瑜伽師地論 有尋有伺等三地 · 雜染施設 · 生雜染

The third of the three defilements, "birth" (suffering), turns upon the twelve links of dependent origination — the doctrinal summit of Stage 03, and the root of the cultivation-and-realization of the whole treatise.

In one line: With no creator and no real self, saṃsāra is only "origination pertaining to oneself" — ignorance (avidyā) → … → old-age-and-death, arisen in mutual dependence; the Yoga treatise takes the store consciousness as its pivot and makes it three-dimensional as "seed (drawing-forth cause) → moistening (producing cause) → fruit," a twofold cause-and-effect; cut off ignorance and craving, and there is reverse-cessation, the realization of nirvāṇa.

Three Points of the Eye

1. Dependent origination = flowing-on · the three time-frames · with the store consciousness as pivot: "the dependent origination that pertains to oneself is precisely flowing-on." In the prior frame, ignorance and formations (karma) perfume the seeds → the consciousness that follows upon karma → in the middle frame, "consciousness conditions name-and-form, name-and-form conditions consciousness, like two bundles of reeds," takes up birth → craving-grasping-becoming draw forth the later frame. Consciousness = the store consciousness (the maturational, seed-consciousness), mutually dependent with name-and-form (the bodhisattva's reverse contemplation reaches consciousness and turns back) — the lifeline of the Yoga treatise's dependent origination. The first six links (ignorance → feeling) = the drawing-forth cause (sowing the seed of the later existence); the last three (craving-grasping-becoming) = the producing cause (moistening): seed → moistening → fruit, a twofold cause-and-effect across the three lives.

2. Reverse-cessation = attending wisely → right view → cutting off ignorance and craving → nirvāṇa: hearing the Dharma + attending wisely → right view → the knowledge-and-vision of the learner and the one-beyond-learning → ignorance and craving cut off forever → liberation of wisdom (ignorance cut) · liberation of mind (greed-and-craving cut) → nirvāṇa with a remaining basis (constantly experiencing the feeling free of bondage) → nirvāṇa without a remaining basis. Stage 03's two gateways of "attending wisely / unwisely" come to their close here: the rightness or wrongness of a single thought divides flowing-on from reverse-cessation.

3. The profundity of dependent origination = seemingly existent yet really non-existent · so by the very nature of things: relying on the four meanings of impermanence-suffering-emptiness-no-self, and the ten marks — the seed and conditions, with respect to giving-rise, are "without doing, without use, without any carrying-on," yet their function is not not-existent; ceasing swiftly moment by moment yet with a semblance of abiding; apart from any sentient being, agent, or experiencer, yet a semblance of a sentient being · a semblance of the mark of self appears. Not self-made, made-by-another, made-by-both, or arisen-without-cause (arisen from the force of conditions). The nature of phenomena · the abiding of phenomena · the realm of phenomena = the nature of accomplishment-by-principle from beginningless time, so whether or not a buddha appears in the world. The two knowledges = the knowledge of the abiding of phenomena (knowing the marks) · the knowledge of the real (realizing the nature). The sprout of suffering (consciousness → feeling) · the guarding-and-nourishing (craving → becoming) · the tree of suffering (birth-old-age-and-death) · like wick, oil, and flame.

Appended · Guidance

Dependent origination with the store consciousness as pivot → the all-seeds consciousness and rebirth-reconnection of the Stage of the Mental, 02-03 · the Cheng Weishi Lun's store-consciousness dependent origination; the two causes of drawing-forth and producing · the twofold cause-and-effect across the three lives → the ascertainment of dependent origination in the Section on Ascertainment; reverse-cessation's two liberations · nirvāṇa → the Śrāvaka Stage; the profundity · the nature-abiding-realm of phenomena → the Chapter on the Meaning of the Real. Conclusion: the three defilements (delusion-karma-suffering) are to be cut off → cultivate the six direct realizations (of reflection · faith · discipline · the knowledge of the truths · the knowledge attendant upon direct realization of the truths · the ultimate), opening onto cultivation-and-realization. For the exposition of the doctrine, see the Exposition.

The third of the three defilements, "birth" (the suffering of birth-and-death drawn on by karma). It falls into four aspects: differences, hardship, uncertainty, and cyclical flow. The last, "cyclical flow," is the full unfolding of the twelve links of dependent origination — the doctrinal summit of the three stages of applied and sustained thought, and the root of the whole treatise's path of practice-and-realization.

Opening: The Four Aspects of the Defilement of Birth

What is called the defilement of birth? It should be understood from four sides: first, by way of differences; second, by way of hardship; third, by way of uncertainty; fourth, by way of cyclical flow.

One: The Differences of Birth (How Many Kinds of Birth There Are)

The differences of birth are of five kinds: difference of realm, difference of destiny, difference of location, difference of superior birth, and difference of one's own person and world. Difference of realm: the difference between birth in the desire realm and birth in the form and formless realms. Difference of destiny: the differences among the five destinies and the four kinds of birth. Difference of location: in the desire realm there are thirty-six locations of birth, in the form realm eighteen locations, in the formless realm four locations — making fifty-eight kinds of birth in all. Difference of superior birth (whether one is born well or ill): among humans in the desire realm there are three superior births — first, the "dark superior birth" (born into the family of a caṇḍāla, of a pukkasa, of a cart-maker, of a bamboo-worker, or into some other lowly, poor family lacking in wealth and food and drink — such a one is called, among humans, one of scant merit); second, the "bright superior birth" (born into the great and noble, wealthy family of a kṣatriya, a brahman, or an elder, or into some other eminent, wealthy family abundant in goods, grain, and stored treasure — such a one is called, among humans, one of superior merit); third, the "neither-dark-nor-bright superior birth" (neither of the former two, born into a family of middling station). Among the gods of the desire realm there are likewise three superior births: first, birth as a non-god (asura); second, birth in dependence on a portion of the earth (dwelling on the earth's surface); third, birth in dependence on palaces in the open sky. In the form realm there are three superior births: first, birth as an ordinary being in the Heaven of No-Perception; second, birth in the heavens that have perception; third, birth in the Pure Abodes. In the formless realm there are three superior births: first, birth in the heaven of Boundless Perception (the Sphere of Boundless Consciousness); second, birth in the heaven of Nothing-Whatsoever; third, birth in the heaven of Neither-Perception-Nor-Non-Perception. Difference of one's own person and world: throughout the boundless worlds of the ten directions there are boundless sentient beings and boundless differences of birth.

Two: The Hardship of Birth (How Much Suffering Is Undergone in Cyclic Existence)

As for the hardship of birth, as the World-Honored One said: For a long time you have galloped through birth-and-death, and the blood that has flowed from your bodies exceeds the water of the four great oceans. Why so? Because through the long night you have again and again been born as elephants, horses, camels, donkeys, oxen, sheep, chickens, deer, and the like; and there your bodies and their limbs have often been hacked and severed, making your blood flow in great abundance. As it is in the classes of elephants and the rest, so it is also among humans. Furthermore, through the long night you have lost countless fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, and kin, and have lost every kind of wealth, treasure, and means of living, so that the tears from your eyes have flowed in great abundance, matching in measure the blood before. As with the blood and the tears, so too, it should be known, is the measure of the mother's milk you have drunk. Such hardships of birth as these — their sufferings are boundless in their differences.

Three: The Uncertainty of Birth (The Impermanence of the Relations of Cyclic Existence)

As for the uncertainty of birth, as the World-Honored One said: Suppose one were to take all the roots, stalks, branches, and leaves of the grasses and trees of the whole great earth and cut them into small tallies each four fingers long, and use them to count the fathers and mothers you have passed through in your long-night wandering — "this being was once my mother, and I too through the long night was once its mother; this being was once my father, and I too through the long night was once its father" — counting in this way, the four-finger tallies would soon be used up, yet I would still not have told the full measure and limit of the fathers and mothers you have passed through in the long night. And again it is said: You sentient beings, observing for yourselves, have through the long-night wandering completed the foremost, gravest grief and suffering, and only now reach its end. You should know that I too have once undergone suffering as great as this. As with suffering, so too with pleasure. And again it is said: I survey this great earth, and there is not the least spot of ground where, through the long night, you have not undergone countless births and deaths. And again it is said: I survey the sentient beings of the world, and it is hard to find even one who, in the long-night flow, has not at some time been your mother, or father, brother, sister, teacher of conduct, preceptor, or some other elder. And again it is said: If, for a single person, the bones of the body received in a single eon were gathered by someone and kept from rotting, the height of that heap would be greater than Mount Vipula that lies beside the city of Rājagṛha.

Four: The Cyclical Flow of Birth (The Twelve Links of Dependent Origination)

What is the cyclical flow of birth? It is "the dependent origination pertaining to one's own person" — this is what is called cyclical flow.

What Is Dependent Origination?

The outline-headings of dependent origination: its essence, its gates, its meaning, its differences, its sequence, its difficulties (points of doubt), its verbal exegesis, its kinds of condition, the analysis of its conditions, and last, the gathering-in of the various sūtras.

(1) The Essence of Dependent Origination (The Three Junctures · Cyclical Flow and Cessation-Return)

Stated briefly, dependent origination is set up by three characteristics: from the prior juncture, the middle juncture is born; from the middle juncture, the later juncture is born; and once the middle juncture is born, one either heads toward cyclical flow or heads toward the ultimate purity.

