Later Buddhist commentators, such as Buddhaghosha, interpreted the first two links of ignorance and memory as representing causes from a past existence, the last two links of birth and old age and death as representing effects for a future existence, and the intervening eight links as representing effects experienced in the present (consciousness through sensation) or causes produced in the present (desire, attachment, and existence). While such a formulation is useful in clarifying the relationship among these links, in the hands of some commentators it has reintroduced the concept of a
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