This teaching is from the section Shining the Light of Wisdom of the book “In the Buddha’s Words” by Bhikkhu Bodhi.

Thus have I heard — at one time, the Blessed One was staying in Sāvatthi, in Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍika’s Park. There, the Blessed One addressed the bhikkhus: “Bhikkhus.”

“Venerable sir,” those bhikkhus responded to the Blessed One. The Blessed One said:

“I will teach you the dependent origination. Listen well and pay close attention, I will speak.”

“Yes, venerable sir,” those bhikkhus responded to the Blessed One. The Blessed One said:

"And what, bhikkhus, is dependent origination? With ignorance as condition, bhikkhus, volitions [formations]; with volitions as condition, consciousness; with consciousness as condition, name-and-form; with name-and-form as condition, the six sense bases; with the six sense bases as condition, contact; with contact as condition, feeling; with feeling as condition, craving; with craving as condition, clinging (grasping); with clinging (grasping) as condition, continued existence; with continued existence as condition, birth; with birth as condition, aging and death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, displeasure, and despair come to be. This is the origin of this whole mass of suffering. This is called, bhikkhus, dependent origination.

With the complete fading away and cessation of ignorance comes cessation of volitions; with the cessation of volitions, cessation of consciousness; with the cessation of consciousness, cessation of name-and-form; with the cessation of name-and-form, cessation of the six sense bases; with the cessation of the six sense bases, cessation of contact; with the cessation of contact, cessation of feeling; with the cessation of feeling, cessation of craving; with the cessation of craving, cessation of clinging; with the cessation of clinging, cessation of continued existence; with the cessation of continued existence, cessation of birth; with the cessation of birth, aging and death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, displeasure, and despair cease. This is the cessation of this whole mass of suffering."

This is what the Blessed One said. Delighted, the bhikkhus rejoiced in what the Blessed One had said.

One can consider dependent origination akin to a process, an equation that describes the wandering on of beings in samsāra. One can independently investigate by observing for the part of the process’s links of: ignorance (misapprehension of true reality) > volitions (formations/intentions/choices) … > craving > clinging > … > suffering (discontentment, stress)

This equation should hold true in 100% of the cases. When one is practicing the noble eightfold path and practicing in line with the five precepts, one’s intentions for bodily, speech and mental conduct are influenced by the teachings (Dhamma) leading to reduction in craving, clinging, and suffering.

When one is not practicing in line with the noble eightfold path or is breaking the five precepts, one’s intentions for bodily, speech and mental conduct are influenced by the misapprehension of true reality, fueled by a lack of close examination and verification, assumption making tendencies; one would experience strong craving, clinging and suffering.

Observing and closely examining in this way across all the experiences one’s mind has access to, by induction, one can understand the truth of the dependent origination. Only an enlightened being would be able to verify all the twelve links, however, by way of induction (inference), one can investigate for the process as a whole to hold true.

Related Teachings:

A teaching on the Turning of the Aggregates of Clinging (SN 22.56) - The Buddha did not claim to be awakened until he had fully understood each of the five aggregates in the light of each of the four noble truths. This discourse includes definitions of each of the aggregates.

Eight causes leading to wisdom (AN 8.2) - Eight conditions that lead to the arising of wisdom, its growth and perfection.

Proximate Causes | Links of Dependent Origination (SN 12.23) - This teaching outlines the sequential progression of spiritual development, starting from ignorance to suffering (typical dependent origination), and from suffering to the ultimate knowledge of cessation, emphasizing the causal relationships between factors like faith, joy, and concentration, leading to enlightenment.