Extracted from the website of Buddhist Vajrayana Charity Funds Association and translated (十二因緣之淺釋) into English:
A Brief Explanation of the Twelve Links of Dependent Origination
| 1. | Link Awareness Vehicle and The Twelve Links of Dependent Origination |
| Pratyekabuddha was concisely called Pratyebuddha, who was born in an era without Buddhism. Due to his link of fortune and merit, whilst living in the era, he reached enlightenment by purely observing the Twelve Links of Dependant Origination, hence named as Link Awareness. |
| 2. | The Twelve Links of Dependent Origination |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
| Ignorance | Karmic Formation | Consciousness | Name and Form | Six Senses | Contact | Feeling | Craving | Clinging/ Attachment | Becoming | Life | Old Age Sickness Death |
| Forward View → |
Reverse View ← |
| Brief Explanation of the Twelve Links of Dependant Origination: | |||
| Cause, Main Cause. | |||
| Link, Contributory Link. | |||
| For example, for the growth of a tree, the seed of the tree is the cause, and the sunshine, rain, | |||
| fertiliser and human labour are the links. | |||
| 1 | Ignorance | Ignorant, confused and blind will. Unclear view and knowledge is known as Ignorance. |
| 2 | Karmic Formation | Behaviour, also known as karma. Hence, the activity of behaviour creates the karmic habit (character). |
| 3 | Consciousness | Recognition, realising the central organisation both physically and psychologically. |
| 4 | Name and Form | The combination of mentality and material. Name is feeling, perception, formation and consciousness of the fifth aggregate (these four aggregates are mentality). Form is the matter of the fifth aggregate (this aggregate is material). |
| 5 | Six Senses | Eye origin, ear origin, nose origin, tongue origin, body origin, and awareness origin are the six receptive channels for the external environment. |
| 6 | Contact | Contact. The unity of origin, environment, consciousness that creates the psychological effect. |
| 7 | Feeling | The emotional sense that has the feeling of bitterness, feeling of happiness and the feeling of renunciation. |
| 8 | Craving | Avarice, the desire of gains and losses. With touch comes sensation, and with sensation (affection) comes desire. One has the love of acquiring desire and losing desire. |
| 9 | Clinging/ Attachment | To grasp. |
| 10 | Becoming | Existence, the result of behaviour, and the existence of karmic habit. Stubborn Attachment generates the ego in the self and Material Attachment to matters. Being stubborn then engenders the false assertion. |
| 11 | Life | Life, Arising, Birth. |
| 12 | Old Age Sickness Death |
Decay becomes old age, destruction and ruins become death. After death, ignorance remains and continues into another life. |