Tonight at the class, as part of Suddhayu's excellent series on the Tibetan Wheel of Life, we'll be exploring the Nidanas somewhat experientially. The 'nidana chain', in more established Buddhist usage, is a list of twelve identifiable elements in the grand, complex process of cause and effect that conduces to our sufferings. In that sense it's also a dynamic model of how pratitya samutpada works in the world and in our minds (not that the two are unrelated!).

But we'll also be considering the other 'nidana chain', what Sangharakshita has termed the 'positive nidanas'. This list is altogether more encouraging in that, having seen clearly the negative stuff we normally subject ourselves to, we can now turn our attention to what we might do about it...

More on that tonight! But for now, in case you're wondering where this less well-known teaching comes from, here's a quite excellent summary from Jayarava...