rten 'brel bcu gnyis - 12 Links of Dependent Origination

Next what the Wheel of Life also teaches is the rten 'brel bcu gnyis - twelve links of dependent origination. This is usually described in the twelve parts in the outermost rim of the wheel image.

We looked at rten 'brel earlier - dependent origination. bcu is ten, and gnyis is two, so its 10 + 2, or twelve. This is usually the system how to put together numbers in Tibetan.

These twelve links are used to explain how the second noble truth, source of suffering is happening. There are many ways to actually traverse the twelve links, but let us do a brave attempt to go through them using one system and see how things work together, dependently.