From the prior juncture the middle juncture is born, and one further heads toward cyclical flow: There is a certain person who does not understand the prior juncture, who is embraced by ignorance (avidyā) and, with ignorance as condition, performs and augments meritorious karma, non-meritorious karma, and imperturbable karma (deeds of body, speech, and mind). By this, the "karma-following consciousness" flows on unbroken until the very end of life, able to be the cause of the "consciousness that continues into future existence." When this consciousness is about to receive its fruit as birth, inner and outer craving, present right before it, serves as its accompanying aid; and after casting off life at the prior juncture, one obtains one's own embodiment in the present world (taking birth). In the mother's womb, with the "causal consciousness" as condition, the "continuing fruit-consciousness" is born one after another in sequence, evolving through the stages of the kalala and the rest. In the mother's womb the continuing fruit-consciousness arises together with "name-and-form," and gradually grows on until aging. At that point the maturing karma that draws forth birth is said "to have given its karmic-maturation fruit." And this "maturational consciousness" evolves in dependence on name-and-form; because it must evolve in reliance on "the six supports (the six faculties)," the scripture says "name-and-form conditions consciousness." (The "coexistent-support faculties" are called "form," and the "immediately-antecedent-ceasing-support faculties" are called "name," each serving, as appropriate, as the support of the six consciousnesses; in dependence upon them, the consciousnesses flow on right up to the end of life. Again, the five material faculties, the great elements on which the faculties depend, the locations of the faculties, and the great elements that generate the faculties are called "form"; the rest are called "name." It is by consciousness appropriating the faculties and entering into the phenomena of continuity that flow is attained; therefore these two, name and form, rely upon consciousness and continue unbroken.) By this principle, in the present world "consciousness conditions name-and-form, and name-and-form conditions consciousness," like two sheaves of reeds leaning on each other, evolving in mutual reliance right up to the end of life — this is "the dependent origination of the formations by which the prior juncture gives birth to the middle juncture; the middle juncture, once born, flows on unbroken." (This states the sequence of cyclical flow with respect to womb-birth; for those of egg-birth and moisture-birth, except for the passage "in the mother's womb," the rest is as before; among sentient beings with form who take birth by transformation, the faculties are decidedly complete the moment they are born, differing from the above; in the formless realm, with name as support and with the seeds of form as support, consciousness comes to arise, and then, with consciousness as support, name and the seeds of form evolve — from these seeds, though form is cut off, it is later obtained again, differing from the above. Again, by meritorious karma one is born among the humans and gods of the desire realm; by non-meritorious karma one is born into the evil destinies; by imperturbable karma one is born into the form and formless realms.) As for "what is non-birth" — by way of non-birth, one heads toward the ultimate purity (this is the side of cessation-return).

From the middle juncture the later juncture is born: The person who has already taken birth at the middle juncture receives the fruits of two kinds of prior karma — receiving the "inner karmic-maturation fruit" (the retributive body) and the augmenting fruit of "feelings born of the objective realms" (the reception of the six dusts). This person, whether through having heard false teachings or through prior habituation, is deluded about these two fruits. Because of being deluded about the "inner karmic-maturation fruit," one does not know as it truly is the "suffering of birth in future existence"; and because of being deluded about "future existence," under the augmenting force of the later-juncture ignorance, one again, as before, performs and augments the formations. By this newly performed karma, this consciousness is called the "karma-following consciousness." Right within the present phenomena, it is said that "with ignorance as condition, the formations are born; with the formations as condition, consciousness is born" — this consciousness, within the present phenomena, is called the "causal consciousness" (able to appropriate the future-born fruit-consciousness), and gathering all the consciousnesses together it is called the "six bodies of consciousness." Again, this consciousness is what is tracked by the "seeds of the name-and-form of future existence"; these seeds of name-and-form are what is tracked by the "seeds of the six sense-fields of future existence"; these seeds of the six sense-fields are what is tracked by the "seeds of the contact of future existence"; these seeds of contact are what is tracked by the "seeds of the feeling of future existence" — this is together named "the drawing-cause of future existence within the middle juncture" (whereby it can draw forth consciousness through feeling, this one span of embodiment). Having, through prior delusion about the maturation-fruit, drawn forth future existence, and being further deluded about the "second fruit — feelings born of the objective realms," one gives rise to "craving" conditioned by the feeling of the objective realms. By this craving, one arouses either the seeking-of-desire or the seeking-of-existence, and grasps either desire-grasping, or view-grasping, precept-and-vow-grasping, and self-doctrine-grasping. By this craving and grasping conjoined and moistening it, the former "drawing-cause" turns and is named "becoming" (this is what is subsumed under the generating-cause of future existence). From here, when the breath ceases and life ends, following the consciousness and the rest drawn forth by the prior drawing-cause (with feeling as the last), these formations are born (whether gradually or all at once). Thus within the present phenomena, "with the feeling born of ignorance-contact as condition there is craving; with craving as condition, grasping; with grasping as condition, becoming; with becoming as condition, birth; with birth as condition, aging, sickness, death, and the various sufferings." This is "within the middle juncture, ignorance-conditions-formations and the rest, and feeling-conditions-craving and the rest, being the causal condition whereby the formations of the later juncture are born."

Cessation-return (heading toward the ultimate purity): There is also one who has previously gathered the requisites, who within the present phenomena hears the sound of the Dharma from another, and who applies proper attention to the formations that are the two fruits, and to "their cause, their cessation, and the practice leading to that cessation." With this proper attention as condition, right view is born; from this, in sequence, the pure knowledge-and-vision of the trainee and of the one-beyond-training is attained. By this knowledge-and-vision, ignorance and craving are forever cut off without remainder. Because of this cutting-off, the "feeling born of ignorance-contact that is not known as it truly is" with respect to that object is also forever cut off; because of this cutting-off, forever parting from ignorance, one realizes within the present phenomena "the liberation of wisdom." And if the craving within the "mind associated with the feeling born of ignorance-contact" is, right upon this mind, freed from its bond, then craving is forever extinguished, and one realizes within the present phenomena "the liberation of mind." Supposing that ignorance were not forever cut off, the formations of the later juncture, in dependence on consciousness and the rest (with feeling as the last), would still be born; but because ignorance has ceased, they no longer arise, and one attains "the state of non-arising." Therefore it is said: because ignorance ceases, the formations cease; in sequence, up to — because the contact that is born of maturation ceases, the feeling that is born of maturation ceases. Within the present phenomena, because ignorance ceases, ignorance-contact ceases; because ignorance-contact ceases, the feeling born of ignorance-contact ceases; because the feeling born of ignorance-contact ceases, craving ceases; because craving ceases (as before), the state of non-arising is attained. Therefore it is said that "grasping and the rest, up to distress (as the last), the formations are forever extinguished." Thus within the present phenomena the formations no longer evolve; and because they do not evolve, within the present phenomena, in the "realm-with-remaining-basis," one realizes "nirvāṇa in the present phenomena." At that time there remains only the pure "consciousness conditioning name-and-form, name-and-form conditioning consciousness"; and as long as this consciousness-bearing body still exists, it constantly receives the "feeling that is free of bonds," not the "feeling that is bound." This consciousness-bearing body abides in unbroken continuity for the full lifespan drawn forth by prior karma; when the lifespan is exhausted, one casts off the "body held by consciousness," and after this life-faculty there is no further life-faculty — it is extinguished forever without remainder, and one no longer takes birth. Furthermore, this consciousness, together with all feeling, ceases spontaneously, and since the remaining causes and conditions have already ceased before, it no longer continues, but is forever extinguished without remainder — this is called "the realm of nirvāṇa without remaining basis, the place of ultimate quiescence," and is also called "the one who heads for and seeks nirvāṇa, who in the presence of the World-Honored One has established the holy life and reached final nirvāṇa."

Thus dependent origination is set up by three characteristics: from the prior juncture the middle juncture is born, from the middle juncture the later juncture is born, and further, within the middle juncture, one either flows cyclically or becomes pure — this is the essential nature of dependent origination.

(2) The Gates of Dependent Origination (The Eight Gates)

The cyclical flow of dependent origination proceeds by eight gates: first, the gate of the arising of inner consciousness; second, the gate of the ripening of the outer crops (grain); third, the gate of the death-and-birth of the world of sentient beings; fourth, the gate of the formation-and-destruction of the container-world; fifth, the gate of the sustaining-by-food; sixth, the gate of "the augmenting force of one's own deeds and the enjoyment of the agreeable and disagreeable fruits obtained according to one's karma"; seventh, the gate of majestic power; eighth, the gate of purity.

(3) The Meaning of Dependent Origination (What Dependent Origination Is Really Saying)

What is the meaning of dependent origination? "Apart from a sentient being" (there being no real sentient being) is the meaning of dependent origination; upon "apart from a sentient being," "impermanence" is the meaning of dependent origination; upon impermanence, "momentary abiding" (existing only for an instant) is the meaning of dependent origination; upon momentary abiding, "dependence on others" (dependence on the assembly of conditions) is the meaning of dependent origination; upon dependence on others, "apart from any [real] operation" (no real agent's operation) is the meaning of dependent origination; upon apart-from-operation, "the unbroken continuity of cause and fruit" is the meaning of dependent origination; upon the unbroken continuity of cause and fruit, "cause and fruit evolving in likeness" is the meaning of dependent origination; upon the likeness of cause and fruit, "performed by one's own karma" (each in dependence on its own karma) is the meaning of dependent origination. Question: To make plain what meaning is dependent origination set up? Answer: To make plain the meaning of "the defiled and the pure, as subsumed under cause and condition."

