponding to the word "Ai", meaning "love", in her name. Kizuna's sleeveless white top brings about a futuristic feel as well. It is designed to put emphasis on her back and body, as well as to make her appear slimmer. Embroidered above her chest is the letter "A". Her arm sleeves and thigh highs are decorated with lace, while her thigh highs and shorts form a "Zettai Ryoiki" area in her design.


title: Kizuna AI

text: Kizuna is a huge fan of "Love Live!" and "Love Live! School Idol Festival"; her favorite character is Nico Yazawa. During an interview with Panora, Kizuna mentioned that she pays close attention to idol groups such as Keyakizaka46 and Nogizaka46. Kizuna likes how idols follow their dreams just like herself. In her character design, she also likes to spend time in virtual space playing video games.


title: Kizuna AI

text: Kizuna is able to livestream and record videos in a virtual environment; this is generally considered to rely on the freeware MikuMikuDance. After the production crew designs a 3D model, they manually control the model to make certain movements. Then, they hire a voice actor to give the animation a voice. MikuMikuDance has often been used in the videos of Vocaloid pop music, allowing users to import and control the 3D models of virtual characters such as Hatsune Miku.


title: Kizuna AI

text: On the other hand, some netizens think that Kizuna's facial expressions and eye changes are done through facial tracking using facial recognition software such as FaceRig. Some feel that Kizuna is a result of applying this technology to 3D models, similarly by projecting facial expressions onto a virtual reality model. At the same time, some think that omni-directional motion capture technology is being used. Both methods allow Kizuna to resemble real people more closely in terms of expressions and actions, overall making Kizuna's videos more similar to those of other female YouTubers.


title: Kizuna AI

text: The YouTube channel "A.I.Channel" was created on 18 October 2016, though Kizuna only started posting videos on 29 November 2016. She creates, designs and hosts a series of videos with a mix of wacky and serious elements. These videos are designed to break the boundaries between virtual and real spaces, and involves activities such as television-like show-hosting and virtual reality. The production crew also wishes for the audience to get in touch with and experience the newest technology, even allowing users to interact directly with Kizuna in virtual space.


title: Kizuna AI

text: Kizuna posts videos almost every day on YouTube, and is recognized as an active user of the video-sharing platform. With over two million subscribers as of October 2018, Kizuna is the most popular virtual personality on the site and one of its most-watched Japanese content creators. She is also gaining traction in regions around the globe.


title: Kizuna AI

text: In January 2017, Kizuna joked that because her clothes are merely holographic projections, she is technically always naked. YouTube detected the use of the word "naked" and decided that the video contained inappropriate content, so "A.I.Channel" was banned. The content had to be posted on another video sharing site, Niconico. After several weeks, the channel was unbanned in February. Despite the ban, Kizuna's popularity grew tremendously and her subscriber count reached 100,000 on 25 February.


title: Kizuna AI

text: By the end of March, Kizuna had already uploaded more than 60 videos. "A.I.Channel" had exceeded 200,000 subscribers and 5 million comments. On 31 March, Kizuna even started releasing gaming content on a new channel named "A.I.Games". "A.I.Games" was blocked for unknown reasons on 17 April but was unblocked and resumed posting videos within a day.


title: Kizuna AI

text: "A.I.Channel" reached 2 million subscribers on 15 July 2018. "A.I.Games" also reached 1 million subscribers on 14 August 2018.


title: Kizuna AI

text: Apart from her YouTube channels and official website, Kizuna has also created Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok accounts to facilitate interaction with fans. She also holds limited-time events occasionally, such as a Valentine's Day chocolate giveaway in 2017.


title: Kizuna AI

text: Kizuna accepted an interview by PANORA, a website focusing on the topic of virtual reality. The interview was divided into four parts and posted on Kizuna AI's official website. Then, on 25 and 26 March 2017, Kizuna performed and then interacted with fans live on the stage of AnimeJapan.


title: Kizuna AI

text: In April 2017, a collaboration between Kizuna and Japanese video game development company Asobimo was announced. On the newly-created "A.I.Games" channel, Kizuna would periodically post videos of her doing a commentary while playing "Avabel Online", a MMORPG designed by Asobimo for smartphones. Kizuna would also appear directly in the game. Afterwards, there would occasionally be video advertisements for the game.


title: Kizuna AI

text: Kizuna is the ambassador for one of the Japan National Tourism Organization's "Come to Japan" campaign and appeared in endorsements for SoftBank. She has also hosted a television variety show titled , which aired on Japan's BS NTV channel from 6 April 2018. She also voiced Website Manager Hachi in the anime television series "Magical Girl Site", which aired from the same day.


