From Contact to Clinging: Where Suffering Is Built
We treat Dependent Origination as a lab protocol: run an episode, annotate the links, find the weak points.
Track a suffering episode through contact → feeling → craving → clinging and identify exactly where mindfulness changes outcomes.
Core Teachings
Key concepts with source texts
The full 12 links matter, but in practice you must master the lived micro-chain: contact (phassa) → feeling (vedanā) → craving (taṇhā) → clinging (upādāna)
If you can see *this* clearly, you can see why the Buddha says the origin and cessation of dukkha are lawful (not mystical).
From the Source Texts
""With contact as condition, feeling... with feeling as condition, craving... with craving as condition, clinging...""
Commentary
This is the exact causal hinge the texts repeatedly emphasize as the lived engine of dukkha.
Pick ONE trigger (a message from someone, a work email, a craving for sugar). Each time it happens today, record: contact → feeling tone (pleasant/unpleasant/neutral) → craving impulse → clinging story (‘I need…’, ‘they shouldn’t…’).
Study Materials
Primary sources with guided reading
SN 12 — Nidāna-saṁyutta (Dependent Origination collection)
Read the opening suttas for the formula, then sample multiple suttas to see the teaching used in different ways.
Additional Resources
Shows what happens when people misinterpret the chain and reify consciousness/self.
Write your thoughts before revealing answers
Consider these points:
- •What does ‘pleasant feeling’ do to the mind automatically?
- •What does ‘unpleasant feeling’ do automatically?
- •What is the smallest moment you can detect before the storyline starts?
Your Thoughts
Writing your thoughts first will deepen your understanding
Bridge notes help connect the resources and show how they relate to the learning outcome.
AI-generated notes synthesize the lesson outcome and resource summaries. Human-reviewed before publishing.
Which link is the most directly trainable intervention point in daily life?