The Doctrine of Paticcasamuppada

by U Than Daing | 1996 | 18,306 words

Summary: This book deals with Paticcasamuppada (‘dependent origination’): a Pali compound consisting of three words:

1) Patticca, which means “because” and “dependent upon”,
2) Sam, which means “well”,
3) and Uppada, which means “arising of effect through cause”.

So dependent on ‘cause’ there arises ‘effect’; hence it is known in English as “Law of Dependent Origination or Cycle of Rebirth”.

The true Pali transliteration of the word is paṭiccasamuppāda and in Sanskrit it is known as pratītyasamutpāda (प्रतीत्यसमुत्पाद)