Whatever has no beginning can have no ending. Yet every object or phenomenon that we know of–including our self — has its beginning in time and space, and its ending as well.

How is it that we know that these objects or phenomena are here? We know what we know through our senses and the mind which coordinates our senses. In fact, it is our mind and senses which ascertain that we ourselves are here. Using our senses, we determine that the world exists and that we are in it.

But the mind and the senses, like all objects and phenomena which they verify, are impermanent; all have a beginning and ending. And when we die, our mind and our senses end, and our perception that there ever was a world ends with it.

What is really real must be always real, not a condition which can die, or has died: it must be permanently permanent. What has had neither a beginning nor an ending cannot die.

Where that which has neither beginning nor ending is the real reality, what does that tell us about the world, our mind and senses, and indeed us?