(4) The Differences of Dependent Origination (The Various Kinds of Not-Knowing (ajñāna) in Ignorance and the Rest, and the Analysis of the Links)

The differences of dependent origination are "not-knowing with respect to the prior juncture" and the rest (as the scripture explains at length). Not-knowing with respect to the prior juncture: giving rise to improper discrimination about past formations — "did I exist in the past? did I not exist? what was my nature? what was my kind?" — such not-knowing. Not-knowing with respect to the later juncture: giving rise to improper discrimination about future formations — "shall I exist in the future? shall I not? …" Not-knowing with respect to the prior-and-later junctures: giving rise, inwardly, to improper hesitation — "what is the self? what am I? whence has this sentient being come? and once passed away here, whither shall it go?" Not-knowing with respect to the inner: applying improper attention to particular formations, grasping them as "self." Not-knowing with respect to the outer: applying improper attention to the outer formations that are not of the class of sentient beings, grasping them as "mine." Not-knowing with respect to the inner-and-outer: giving rise to improper discrimination about the formations in the continua of others, grasping them as within the categories of foe and friend. Not-knowing with respect to karma: giving rise to improper discrimination about the various karmas, grasping that "there is an agent." Not-knowing with respect to karmic-maturation: about the formations subsumed under the maturation-fruit, grasping that "there is an experiencer." Not-knowing with respect to karma-and-maturation: giving rise to improper discrimination about karma and its fruit. Not-knowing with respect to the Buddha: concerning the Buddha's awakening, either not reflecting, or reflecting wrongly, or through heedlessness, doubt, or slander. Not-knowing with respect to the Dharma and not-knowing with respect to the Saṅgha: likewise (with respect to the well-spoken nature of the true Dharma, and the right conduct of the Saṅgha). Not-knowing with respect to suffering: concerning "suffering being of the nature of suffering," either not reflecting, up to slandering; and likewise with respect to origin, cessation, and the path. Not-knowing with respect to cause: giving rise to improper discrimination — either reckoning no-cause, or reckoning the unequal causes of a Lord-God, of primal nature, of a puruṣa, of an intermediary, and the like; and likewise concerning "the formations born from causes" (further: what is without fault is called wholesome, what has fault is called unwholesome; what is beneficial is called to-be-cultivated, what is without benefit is called not-to-be-cultivated; the dark is called faulty, the bright is called faultless, the mixed is called having-a-portion). Not-knowing with respect to the true penetration of the six bases of contact: one of overweening pride giving rise to distorted reflection about what has been realized. — Thus, stated briefly, there are nineteen kinds of not-knowing.

There are also seven kinds of not-knowing: not-knowing of the world, of events, of transmigration, of the supreme, of the real, of the defiled-and-pure, and of overweening pride. (The former nineteen and these seven correspond thus: the first three not-knowings are subsumed under the first, the next three under the second, the next three under the third, the next three under the fourth, the next four under the fifth, the next two under the sixth, and the last one under the seventh.) There are also five kinds of not-knowing: not-knowing of meaning, of view, of heedlessness, of the true meaning, and of overweening pride. (Their correspondence: the not-knowing of view subsumes the former six and the not-knowing of "the formations born from causes"; the not-knowing of heedlessness subsumes the not-knowing of karma, of maturation, and of both together; the not-knowing of the true meaning subsumes the not-knowing of the Buddha and the rest up to the not-knowing of the truth of the path; the not-knowing of overweening pride subsumes the last; the not-knowing of meaning generally subsumes them all.) Again, these six — "not-knowing, non-seeing, having no clear realization, dark-obscurity, folly-and-delusion, and the darkness of ignorance" — are the six differences of ignorance, to be understood in the sequence of the seven not-knowing-events set forth above (the last two not-knowings are combined into one, giving rise to this last "darkness of ignorance"); and there is a further difference: the difference of what is counteracted by the three wisdoms attained through hearing, reflection, and cultivation is stated, in sequence, as the first three; and the difference of the weak, middling, and superior grades of what is counteracted is stated as the last three — thus by the difference of what is counteracted and the difference of nature, the six kinds are set up.

Next, the analysis of the links (the nature of each single link): bodily formation is bodily karma (in the desire and form realms; below it is called meritorious or non-meritorious, above it is called imperturbable); verbal formation is verbal karma (the rest as before); mental formation is mental karma (in the desire realm called meritorious or non-meritorious, in the two upper realms called only imperturbable). Eye-consciousness: the consciousness that, with respect to the future, in dependence on the eye-faculty discerns the visible-form object; namely the "seed-consciousness" perfumed-and-aroused by the meritorious, non-meritorious, and imperturbable formations, and the "fruit-consciousness" born from those seeds (and so too up to mental consciousness; the desire realm has all six consciousnesses, the form realm only four, the formless realm only one). The aggregate of feeling: every kind of receiving. The aggregate of perception: every kind of image-cognizing. The aggregate of formations: every kind of mental construction (mental karma). The aggregate of consciousness: every kind of discerning (all the aggregates pervade the three realms). The four great elements: the earth, water, fire, and wind elements (pervading the desire and form realms). The form derived from the four great elements: the ten form-bases and the form subsumed under the base of dharmas (the desire realm has all ten and the nominal form of the base of dharmas; the form realm has eight and the form subsumed under the base of dharmas but not all; this too is of two kinds: the seed name-and-form appropriated by the seed-consciousness, and the fruit name-and-form born from it). The eye-base: the subtle matter on which eye-consciousness depends (whereby form has been seen, is now seen, and will be seen; and so too up to the mind-base, as appropriate; for all of them one should state the difference of karmic function across the three times; this too is of two kinds: the seed six-sense-fields appropriated by the seeds of name-and-form, and the fruit six-sense-fields born from it; the first five are in the desire and form realms, the sixth pervades the three realms). Eye-contact: born of the concurrence of the three (faculty, object, consciousness), able to grasp the subtle-and-fine and the like of the objective realm (the remaining contacts to be understood as accordant with their respective objects; this too is of two kinds: the seed contact appropriated by the seeds of the six sense-fields, and the fruit contact born from it; the desire realm has all six, the form realm four, the formless realm one). Pleasant feeling: the agreeable feeling born conditioned by the faculties and objects that conduce to pleasure. Painful feeling: the disagreeable feeling born conditioned by the two (faculty and object) that conduce to pain. Feeling that is neither-painful-nor-pleasant: the feeling, born conditioned by the two that conduce to neither-pain-nor-pleasure, that is neither agreeable nor disagreeable (the desire realm has the three feelings, the form realm two, and from the fourth meditative absorption on up to the Sphere of Neither-Perception-Nor-Non-Perception only the third, neither-painful-nor-pleasant; this too is of two kinds: the seed feeling appropriated by the seeds of contact, and the fruit feeling born from it). Craving-for-desire: the defiled longing for the formations of the desire realm, born conditioned by the formations of the desire realm, whereby the suffering-fruit of the desire realm can be produced; craving-for-form and craving-for-the-formless likewise (producing the suffering-fruit of the form realm and of the formless realm). Desire-grasping: the desire-and-greed for the desires. View-grasping: the desire-and-greed for the remaining views, excluding the view of the transitory collection. Precept-and-vow-grasping: the desire-and-greed for the precepts and vows aroused by wrong aspirations. Self-doctrine-grasping: the desire-and-greed for the view of the transitory collection (the first alone produces only the suffering-fruit of the desire realm; the other three produce the suffering-fruit of all three realms). Desire-existence: the prior-time existence, karmic existence, death-existence, intermediate existence, and birth-existence of the desire realm, together with the existences of the hell-beings, animals, hungry ghosts, humans, and gods — all together named desire-existence (perfumed-and-aroused by the appropriation of the formations and afflictions previously performed); form-existence: excluding the existences of hell-beings, animals, hungry ghosts, and humans, the rest is form-existence; formless-existence: further excluding intermediate existence, the rest is formless-existence. (Question: Why are "seven existences" set up — the existences of hell-beings, animals, hungry ghosts, humans, and gods, karmic existence, and intermediate existence? Answer: In dependence on three kinds of function — existence-that-can-draw-forth [one], existence-that-heads-toward-existence [one], and existence-that-is-the-enjoyment-of-fruit [five].) Birth: the moment when, in womb-birth and egg-birth, one first takes birth; full-birth: when the bodily parts are complete but one has not yet emerged; destiny: emerging from there; arising: growing after having emerged; manifestation: in moisture-birth and transformation-birth, the sudden arising of the bodily parts; acquisition-of-the-aggregates: the evolving of the five appropriated aggregates in those stages of birth; acquisition-of-the-elements: the nature of the aggregates as subsumed by cause and condition; acquisition-of-the-bases: the nature of the aggregates as subsumed by the remaining conditions; the arising of the aggregates: the aggregates being nourished day by day through food and drink; the manifestation of the life-faculty: the aggregates abiding in continuity through the force of the remaining lifespan. (The brief meaning of the link of birth: the nature of birth, the location-stages of birth, what is born, what is subsumed by cause and condition, what is sustained-and-drawn-forth, and the co-born support.) Aging: decline (the base being feeble, so that it is made shaky), aging (the color of the hair transforming in decline), wrinkling (the skin slackening and creasing), maturing-over (the fire-force diminishing, no longer strong enough to enjoy the desire-dusts), damage-to-vital-strength (being much beset by illness, without strength to do one's work), the body dappled with black spots (dark blotches appearing, marring one's complexion), the spine bent and the breath panting-and-hurried (the walking posture displayed in the bodily form, whereby heavy panting and coughing arise), the form stooping-forward (in the sitting posture, body and head bowed low), leaning on a staff (in the standing posture, standing by the strength of a staff), dimness (in the lying posture, repeatedly falling into heavy sleep), frailty (in this same state, without strength to wake quickly), diminishment (the decline of mindfulness and wisdom), deterioration (mindfulness and wisdom being feeble, so that wholesome dharmas cannot manifest in action), the faculties worn out with age (the body scrawny and weak), the collapse of functioning (being no longer keen with respect to objects), the formations grown decrepit (when one is about to reach one's end), and the form rotting-and-decaying (the lifespan about to be exhausted, the bodily form on the verge of ruin, with no more capacity for any task). (The brief meaning of aging: the deterioration of the base, of the hair, of vigor-and-brightness, of the fire-force, of health, of the color-and-marks, of deportment, of the formless faculties, and of the form-possessing faculties; the passing of the time-portion; and the lifespan about to be exhausted.) Death: this or that sentient being (of the hells and so on), the class of sentient beings (that is, all of them), demise (a sentient being dying with the joints not [yet] loosened), exhaustion (a sentient being dying by the loosening of the joints), destruction (consciousness parting from the body), sinking (the various material faculties ceasing), the casting-off of lifespan (the state where the breath is about to be exhausted), the casting-off of warmth (the state of immobility), the abandoning of the aggregates and the passing-away of the life-faculty (timely death), death (encountering an untoward condition and dying out of season), and the exhaustion of the turn-of-time (the state shortly after death first occurs; also the work of Māra-of-death is called the exhaustion of the turn-of-time). (The brief meaning of death: death, the mode of death, the differences of death, and the state after death.) — This is the differences of dependent origination.

