“On ignorance depends karma;

“On karma depends consciousness;

“On consciousness depends name and form;

“On name and form depends the six organs of sense.”

“On contact depends sensation;

“On sensation depends desire;

“On desire depends attachment;

“On attachment depends existence;

“On existence depends birth;

“On birth depend old age and death, sorrow, lamentation, misery, grief, and despair.

“Thus does this entire aggregation of misery arise.”

Having arrived at this conclusion, the problem may be solved by learning how to avoid existence.  But, let us consider what the term “existence” means.  The common acceptance of the word, as used in the English, seems to include being; but if we will consider the word in its literal meaning, when analyzed, we find that it comes from “est” (to be), and the prefix “ex,” meaning actually “not-being.”

The word Being, is a synonym for eternal life—­for Deity.  It does not savor of anything that has been created, or that will terminate. Being is, therefore, to cease to ex-ist, is to cease to live under the spell of the illusory and changing quality of maya, or externality.

Far from meaning to be “wiped out,” or absorbed into The Absolute, in the sense of complete loss of consciousness, it means the eternal retention of consciousness, unhampered by the delusion of sense as a reality.

To escape from this chain of illusory ideas, and their consequences, the obvious necessity is to claim the soul’s right to Being.  This is done by dispelling ignorance (A-vidya) by vidya (knowledge).  Thus karma ceases: 

“On the cessation of karma ceases consciousness of self;

“On the cessation of this consciousness of self, cease name and form;

“On the cessation of name and form, cease the organs of sense;

“On the cessation of sense, ceases contact;

“On the cessation of contact, ceases sensation;

“On the cessation of sensation, ceases desire;

“On the cessation of desire ceases attachment;

“On the cessation of attachment ceases existence;

“On the cessation of existence, ceases birth.

“On the cessation of birth cease old age, and death; sorrow; lamentation; misery; grief and despair.  Thus does the entire aggregation of misery cease.”

But, as to the exact interpretation of all these, Buddha himself says: 

“Ye must rely upon the truth; this is your highest, strongest vantage ground; the foolish masters practicing superficial wisdom, grasp not the meaning of the truth; but to receive the law, not skillfully to handle words and sentences, the meaning then is hard to know, as in the night-time, if traveling and seeking for a house, if all be dark within, how difficult to find.”