title: Kizuna AI

text: To celebrate reaching 2 million subscribers on "A.I.Channel" on 15 July 2018, Kizuna released her first eurodance digital single "Hello, Morning".


title: Kizuna AI

text: On 1 March 2019, Dutch music duo W&W released a song called "The Light" in which Kizuna features as a vocalist and as a dancer.


title: Kizuna AI

text: In October 2020 Active8 Inc. and Gemdrops Inc. released a rhythm VR game based on Kizuna AI called Kizuna Ai – Touch The Beat.


title: Kizuna AI

text: On 6 November 2020, she appeared as herself in season 2, episodes 4 and 5 of the Australian web series Meta Runner. In the episode, she is a guide for "Pocket Gakusei", an in-universe online anime dating simulator.


title: Kizuna AI

text: On 30 January 2021, Kizuna AI released a clothing collaboration with the Dutch streetwear brand Kaomoji.


title: Kizuna AI

text: Between March and May 2021, Kizuna AI planned a virtual tour with the intention of exploring and creating new virtual possibilities. This tour consisted of 2 shows, one set in Los Angeles and one set in New York. An online DJ event "CONTACT YOU presented by DJ Kizuna AI" was held by DJ Kizuna AI. Guests for the Los Angeles live show included TeddyLoid and Nyanners who have a large number of followers in the US.


title: Kizuna AI

text: In early December 2021, Kizuna AI announced that she is holding a tour in February called "hello, world 2022". She also announced that after the tour, she is going on an indefinite hiatus.


title: Kizuna AI

text: In February 2022, Kizuna AI announced that a spin-off AI will take her place while she is on indefinite hiatus.


title: Kizuna AI

text: In February 2022, Kizuna AI announced that an anime project was in production. The anime project was later confirmed to be a television series titled "Kizuna no Allele" that will premiere in 2023. The series is produced by Wit Studio and Signal.MD and directed by Kenichiro Komaya, with Deko Akao writing the scripts, Shiori Asaka and Niina Morita designing the characters and serving as chief animation directors alongside Mizuki Takahashi, and Go Sakabe composing the music.


title: Kizuna AI

text: Similar to other YouTubers, Kizuna acts as a host on her YouTube channels, creating and uploading various original types of entertainment-related videos, thereby attracting viewers to subscribe to her channels. Kizuna's videos contain much content similar to other video bloggers. Kizuna will also imitate the interesting behaviour of other YouTubers. The style of these videos is comedic and uses technology to let Kizuna move smoothly. Videos sometimes add content of a more imaginative or animated style, though bugs in the software may cause her to move rather unnaturally.


title: Kizuna AI

text: On average, Kizuna's videos are about ten minutes long. Video content includes chatting, sharing life stories, answering questions, fulfilling requests, hosting discussions on trending topics, interviews, "Let's Plays", dancing, challenges, and drawing. She has discussed artificial intelligence, virtual reality, games, things she likes, and how she wants a Wikipedia page dedicated to herself. She has also talked about buying friends with money, and what furniture she wants to have.


title: Kizuna AI

text: Kizuna often posts videos of herself giving commentaries while playing games on YouTube. As a virtual Let's Play show host, Kizuna's game operating techniques seem a little clumsy, though like other gaming YouTubers, she makes seemingly real comments and reactions to the games that she likes. The most viewed and most popular gaming video by Kizuna is her Let's Play of popular indie game "Inside".


title: Kizuna AI

text: Some of Kizuna's videos involve augmented and virtual reality games. Using omnidirectional motion capture technology, a 3D model of Kizuna playing a game can be developed. Virtual reality games played by Kizuna include extreme sports game "The Climb", first-person shooter game "Superhot", drawing software "Tilt Brush", and more. Kizuna has also attempted to describe English words in "Quick, Draw!", explore Tokyo virtually using Google Maps, and talk with other AI such as Apple's iPhone Assistant Siri.


title: Kizuna AI

text: A rhythm video game, titled "Kizuna AI: Touch the Beat!", is scheduled for a release in February 2023 on PlayStation 5 and PlayStation VR2, which will be followed by a release on Microsoft Windows (via Steam), Nintendo Switch, and PlayStation 4 (via PlayStation VR) in April.


title: Kizuna AI

text: The language used in all of Kizuna's videos is Japanese. This made it difficult for a large portion of viewers to understand specific content of videos. Afterwards, "A.I.Channel" and "A.I.Games" allowed bilingual fans to translate Japanese in videos to other languages. With the help of translations offered by fans, Kizuna's channels were able to offer content in many different languages including Japanese, English, Korean, Spanish, and many others. This has allowed global audiences to understand the comments made by Kizuna in her videos, and has helped to grow her audience outside of Japan. Korean and English comments take up similar portions in the comments section of Kizuna's videos.