(5) The Sequence of Dependent Origination (Why It Is Arranged So)

Question: Why are the twelve links, ignorance and the rest, stated in this sequence? Answer: The person of folly-and-delusion is first deluded about the matters that ought to be known, and then, with respect to them, gives rise to wrong conduct; by the wrong conduct the mind is made to be inverted; by the inversion of the mind, rebirth is joined in continuity; because rebirth is continued, the faculties become complete; because the faculties are complete, there are the two enjoyments of objects; because objects are enjoyed, there arise attachment and longing; because of longing, when seeking after objects the afflictions grow; because the afflictions grow, one arouses the agreeable and disagreeable karma of future existence; by the force of the karma aroused, the suffering-fruit is born within the birth-and-death of the five destinies; and the suffering-fruit having been born, there are the sufferings of aging, death, and the rest (the suffering of aging-and-death drawn forth by the alteration of the inner body, and the sufferings of grief, lament, and burning distress drawn forth by the alteration of objects). Therefore the World-Honored One states the twelve links in this sequence. There is a further difference: the sequence is set up in dependence on two kinds of condition — first, the condition of the inner body (subsumed under the first six links); second, the condition of the enjoyment of objects (subsumed under the latter six links). It is also set up in dependence on three assemblies of sentient beings: first, those who delight in supramundane purity (whereby they extinguish the dependent originations and increase the bright-and-pure class); second, those who delight in worldly purity (who do not know the truths as they truly are, and if they abide in right mindfulness perform meritorious or imperturbable karma, but if they do not abide in right mindfulness perform non-meritorious karma); third, those attached to objects (who, in dependence on the feeling born of objects presently enjoyed, give rise to the latter six links, with feeling first and aging-and-death last). Question: Why is it that, in the reverse sequence, aging-and-death is stated first when setting forth dependent origination? Answer: In dependence on proclaiming "the principle of the truths" — because birth and aging-and-death can make plain "the truth of suffering" (as the World-Honored One said, "the cessation of new name-and-form is the foremost dharma"). Question: Why is it not said that "the cessation of ignorance is foremost"? Answer: It is designated in dependence on "one liberated in mind" — for such a one, within the present phenomena, the seed-suffering and the future suffering-fruit cease without arising, and therefore it is said that "with name-and-form first and feeling last" the ultimate cessation is attained; moreover, within the present phenomena, when experiencing the various feelings, craving and its latent proclivities are forever uprooted and do not arise, and this is called cessation, and by this the remaining links too cease.

(6) The Verbal Exegesis of Dependent Origination (Why It Is Called "Dependent Origination")

Question: Why is dependent origination called "dependent origination" (yuan-qi, "condition-arising")? Answer: Because, bound by the afflictions, one arises again and again amid the various destinies, it is named "dependent origination" (this is glossing the name by the words). Again: because, relying on the assembly of conditions, having swiftly passed away and ceased, one continues by conjunction to arise anew, it is named dependent origination (this by the sense of the momentary). Again: because, though the assembly of conditions passes into the past without being cast off, one comes to arise in dependence on one's own continuum, it is named dependent origination (as it is said, "this being, that is; this arising, that arises," and no otherwise). Again: because, passing away again and again, one continues yet again to arise, it is named dependent origination (this by the sense of repeated perishing-and-ceasing). Again: because, having awakened in the past age to the nature of conditions, one arises in even continuity, it is named dependent origination (as the World-Honored One said, "I have awakened, and now arising I proclaim it," whereby, by this name, it is handed down in successive transmission).

(7) The Kinds of Condition in Dependent Origination (How Many Conditions Each Link Is for Another)

Question: For how many kinds of condition is ignorance to the formations? Answer: For the formations that have form it is the "predominant condition"; for the formations that are formless it is three conditions (the immediately-antecedent condition, the object-condition, and the predominant condition). The remaining links are to be known accordingly: a form-possessing link is, for a form-possessing link, one predominant condition; for a formless link, two conditions (the object-condition and the predominant condition); a formless link is, for a form-possessing link, only one condition; for a formless link, three conditions. Question: Why is there no "causal condition" among the links in relation to one another? Answer: Because the "causal condition" is what is made manifest by the condition that is the seed of one's own substance (and the links, in relation to one another, are not in a seed-relation). Question: Then why is it said that "dependent origination is set up in dependence on the nature of cause-and-fruit"? Answer: In dependence on the "drawing-forth cause, the pulling-in cause, and the arising cause" subsumed under the predominant condition, it is called cause. (Question: How many links are subsumed under the drawing-cause? Answer: From ignorance up to feeling. How many links are subsumed under the generating-cause? Answer: From craving up to becoming. How many links are the fruit of the two causes, generating and drawing? Answer: In the present and later phenomena, the links from consciousness up to feeling, subsumed under the stages of birth and aging-and-death.)

Next comes a long string of doubts and determinations —

Question: Since ignorance has "improper attention" as its cause, why is that not stated first in the teaching of dependent origination? Answer: Because it is merely the "non-cutting-off cause" and not the "defiling cause" (one who is not deluded does not give rise to this attention; the nature of ignorance is defiled, whereas the nature of improper attention is not defiled, so that it cannot defile ignorance, but is on the contrary defiled by the force of ignorance; moreover, the defilement of birth is perfumed-and-aroused by the force of karma and affliction, and the initial cause of karma is precisely the initial dependent origination, so improper attention is not stated). Question: Why is one's own substance not stated as the condition for one's own substance? Answer: Because if one's own substance obtains no other condition, the defilement of one's own substance neither grows nor diminishes, and therefore it is not stated. Question: Meritorious formations and imperturbable formations arise through the power of right discernment; why then are they still said to have ignorance as condition? Answer: Because it is by not fully understanding the worldly cause of suffering as condition that non-meritorious formations arise, and by not fully understanding the ultimate cause of suffering as condition that meritorious and imperturbable formations are born, and therefore these too are said to have ignorance as condition. Question: The scripture says "karma has greed, hatred, and delusion as condition"; why here is delusion alone stated as condition? Answer: Here it speaks generally of the condition for meritorious, non-meritorious, and imperturbable karma, whereas the condition of greed, hatred, and delusion produces only non-meritorious karma. Question: Bodily and verbal karma are aroused by volition, so then "formation conditions formation"; why is only "ignorance conditions formation" stated? Answer: It is stated in dependence on "the condition that arouses all the formations," and in dependence on "the condition that gives rise to wholesome and defiled volition." Question: Consciousness too has name-and-form as condition; why here is only "formation conditions consciousness" stated? Answer: Because the formation is the defiling condition of consciousness (able to draw forth and generate the fruit of future existence), unlike name-and-form, which is merely the arising-condition that is support and object. Question: Name-and-form too is derived from the great elements and born of contact; why is only consciousness stated as its condition? Answer: Because consciousness can be its "new-arising cause" (once it has arisen, or when it is just arising, the great elements and contact serve only as its establishing-cause). Question: The scripture says "with the six elements as condition one enters the mother's womb"; why here is only the element of consciousness stated? Answer: Because where there is the element of consciousness, the blood-and-semen, the great elements, and the cavity of the womb are decidedly not lacking; moreover, the element of consciousness is superior; moreover, it is stated in dependence on all births, at the time of the birth of all existence. Question: The six sense-fields too have food as condition; why is only name-and-form stated as condition? Answer: Because here name-and-form is stated to be their generating-cause (once they have arisen, food too serves as their sustaining-cause). Question: Contact has the concurrence of three as condition; why is only the six sense-fields stated as condition? Answer: Because where there are the six sense-fields, decidedly the remaining two (faculty and object) are not lacking; moreover, the six sense-fields are superior, subsuming the two. Question: Feeling can be born whether from self-oppression, other-oppression, alteration of the seasons, or being drawn forth by prior karma; why is only contact made plain as its condition? Answer: Because contact is its near cause (feeling born of the other conditions is also born from contact, and is never apart from contact). Question: Ignorance too gives rise to craving, and objects that conduce to craving can also serve as condition; why is only feeling stated as condition? Answer: Because it is by the force of feeling that, toward similar objects, one seeks either conjunction or separation; and by the force of folly-and-delusion, one simply does not know, as it truly is, the marks of arising-and-perishing of the feelings, and so cannot govern one's mind. Question: Since the latent proclivities are not cut off, all the graspings that accord with those dharmas can be born; why is only craving stated as the condition for grasping? Answer: Because from the arising of longing, when pursuing, one can arouse the latent proclivities and draw forth the dharmas that accord with them. Question: It was already said that ignorance-as-condition arouses karmic-existence; why now is it said that grasping-conditions-becoming? Answer: Because it is by the force of grasping that that karma, in these and those places of birth, can draw forth the fruits of consciousness, name-and-form, and the rest. Question: Birth too has blood-and-semen and the rest as condition; why is only becoming stated as the condition for birth? Answer: Because where there is becoming, decidedly the remaining conditions are not lacking; moreover, becoming is superior. Question: Aging-and-death too can arise conditioned by long travel, by not avoiding the unequal, and by being oppressed by others; why is only birth stated as the condition for aging-and-death? Answer: Because birth must be its root (even if those other conditions are lacking, so long as there is birth as condition, there is decidedly aging-and-death).

