解脫道論 十二因緣次第與剎那緣起

The fourth doorway is the largest; it takes three units to close it.

At the outset come two series: eleven statements proceeding forward—ignorance conditions formations, formations condition consciousness, all the way to birth conditions aging, death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, and distress; eleven statements proceeding in reverse—with the cessation of ignorance, formations cease, all the way to the cessation of aging, death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, and distress. The two series correspond statement by statement, without a single statement missing. It is the same chain, written out once forward and once in reverse.

In the definitions of the individual links, one count needs to be kept clear: the final link in the opening list is “aging, death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, and distress,” a single name; in the item-by-item explanations, however, aging and death each receive their own definition. The list has twelve links; the individual explanations have thirteen entries.

The middle section gives the reasoning first, then uses “therefore” at the end to close each conditioning relation—“therefore” appears ten times in this passage, closing ten links. The reason comes first and the conclusion afterward, exactly the reverse of the sentence pattern in the section on the consciousness aggregate, which first establishes a negation and then gives the reason.

What most deserves attention in the whole passage, however, is the simile at the end.

As grain is a condition for seed, so ignorance conditions formations; as seed is a condition for sprout, so formations condition consciousness; as sprout is a condition for leaf, as leaf for branch, as branch for tree, as tree for flower, as flower for sap, as sap for rice, as rice for seed, and finally—as seed is a condition for sprout.

Look at its beginning and end. The ninth link is rice as a condition for seed, and the tenth is seed as a condition for sprout; seed as a condition for sprout is precisely the second link. By the ninth link, this series of similes has returned to its starting point; when the tenth is joined, the whole chain closes. Grain produces rice, rice becomes seed again, and seed sprouts again—the simile itself is a circle.

So the sentence that follows, “the former limit cannot be known, and neither can the later limit,” is not an assertion added out of nowhere; it is revealed by the shape of the simile itself. A circle has no beginning or end.

Here is a tool to carry away: when you encounter a chain of similes, first see whether its beginning and end join. If they do, the simile is saying not only “one thing gives rise to another,” but “there is no starting point”; only if they do not is it a straight line. Without this step, the ten links will be read as ten similes set side by side.

The treatise also states that sentence twice in succession: even when ignorance is taken as first, the former and later limits still cannot be known. Here the repetition is not redundancy; it separates “taking ignorance as first” from “there being a starting point.”

There is one place worth pausing over for yourself. The final section changes scale and tells the sequence again: when the eye sees form and the mind is deluded, that is ignorance; attached intention is the formation conditioned by ignorance; the attached mind is consciousness conditioned by formations … all the way to: once it has remained, that is aging; when the thought disperses and breaks up, that is death—the twelve links complete their course in a single moment.

Yet the first half of the same passage has just said that this chain’s former limit cannot be known, and neither can its later limit. One takes immeasurable time to run its course; the other is completed in a single moment. Are these the same twelvefold conditionality? The treatise places the two accounts side by side without saying a single word to reconcile them. This edition records them as they stand and does not reconcile them on the treatise’s behalf.

(One further point to remember: this passage contains one citation—“As the Buddha said: from the accumulation of influxes arises the accumulation of ignorance.” From the first unit of this chapter to this point, only one earlier citation has appeared, and it cites a venerable’s words; this is the first introduced by “as the Buddha said.” The treatise names no scripture and does not mark where the quotation ends; if the treatise does not mark the boundary of the quotation, we cannot draw it on its behalf.)

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Shi Huijing · Waken · The Path of Freedom · Sequential and Momentary Conditionality · Doorway · Summer 2026

Forward and Reverse Contemplation

Question: What is the method concerning conditionality?

Answer: Ignorance conditions formations; formations condition consciousness; consciousness conditions name-and-form; name-and-form conditions the six bases; the six bases condition contact; contact conditions feeling; feeling conditions craving; craving conditions grasping; grasping conditions becoming; becoming conditions birth; birth conditions aging, death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, and distress. Thus the whole aggregate of suffering arises.