title: Kizuna AI

text: Kizuna, also known, "AI-chan" among her fans, is the spearhead of the virtual YouTuber trend. Kevin Allocca, YouTube's head of cultural trends, singled out the meteoric growth of A.I. Channel over 10 months as an example of the growth of virtual personalities on the platform. Allocca also noted that the trend's popularity was mostly contained to Japan. Character designs such as Kizuna are seen as a revolutionary concept, and could be the precursor of a new trend in virtual reality, virtual YouTube users and live-streamers.


title: Kizuna AI

text: 2D virtual characters such as Hatsune Miku have been getting more popular, and the audience of 2D has been widening. Therefore, the concept of Kizuna as a YouTube video host is becoming more widespread. The profession of live-streaming usually requests for the constant production of original or exclusive content for the audience, and 2D live-streaming can be a method of doing so. Also, in the regular YouTube market, virtual streaming can be an alternative for those who are unable or do not wish to reveal their face in front of the camera, because exquisite character designs can make up for the imperfections in real people. Virtual streaming also allows the production crew to create more than one character. For example, Black AI is another artificial intelligence who appears several times in Kizuna's videos, and seems to be animated in the same fashion.


title: Kizuna AI

text: "Tubefilter" writer Sam Gutelle thinks that even though characters like Kizuna may be seen as oddities now, they will become more common in the future. "The Verge" columnist Rich McCormick feels that Kizuna is different from other content creators as she can technically play games as long as she wants without the need for food and sleep. This will bring channels more flexibility, and these types of videos may even be the future of YouTube. The BBC thinks that the selling point of virtual characters is that they are not like other YouTubers, as their appearance will never age and related development is still in its beginning stages.


title: Kizuna AI

text: In 2018, Kizuna appeared on a program on NHK interviewing the Japanese Nobel Prize winners, which sparked debate on social media over female objectification, with several scholars deeming her appearance as inappropriate. Yuki Senda, a professor at Musashi University, claimed that Kizuna nodding along with the panel instead of contributing constructively to the conversation was more of an issue than her character design, due to her mannerisms reinforcing gender roles in women. Junko Saeki, a professor at Doshisha University, also suggested that Kizuna's quietness may be perpetuating a new wave of orientalism because of her role as one of Japan's primary cultural exports.


title: Kizuna AI

text: On 25 December 2016, Kizuna's producers decided to put up her MikuMikuDance 3D model for free download and edits on her official site. This was to allow interested fans to produce "doujin" products. The 3D model can be used in MikuMikuDance, Unity, Unreal Engine and other spaces. The developers even made the model compatible with virtual reality. The virtual model is allowed use in videos and games, but for business purposes it is required that the developers are contacted. Finally, the use of the model in political, racial or religious settings or to create other models is prohibited.


title: Kizuna AI

text: The derivative work of some fans is shared to the rest of the fanbase on Kizuna's social media accounts. On YouTube, there are many users who name their accounts "Kizuna AI", "" or other related names. Some repost her videos but only the official "A.I.Channel" offers subtitles for many languages. There are also dancing-related videos.


title: Equifax

text: Equifax Inc. is an American multinational consumer credit reporting agency headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia and is one of the three largest consumer credit reporting agencies, along with Experian and TransUnion (together known as the "Big Three"). Equifax collects and aggregates information on over 800 million individual consumers and more than 88 million businesses worldwide. In addition to credit and demographic data and services to business, Equifax sells credit monitoring and fraud prevention services directly to consumers.


title: Equifax

text: Equifax operates or has investments in 24 countries in the Americas, Europe, and Asia Pacific. With over 14,000 employees worldwide, Equifax has nearly US$5 billion in annual revenue and is traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the symbol EFX.


title: Equifax

text: Equifax was founded by Cator and Guy Woolford in Atlanta, Georgia, as Retail Credit Company in 1899. By 1920, the company had offices throughout the United States and Canada. By the 1960s, Retail Credit Company was one of the nation's largest credit bureaus, holding files on millions of American and Canadian citizens. Even though the company continued to do credit reporting, the majority of its business was making reports to insurance companies when people applied for new insurance policies, such as life, auto, fire and medical insurance. RCC also investigated insurance claims and made employment reports when people were seeking new jobs. Most of the credit work was then being done by a subsidiary, Retailers Commercial Agency.


