The Twelve Nidānas Explained: How Suffering is Created

By Tchiki Davis, M.A., Ph.D.
*This page may include affiliate links; that means we earn from qualifying purchases of products.

In Buddhism, the Twelve Nidānas are a profound teaching explaining how suffering arises. More than a doctrine, the nidānas are a dynamic map of how our moment-to-moment experience is shaped by causes and conditions. Each link depends on what came before and gives rise to what comes after. By understanding them, we can begin to see where in that chain we can intervene, create change, and ultimately cultivate freedom from suffering.

Below we’ll explore the Twelve Nidānas. Then we'll move through each one, illustrating how they manifest in daily life and what practices or insights can help us break or loosen the chain.

Get The FREE Awakening eBook

✓ Discover what awakening is like
✓ Learn about the four stages between awakening & enlightenment
✓ Get exercises to progress

Sign up below to get our FREE eBook.

What Are the Twelve Nidānas?

The Twelve Nidānas are also called the “twelve links of dependent origination”. They describe a sequence of interdependent causes and conditions. The nidānas are not strictly linear or mechanical; each link arises not only because of the immediately preceding link but due to the interconnectedness between links. Some interpretations emphasize that we can interrupt or weaken the chain at many points to reduce suffering or even attain enlightenment.

The Twelve Links: Deep Dive & Daily Life Examples

Below is each nidāna, with deeper explanation and how it plays out in everyday life.

1. Avijjā (Ignorance / Delusion)

Avijjā (ignorance) is the foundation of suffering. It is not seeing things as they truly are. It is the blindness to seeing that everything is lacking an inherent essence, identity, or self. When this nidana or link is in place, mental concepts, physical objects, and awareness can all seem real, permanent, and therefore, achievable or acquirable.

Daily life example: For example, concepts such as permanence, satisfactoriness, or self can seem to be real.

Get Support

Book a Session

2. Saṅkhāra (Volitional Formations / Mental Fabrications)

Saṅkhāra refers to the mental formations that arise due to ignorance. Although there isn't actually any self or agent that controls experience, mental formations make it appear that there is. For example, as I talk about in my book, The Four Stages of Enlightenment, psychological experiences play out in a predictable way:

Concepts (ignorance) ⮕ Beliefs ⮕ Thoughts ⮕ Emotions ⮕ Behaviors ⮕ Social Experiences ⮕ Physical Experiences

Because we believe that each of these psychological experiences (or mental formations) are real (and that they are our identity), they lead us to get stuck in repeating cycles or patterns that cause suffering.

For example, a belief—which is a mixture of several different aggregates—can seem to be real, true, permanent, and of the self. Or a tree—which is the mixture of aggregates—can seem real or true.

Daily life example: You feel upset when someone criticizes you. Ignorance tells you that criticism is actually a real thing—that it reflects something real about you, the other person, or the world. When (1) the mental concept of 'criticism' seems real, you (2) believe that the other person has done something bad, and so you react defensively. Over time, you build a habit of defensiveness, which shapes your identity, relationships, and how you perceive others.

3. Viññāṇa (Consciousness)

Viññāṇa means consciousness or awareness. It is the knowing or witnessing function, the awareness that allows experiences to be observed by an observer or known by a knower. In dependent origination, consciousness co-arises with mental formations (above), and it is also conditioned by past experiences. For example, if I got bit by a dog when I was a kid, strong awareness co-arises when I see a dog. When there is a belief in awareness, as a concept, this chain is still in place.

Daily life example: After acting defensively, your mind is alert to similar situations—your consciousness may be alert, selective, or absent in different situations. That state of awareness then shapes how you see the next interaction, and the next, and so on, creating more and more deeply ingrained patterns.

2/3: Awareness Arises with Apparent Duality
Related to the co-arising of 2 and 3, the double slit test shows that atoms act like solid particles when they’re being observed. Atoms act like waves when they're not being observed (Al-Khalili, 2013). In other words, when awareness is present, reality acts like it’s made of separate objects. When awareness is absent, reality acts like it’s one wave.

Thus, when chains 2 and 3 are broken the world literally no longer looks like separate objects. Everything becomes visually nondual.

4. Nāmarūpa (Name and Form / Mind-Body)

Nāmarūpa is the mind-body complex—the apparent self. “Name” (nāma) refers to mental components of a self--beliefs, thoughts, perceptions; “form” (rūpa) refers to the physical body. This link describes how mental phenomena and physical phenomena play off each other and give rise to the experience of “self” in the world.

Daily life example: When you (1) believe that the concept of "criticism" is real, and you (2) have pattern of responses (e.g., beliefs, thoughts), and (3) these are co-arising with awareness of the experience, it really starts to (4) feel like you have a self that is actually believing, thinking and doing 'all the things'. Suddenly you, the self, seem real, and everything you do appears to be an expression of that self.

5. Saḷāyatana (Six Sense Bases)

These are the six senses: eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind. The sense organs are those through which sensory input from the external world reaches us, plus mental cognition as a sense base.

Daily life example: When the previous chains are in place, it feels like the self is the one who sees, hears, touches, etc... But these senses just arise, without a doer, seer, or hearer.