Only with the cessation of ignorance do formations cease; with the cessation of formations, consciousness then ceases; with the cessation of consciousness, name-and-form then ceases; with the cessation of name-and-form, the six bases then cease; with the cessation of the six bases, contact then ceases; with the cessation of contact, feeling then ceases; with the cessation of feeling, craving then ceases; with the cessation of craving, grasping then ceases; with the cessation of grasping, becoming then ceases; with the cessation of becoming, birth then ceases; with the cessation of birth, aging, death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, and distress then cease. Thus the whole aggregate of suffering comes to cessation.

The forward and reverse series each contain eleven statements, corresponding statement by statement without a single omission. In the forward series, “conditions” stands between the two factors and carries the sequence onward. In the reverse series, “with” introduces the cessation of the preceding factor and “then” introduces the cessation of the following factor. They are reproduced here as they stand.

Definitions of Each Member

Here:

Ignorance is not knowing the four truths.

Formations are bodily, verbal, and mental karma.

Consciousness is the single mind-moment that enters the womb; it is called consciousness.

Name-and-form consists of the mental factors that arise from the mind in shared continuity, together with kalala form.

The six bases are the six internal bases.

Contact is the sixfold body of contact.

Feeling is the sixfold body of feeling.

Craving is the sixfold body of craving.

Grasping is the four kinds of grasping.

Becoming is karma capable of giving rise to sensual becoming, form becoming, and formless becoming.

Birth is the arising of aggregates within becoming.

Aging is the maturation of the aggregates.

Death is the dispersal and breakup of the aggregates.

In the heading list, the final factor is given as “aging, death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, and distress,” combined as a single name. Here, however, aging and death each receive their own definition. Thus the heading lists twelve factors while the individual definitions yield thirteen entries. This is reproduced as it stands; the two are not combined here.

Why Ignorance Conditions Formations and Why Birth Conditions Aging and Death

Question: Why does ignorance condition formations? Why does birth condition aging and death?

Answer: Here an ordinary person, without interval, because he does not know the four truths, delights through the long night in the five appropriated aggregates and clings to them as possessions of self. What he touches becomes for him: this is my possession; this is my body. Thus delight in becoming and attachment to delight combine into a thought of becoming. The latent tendency of that thought is not the sphere of wisdom. For the sake of obtaining becoming, that thought is formed and abides in becoming, like a seed in a well-cultivated field. Without that consciousness, becoming ceases. This is what is called ignorance conditioning formations.

The formations arisen from that ignorance intend toward becoming and cling to the signs and objects of becoming. They gather into a cluster and give rise to continuity in renewed becoming. Within becoming, consciousness follows the mind without being cut off. Therefore formations condition consciousness.

Just as removing the sun leaves no light to remain on the ground and grow, so removing consciousness leaves no name-and-form able to remain and grow without a basis, like reeds depending on one another and leaning against one another in turn. Therefore consciousness conditions name-and-form.

Dependent on a basis, the remaining factors of name arise together, and the mind base grows. Dependent on name, vitality, the four great elements, and timely food, the other five bases arise and grow—not through any other conditions. Therefore name-and-form conditions the six bases.

The remaining faculties, objects, and consciousness come together, and contact arises. Therefore the six bases condition contact.

Through contact, feeling occurs—painful, pleasant, or neither painful nor pleasant. Without what is contacted, feeling does not arise. Therefore contact conditions feeling.

When a deluded ordinary person experiences pleasure, he becomes attached and seeks it again. When he experiences pain, he seeks pleasure as its remedy. If he experiences neither-pain-nor-pleasure, he experiences equanimity. Therefore feeling conditions craving.

Because of thirsting craving, one urgently grasps the object of craving. Therefore craving conditions grasping.

That grasping performs an act that becomes the seed of becoming. Therefore grasping conditions becoming.

In accordance with the predominance of karma, one is born in the various destinations. Therefore becoming conditions birth.

Because aging and death are produced from birth, birth conditions aging and death.

The Simile of Grain and Seed: Ten Links

As grain is a condition for seed, so it should be understood that ignorance conditions formations.

As seed is a condition for sprout, so it should be understood that formations condition consciousness.

As sprout is a condition for leaf, so it should be understood that consciousness conditions name-and-form.

As leaf is a condition for branch, so it should be understood that name-and-form conditions the six bases.

As branch is a condition for tree, so it should be understood that the six bases condition contact.

As tree is a condition for flower, so it should be understood that contact conditions feeling.

