THE SUBTLEST DHAMMA (PATICCASAMUPPADA SUTTA - MAHASI SAYADAW)

The doctrine of Paticcasamuppada or Dependent Origination is very important in Buddhism. The bodhisatta began with dependent origination when he reflected deeply on the nature of existence and attained Enlightenment. He first pondered old age and death, as did every other bodhisatta when he was about to become the Buddha in his last existence. For it was only after seeing the old, the sick and the dead that the bodhisatta saw the ascetic (samana) and renounced the world in search of the ageless and the deathless Dhamma. He had seen the evils of life in old age, sickness and death.