This process describes the Buddha’s reflection before his awakening. It is of particular interest because it seems to depict the precise moment when his insight broke away from that of his Upaniṣadic teachers. Bhikkhu Bodhi notes: “It it possible the Bodhisatta had been seeking a self of the Upaniṣadic type, a self-subsistent subject consisting of pure consciousness that requires nothing but itself in order to exist. His discovery that consciousness is invariably dependent on name-and-form would have disclosed to him the futility of such a quest and thereby shown that even consciousness, the subtlest basis for the sense of self (see SN 12.61), is conditioned and thus marked by impermanence, suffering, and selflessness.”

This analysis agrees with Yājñavalkya, who says that the manifold appearances in the world arise from consciousness (etebhyo bhūtebhyaḥ samutthāya, Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad 2.4.12).

Here the Buddha contradicts Yājñavalkya’s view that individuated awareness (saññā) returns into “this great reality, infinite, unbounded, a sheer mass of consciousness” (idaṁ mahadbhūtam anantam apāraṁ vijñānaghana eva, Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad 2.4.12). Consciousness (viññāṇa) is not a fundamental reality (mahadbhūta) underlying multiplicity, but rather a conditioned process that exists only together with name and form.

The same idea is found at DN 14:2.19.2, where it also describes the reflective process of a Bodhisatta. The mutual conditioning of consciousness with name and form is then further detailed at DN 15:21.1 and SN 12.67. It seems that this distinctive presentation was the original form for describing a Bodhisatta’s thought process. It was subsequently applied to the full set of twelve links (SN 12.4).

This phrase is found only here and DN 14:2.21.2.

Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad 4.4.8 quotes an ancient verse to the effect: “I have reached the subtle, extensive, ancient road; it has been realized by me”. | Añjasa is elsewhere in Pali used only in poetry (eg, Thag 1.35:1.3) or by brahmins (DN 13:4.2). It is an old Vedic term for the “direct route” to the right place as advised by Pūṣan (Rig Veda 6.54.1). In the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa, the new and full moon offerings are made “directly and expressly” to Indra and Agni (2.4.17); one goes “directly to the truth” after a dispute over supremacy among the gods is resolved (3.4.2.14); the horse knows the “direct” way to heaven that humans do not, like one who knows the country (13.2.3–2); and Yājñavalkya explains how to go “directly” to complete the sacrifice (13.5.3.5). One beholds “directly” that the self is god (Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad 4.4.15).

The idea of such “lost cities” decaying in the jungle is probably sparked by the archaeological remains of the Indus Valley Civilization, whose extensive cities would have been over a thousand years old in the Buddha’s day. One major site, Rakhigarhi, is a few day’s walk from Kammāsadamma, where the Buddha taught several times. He could easily have seen it himself or else heard about it.