Question: Of these twelve links, how many are the path of affliction, how many the path of karma, how many the path of suffering? Answer: Three are the path of affliction (ignorance, craving, grasping), two are the path of karma (formations, becoming), and the rest are the path of suffering. Question: How many are cause only, how many fruit only, how many both cause and fruit? Answer: The first one (ignorance) is cause only, the last one (aging-and-death) is fruit only, and the rest are both cause and fruit (by another answer: three are cause only, two are fruit only, and the rest are both cause and fruit). Question: How many are single-marked, how many mixed-marked? Answer: Three are single-marked, formations and the rest are mixed-marked (formations and becoming are mixed-marked, by the two statements that "they can draw forth agreeable and disagreeable fruit" and "they can generate the differences of destiny"; consciousness, name-and-form, and a portion of the six sense-fields are mixed-marked, by the three statements "in dependence on the time of defilement," "in dependence on the time of moistening," and "in dependence on the time of evolving"; consciousness up to feeling, together with aging-and-death, are mixed-marked, by the two statements that "they distinctly make plain the mark of suffering" and "they make plain the difference of drawing-forth and generating"). Again: within dependent origination, "the sense of arising-again" is the sense of "having arisen, not abiding"; "the sense of concurrence" is the sense of "the assembling-together of the conditions"; "the sense of arising" is the sense of "the ever-new arising drawn forth by the concurrence of conditions"; "dependent origination" is the dharma-nature of the arising of the formations, and "dependent-arising" is that which, having arisen, is its fruit. Question: How many links are subsumed under the truth of suffering and are suffering in the present phenomena? Answer: Two (birth and aging-and-death). How many links are subsumed under the truth of suffering and are suffering in the future? Answer: The seed-nature of consciousness up to feeling. How many links are subsumed under the truth of origin? Answer: The remaining links.

Question: Are ignorance and formations coexistent conditions, immediately-antecedent-ceasing conditions, or long-past-ceasing conditions? Answer: They fully serve as three conditions — by not-knowing, in relation to the dharmas of formations that accord with it, it serves as the "coexistent covering-and-obstructing condition," and further, arousing this or that formation-event; and by the not-knowing that operates together with evil views and heedlessness, it serves as the "immediately-antecedent-ceasing arising-condition," arousing the formations; and by not-knowing serving as the "long-past-ceasing drawing-forth condition," it sets up the continuum that accords with those [formations] to arise. The formations too, in relation to consciousness, are three conditions (perfuming-and-arousing the seed, as the coexistent condition; evolving by their force, as the immediately-antecedent-ceasing arising-condition; the future fruit being born, as the long-past-ceasing drawing-forth condition); as the formations are to consciousness, so too are consciousness to name-and-form, name-and-form to the six sense-fields, the six sense-fields to contact, and contact to feeling. Feeling to craving, craving to grasping, grasping to becoming, becoming to birth, and birth to aging-and-death — all likewise are three conditions. (Again: the link of "becoming" is set up in two ways — first, set up by way of the superior portion [the karma appropriated by grasping]; second, set up in full [the seeds of karma and of consciousness up to feeling, appropriated by grasping].)

Question: Besides serving in sequence as condition, do the various links have any further function? Answer: They have a second function (the respective functions within their several fields of activity). Question: Is ignorance a condition for the formations only, or is it also a condition for the remaining links? Answer: Ignorance is a condition even up to aging-and-death (the former statement, "a condition for the formations only," speaks of the "near condition"; so too for the rest). Again: a later link is not a condition for a prior link — for the sake of cutting off a later link one cuts off the prior link, and when the prior is cut off the later is cut off in its wake; it is not for the sake of cutting off the prior that one cuts off the later, and so it should be known that only the prior is a condition for the later. Question: How is it said that "this being, that is"? Answer: By the sense that, the condition not being cut off, the rest can arise. Question: How is it said that "this arising, that arises"? Answer: By the sense that, by the impermanent condition, the rest can arise. Question: Why is it said that "there being birth, there is aging-and-death" (aging-and-death being there only by birth as condition… and so on up to ignorance in relation to the formations)? Answer: By this teaching-principle is made plain the sense that "from a condition without real operation, the rest can arise." Question: Why is it said that "there being birth, there is aging-and-death, and there is no aging-and-death apart from birth as condition," and so on up to ignorance in relation to the formations? Answer: By this teaching-principle is made plain the sense that "from the condition that is one's own continuum, that very own continuum, the rest can arise."

Next come the determinations by four kinds of "tetralemma" —

Question: If a thing has ignorance as condition, is it a formation? And if it is a formation, does it have ignorance as condition? Answer: Make a tetralemma: (i) it is a formation but not ignorance-conditioned (the uncontaminated, and the unobscured-neutral, formations of body, speech, and mind); (ii) it is ignorance-conditioned but not a formation (the remaining links, excluding the formations); (iii) it is both ignorance-conditioned and a formation (the meritorious, non-meritorious, and imperturbable formations of body, speech, and mind); (iv) excluding the above, that is the fourth case. Question: If a thing has formation as condition, is it consciousness?… Answer: A tetralemma: (i) formation-conditioned but not consciousness (the remaining links, excluding consciousness); (ii) consciousness but not formation-conditioned (uncontaminated consciousness and unobscured-neutral consciousness, excluding that which is born of maturation); (iii) both consciousness and formation-conditioned (the seed-consciousness and fruit-consciousness of future existence); (iv) the rest. (By this, on up to "contact conditions feeling," the tetralemma applies as appropriate.) Question: If a thing has feeling as condition, is it all craving?… Answer: A tetralemma: (i) it is craving but not feeling-conditioned (longing for the superior liberation, and, in dependence on wholesome craving, the abandoning of the other cravings); (ii) feeling-conditioned but not craving (excluding the feeling born of ignorance-contact as condition, the remaining links-dharmas that are born); (iii) both feeling-conditioned and craving (the defiled craving born conditioned by the feeling born of ignorance-contact); (iv) the rest. Question: If a thing has craving as condition, is it all grasping?… Answer: This is a "consequent-to-the-latter case" — all grasping has craving as condition, but there is also "what is craving-conditioned yet not grasping" (the remaining links excluding grasping, and the wholesome dharmas born in dependence on wholesome craving, diligent effort, and the like). Question: If a thing has grasping as condition, is it all becoming? Answer: Also a consequent-to-the-latter case (all becoming has grasping as condition; "what is grasping-conditioned yet not becoming" is the remaining links excluding becoming). Question: If a thing has becoming as condition, is it all birth? Answer: All that is born has becoming as condition ("what is becoming-conditioned yet not birth" is the remaining, last link of aging-and-death, excluding birth). Question: If a thing has birth as condition, is it all aging-and-death? Answer: All aging-and-death has birth as condition ("what is birth-conditioned yet not aging-and-death" is sickness, meeting with the hated, parting from the loved, not getting what one seeks, and the grief, lament, sorrow, suffering, and burning distress that arise from these).

Question: Of the various links, how many are a strong obstruction to "right view" (a path-limb)? Answer: Ignorance and the mental formation it arouses, if in part, can be a strong obstruction; likewise for right thought and right effort; for right speech, right action, and right livelihood, bodily formation and verbal formation and a portion are the strong obstruction; for right livelihood 〔the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Palace editions read "right mindfulness"〕 and right concentration, the remaining links are the strong obstruction. Question: How many links are of the defiled class only, how many pervade both the defiled and the pure classes? Answer: Four are of the defiled class only; the rest pervade both classes (the link of birth: birth in an evil destiny or a difficult circumstance is defiled only; birth among humans and gods, in a place without difficulty, pervades both defiled and pure). Question: What ignorance, being absent, makes the formations absent; what ignorance, ceasing, makes the formations cease? Answer: There are three kinds of ignorance — that which arouses, that which enwraps, and that which is latent; and because this ignorance ceases, the formations cease in its wake. (Because the formations are absent, consciousness is absent; because consciousness ceases, name-and-form ceases… and so on up to feeling, all to be inferred as appropriate.)

(8) The Gathering-In of the Meaning of Dependent Origination (Its Profundity · The Two Knowledges · Dharma-Nature · The Sprout-of-Suffering and Tree-of-Suffering · The Seventy-Seven and Forty-Four Knowledges · Conclusion)

Question: Of the eight gates of dependent origination, how many gates are made manifest by the twelve-linked dependent origination, and how many are not? Answer: Three gates are made manifest (two made manifest in part — the gate of the arising of inner consciousness and the gate of what is performed by one's own karma; one made manifest in full — the gate of the evolving of the world of sentient beings); the rest are not. Question: For one who does not know the principle of dependent origination as it truly is, how many kinds of fault are there? Answer: Five — giving rise to the view of self; arousing the view that operates together with the prior juncture; the view that operates together with the later juncture; the view that operates together with both prior and later junctures; and grasping that view sharply and firmly, with grasping and with fear, so that within the present phenomena one does not reach parinirvāṇa (the fifth). Question: For one who knows it as it truly is, how many benefits are there? Answer: The reverse of the former five faults — the benefits too are five kinds.

