Twelve links of dependent origination

Twelve Nidanas (Tib. rten 'brel yan lag bcu gnyis). The twelve links of dependent origination.

1) Ignorance: Fundamental ignorance of the truths and the delusion of mistakenly perceiving the skandhas as a self.
2) Formation: As long as there is ignorance there is the formation of karma: positive, negative and neutral. This forms the rebirths in the various realms.
3) Consciousness: Formations cause the consciousness of the next existence. The consciousness which propels one towards the next existence is called the impelling consciousness. And the consciousness that is led to that particular state, once the conditions have come together, is known as the consciousness of the impelled result. These two aspects of consciousness are counted as a single link since together they establish the link between two lives.
4) Name-and-form: By the power of consciousness one is linked to a womb, and there the body develops: the form and the four ‘name’ skandhas of sensation, perception, formation and consciousness.
5) The six ayatanas: The six inner ayatanas of the sense faculties then arise.
6) Contact: The coming together of objects, sense faculty and consciousness is contact.
7) Sensation: From contact arises sensation: pleasurable, painful and neutral.
8) Craving: There then develops a desire not to be separated from pleasurable sensations and to be free from painful sensations.
9) Grasping: As craving increases, it develops into grasping, i.e. actively striving never to be separated from what is pleasurable and to avoid what is painful.
10) Becoming: Through this grasping one acts with body, speech and mind, and creates the karma that determines one’s next existence.
11) Rebirth: Through the power of this becoming, one is reborn in a particular birthplace whenever the necessary conditions are assembled.
12) Old age and death: Following rebirth there is a continual process of aging as the aggregates change and develop; and eventually there is death when the aggregates finally cease.