As flower is a condition for sap, so it should be understood that feeling conditions craving.

As sap is a condition for rice, so it should be understood that craving conditions grasping.

As rice is a condition for seed, so it should be understood that grasping conditions becoming.

As seed is a condition for sprout, so it should be understood that becoming conditions birth.

As various continuities arise in this way, their former limit cannot be known, and their later limit also cannot be known. In this way there arises a continuity of conditions beginning with ignorance; its former limit cannot be known, and its later limit also cannot be known.

Among the ten links, the second says “as seed is a condition for sprout,” and the tenth again says “as seed is a condition for sprout”—the same sentence appears twice within one passage. The preceding sentence has already reached rice as a condition for seed; here seed again becomes a condition for sprout, so the series joins back onto itself. It is reproduced here as it stands.

What Conditions Ignorance?

Question: What conditions ignorance?

Answer: Ignorance itself is the condition for ignorance. The latent tendency conditions entanglement, and entanglement conditions the latent tendency; the initial is initial, and the later is later.

Again, all defilements become conditions for ignorance. As the Buddha said: from the accumulation of influxes arises the accumulation of ignorance.

The Twelve Conditions in One Moment

Again, consider a single mental event: seeing visible form with the eye, a deluded person gives rise to craving.

At that time, the mind is deluded regarding purity and pleasure; this is called ignorance.

Attached intention is formation conditioned by ignorance.

The attached mind is consciousness conditioned by formation.

The mental factors associated with knowing, together with the form produced by that mind, are name-and-form conditioned by consciousness.

Joy arises from feeling. Through the condition of joy and the condition of delight in visible form, the faculties become purified. This is name-and-form conditioning the six bases.

Ignorant contact is conditioned by the six bases; it contacts joy, and contact conditions desire as feeling.

Feeling conditions craving; through attachment, purity and pleasure are grasped.

This is craving conditioning grasping; attachment and intention are the condition for grasping.

When that state arises, this is birth conditioned by becoming.

After it has remained, that is aging; when the thought disperses and breaks apart, that is death.

In this way, the twelve conditions are completed in a single moment.

The earlier account of the twelve conditions speaks in terms of continuity, with both its former and later limits unknowable; here the twelve conditions are completed within a single moment. The two accounts are placed side by side, and at this point the treatise offers no reconciliation. They are reproduced here as they stand.

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Shi Huijing · Waken · The Path of Freedom · Sequential and Momentary Conditionality · Vernacular · Summer 2026

The fourth gate has opened—this one is the largest, and it will take three units to close it.

Put the observation first: When the ten-link simile at the end of this passage reaches its ninth link, it loops back to its own second link. The treatise then says, “The past limit cannot be known, nor can the future limit be known”—that is not an assertion added afterward; the shape of the simile itself makes it manifest.

Two Series, Not One Sentence Missing

The answer begins with eleven statements in forward order: “Question: What is the method concerning conditionality? Answer: Ignorance conditions formations; formations condition consciousness; consciousness” 〔T32 450a17〕 “conditions name-and-form; name-and-form conditions the six bases; the six bases condition contact; contact conditions feeling; feeling” 〔T32 450a18〕 conditions craving; craving conditions grasping; grasping conditions becoming; becoming conditions birth; “birth conditions aging, death, sorrow” 〔T32 450a19〕, lamentation, pain, and distress.

Immediately afterward come eleven statements in reverse order: “Lamentation, pain, and distress: thus the whole aggregate of suffering arises. Only with the cessation of ignorance, formations then cease,” 〔T32 450a20〕 “with the cessation of formations consciousness then ceases; with the cessation of consciousness name-and-form then ceases; with name-and-form” 〔T32 450a21〕 ceasing, the six bases then cease; with the cessation of the six bases contact then ceases; with the cessation of contact feeling then ceases; with the cessation of feeling craving then ceases; with the cessation of craving grasping then ceases; with the cessation of grasping becoming then ceases; with the cessation of becoming birth then ceases; and with the cessation of birth, aging, death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, and distress then cease.

The two series correspond sentence by sentence, with not one sentence missing. Every forward sentence has “conditions” at its center; every reverse sentence uses “with” to introduce the cessation of the preceding factor and “then” to introduce the cessation of the following factor. It is the same chain, written once forward and once backward.

