Ep122: Mysteries of Dependent Origination – Leigh Brasington
In this episode I am joined by Leigh Brasington, Buddhist meditation teacher to discuss his new book ‘Dependent Origination and Emptiness: SODAPI’.
Leigh lifts the lid on his writing process, including how he overcame severe writer’s block to complete the book that his students had been asking for years, and shares his reasoning for making the book free.
Leigh reveals why he considers the dependent origination to be at the heart of the Buddha’s teaching, and traces different interpretations of the doctrine throughout the Buddhist literature. Leigh draws on the works of Nagarjuna to discuss emptiness, and levels a critique of the teaching of reincarnation which he calls an ‘immortality project’.
Leigh explains why he translates ‘dukkha’ as the hippy slang word ‘bummer’, how he came up with the acronym SODAPI – Streams of Dependently Arising Phenomena Interacting, and offers medium and long term strategy advice for how to practice this powerful method to achieve the liberation of promised in Buddhism.
Also available on Youtube, iTunes, & Spotify – search ‘Guru Viking Podcast’.
Topics include:
00:00 – Intro
01:03 – Leigh’s new book
02:24 – Why the book is free
06:00 – Dharma teacher income
09:35 – What is dependent origination?
13:21 – Inspired by teachers
18:00 – The writing process
20:15 – Overcoming writer’s block
23:00 – Dukkha is a bummer
30:36 – Various sutta presentations on dependent originations
37:55 – Dependencies not causes
43:04 – Consciousness and the body
45:25 – Critique of religious immortality projects
49:12 – kāmataṇhā (NB: Leigh meant to use the word bhavataṇhā, not kāmataṇhā)
52:35 – Moment to moment model
55:17 – Buddhism without reincarnation?
01:01:37 – Jakatta tales and the tulku system
01:08:56 – Short and long term practice strategies
01:16:27 – Is mindfulness of vedana enough to uproot ignorance?
01:19:56 – Nagarjuna and the implications of the emptiness doctrine
01:23:43 – How did Leigh come up with SODAPI?
01:29:07 – Sañña and the Honeyball Sutta
01:32:27 – How to practice dependent origination for jhana meditators
Previous episodes with Leigh:
To find out more about Leigh, visit:
Read Leigh’s new book ‘Dependent Origination and Emptiness: SODAPI’:
Music ‘Deva Dasi’ by Steve James