The Beginning

Mahamati, the ultimate beginning of samsara cannot be known.

---The Buddha, in The Lankavatara Sutra---


Note: Samsara is birth and death, one's actions and the consequences of those actions, and the counter part of Nirvana. It is the continual repetitive cycle of birth and death arising from Living Beings generating and fixating on a mistaken concept of self and experiences. Samsara arises out of a mistaken knowledge of reality and is characterized by dukkha (failure, suffering, anxiety, dissatisfaction). The Practitioners of the Buddha's Teaching believe liberation from samsara is possible by following the Eightfold Path.