The 12 path factors

The Twelve Path Factors refer to the twelve links of dependent origination (*paṭicca-samuppāda*) — a core teaching of the Buddha that explains the arising of suffering and the mechanism by which samsara perpetuates itself. These links form a cyclical process, where each condition gives rise to the next:

1. Ignorance (*avijjā*)
2. Volitional formations (*saṅkhāra*)
3. Consciousness (*viññāṇa*)
4. Name-and-form (*nāma-rūpa*)
5. Six sense bases (*saḷāyatana*)
6. Contact (*phassa*)
7. Feeling (*vedanā*)
8. Craving (*taṇhā*)
9. Clinging (*upādāna*)
10. Becoming (*bhava*)
11. Birth (*jāti*)
12. Aging and death (*jarā-maraṇa*), along with sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair

This sequence illustrates how ignorance gives rise to suffering through a chain of causation that shapes perception, reinforces craving, and perpetuates rebirth. Importantly, this process is not linear but cyclical, operating moment by moment, as well as across lifetimes.

The teaching reveals that suffering is not imposed from outside but is self-generated through habitual clinging to conditioned phenomena. Recognizing this opens the door to freedom: by penetrating the links through insight, particularly at the points of craving and clinging, the chain can be broken. With the cessation of ignorance, the entire cycle collapses, leading to liberation.

Dependent origination stands at the heart of the Buddha’s realization — neither purely deterministic nor random, but an intricate web of causality that is completely lawful and knowable through direct insight.

“Whoever sees dependent origination sees the Dhamma; whoever sees the Dhamma sees dependent origination.”
— Majjhima Nikāya 28