Question: Of the twelve links, how many are really existent, how many not really existent? Answer: Nine are really existent, the rest are not. How many have a single event as their nature? Answer: Five; the rest are not of a single event. How many are the cause of the cognitive obstruction? Answer: One. How many can generate suffering? Answer: Five. How many are the womb of suffering? Answer: Five. How many are suffering only? Answer: Two. How many are stated as the cause-portion? Answer: The first six (ignorance up to contact) and the three, craving, grasping, and becoming. How many are the fruit-portion? Answer: The last two. How many are the mixed cause-and-fruit portion? Answer: The remaining links (there are two kinds of feeling named the mixed portion — the cause-feeling that, in the later phenomena, has contact as condition, and the fruit-feeling that, in the present phenomena, is the condition for craving; these two are mixedly stated as "contact conditions feeling"). How many links can generate the fruit of agreeable and disagreeable objects, and how many can generate the fruit of one's own embodiment? Answer: The first six generate the former fruit, the latter three generate the latter fruit, and one link generates both fruits together. How many links operate together with pleasant feeling, with painful feeling, with neither-painful-nor-pleasant feeling, and how many do not operate together with feeling? (These are apportioned as appropriate.) How many links are subsumed under the suffering-of-change, the suffering-of-suffering, and the suffering-of-conditioned-formations? (The links that operate together with pleasant feeling and the like belong to the suffering-of-change; the links that operate together with painful feeling and the like belong to the suffering-of-suffering; all the links of the suffering-of-change and the suffering-of-suffering are also links of the suffering-of-conditioned-formations; the links that operate together with neither-painful-nor-pleasant feeling and the like are the suffering-of-conditioned-formations only.)

Question: In all places of birth and in the meditative attainments (concentrations), are all the links present and active? Answer: They cannot all be found (in the Heaven of No-Perception, the attainment of cessation, and the attainment of non-perception there are the form-links but not the formless links; born in the formless realm there are the formless links but not the form-links). Question: Can one "part from a link in dependence on a link"? Answer: There is such (in dependence on a higher-stage link one parts from a lower-stage link, but only in part, not wholly, and only temporarily, not ultimately). Question: How many links are defiled, how many not defiled? Answer: Three are defiled (ignorance, craving, grasping); the rest pervade both kinds. Question: How many links are bound to the desire realm, how many to the form realm? Answer: In the desire realm, all links arise together and equally; in the form realm, all in part. (Likewise for the formless realm, and because the formations have a decaying-and-decrepit nature there is aging there too.) Question: How many links are of the trainee, of the one-beyond-training, of neither-trainee-nor-one-beyond-training? Answer: None are of the trainee or the one-beyond-training; all links are of neither-trainee-nor-one-beyond-training (the wholesome contaminated links belong to the cyclical flow and so are not of the trainee). Question: How many links do the fruits of stream-entry and once-returning cut off? Answer: All in part; none wholly cut off. The fruit of non-returning? Answer: All in the desire realm; in the form and formless realms, uncertain. The arhat? Answer: All in the three realms.

Question: By how many kinds of teaching-principle does the scripture state dependent origination? Answer: Six — by the forward sequence, the reverse sequence, a partial set of links, the full set of links, the dark class, and the bright class. Question: The World-Honored One said "dependent origination is profound"; how is this profound meaning to be known? Answer: By ten characteristics — stated in dependence on the four meanings of impermanence, suffering, emptiness, and no-self. In dependence on the meaning of impermanence: it is born from its own seed, yet also awaits other conditions; it is born from other conditions, yet also awaits its own seed; it is born from its own seed and from other conditions, yet the seed and the conditions, with respect to this birth-event, have no [real] performing, no [real] function, and no [real] carrying-out; and yet the potency of these two causal factors is not non-existent; and though the various links have had their marks accomplished from beginningless time, they evolve ever-new from instant to instant; and though the links of dependent origination perish swiftly in an instant, they appear with the marks of abiding and of motion. In dependence on the meaning of suffering: the links of dependent origination are of one taste, the mark of suffering, yet they appear with three kinds of mark (pleasant, painful, neutral). In dependence on the meaning of emptiness: the links of dependent origination, though apart from any sentient being, agent, or experiencer, are spoken of as though not apart from [a sentient being], appearing so. In dependence on the meaning of no-self: the links of dependent origination, though not self-governing and truly without any mark of self, appear with the mark of self, as it were; in dependence on the ultimate truth, the intrinsic nature of dharmas, though it cannot be stated, is spoken of as though the intrinsic nature of dharmas could be stated. Question: By how many knowledges should dependent origination be known? Answer: Two — the knowledge of the abiding of dharmas and the knowledge of the real. The knowledge of the abiding of dharmas: knowing without error, just as the Buddha has set it forth and revealed it. The knowledge of the real: as when a trainee who has seen the traces contemplates the profound meaning. Question: The World-Honored One said, "These dependent originations are not made by me, nor made by another; whether a Buddha appears in the world or does not appear, they abide in the dharma-nature, the abiding-of-dharma, the dharma-realm"; what are the dharma-nature, the abiding-of-dharma, and the dharma-realm? Answer: The dependent originations' "principle-accomplished nature" from beginningless time is called the dharma-nature; as with that accomplished nature, its being established by undistorted words-and-phrases is called the abiding-of-dharma; and because this abiding-of-dharma has that dharma-nature as its cause, it is therefore called the dharma-realm.

Question: The scripture says, "If there were no birth, in no place and no station could birth exist; if birth of every kind were not, then aging-and-death conditioned by birth could not be found"; why here is it said that "that intrinsic nature is the condition for that intrinsic nature"? Answer: It is stated in dependence on "the fruit born from one's own seed" — the links of consciousness up to feeling are the seed of birth, and are by extension of meaning called birth; because this exists, at a later time this fruit-link is named "birth-with-a-condition" (the remaining links as appropriate). Question: It was already said that all the links are not conditions for one another; why then is "name-and-form and consciousness being mutually conditions" set up? Answer: Consciousness, in the present phenomena, has name-and-form as condition; name-and-form, in the later phenomena, has consciousness as condition (at the time of continuity in the mother's womb, they are said to be mutual conditions — by consciousness as condition, the blood-and-semen matter in the mother's womb is appropriated by name and, conjoined, becomes the nature of the kalala; and this very name-and-form as condition further causes that consciousness to abide therein). Question: Why is it that when the bodhisattva contemplates the dark class, his mind turns back only upon reaching the link of consciousness, and not upon reaching the remaining links? Answer: Because the two links of consciousness and name-and-form are mutual conditions (just as consciousness conditions name-and-form, so too name-and-form conditions consciousness), his contemplating mind turns back upon reaching consciousness; the remaining links have no such principle of turning-back (in the class of cessation-return, name-and-form is not the cessation-return cause of the consciousness of future existence, and for this reason he contemplates further past it). Question: Why is it said that the links of dependent origination are not self-made, not other-made, not made by both, and yet not born without cause? Answer: Because the one born is non-existent; because the condition has no [real] operation; and because they are born by the force of conditions.

Question: In dependent origination, what is the sprout-of-suffering, who guards-and-nourishes the sprout-of-suffering, and what is the tree-of-suffering? Answer: Consciousness up to feeling, drawn forth by ignorance and formations as condition, is the "sprout-of-suffering"; craving up to becoming, drawn forth by feeling as condition, is the "guarding-and-nourishing of the sprout-of-suffering"; birth and aging-and-death, it should be known, are the "tree-of-suffering." How many links are like the wick? Consciousness up to feeling. How many links are like the oil? Ignorance, formations, craving, grasping, becoming. How many links are like the flame? Birth and aging-and-death. Question: Why is it named "over-affirmation" in the dark-class teaching? Answer: Because all the links have the pure great mass of suffering as their later fruit, each prior being the condition for each following. Why is it named "under-denial" in the bright-class teaching? Answer: Because each prior link is forever cut off and each following one diminished (being the diminishing-cause of the pure great mass of suffering). How many links are named "dharmas that have a cause"? The first seven. How many links are named "suffering that has a cause"? The remaining five. The cessation of how many links is made manifest by "the exhaustion of the contaminants"? Three. The cessation of how many links is made manifest by "the exhaustion of the conditions"? These same three (being the conditions for the remaining links). The cessation of how many links is made manifest by "the exhaustion of feeling"? One (when the afflictions have been cut off and the support ceases, all feeling is forever stilled). Question: Why are "seventy-seven knowledges" set up in dependence on dependent origination? Answer: To make plain the knowledge of defilement-that-has-a-cause, the knowledge of the defilement in one's own continuum performed by oneself, the beginninglessness of the prior-juncture links, the possibility of defilement and cessation-return in the later-juncture links, and the full understanding, by the contaminated wisdom not subsumed among the links — making, for each single link, seven knowledges, so that there are seventy-seven knowledges in all. Question: Why are "forty-four knowledges" set up? Answer: To make plain, for each single link, the principle of contemplation by way of the four noble truths, so that there are forty-four knowledges in all.

Again: if one is born in the desire realm, in dependence on a desire-realm body, one can draw forth the eye and ear of a higher stage, seeing and hearing the forms and sounds of the lower stages and of one's own stage; and in dependence on this body one can bring to the fore the mentation of the three realms and the unbound mentation; if one is born in the form or formless realm, then, excluding the lower stages, everything comes to the fore as in the desire realm.

Conclusion: These three defilements — the defilement of affliction, the defilement of karma, and the defilement of birth — in order to cut them off, one should cultivate six kinds of clear realization: the clear realization of reflection, the clear realization of faith, the clear realization of discipline, the clear-realization-knowledge clear realization of the truths, the clear-realization-boundary-knowledge clear realization of the truths, and the ultimate clear realization.

The third of the three defilements, "birth" (suffering), turns upon dependent origination — the doctrinal summit of the three stages of applied-and-sustained thought, and the very heart of the whole of the Dharma. This section unfolds it link by link: first the mark of suffering that is saṃsāra (its diversity, its arduousness, its uncertainty), then the full sweep of dependent origination (the flowing-on through the three time-frames, the twelve links, the two causes of drawing-forth and producing, the reverse-cessation, the profundity, the two knowledges, the nature of phenomena, and the closing upon the six direct realizations). Wherever a difficulty arises it is expounded through similes the treatise itself already holds — nothing is added out of the air.

