The Buddha often used the twelvefold chain of depedent origination (Pratītyasamutpāda) to both describe the conundrum of hu,an existence and to explain the way out of it. This formula plays a central role in Buddhist doctrine, and, in the usual order, consists of the following twelve links: ignorance , conditioning , consciousness, name-and-form, the six sense bases, contact, feeling, craving, attachment, becoming, birth, and aging-and-death.

In the fomula of dependent origination, ignorance is the underlying factor which conditions one’s future existence, but what precedes ignorance?

Some argue that prior to ignorance the mind is pure and luminous, and that ignorance later arises due to the defilements； yet the buddha-nature itself remains inherently pure.  According to this perspective, by engaging in Buddhist practice we can clear away this ignorance and return to our original nature, the freedom and purity of our inherent buddha-nature. Others, however, hold that ignorance and its attendant darkness is beginningless, and therefore not easily transcended.