END

The first link in Dependent Origination is Ignorance, from this base of ignorance our actions whether in thoughts, speech and Bodily action is tainted by Greed, Hatred and Delusion, leading to Sankharas or Kamma Formations.

Rebirth-Producing Kamma

M. 43

Truly, because beings, obstructed by ignorance (avijja) and ensnared by craving (tanha) seek ever fresh delight, now here, now there, thereforefresh rebirth continually comes to be.

A. III. 33

And the action (kamma) that is done out of greed, hatred and delusion, that springs from them, has its source and origin in them: this action ripens wherever one is reborn, and wherever this action ripens there one experiences the fruits of this action, be it in this life, or the next life, or in some future life.

However, For one who is wise, ….

A. III. 33

For the actions which are not done out of greed, hatred and delusion, which have not sprung from them, which have not their source and origin in them: such actions, through the absence of greed, hatred and delusion, are abandoned, rooted out, like a palm-tree torn out of the soil, destroyed, and not able to spring up again.

Cessation of Kamma means the End of Rebirth

M. 43

However, through

1. the fading away of ignorance,

2. through the arising of wisdom,

3. through the extinction of craving,

NO future rebirth takes place again.

In the Enlightened Being, Greed, Hatred and Delusion is DESTROYED

A. VIII. 12

In this respect one may rightly say of me: that I teach annihilation, that I propound my doctrine for the purpose of annihilation, and that I herein train my disciples; for certainly I do teach annihilation - the annihilation, namely, of greed, hatred and delusion, as well as of the manifold evil and unwholesome things.

Dependent Origination, the teaching of the conditionality of all physical and mental phenomena, together with that of Non-Self (anatta), forms the indispensable condition for the understanding and realization of the Buddha's teaching.

It shows that the various physical and mental life-processes, conventionally called personality, man, animal, etc., are not a mere play of blind chance, but the outcome of causes and conditions. Above all, the Paticca-Samupada explains how the arising of rebirth and sufferingis dependent upon conditions; and, in its second part, it shows how, through the removal of these conditions, all suffering must disappear.

"No god, no Brahma can be called

The maker of this wheel of life:

Empty phenomena roll on,

Dependent on conditions all."

(Visuddhi-Magga XIX).

The END of Kamma

S. XII. 51

A disciple, however, in whom Ignorance (avijja) has disappeared and wisdom arisen, such a disciple heaps up neither meritorious, nor demeritorious, nor imperturbable Kamma-formations..

" Furthermore, a sage at peace is not born, does not age, does not die, is unagitated, and is free from longing. He has nothing whereby he would be born. Not being born, will he age? Not aging, will he die? Not dying, will he be agitated? Not being agitated, for what will he long? "