There is one count to make carefully in the definitions of the individual factors. The final factor in the heading list is “aging, death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, and distress,” treated as one name; but the individual explanations say, “gives rise to sensual, form, and formless becoming. Birth is the arising of aggregates within becoming. Aging is the maturation of the aggregates” 〔T32 450b01〕 and “Death is the disintegration of the aggregates” 〔T32 450b02〕—aging and death each receive their own explanation.

The heading list has twelve factors; the individual explanations have thirteen items. This edition records them as they stand and does not combine them.

A Crucial Sentence Hidden among the Definitions of Each Factor

Most of the thirteen definitions are very short: ignorance is not knowing the four truths; formations are bodily, verbal, and mental karma; the six bases are the six internal bases; contact is the sixfold body of contact; feeling is the sixfold body of feeling; craving is the sixfold body of craving; and grasping is fourfold. One sentence for each item, with no added explanation.

Yet two items suddenly become concrete: “is not knowing the four truths. Formations are bodily, verbal, and mental karma. Consciousness is one mind-moment entering the womb” 〔T32 450a26〕; “that mind-moment is called consciousness” 〔T32 450a27〕—consciousness is that one mind-moment entering the womb; “that mind-moment is called consciousness. Name-and-form consists of mental factors arisen together with the continuing mind, and jia-” 〔T32 450a27〕 “luoluo form” 〔T32 450a28〕—name-and-form consists of the mental factors arisen with the continuing mind, together with jialuoluo form.

Jialuoluo is the earliest stage of conception. Here the treatise plainly pins consciousness and name-and-form to the moment of entering the womb.

Keep this point in mind, because it bears on the question at the end of the passage: if this chain is counted from entry into the womb, it extends across lives; yet the final paragraph says that it is completed in one moment. The tension between these two scales is already planted here, in the definitions of the individual factors.

(The three-character transcription “jialuoluo” occurs only twice in the entire treatise, once in this passage; the treatise does not explain its meaning here, and this edition does not supply an explanation.)

Three Feelings, Three Routes, All Leading to Craving

The middle section gives a reason for each factor. The reason for feeling conditioning craving is the most detailed and deserves to be read on its own.

“What is contacted; therefore contact conditions feeling. The deluded ordinary person, receiving pleasure, becomes attached and again” 〔T32 450b16〕 “seeks. Receiving pain, he seeks pleasure as its remedy. If he receives feeling that is neither painful nor pleasant, he receives equanimity; therefore” 〔T32 450b17〕 “feeling conditions craving” 〔T32 450b18〕.

Three feelings, three routes: with pleasant feeling, attachment forms and one seeks further; with painful feeling, one seeks pleasure as its remedy; with feeling that is neither painful nor pleasant, one receives equanimity.

The three routes differ, yet all three count as “feeling conditions craving.” The treatise does not say that painful feeling produces only aversion while pleasant feeling alone produces craving—it connects all three feelings to craving, without letting even equanimity go.

The detail here contrasts with the brevity of the surrounding factors: contact conditioning feeling says only, “Through contact, one feels pain, pleasure, or neither pain nor pleasure” 〔T32 450b15〕, while craving conditioning grasping says only, “Through thirsty craving, one urgently grasps the object of craving” 〔T32 450b18〕, one sentence each. The reasons for the ten factors vary in length; the longest is precisely the chain’s most crucial junction. Only that difference in length can be verified; this edition does not establish a further hierarchy on the treatise’s behalf.

The Middle Section: Reason First, Conclusion Afterward

The second question asks about the two ends: “Death is the disintegration of the aggregates. Question: Why does ignorance condition formations? Why does birth condition aging” 〔T32 450b02〕 and death?

The answer follows a regular form: it first gives the reason, then closes with “therefore” to state the conditioning relation. “Continuity. Consciousness follows mind within becoming without interruption; therefore formations condition consciousness. As when the sun is removed” 〔T32 450b09〕; “a body stands and grows, like reeds leaning upon one another in mutual dependence. Therefore consciousness conditions” 〔T32 450b11〕 name-and-form; “Therefore name-and-form conditions the six bases. The other faculties, their domains, and consciousness unite to give rise to contact; therefore” 〔T32 450b14〕 …

“Therefore” occurs ten times in this passage 〔T32 450b09–450b20〕, and the ten occurrences close the ten factors.

