Tendrel

Defined by Tyler Dewar

The Tibetan term tendrel, or, more fully, ten ching drelwar jungwa, describes the nature of phenomena and how they relate to each other. It has connotations that are both mathematical and magical, and is a principle that plays a key role in all three levels of view and practice in Tibetan Buddhism: Hinayana, Mahayana, and Vajrayana.

Ten means “to depend” and drel means “connection” or “relationship.” So tendrel means that all phenomena come into being (jungwa) through a dependent relationship with other phenomena. As the Buddha famously stated, “In dependence on this, that arises.”

As we look at what this key Buddhist concept means in the levels of the Tibetan Buddhist path, we must remember that these levels do not directly correlate to other complete paths of Buddhism. For example, the Hinayana path does not equate with the Theravada tradition of Southeast Asia, although one frequently hears this mistaken interpretation. Theravada is a comprehensive path unto itself, which includes traditions and practices that relate to other levels within Tibetan Buddhist practice, such as the development of loving-kindness.

Tendrel, at the level of the Hinayana, the foundational vehicle, relates to an individual’s experience in samsara. Teachings on the “twelve links” of tendrel detail very clearly how an initial lack of awareness sets the stage for karmic actions, and how these karmic actions become the wind that propels us through the various pleasant and unpleasant experiences of samsara, culminating in old age and death. The Hinayana presentation of tendrel teaches us how all conditioned phenomena relate to each other: every thing, every experience, comes into being in dependence on and in relationship with something else. It is the basic math of Buddhism.

When we bring our prajna, our spiritual intelligence, to bear on the dependent relationships in everyday experience, our episodes of depression, fascination, and anger become more workable. We see that they were not willed upon us by anyone; rather, they had specific causes. We are also encouraged to examine what causal roles our own intentions and actions may have played.

The Mahayana, the great vehicle, builds on the Hinayana understanding of tendrel through the view of emptiness—the lack of inherent existence of all phenomena. Precisely because each and every phenomenon is tendrel, conceived through dependent relationship, no phenomenon exists in an independent, permanent fashion. Tendrel thus becomes extremely potent because it not only teaches us the way in which things exist, it also teaches us the way in which things do not exist.

Tyler Dewar serves as an oral and textual translator for Nalandabodhi, an international network of Buddhist study and meditation centers, and for Nitartha Institute, an annual, month-long program of advanced Buddhist studies.

The complete article is available in the Winter 2005 issue of Buddhadharma: The Practitioner's Quarterly.