I. First See Clearly What "Birth" Really Is: Diversity, Arduousness, Uncertainty

Dependent origination is hard to grasp, so the treatise is in no hurry to argue the point; it first lets you "see" the mark of suffering that is saṃsāra, and shakes the mind open — this is good teaching: first move the heart, then speak the reasoning.

How many kinds of birth there are (diversity): the three realms, the five destinies, the four modes of birth — thirty-six abodes in the desire realm, eighteen in the form realm, four in the formless realm, fifty-eight kinds of birth in all. Within the human destiny alone there are the differences of "birth prevailing in blackness" (birth into a lowly and impoverished household), "birth prevailing in whiteness" (birth into a house of great wealth and rank), and "neither black nor white" (a household of the middling sort) — the very same humanity, yet born into circumstances a world apart. This difference is no accident: it is what the karmic force expounded earlier under "the defilement of karma" brings about. A chart of the fifty-eight births, spread open, is "every square into which you might fall."

How bitter saṃsāra is (arduousness): here the treatise brings out the Buddha's own words directly, three shattering comparisons — the blood you have shed from your body in birth-and-death exceeds the water of the four great oceans (for you have been born countless times as elephant, horse, ox, or sheep, and slaughtered); the tears you have shed in losing kin and wealth are as many as that blood; and the mother's milk you have drunk is that much too. These three "exceeding the four great oceans" similes are no exaggeration: they are meant to take that abstract figure, "measureless kalpas of saṃsāra," and turn it into blood and tears that have run through your own body, so that you feel weariness and the wish to leave, here and now.

How impermanent the bonds of saṃsāra are (uncertainty): the Buddha says again — cut all the grasses and trees of the great earth into little tallies four fingers long, one tally for each of your fathers, one for each of your mothers — "this being was once my mother, and I too was once his mother" — the tallies are soon exhausted, yet your fathers and mothers cannot be counted to the end. He says again: there is not one small patch of ground where you have not undergone birth-and-death; it is hard to find a single being who has not been your father, mother, brother, or teacher; and the bones of one person's single kalpa, heaped up, are higher than Mount Vaipulya beside Rājagṛha. This whole train of similes is meant to break the clinging of "near and far," "mine": within beginningless saṃsāra, enemy and kin have already revolved through countless turns — where is there any fixed standard? Only when this "uncertainty" is seen clearly is one willing to let go, willing to seek release.

II. What Dependent Origination Is: Origination Pertaining to Oneself Is Precisely the Flowing-On

Once the heart is shaken open, the treatise speaks the reasoning head-on. It gives "flowing-on" an exceedingly clean definition: "The dependent origination that pertains to oneself is called flowing-on." There is no creator pushing from behind, no real self receiving within — only a string of conditions, "this being, that is; this arising, that arises," arisen in mutual dependence. Saṃsāra is not made by anyone; it is dependent origination turning of itself — and this is precisely the good news: since it is "conditioned" origination, cut the condition and it can cease.

The treatise frames the whole chain by the "three time-frames" (the prior frame, the middle frame, the later frame), and points out from the very start that this chain has two directions: after the middle frame is born, it heads either toward flowing-on, or toward the ultimate of purity — flowing-on is saṃsāra, purity is reverse-cessation. The teaching of dependent origination has never spoken only of how it turns; still more it speaks of how it is brought to an end.

III. The Distinctive Contribution of the Yoga Treatise: Making the Twelve Links Three-Dimensional as "Seed — Present Activity — Fruit"

The twelve links of dependent origination are the same twelve; but where the Āgamas mostly enumerate them flat, forward and backward, the treatise here makes them three-dimensional — and this is its most Consciousness-Only, most worthy-of-close-reading place. Two keys —

Key one: the pivot of dependent origination is the store consciousness; consciousness and name-and-form are mutually dependent "like two bundles of reeds." The ignorance (avidyā) and formations (karma) of the prior life perfume the seeds, and, borne by the "consciousness that follows upon karma," come into the womb of this life and take up birth. The treatise says: within the mother's womb, "consciousness conditions name-and-form, and name-and-form conditions consciousness, just as two bundles of reeds lean upon each other, and so on until the end of life, turning in mutual dependence." This "consciousness," at bottom, is precisely the store consciousness (the maturational consciousness, the seed-consciousness) — it appropriates name-and-form (the faculty-body) and turns in dependence on name-and-form, while name-and-form in turn abides in dependence on it; the moment one leans, both stand; the moment one loosens, both fall — like two bundles of reeds propping each other up. The treatise says one more exceedingly crucial thing: when the bodhisattva contemplates dependent origination in reverse, on pushing back to the link of "consciousness," the mind turns back and goes no further — because consciousness and name-and-form are mutual conditions, and here they are tied into a single knot, past which the pushing-back cannot go. Kuiji, in his Concise Compendium, states this step cleanly: "'To turn' is the sense of mutually being the condition of origination; 'to turn back' is that the contemplating mind reaches consciousness and turns back to old-age-and-death" — the contemplating knowledge, pushing back to consciousness, turns around, and it is by this that the whole set of the "forty-four knowledges and the seventy-seven knowledges" of the contemplation of dependent origination is established; Dunlun's Notes on the Treatise also says the bodhisattva "goes only as far as the link of consciousness and turns back upward." This simile of "the two bundles of reeds," this "reaching consciousness and turning back," are saying just this: the ground of dependent origination is the store consciousness. This is the lifeline of the Yoga treatise's theory of dependent origination, and the watershed dividing it from the flat dependent origination of the Lesser Vehicle.

Key two: the drawing-forth cause and the producing cause; the seeds, moistened, flush into fruit. The treatise says: consciousness is that which the "seed of the later name-and-form" follows upon, the seed of name-and-form is that which the "seed of the six sense-bases" follows upon, and so on down to feeling. So the first six links (ignorance, formations, consciousness, name-and-form, the six sense-bases, contact, feeling) are the "drawing-forth cause" — they sow the seed of the later existence; and the last three links (craving, grasping, becoming) are the "producing cause" — they moisten the seed and flush it into present activity. Seed (drawing-forth) → moistening (producing) → fruit (birth, old-age-and-death): this is the precise place where the treatise expounds the twelve links as "twofold cause-and-effect." They are not twelve things standing in a row; they are the layer-upon-layer mutual arising of seed and present activity. The treatise asks, "regarded against one another, how many kinds of condition are the links?" and answers with equal precision — between the several links there are the predominance condition, the immediately-antecedent condition, and the object condition (only the "cause condition" is absent, for the cause condition refers exclusively to the seed of a thing's own substance); and each link, toward the next, is at once a threefold "coexistent condition, the condition of immediate cessation, and the condition of distant cessation" — on one side veiling in the present, on one side drawing forth without interval, on one side pulling in from afar what is to come. That the "condition" of dependent origination should be taken apart this finely is precisely to make one see clearly: every link in the flowing-on is bound fast, and yet every one of them "can be cut."

IV. What Each of the Twelve Links Is (Recognizing Each Adversary Clearly)

To cut a chain, one must first recognize each link clearly. In the "distinguishing of the links," the treatise defines the twelve one by one; here is the gist: ignorance is the various kinds of "not-knowing (ajñāna)" regarding the four truths, karma-and-fruit, and dependent origination (the treatise lists nineteen kinds, seven kinds, five kinds of stupefaction — from the prior-frame not-knowing of "did I exist in the past?" to the not-knowing of the Buddha, Dharma, Saṅgha and of suffering, its origin, its cessation, and the path); formations are the bodily, verbal, and mental karma driven by ignorance (meritorious, non-meritorious, imperturbable); consciousness is the seed-consciousness perfumed and roused by karma, and its resultant consciousness; name-and-form is "name" (the four formless aggregates: feeling, perception, formations, consciousness) and "form" (the five faculties and the great elements); the six sense-bases are the six faculties; contact is the concurrence of faculty, object, and consciousness; feeling is the threefold reception of pleasant, painful, and neither-painful-nor-pleasant; craving is craving for the desire realm, for the form realm, for the formless realm (the defiled longing for the formations of the three realms); grasping is the fourfold clinging of grasping after desire, grasping after views, grasping after discipline-and-vows, and grasping after the doctrine of self; becoming is the "desire-existence, form-existence, formless-existence" that, perfumed and roused by karma and affliction, is settled to summon the later existence; birth is entrusting-to-birth, the arising-and-turning of the five appropriating aggregates; old-age-and-death is decline, aging, wrinkling, ripening, the wasting of strength… down to the parting of consciousness from the body (the treatise takes "old age" apart into a dozen or so marks of decline, and "death" apart into ending, exhaustion, ruin, and disappearance). Only by recognizing each link clearly does one know what practice is cutting off — and the treatise makes the point: the sequence of this string is not arranged at random; it is that "one is first stupefied about what is to be known (ignorance), and only then arouses wrong conduct (formations), and only then makes the mind, in its inversion, take up rebirth (consciousness)… and only then is there old-age-and-death"; link upon link is the necessity of cause-and-effect.

