This Paticcasamuppada / Patichchasamauppada / Patichchasamuppadha / Dependent Origination / පටිච්ඡසමුප්පාදය is the core of Buddhist teaching

Diagram as depicted by Ven. Waharaka Abayarathanalankara Thero

This shows how the birth of කෙලෙස් ජාති (different sins(Keles)/merits) happens on every moment of existence* (unless you are in 4th Jana state or an Arahant) and how the results of that existence seeds Kamma to a future ‘existences’ unless Kamma is not ceased*.

At the time of ජරා මරණ (time of old age / decay and death) a new life is (පටිසංධි විඤ්ඤාණය ඔක්කන්ති ක්ශනයේ) (the fraction/moment of mind that occur as the first part of the mind on a different ‘existence’ at the death of present ‘existence’) formed to continue the cycle of Sansara. A generation of cause-and-effect incidents continues by giving a fruit from a reason (reason→fruit) and due to ignorance that fruit matures and gives a reason (fruit→reason) resulting in possible future reason for more fruits, thus creating an endless loop (of Sansara).

What is meant by ceased? Kamma is cause-and-effect cycle where unpleasant ජරා මරණ (decaying and death) exists until the reason/cause for this never ending cycle is identified (ඡන්දරාගය lustful attachment) and cessation happens when removing greed (ඡන්ද රාගය) is done. Then that is called Nibbana. In simpler form leaving the attachment (bana) of the internal and external sensory items.

What is meant by existence? means any life form in any of the 31 realms.

How so? Roots of the tree (ලෝභ greed, ද්වේශ hatred, මෝහ delusion, අලෝභ opposite of greed, අද්වේශ opposite of hatred, අමෝහ opposite of delusion) bring nourishment of ‘reasons’ to grow ‘fruits’.

By how? by the present interaction of internal six senses (ඇස eye, කන ears, නාසය nose, දිව tongue, කය body, මන mind) (lets say these are flowers) and external six senses (රූප form, ශබ්ද sound, ගන්ද smell, රස taste, ස්පර්ශ touch, ධම්ම thoughts)(lets say these are pollen) creating fruits when in delusion by fertilizing the flower with pollen.

In this analogy flower and pollen are results of previous delusive decisions that left fruits for the present moment. Those are past results. The trouble happens at present moment though.

How does that happen? By the act of fertilizing. This is the real trouble maker that is identified and ceased by dhamma taught by Buddha. Hence, there is no fertilizing, there is no making of resulting fruits, thus ending the Bava/Jathi of sansara and breaking the endless loop (of rebirth).

When there is delusion what is the trouble it cause? When external and internal organs interact a touch point comes to existence. This touch is a thought happen inside ones mind. The job of the mind is to identify what is it about. Mind make use of its previous experience to perceive the current possibility out of infinite pool of different possible results of identifications. Thus giving rise to greed or hatred or neutral on what is identified. In other words what is out there to identify for mind is not having hatred or lustfulness associated with that – what ever it is – it is just neutral. However the delusive mind in conjunction with previous experience, causes a mind to identify/perceive otherwise. Thus creating Kamma – resulting the endless loop of Sansara. In the diagram shown as තණ්හා (අස්සාද greed/hatred) → උපාදාන (Nature of garbing or making hold on to what is greeded for or hated for) → භව (to become of what greeded or hated for) → ජාති (the result of becoming that).

Why there is delusion? If there exists a thought to assign a non existing value to anything that comes across – this nature of assigning illusive values is unreasonable. This is delusion. In another way,  mind creates insatiability or අස්සාද (an illusive value) using mental interactions among 3 entities, to name- අභ්‍යන්තර ආයතන හය (internal six organs – eye, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind) with භාහිර ආයතන හය (external organs form, sound, smell, taste, touch and thoughts) and ධම්ම / විපාක ලෝකය / පෙර දැනුම (resulting experience of previous interactions) with the  to create the present moment (දැන් දැන් පවතින එනම් ප්‍රත්‍යප්පන්න මොහොතේ රාගයෙන් බැඳීම හේතුවෙන් කෙසෙල් හදා ගැනීමට). This assigning of illusive value happens due to not hearing of dhamma where the dhamma explain the truth saying why there is no such value.