The Bhikṣuṇī Maṇimēkhalai

119 - The Philosophical Systems
Good deeds take one to birth in the first three, and evil deeds to that
in the following three. Removal of ignorance therefore would
remove all else as of consequence. These twelve nidānas are divided
into four sections with three joints as in the Sarvāstivādīn Karma
phenomenology. These again are divided into past, present and
future.
‘Desire, attachment and ignorance, these and the birth resulting
therefrom, constitute action in the present and cause future birth.
Consciousness, name and form, organs of sense, contact, sensation,
birth, age, disease and death, these are consequential experiences in
life, both present and future. These are full of evil, of deeds, and of
consequences resulting from these deeds, and thus constitute
suffering.’ [82]
As such these are regarded as impermanent, coming thus to the first
cardinal statement of Buddha’s teaching, ‘Everything is impermanent’,
‘sarvam anityam’. Results from this suffering are said to be becoming,
when one understands that there is nothing like a soul in anything
existing.
This brings us to the second cardinal principle of Buddhism,
‘Everything is without a soul’, ‘sarvam anātmakam’. ‘Consciousness,
name and form, the organs of sense, contact, sensation, birth, disease,
age and death, with the resulting anxiety and helplessness, these
constitute disease and suffering. The causes of these are ignorance,
action, desire, attachment and the collection of deeds.’ It is this
attachment that brings about suffering and death. If this attachment
should be given up, it brings about cessation of birth, and bliss,