V. Reverse-Cessation: All the Way from "Hearing the True Dharma + Attending Wisely" to Nirvāṇa

Dependent origination speaks of flowing-on, but still more it must speak of "reverse-cessation" — this is the resting-place of practice, and the warmest part of this whole gateway. The treatise's road of reverse-cessation is a plainly-drawn single line: first "hearing the sound of the Dharma from another," then "attending wisely" (precisely the opposite of the "attending unwisely" that this very gateway opposes), whereby right view is born, and one attains in sequence the "pure knowledge-and-vision of the learner and of the one-beyond-learning"; and by this knowledge-and-vision, ignorance and craving are cut off forever, without remainder. When ignorance is cut, one attains "liberation of wisdom"; when the greed-and-craving in the mind associated with the feeling born of ignorance-contact is cut, one attains "liberation of mind." Here and now, upon this very body possessed of consciousness, one realizes "nirvāṇa with a remaining basis" (the body is still present, but one constantly experiences the "feeling free of bondage," no longer the "feeling with bondage"); and when the lifespan of this body is exhausted and consciousness together with all feeling ceases forever without remainder, one realizes "nirvāṇa without a remaining basis, the abode of ultimate quiescence."

The starting-point of this road is astonishingly plain — not some abstruse spiritual power, but simply "hearing the true Dharma + attending wisely." So the whole of Stage 03, laid down from the third and fourth gateways of "attending wisely / unwisely," comes truly to its close only here: attending unwisely bears the wrong views of the sixteen heterodox theses, bears the flowing-on of the three defilements of affliction, karma, and birth; attending wisely gives rise to right view, cuts off ignorance and craving, and opens onto nirvāṇa. The rightness or wrongness of a single moment's use of the mind divides the two roads of flowing-on and reverse-cessation — this is the deep intent behind the three stages of applied-and-sustained thought establishing "attention" as their two great gateways, and it is all made good, here, upon the reverse-cessation of dependent origination.

VI. The Profundity of Dependent Origination: Seemingly Existent yet Really Non-Existent, So by the Very Nature of Things

Finally the treatise spreads open the "profundity" of dependent origination — its philosophical summit, and the hardest of the hard. Relying on the four meanings of "impermanence, suffering, emptiness, no-self," the treatise establishes ten marks of profundity, whose core lies just in the four words "seemingly existent yet really non-existent":

• By the meaning of impermanence: the seed and conditions that give rise to fruit are, with respect to this thing "giving-rise," in truth "without doing, without use, without any carrying-on" — there is no thing that truly "manufactures" anything, and yet their function is "not not-existent" (not the non-existence of annihilation); and the links, ceasing swiftly moment by moment, yet present "a semblance of an abiding, moving mark" — as though there were some thing persisting there in motion, when in truth it is only moment-after-moment fresh arising-and-ceasing, the prior ceasing and the later arising, resembling one another in continuous succession, deceiving our eyes.
• By the meaning of suffering: the links of dependent origination are "of a single flavor, the mark of suffering," yet they present "a semblance of the three (painful, pleasant, neutral) marks" — we take it that there is suffering and there is pleasure, when in truth, upon the ground-tone of the suffering-of-conditioning, all is suffering.
• By the meaning of emptiness: the links of dependent origination are "apart from any sentient being, agent, or experiencer," yet they "appear as a semblance of not being apart (from a sentient being)" — it looks as though there were some "person" revolving in saṃsāra, when in truth there is no such person. Kuiji's Concise Compendium makes plain that this "emptiness" in fact cuts down two schools at a stroke: "the cause-nature is apart from the Vaiśeṣika's agent-self, the fruit-nature is apart from the Sāṃkhya's self-that-experiences-suffering" — on the side of cause there is no "manufacturing self" of the Vaiśeṣikas, on the side of fruit there is no "suffering-experiencing self" of the Sāṃkhyas.
• By the meaning of no-self: the links of dependent origination "in truth have no mark of self," yet "appear as a semblance of the mark of self" — it looks as though there were some "self" experiencing suffering, when in truth it is only a string of conditions without own-nature.

Gathered into one sentence: saṃsāra looks as though there were a self, experiencing suffering, manufactured by some thing — yet in truth all three of these are absent; there is only a string of conditions without own-nature, continuing on, seemingly existent yet really non-existent. Dunlun's Notes on the Treatise, glossing this "seemingly existent yet really non-existent," touches the very root: "as for its being, in the highest sense, wholly without anything at all — this is grounded on the principle that the really-existent activity of the wholly-imagined is, in the end, without anything at all" — what is utterly unfindable in the ultimate sense is that "really-existent activity" we falsely reckon (namely the wholly-imagined); the continuity of the force of conditions is not the non-existence of annihilation. This is precisely where dependent origination differs entirely from the four heterodox views of "self-made, made-by-another, made-by-both, arisen-without-cause": made by none, arisen from the force of conditions. To make this "without own-nature yet continuing on" more palpable, the treatise brings out a set of similes of lamp-flame and of sprout-and-tree: consciousness through feeling are the "sprout of suffering," craving through becoming are the water and soil that "guard and nourish the sprout of suffering," and birth-old-age-and-death are the grown "tree of suffering"; and again, consciousness through feeling are like the "wick," ignorance-formations-craving-grasping-becoming like the "lamp-oil," and birth-old-age-and-death like the "flame" — what burns this lamp of saṃsāra, what nourishes this tree of suffering, is precisely ignorance and the rest of the links. If you would put out the lamp, you need not go beating at the flame (birth-old-age-and-death, which is the fruit), but must cut off that oil (ignorance-craving-grasping, which is the cause) — this simile is itself a guide for practice.

VII. Dependent Origination Is Objective Truth: The Nature of Phenomena, the Abiding of Phenomena, the Realm of Phenomena, and the Two Knowledges

Since dependent origination is "seemingly existent yet really non-existent," is it then something the Buddha made up? The treatise cuts the matter through with certainty: it is not. The Buddha says, "the several dependent originations are not made by me, nor made by another; whether or not a buddha appears in the world, they abide in the nature of phenomena, the abiding of phenomena, the realm of phenomena." What are these three? Dependent origination's "nature of accomplishment-by-principle from beginningless time" is the "nature of phenomena" (it is inherently thus); its being established, just as it inherently is, through undistorted phrases and clauses, is the "abiding of phenomena" (the Buddha states it as it truly is); and that this establishing, taking the nature of phenomena as its cause, is what is called the "realm of phenomena." Kuiji's Concise Compendium states the relation of these three most precisely: "the phrases-and-clauses that express it are named the abiding of phenomena; hence this abiding of phenomena takes the nature of phenomena as its cause; hence this nature of phenomena is named the realm of phenomena. 'Realm' has the sense of 'cause'" — "realm" means precisely "cause": the nature of phenomena that is dependent origination is exactly that cause upon which the establishing of the sagely teaching (the abiding of phenomena) depends. In one sentence: dependent origination is a truth that is so by the very nature of things; the Buddha only awoke to it and proclaimed it — he did not invent it. This gives the practitioner the greatest of reliances — what you cultivate is not the word of some one school, but the principle inherent in the cosmos itself.

The treatise further gives two knowledges by which dependent origination is seen: "the knowledge of the abiding of phenomena" (knowing the marks of dependent origination without distortion, just as the Buddha has set them forth and disclosed them) and "the knowledge of the real" (as with the sage who has entered the path of seeing, directly contemplating the profound nature of dependent origination). The one knows its "marks" (how dependent origination is established), the other realizes its "nature" (the emptiness-and-no-self of dependent origination) — first, by the knowledge of the abiding of phenomena, to believe-and-understand; then, by the knowledge of the real, to realize directly: this is the sequence of dependent origination from "understanding" to "realizing." Kuiji's Concise Compendium also matches this sequence to the depth and shallowness of the wisdom of cultivation: "the knowledge of the abiding of phenomena is the wisdom of hearing; the knowledge of the real refers to reflection and cultivation," or, more finely judged, "the knowledge of the abiding of phenomena is the ordinary being's wisdom of hearing; the knowledge of the real is the sage's threefold wisdom" — from hearing, on to reflection and cultivation, is precisely this ladder from understanding to realizing.

VIII. Closing upon the Three Defilements, Opening the Prescription

Come this far, the treatise closes off the whole defilement-gateway: affliction (delusion), karma, and birth (suffering) — these three defilements interlock, link upon link, into saṃsāra; and "in order to cut them off, one is to cultivate the six direct realizations" — the direct realization of reflection, the direct realization of faith, the direct realization of discipline, the direct realization of the knowledge of the truths, the direct realization of the knowledge attendant upon direct realization of the truths, and the ultimate direct realization. Delusion-karma-suffering are the disease; the six direct realizations are the medicine. The three stages of applied-and-sustained thought, through the five gateways of realm, mark, wise attention, unwise attention, and defilement, have expounded the whole pathology of saṃsāra, and at the last write out this prescription, handing the baton directly to the stages of cultivation-and-realization that follow. Stage 03 comes to its consummation here; and the twelve links of dependent origination are the deepest map it leaves to the whole treatise, and to every practitioner: to see this string of conditions clearly is to see clearly whence one comes, whither one goes, and whence one can be brought to an end.

Carrying Forward

Dependent origination has the store consciousness as its pivot · consciousness conditions name-and-form in mutual dependence (the two bundles of reeds) → Consciousness-Only's store-consciousness dependent origination (carrying forward the all-seeds consciousness and rebirth-reconnection-and-continuity of the Stage of the Mental, 02-03; opening the way to the Cheng Weishi Lun's store-consciousness dependent origination and the dependent origination of the Madhyāntavibhāga and the Mahāyānasaṃgraha); the drawing-forth cause and producing cause · the twofold cause-and-effect across the three lives → the ascertainment of dependent origination in the Section on Ascertainment; the two liberations and two nirvāṇas of reverse-cessation → the cultivation-and-realization of the Śrāvaka Stage and the Bodhisattva Stage; the ten marks of profundity · the nature-abiding-realm of phenomena · the two knowledges → the Bodhisattva Stage · Chapter on the Meaning of the Real · the suchness of the Cheng Weishi Lun; the six direct realizations → the ground of the cultivation-and-realization of the later stages.