d e e d in the next life:
W h ile the Blessed One was teaching the Dhamma to the inhabitants of the City of Campa on the banks of the Gaggara Lake, it seems, a frog (manduka) app re hen d e d a sign in the Blessed One's voice. A cowherd wh o was standing leaning on a stick put his stick on the frog's head and crushed it. He died and was straight away reborn in a g ilded divine p a l a c e —
twe lve leagues broad in the realm of the thirty-three (Tajyatimsa) . He found himself there, as if waking up from sleep, amidst a host of celestial nymphs, and he exclaimed "So I have actually b e en reborn here. Wha t deed did I d o ? 5J
For Buddhaghosa, paticcasamuppada closely connects
w ith and explains the course of kamma (volitional act)
through the three phases of life: past, present, and
future. Buddhaghosa refers to ignorance and craving as
the two outstanding causes of k a m m a . He explains that
ignorance particularly means not knowing the Four Noble
Truths: suffering, the cause of suffering, the cessation
of suffering, and the path leading to the cessa tion of
suffering. Wh e n one is ignorant, ignorance will conceal
the truth of suffering. Ignorance leads the actor to an
unhappy destiny because s/he will per form various kinds
of kamma such as killing living things that will lead
him to be reborn in hell or among the hungry ghosts.
Craving, on the other hand, is the principal cause of
kamma leading to a happy destiny. Buddhaghosa points out
that those who crave to be reborn in the r ealm of the
deities will perfor m various kamma such as abstention 54
from killing, and will practice meditation. Though
craving m a y yield positive results at first, in the end it
leads to suffering because it always betrays the expecta- 55
tion of the cravers.
Since ignorance is not knowing the origin of suf
fering, the cessation of suffering, and the w a y leading to
the cessation of suffering, it thus leads h um an beings
to and imprisons them within suffering:
Owing to his unknowing about suffering's origin he embarks upon formations that, b e i n g subordin ated to craving, are actually the cause of suffering, imagining t h e m to b e the cause of pleasure. A n d owing to his u n k n o w i n g about cessation and the path, he misper- ceives the cessation of suffering to be in some p a r t i cular d e stin y (such as the Brahma world) that is not in fact cessation; he m isper ceive s the pa t h to c e s s a tion, believing it to consist in sacrifices, m o r t i f i cation for immortality, etc., w h i c h are not in fact the path to cessation; and so w hi l e aspiring to the c e ssat ion of suffering, he embarks upon the three kinds of formations in the form of sacrifices, m o r t i
fication for immortality, and so on.
A l t h o u g h Buddhaghosa begins his e xplanation of
p a t i ccasa mupp ada with ignorance, he does not necess arily
intend to presen t ignorance as the first cause of all
human suffering. It function as one w a y to begi n his e x
p o sit ion of the Buddha's teaching. For Buddhaghosa,
t e ach ing p aticcasamuppada is the same as teaching the
d h a m m a . He refers to the following pass age in the Pali
Canon: "Dhamma is good in the beginning, the middle,
. . . . . 57
and t h e end (M a n h i m a - n i k a v a . 1.1 7 9 f ." For example,
the entire dhamma is good in the b e ginn ing w i t h virtue
as one's own well-being, good in the m i ddle w i t h serenity
and insight and with path and fruition, and goo d in the
end w i t h n i b b a n a . Or one can say that dhamma is
good in the b e g inni ng because it suppresses the hindrances
t h rou gh hear ing it, good in the midd l e because it brings
the bli ss of serenity and insight throu gh practice, and
good in the end because it brings u nshak eable balance
in the beginning, in the middle, and in the end, the B u d
dh a and his disciples m a y select any part of it to begin
t h e i r teaching. For example, the Buddha m a y b egin w ith
t h e b liss of nibbana and then the w a y to a ttain it; or
h e ma y b e g i n w it h the pat h towards nibbana and conclude