Buddha: His Life, his Doctrine, his Order c8.150

c8.150

Buddha spends the first seven days, wrapt in meditation, under the sacred tree itself. During the night following the seventh day, he causes his mind to pass through the concatenation of causes and effects, from which the pain of existence arises: "From ignorance come conformations;† from conformations comes consciousness"—and so on through a long series of intervening links, until, "from desire comes clinging (to existence); from clinging (to existence) comes being: from being comes birth: from birth come old age and death, pain and mourning, suffering, sorrow, and despair." But if the first cause be removed, on which this chain of effects hangs, ignorance becomes extinct, and everything which arises from it collapses, and all suffering is overcome. "Realizing this the Exalted One at that time spoke these words:—