The Buddha did not teach dependent arising merely as a theory. He presents this because it is central to the aim of Dhamma, deliverance from suffering. Now Buddha says the first point to this round of becoming, samsara, cannot be discovered. No matter how far we go back in time, we always find a possibility of going back further. However, though samsara does not have a distinct beginning in time, it does have a distinct causal structure. It is sustained, kept in motion, by a precise set of conditions. These conditions the Buddha sets out in twelve factors and these make up the practical side of his teaching on dependent arising. These twelve factors are : ignorance, volitional formations, consciousness, mentality - materiality, six sense faculties, contact, feeling, craving, clinging, existence, birth, and ageing and death. These twelve factors are the spokes of the wheel of existence and are all to be found within ourselves. It is through these factors that we revolve over and over in samsara meeting with different forms of suffering. Because we are ignorant of these factors we continue to be held in bondage. By discovering this truth, the truth of dependent arising, it becomes possible to bring the repeated process of birth and death to a standstill.