Twelve nidānas

''''' (Sanskrit) or (Pāḷi) means "heaps, aggregates, collections, groupings, clusters". In Buddhism, it refers to the five aggregates of clinging' (), the five material and mental factors that take part in the perpetual process of craving, clinging and aversion due to Avijja.

thumb|upright=1.5|Brick inscribed with the Sutra on Dependent Origination. Found in Gopalpur, Gorakhpur District, Uttar Pradesh. Dated , Gupta Empire|Gupta period. [[Ashmolean Museum.]]

in Buddhism, fundamental ignorance

'''' (from Pāli; ) is an important concept in Buddhism, referring to "thirst, desire, longing, greed", either physical or mental. It is typically translated as craving, and is of three types: kāma-taṇhā (craving for sensual pleasures), bhava-taṇhā (craving for existence), and vibhava-taṇhā'' (craving for non-existence).

Upādāna () is a Sanskrit and Pali word that means "fuel, material cause, substrate that is the source and means for keeping an active process energized". It is also an important Buddhist concept referring to "attachment, clinging, grasping". In Buddhism, it is considered to be the result of taṇhā (craving), and is part of duḥkha (dissatisfaction, suffering, pain).

Vijñāna () or viññāa () is translated as "consciousness", "life force", "mind", or "discernment".

The Sanskrit word bhava (भव) means being, worldly existence, becoming, birth, be, production, origin, but also habitual or emotional tendencies.

Vedanā (Pāli and Sanskrit: वेदना) is an ancient term traditionally translated as either "feeling" or "sensation." In general, vedanā refers to the pleasant, unpleasant and neutral sensations that occur when our internal sense organs come into contact with external sense objects and the associated consciousness. Vedanā is identified as valence or "hedonic tone" in psychology.

In Buddhism, āyatana (Pāli; Sanskrit: आयतन) is a "center of experience" or "mental home," which create one's experience. The related term ''''' (Pāli; Skt. ''''') refers to six cognitive functions, namely sight, hearing, smelling, tasting, body-cognition, and mind-cognition.

' (Pali; संखार; Sanskrit: संस्कार or ') is a term figuring prominently in Buddhism. The word means 'formations' or 'that which has been put together' and 'that which puts together'.

Nāmarūpa () is used in Buddhism to refer to the constituents of a living being: nāma is typically considered to refer to the mental component of the person, while rūpa refers to the physical. Most often found as a single compound word understood literally as name-and-form or named form.

Sparśa (Sanskrit: स्पर्श; Pali: phassa) is a Sanskrit term that is translated as "contact", "touching", "sensation", "sense impression", etc. It is defined as the coming together of three factors: the sense organ, the sense object, and sense consciousness (vijnana). For example, contact (sparsha) is said to occur at the coming together of the eye organ, a visual object, and the visual sense consciousness.

physical birth In Buddhism

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' is Sanskrit and Pāli for "old age" () and "death" ('). In Buddhism, jaramarana is associated with the inevitable decay and death-related suffering of all beings prior to their rebirth within saṃsāra (cyclic existence).