Reason comes first and conclusion afterward—the exact reverse of the passage on the consciousness aggregate, where a “does not” is established first and only then does the text explain how the act can nevertheless be performed 〔T32 448b07–448b13〕. Within the same work, two sections use two kinds of sentence movement, each serving what it discusses.

Two small similes are embedded in the middle, both drawn from the most ordinary things: one is a seed in well-cultivated ground 〔T32 450b06〕; another is “as when the sun is removed” 〔T32 450b09〕 and there is no light, and “a body stands and grows, like reeds leaning upon one another in mutual dependence” 〔T32 450b11〕. Reeds can stand only by leaning against one another—without consciousness there is no name-and-form, just as pulling away one reed makes the other fall.

Reading Practice: Ask Whether the Ends of a Simile-Chain Join

Then comes the principal simile of the passage.

“Conditions aging and death. As grain conditions seed, so ignorance conditions formations, it should be known. As” 〔T32 450b21〕 “seed conditions sprout, so formations condition consciousness, it should be known. As sprout conditions leaf” 〔T32 450b22〕, so consciousness conditions name-and-form, it should be known … The sequence runs through leaf conditioning branch, branch conditioning tree, tree conditioning flower, flower conditioning sap, sap conditioning rice, and rice conditioning seed, and ends: “It should be known. As seed conditions sprout, so it may be known that becoming conditions birth. Thus arises” 〔T32 450b28〕.

Ten links, each paired with one factor.

Now look at its beginning and end. The first link is grain conditioning seed; the ninth is rice conditioning seed; the tenth is seed conditioning sprout—and seed conditioning sprout is exactly the second link.

In other words, by the time this chain of similes reaches its ninth link, it has returned to where it began; once the tenth is joined, the whole chain closes. Grain yields rice, rice is seed again, and seed sprouts again—the simile itself is a circle.

(The check is simple: the five Chinese characters rendered “as seed conditions sprout” occur only twice in the entire treatise, both in this passage—once as the second link and once as the tenth.)

The next two statements are therefore not added out of nowhere: “Thus arises” 〔T32 450b28〕 “continuity of many kinds; thus the past limit cannot be known, and the future limit also cannot be” 〔T32 450b29〕 “known” 〔T32 450c01〕. The past limit cannot be known, nor can the future limit be known—a circle has no beginning or end.

Here is the reading practice this passage gives us: when you meet a chain of similes, first ask whether its beginning and end join. If they join, the simile is saying not merely “one gives rise to another” but “there is no starting point”; only if they do not join is it a straight line. Without this step, a reader will take the ten links as ten parallel comparisons and miss what the treatise actually uses their form to say.

The treatise then states the point once more: “Be known. Thus, in the continuity of birth, ignorance is the first condition; its past limit cannot” 〔T32 450c01〕 “be known, nor can its future limit be known” 〔T32 450c02〕. The same statement follows twice in succession—even with ignorance taken as first, the past and future limits remain unknowable. The repetition is not verbosity; it separates “taking ignorance as first” from “having a starting point.”

The Condition for Ignorance and One Citation

The third question is more direct: what conditions ignorance?

The answer first gives a circular statement: “Be known, nor can its future limit be known. Question: What conditions ignorance? Answer: Only ignorance is” 〔T32 450c02〕 “the condition for ignorance; the underlying tendency conditions entanglement, and entanglement conditions the underlying tendency; the initial is initial and the later is later” 〔T32 450c03〕. The underlying tendency and entanglement condition each other; the initial is itself initial and the later itself later—again, a way of speaking that posits no starting point.

Notice that this statement and the ten-link simile write the same thing in two ways: the simile uses a shape, a circle; this statement uses words, mutual conditioning. Within one passage, shape and words each say it once, and what they say is one.

Then comes the passage’s only citation: “Again, all defilements become conditions for ignorance. As the Buddha said: From” 〔T32 450c04〕 “the accumulation of influxes arises the accumulation of ignorance” 〔T32 450c05〕.

