Asava means distress or mental affliction. The Buddhist belief is that, because ordinary beings do not understand the truth that all dhammas arise and cease conditionally, with the nature of impermanence and egolessness. This is called they greedily cling to things which are impermanent, persistently seek for “me” and “mine”, in spite of the dhammas of egolessness. This is called illusion, which leads to mental affliction, such as lust or greed, anger or hate and delusion (moha or avijja, ignorance of the truth of Impermanence and Egolessness). These three are regarded as the three poisons. Together with arrogance, skepticism or doubt, and wrong views (miccha-ditthi, such as the belief in permanence or sassata-ditthi, the belief in discontinuity or uccheda-ditthi), they make up the six fundamental afflictions (kilesa). Kilesas give rise to various kammas. Kamma denotes actions of the body, speech and mind either as a deity, or a human being, or a being in hell, or a ghost or an animal. There, again, afflictions arise, kammas are recreated, and body and mind are regenerated. This cycle of life and death is endless, and constitutes suffering. In terms of human life, there are, it is generally believed, eight kinds of sufferings—sufferings of birth (the pain suffered in the womb as well as during birth), old age, illness, death, separation from loved ones, association with hated ones, inability to obtain what one desires, and clinging to the five aggregates. (Clinging to the five khandhas is affliction which gives rise to corporeal things, feeling, perception, mental formation and consciousness, the five aggregates in turn give rise to kilesa, and thus are called grasping khandhas. The five khandhas are in the instantly changing fluid which is filled with the sufferings of birth, old age, illness and death. So the five khandhas are suffering.) In sum, as the Buddha says that there is infinite suffering in the world, which is neither self-generated, nor dispensed by some god-creator, nor does it arise by chance. The suffering arises out of causes and conditions. As was stated above, kilesas give rise to kammas, kammas give rise to sufferings of birth and death. This the Buddhist explanation of the Dependent Origination of suffering. For a comprehensive analysis, there are “Twelve Links of Dependent Origination”. (From Essentials of Buddhism: Questions and Answers)