There are causes for all human suffering, and there is a way by which they may be ended, because everything in the world is the result of a vast concurrence of causes and conditions, and everything disappears as these causes and conditions change and pass away.
Rain falls, winds blow, plants bloom, leaves mature and are blown away. These phenomena are all interrelated with causes and conditions, and are brought about by them, and disappear as the causes and conditions change.
One is born through the conditions of parentage. His body is nourished by food: his spirit nurtured by teaching and experience.
Therefore, both flesh and spirit are related to conditions and are changed as conditions change.
As a net is made up of a series of knots, so everything in this world is connected by a series of knots. If anyone thinks that the mesh of a net is an independent, isolated thing, he is mistaken.
It is called a net because it is made up of a series of connected meshes, and each mesh has its place and responsibilities in relation to other meshes.
Blossoms come about because of a series of conditions that lead up to their blooming. Leaves are blown away because a series of conditions lead up to it. Blossoms do not appear independently, nor does a leaf fall of itself, out of its season. So everything has its coming forth and passing away; nothing can be independent without any change.
It is the everlasting and unchanging rule of this world that everything is created by a series of causes and conditions and everything disappears by the same rule; everything changes, nothing remains constant.
---The Teaching of Buddha, by the Buddhist Promoting Foundation---
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