This is worth remembering. From the first unit of this chapter to this point, only one citation has appeared—11-02 cites the words of a venerable 〔T32 446a01〕. A citation introduced by “as the Buddha said” appears here for the first time in this chapter. And the quoted sentence “from the accumulation of influxes arises the accumulation of ignorance” occurs only once in the entire treatise.

The treatise does not name the scripture, nor does it mark where the quotation ends. When the treatise does not mark a quotation’s boundary, we cannot draw it on the treatise’s behalf. This edition records it as it stands.

Pause: One Twelvefold Chain, Two Measures of Time

Now pause at the final paragraph.

“The accumulation of influxes gives rise to the accumulation of ignorance. Again, as a single mental event, when the eye sees form, a deluded” 〔T32 450c05〕 person arouses craving—the treatise retells the chain on another scale.

Seeing form with the eye while the mind is deluded is ignorance; attached intention is the formation conditioned by ignorance; the attached mind is consciousness conditioned by formation; knowing the associated mental factors and the form they produce is name-and-form conditioned by consciousness; joy arises from feeling and the faculties are purified, which is the six bases conditioned by name-and-form. The account then passes through contact, feeling, craving, grasping, and becoming, until “arising is birth conditioned by becoming. Having remained is aging; the dissolution of the thought is death. Thus, in” 〔T32 450c12〕 “one moment, twelve conditions are completed” 〔T32 450c13〕.

The twelve factors run their whole course in a single moment.

Yet in the first half of this same passage, the treatise has just said that the chain’s “past limit cannot be known, nor can its future limit be known”—that is an account of continuity, speaking of a length without beginning or end.

Pause and ask: is this the same twelvefold conditionality?

One takes immeasurable time to complete; the other is completed in a single moment. The treatise places the two accounts side by side and does not say one word to reconcile them.

Only three things can be verified: the earlier section speaks of continuity and twice says that the past and future limits cannot be known 〔T32 450b29·450c01〕; the final section says, “in one moment, twelve conditions are completed” 〔T32 450c13〕, a phrase that occurs nowhere else in the treatise; and the two sections are joined only by a single “again” 〔T32 450c05〕.

This edition records the two without reconciling them and draws no conclusion from them about the measure of time.

One Variant Falls on the Returning Link

Finally, note one matter of the written text.

The character “牙” in the ten-link simile is read as “芽” by the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Palace witnesses 〔T32 450b22〕. This character occurs twice in the passage—it is the name of the very link that loops back. The variant affects both occurrences. Both readings are recorded without adjudication; the text follows the base.

Two further notes should be remembered. The character “種” in “thus arises continuity of many kinds” is absent from all four witnesses 〔T32 450b29〕—the preceding sentence has just closed the simile with seed conditioning sprout, and this character stands precisely between them. In “joy arises from feeling,” the character “受” (feeling) is read as “愛” (craving) by all four witnesses 〔T32 450c08〕—if their reading is followed, the factor carried forward changes. Both are recorded without adjudication; the text follows the base.

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Take away three things. One observation: after the ten-link simile reaches the ninth link, rice conditioning seed, the tenth again says “as seed conditions sprout,” in the same words as the second 〔T32 450b21·450b28〕, and the series joins back onto itself to form a circle; the following “the past limit cannot be known, nor can the future limit be known” is not an assertion added afterward but the shape of the simile itself. One reading practice: when you meet a chain of similes, first ask whether its beginning and end join: if they join, it speaks of no starting point; only if they do not join is it a straight line. One place to pause: the same twelvefold conditionality is presented first as continuity, whose past and future limits cannot be known, and finally as “in one moment, twelve conditions are completed” 〔T32 450c13〕: is this the same twelvefold conditionality? The treatise places the two accounts side by side without one word of reconciliation; this edition records them and does not reconcile them on its behalf.

Remember three smaller things as well: the heading list has twelve factors but the individual explanations have thirteen items, because aging and death each receive their own explanation; the middle section has ten occurrences of “therefore,” with reason first and conclusion afterward, the reverse of the sentence movement in the passage on the consciousness aggregate; and the passage’s one citation is introduced by “as the Buddha said” 〔T32 450c04〕, the first occurrence of this formula in the chapter, while the treatise does not mark the quotation’s boundary and this edition does not draw it.

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Shi Huijing · Waken · The Path of Freedom · Sequential and Momentary Conditionality · Exposition · Summer 2026