How does existence keep going according to Buddhism? The Buddha’s explanation of what was happening was explained in his teaching on Dependent Origination. The basic answer is that birth and death are part of a cycle similar to non-sentient process cycles that go on and on unless and until some link in the chain of events is broken. Think of the cycle of life and death as a circle of lights. Then answer, without being arbitrary, “Where does the circle begin? Where does it end?” The answer is “No beginning. No end. Just a circle.” It was this understanding of the circle of existence that preceded the Buddha’s enlightenment. “This arises because of that, shaped by these conditions.” Cause and effect — over and over again. That is the crux of Dependent Origination, though in the formal teaching, they are broken down into twelve steps or so.

For clarity’s sake, a “cause” is the producer of an effect, a result, or a consequence, and it precedes the result. A “condition” is something that shapes the effect, result or consequence. A seed dropped into the ground could be viewed as a “cause” of the plant which grows from it. The soil in which it grows would be “conditions” shaping the process, either allowing it to grow normally or abnormally twisting its development.

Birth arises. Anything born will die. After death, the residue of one’s life will shape a new existence that will bear the imprint of the old. The newly born, influenced by the residue, will create new residues, which after death will shape … and so on, and so on, and so on.

I won’t claim that this teaching has had a powerful influence on me. But I can see a few aspects that have been helpful.

Existence has been going on a very long time, repeating itself over and over again. Any anxiety about life being too short is really quite unnecessary.

The thing that keeps the process of existence going is the attachment to the process. For many Westerners this would seem a positive promise that they could remain forever on the merry-go-round of existence and death. Like a maturing adult growing weary of a child’s game, though, one comes to see that this process is not the alluring “fun” it has always seemed to be before. With increasing awareness, the powerful charm of dangling satisfaction is lost. At that point, one is willing to do what is necessary to move beyond the endless riding of merry-go-round horses.

Life is natural rather than supernatural. Cyclic existence and death is natural. Moral law is natural cause and effect. There’s no God intervening, meddling or insisting on being pleased. There is no ghost standing outside of existence manipulating things. The processes are natural even if they are unknown and unseen. We do not doubt this natural chain of cause and effect in science, even in such intricate and wondrous examples such as DNA and the replication of life itself. Yet in spiritual matters many traditions have insisted that spirituality cannot be natural. The Buddha insisted it was.