Soon after his awakening, the Buddha was staying at Uruvelā on the bank of the river Nerañjara at the foot of a Bodhi tree. There the Buddha sat cross-legged for seven days without moving, experiencing the bliss of freedom.

Then, in the first part of the night, the Buddha reflected on dependent origination, both the ordinary and the extraordinary sequence: “Ignorance is the condition for intentional activities; intentional activities are the condition for consciousness; consciousness is the condition for name and form; name and form are the condition for the six sense spheres; the six sense spheres are the condition for contact; contact is the condition for feeling; feeling is the condition for craving; craving is the condition for grasping; grasping is the condition for existence; existence is the condition for birth; birth is the condition for old age and death, for grief, sorrow, pain, aversion, and distress to come to be. This is how there is the origin of this whole mass of suffering.