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62 EASTERN HORIZON | BOOK BRIEFS

BOOKS IN BRIEF BOOKS IN BRIEF

Bhante Gunaratana with Veronique Ziegler.
Dependent Origination in Plain English. Wisdom: USA. 2024. pp 154. US$18.95
www.wisdomexperience.org.

This book is based on a collection of talks As the author of the now famous
on the theory of dependent origination Mindfulness in Plain English, Bhante
delivered by the author, one of the Gunaratana’s accessible language unpacks
most well-known Buddhist scholar and the foundational Buddhist theory of
meditation teacher from the Theravada dependent origination, showing the
tradition, over a period of several years. reader how by eliminating ignorance we
The teaching on dependent origination can eliminate suffering.
(paticca samuppada) describes the
causes and conditions involved in In Dependent Origination in Plain English,
anything that occurs in our lives. It is the venerable author and his student
said that nothing happens by accident. Veronique Ziegler break down this
All things, no matter how mundane or keystone Buddhist teaching from the Pali
meaningful, arise based on causes and canon into its core components, guiding
conditions. And without those causes and the reader step by step from ignorance to
conditions they would not arise at all. suffering and its end. The process leading
This, in short, is the Buddha’s teaching of to future rebirths may seem far off, but
dependent origination. Embedded in this it’s not some distant event. It’s happening
fundamental theory are central teachings now, with every breath we take. EH
such as non-self, impermanence, and the
four noble truths. And from it we can see
for ourselves how suffering and rebirth,
the great problems lying at the heart of
the Buddha’s teachings arise—and how
they pass away.