Pali Vocabulary

行

Formations / Volitional activities / Conditioned things

masculine noun (a-stem, usually plural: saṅkhārā): saṃ + karoti (to make/do)

The fourth aggregate and second link of Dependent Origination — the volitions, impulses, and conditioning forces that shape experience and generate kamma. As an aggregate, saṅkhārā includes all 50 mental factors except vedanā and saññā. As a link of D.O., it refers specifically to volitional activities (cetanā) conditioned by ignorance (avijjā) that plant seeds in consciousness. The term also broadly means 'conditioned things' — all phenomena conditioned by causes — hence 'Sabbe saṅkhārā aniccā' (All conditioned things are impermanent).

六入

Six sense-bases / The six sense-spheres

compound: saḷa (six) + āyatana (sense-base) — neuter noun

The fifth link of Dependent Origination — the six internal sense bases (eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind) that arise dependent on nāma-rūpa. The saḷāyatana are the 'doors' through which experience enters consciousness. When they are established, contact (phassa) becomes possible. Meditation on the arising and passing of sense impressions through these six doors — and the recognition of their conditioned, impersonal nature — is a central Vipassanā practice.

取

Clinging / Grasping / Attachment

neuter noun (a-stem): from upādiyati (to take up, cling to)

The ninth link of Dependent Origination — clinging arising from craving (taṇhā). Four types: (1) kāmupādāna — clinging to sensual pleasures; (2) diṭṭhupādāna — clinging to views; (3) sīlabbatupādāna — clinging to rites and rituals; (4) attavādupādāna — clinging to the doctrine of self. Upādāna is distinguished from taṇhā by its more developed, entrenched quality — taṇhā is the reaching; upādāna is the grip. Upādāna conditions bhava (becoming) and is thus the proximate cause of continued existence.

有

Becoming / Existence / Being

masculine noun (a-stem): from bhavati (to become, to be)

The tenth link of Dependent Origination — becoming or existence, conditioned by clinging (upādāna) and conditioning birth (jāti). Three planes of becoming: (1) kāma-bhava (sensual-sphere existence); (2) rūpa-bhava (form-sphere existence); (3) arūpa-bhava (formless-sphere existence). Bhava is also used more broadly: bhava-taṇhā is craving for existence, one of the three types of craving identified in the Second Noble Truth. The cessation of becoming — vibhava — is itself a form of taṇhā when it takes the form of craving for annihilation.

生

Birth / Arising into existence

feminine noun (i-stem): from jāyati (to be born)

The eleventh link of Dependent Origination — birth, conditioned by becoming (bhava). Jāti means not only literal birth into a new life but the arising of any new existential state or, in the deepest sense, the arising of identification: 'I am' consciousness arising in any moment. The Arahant declaration — 'Khīṇā jāti' (destroyed is birth) — signals the end of the entire process of Dependent Origination. Jāti conditions jarā-maraṇa (aging and death), the final link.

老死

Aging-and-death / Decay and death

dvandva compound: jarā (aging — feminine noun) + maraṇa (death — neuter noun)

The twelfth and final link of Dependent Origination — aging and death, conditioned by birth (jāti). This link encompasses the entire arc of deterioration: the wearing down of the body and faculties, the approach of death, and all the attendant sorrow (soka), lamentation (parideva), pain (dukkha), grief (domanassa), and despair (upāyāsa). The entire chain of Dependent Origination begins with avijjā (ignorance) and ends with jarā-maraṇa — the full scope of dukkha. Seeing this chain is seeing the origin of suffering; the cessation of avijjā leads to the cessation of jarā-maraṇa.