We all want to find happiness and be free from suffering. Happiness
comes from positive mental states and actions, and suffering from the
opposite. The twelve-part process of dependent arising shows how actions
underlain by ignorance propel us from one rebirth into another, keeping
us trapped in suffering, and how through understanding reality correctly
we can break this cycle. The four noble truths, the twelve links of
dependent arising, and the two truths regarding conventional and
ultimate reality, all interrelated, form the very core of the Buddha's
teaching. The many different practices of sutra and tantra become
meaningful and purposeful only when they are based on a good
understanding of these fundamental and seminal principles. This oral
teaching by Geshe Sonam Rinchen is based on the Rice Seedling Sutra and
the twenty-sixth chapter of Nagarjuna's Treatise on the Middle Way.