He saw that these many lives, both the happy and the unhappy, were fleeting in nature and subject to perpetual change. The term dukkha, loosely translated as suffering , is used to denote this unsatisfactory, impermanent state of affairs. The discourses delivered by the Buddha to his followers, known as the Suttas are preserved in the ancient language of Pali, and are recited frequently by Buddhist monks. According to the Buddha, existence, both animate and inanimate, is in a dynamic state of flux. As part of this ever-changing cosmos, all sentient beings, including humans, are caught up in an infinite cycle of birth, growth, decay and death.
Death is followed by rebirth and the cycle is repeated indefinitely.
The principal reason for this, the Buddha said, lies in our lack of understanding of the true nature of things, which allows us to engage in actions that serve to perpetuate the process. Right understanding, in the Buddhist sense, is not just an intel lectual concept but rather an intuitive experience gained through periods of long mental and spiritual growth which help us to relinquish our desires. This interdependent process, whereby an effect is the result of a cause and the effect then becomes yet another cause, is known as Dependent Origination or Conditioned Genesis . It is one of the main tenets of Buddhism and is entirely unique to Buddhism. This process is often symbolically depicted in Buddhist art by a wheel - the Wheel of Life.