By contemplating on the twelve links, one gains greater insight into the workings of karma; this insight enables us to begin to unravel our habitual way of thinking and reacting.
The twelve causal links are:
1) Avidyā lack of knowledge – a blind person, often walking, or a person peering out
2) Saṃskāra constructive volitional activity – a potter shaping a vessel or vessels
3) Vijñāna consciousness – a man or a monkey grasping a fruit
4) Nāmarūpa name and form (constituent elements of mental and physical existence) – two men afloat in a boat
5) Ṣaḍāyatana six senses (eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind) – a dwelling with six windows
6) Sparśa contact – lovers consorting, kissing, or entwined
7) Vedanā pain – an arrow to the eye
Tṛṣṇa thirst – a drinker receiving drink
9) Upādāna grasping – a man or a monkey picking fruit
10) Bhava coming to be – a couple engaged in intercourse, a standing, leaping, or reflective person
11) Jāti being born – woman giving birth
12) Jarāmaraṇa old age and death – corpse being carried