title: Equifax

text: Retail Credit Company's information holdings and willingness to sell its information attracted criticism in the 1960s and 1970s. These included that it collected "...facts, statistics, inaccuracies and rumors ... about virtually every phase of a person's life; his marital troubles, jobs, school history, childhood, sex life, and political activities." The company was also alleged to reward its employees for collecting derogatory information on consumers.


title: Equifax

text: In 1970, after the company had computerized its records, which led to wider availability of the personal information it held, the U.S. Congress held hearings that led to the enactment of the Fair Credit Reporting Act. This legislation gave consumers rights regarding information stored about them in corporate databanks. It is alleged that the hearings prompted the Retail Credit Company to change its name to Equifax in 1975 to improve its image.


title: Equifax

text: Equifax expanded into commercial credit reports on companies in the United States, Canada and the UK, where it came into competition with companies such as Dun & Bradstreet and Experian. The insurance reporting was phased out. The company also had a division selling specialist credit information to the insurance industry but spun off this service, including the Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange (CLUE) database as ChoicePoint in 1997. Equifax formerly offered digital certification services, which it sold to GeoTrust in September 2001. Also in 2001, Equifax spun off its payment services division, forming the publicly listed company Certegy, which subsequently acquired Fidelity National Information Services in 2006. Certegy effectively became a subsidiary of Fidelity National Financial as a result of this reverse acquisition merger "(See Certegy and Fidelity National Information Services for further information)".


title: Equifax

text: In October 2010, Equifax announced it was acquiring Anakam, an identity verification software company headquartered in San Diego, California, which invented and pioneered SMS (text-message based) two-factor authentication. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.


title: Equifax

text: Equifax purchased eThority, a business intelligence (BI) company headquartered in Charleston, South Carolina, in October 2011. eThority is partnering with TALX, a St. Louis-based business unit of Equifax, and remained in Charleston.


title: Equifax

text: In February 2016, Equifax acquired the Australasian company Veda, the largest credit reference agency in Australia at the time. Veda had previously acquired the Australian market research and opinion polling company ReachTEL in September 2015., which continues to produce opinion polls in Australia.


title: Equifax

text: Equifax was the subject of more than 57,000 consumer complaints to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau from October 2012 to September 17, 2017, with most complaints relating to incomplete, inaccurate, outdated, or misattributed information held by the company.


title: Equifax

text: In September 2017, Equifax announced a cyber-security breach, which it claims to have occurred between mid-May and July 2017, where cybercriminals accessed approximately 145.5 million U.S. Equifax consumers' personal data, including their full names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses, and driver license numbers. Equifax also confirmed at least 209,000 consumers' credit card credentials were taken in the attack. On March 1, 2018, Equifax announced that 2.4 million additional U.S. customers were affected by the breach, increasing the number of affected to 147.9 million Americans. The company claims to have discovered evidence of the cybercrime event on July 29, 2017. Residents in the United Kingdom (15.2 million) and Canada (about 19,000) were also impacted. The vulnerability in which Chinese hackers leveraged was , the hackers managed to stay in Equifax systems undetected for approximately 134 days.


title: Equifax

text: In March 2018, the Security and Exchange Commission accused Jun Ying, Equifax's former CIO, of illicit insider trading, by selling company stock before the breach was publicly disclosed. After an investigation by the FBI, Ying pleaded guilty, was sentenced to four months of prison plus a year of supervised release, and was fined $55,000.00 and ordered to pay restitution of $117,117.61 in June 2019. An Equifax manager, Sudhakar Reddy Bonthu, also pleaded guilty to insider trading and received a sentence of 8 months of home confinement.


title: Equifax

text: In July 2019, "The New York Times", the "New York Post" and other media reported Equifax had agreed to pay approximately $650 million to settle with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to resolve investigations by several state attorneys general, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the FTC, and a consumer class-action lawsuit related to the data breach.


title: Equifax

text: By September 2019, however, Equifax had added qualifications and "hurdles" to its claims process which put in doubt whether the previously announced cash settlement of $125 per affected consumer would actually be awarded.


title: Equifax

text: On 19 December 2019, a federal judge in Atlanta awarded class-action attorneys representing consumers approximately $77.5 million, suggesting that individual consumers might expect to receive around six or seven dollars.


title: Equifax

text: In July 2020, Equifax reported that, after purchasing Ansonia Credit Data (Ansonia), a major source of consumer credit, payments, and invoice receivables (AR) data used by financial companies and other borrowers and businesses in the shipping and logistics sectors, the firm has expanded its position in commercial payment technology solutions.