6. Phassa (Contact)

Contact arises when a sense organ, its object, and consciousness meet. It is the point of sensory interaction: seeing, hearing, tasting etc. With the previous chains intact, it actually feels like there is separation between an apparent self and the apparent objects of interaction. It feels like the senses are separate from each other in space and occurring at a specific location (aka. inside the body).

7. Vedanā (Feeling / Sensation)

Vedanā refers to the feeling tone that accompanies contact—pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral. How we emotionally respond to what we sense. This feeling tends to bias what comes next: do we approach, avoid, or neither?

Daily life example: After seeing dessert, you feel pleasure; perhaps after criticism, you feel hurt; maybe after a neutral comment you feel nothing in particular. Those feelings influence your subsequent craving or aversion.

8. Taṇhā (Craving / Desire)

Taṇhā is often translated “craving,” “thirst,” or desire. Once feeling (or the duality of pleasure and pain; good and bad) is present, craving arises: the desire for pleasant, for avoidance of unpleasant, for something different. This is a powerful driver of suffering.

Daily life example: You crave more praise, more comfort, more acknowledgment. Or you crave avoidance of pain: you want to avoid conflict, discomfort, loss.

9. Upādāna (Clinging / Grasping)

Upādāna is a deep level of attachment: clinging to sensory pleasures, views, rituals, sense of self, and identity. When craving solidifies into clinging, the suffering becomes more entrenched. It’s the stage where we cling to what we believe to be “I”, “mine”, or “me.”

Daily life example: Not just wanting praise, but defining your identity by praise; not just craving comfort, but refusing to allow discomfort; refusing criticism because it threatens your self-image; holding strongly to beliefs, resisting alternative views because they threaten your identity.

* The remaining nidanas are about reincarnation and rebirth and not immediately observable in our direct experience. So I'm not going to cover them here.

How the Chain Operates Moment-to-Moment

The nidanas are alive in each moment of experience. For example, when something unpleasant happens, the entire chain kicks in.

The (1) belief in the permanent essence, identity, or satisfactoriness of physical or mental concepts leads to
(2/3) the apparent awareness and realness of forms such as thoughts or objects, which leads to
(4) the sense that there is a self that
(5) has a mind and the 5 senses and
(6) can have a relationship or interaction with other apparent objects. When the apparent self is now in relationship with 'other' apparent objects,
(7) it feels like these objects or experiences can feel good or bad, pleasant or unpleasant. Since objects are now seen as good or bad,
(8) we want them or don't want them, and
(9) cling to the ones we want and avoid the ones we don't want.

Suffering exists at all levels of the chain, sometimes lessening as chains are broken, but sometimes increasing as all the chains become clearer.

Twelve Nidānas Reflective Worksheet

The Twelve Nidānas describe how suffering arises step by step in daily experience. Use this worksheet to reflect on how each link in the chain appears in your own life. Notice how even small moments—like frustration in traffic, or craving dessert—can reveal the whole cycle. Pause after each section and write your reflections.
©awakeningcollective.org

Nidāna	Explanation	Reflection Questions
1. Ignorance (Avijjā)	Belief in permanence, identity, or satisfactoriness of any concept or conceptual experience.	What concepts do I assume are real, permanent, or holding a separate existence?
2–3. Formations & Consciousness (Saṅkhāra & Viññāṇa)	The apparent realness of awareness and the forms in awareness, like thoughts, images, or objects.	Which thoughts or experiences feel most “real” to me? How does awareness of these experiences reinforce their existence or separate identity?
4. Name & Form (Nāmarūpa)	The sense that there is a self—mind and body together—that is “me.”	When do I most strongly feel “this is me” or “this is my body/mind”? What does this "self" feel like?
5. Six Sense Bases (Saḷāyatana)	The sense that the six senses (sight, sound, smell, taste, touch, mind) are in the body and of the self.	How do I know that the senses are located in my body? Does it feel like a self owns the senses? What makes that seem true?
6. Contact (Phassa)	The sense that a self is in relationship with “other” objects through the senses.	What make me believe that there is physical distance between self and other?
7. Feeling (Vedanā)	Objects and experiences feel good, bad, or neutral.	What recent experience felt especially pleasant or unpleasant? How did that shape what I wanted next?
8. Craving (Taṇhā)	Apparent desire arises—we seem to want the pleasant and not the unpleasant.	What do I find myself wanting or resisting today? what makes me beleive these wants or aversions are real?
9. Clinging (Upādāna)	Apparent craving arises—we have the sense of holding tightly to what we want and pushing away what we don’t.	What do I cling to most strongly (people, ideas, comfort)? What thoughts or sensations create the sense of clinging?

Remember: suffering exists at all levels of the chain, but reflection loosens its hold. Use this worksheet to notice where the chain is strongest for you and where you might begin to interrupt it.

Final Thoughts on the 12 Nidanas

The Twelve Nidānas are among the most sophisticated and psychologically rich teachings in Buddhism. What begins with ignorance (avijjā) extends all the way to deep suffering and clinging. It also offers a map: by bringing awareness to our fundamental suffering, we can interrupt the links, loosen the chain, and move toward enlightenment. The path may be gradual—and often subtle—but every insight weakens the grip of suffering.

Want to chat with someone about your awakening?