This is how Ven. Nanananda speaks about it:
“It is disintegrating, monk, that is why it is called ‘the world’. And what is disintegrating? The eye, monk, is disintegrating, forms are disintegrating, … It is disintegrating, monk, that is why it is called ‘the world’.”
Here the Buddha is redefining the concept of the world, punning on the verb lujjati, which means to “break up” or “disintegrate”. To bring about a radical change in outlook, in accordance with the Dhamma, the Buddha would sometimes introduce a new etymology in preference to the old. This definition of ‘the world’ is to the same effect…
In this instance, the play upon the word loka is vividly apt in that it brings out the transciency of the world. If the world by definition is regarded as transient, it cannot be conceived substantially as a unit. How then can an eternity or infinity be predicated about it? If all the so-called things in the world, listed above, are all the time disintegrating, any unitary concept of the world is fallacious. [Mind Stilled Number 20]
Are you a programmer?
The definition of your version of DO will run to the end of the program and start over as long as there is ignorance. Regardless if one awakens within it or not. There will be changes but there is effectively no break within the function:
while: (ignorance =true) do: dependentOrigination
Here dependentOrigination simply steps through the sequence from birth to death. If on exit ignorance is still present it repeats.
The alternative version that I am presenting (not by any means my own) goes like this:
Here the outer loop looks the same: if there is ignorance the loop starts running.
But within the dependentOrigination we call a subroutine called arisingAndPassing which looks like:
arisingAndPassing: every time consciousness is about to land on name-and-form it checks to see if ignorance is still present. If it no longer is then the program exits.
What happened to the one experiencing that samsaric life is undefined. The body is still there doing what it does. the 6 senses are still there doing what they do. The one that is aware of them is aware of them but released. untraceable.
Maybe that helps maybe not.