清淨道論 有緣生等廣說・有輪Visuddhimagga · Detailed Accounts of “With Becoming as Condition, Birth” and the Rest, and the Wheel of Becoming
十二支拆完，合成一個輪。老死的餘波——愁悲苦憂惱——由漏而回到無明：愁等→漏→無明→行，輪子接回開頭。它不知其初；「無明緣行」不是說無明最先，是說它是主——抓住蛇頭整條蛇都纏上來，斷了蛇頭整條蛇都脫落。它離作者與受者：沒有一個梵天在造，沒有一個我在受。十二種空：每一支都空於常、淨、樂、我。
輪有兩個把手：見行的人從無明抓起，愛行的人從渴愛抓起。三時：過去造的（無明行）→現在受的（識至受）＋現在造的（渴愛取有）→未來受的（生老死）——三世兩重因果，是覺音明確採取的釋。若十二支記不住，記三輪就夠：煩惱推動造業，造業結成果報，果報又起煩惱。三個接縫裡只有「受→渴愛」是從果接到因，也就只有這一個是可以不接的——修行的縫在這裡。
十二支讀成十二個「不是我」：不是我在造、不是我在移轉、不是一個整體的我、不是我在看知觸受愛取有生老死。二十四喻走兩遍：一個病人的病歷（盲→跌→癰→皰→痛→亂治→潰破），與十二幅畫——飲鹽水者之渴，越喝越渴。四甚深說連說法本身都甚深——這一品是在為讀者鋪路，不是替讀者走完。四理趣兩兩對治四邊見：一性治斷、異性治常、無作用治我、如是法性治無因；正見與邪見看的是同一個輪，差在哪裡取、哪裡放。
緣起把「我」請出了因果故事，卻留下因果——輪子靠條件自轉，不需要推手；也正因如此，拔掉條件（無明、渴愛），輪子就停。這不是虛無，是止息。而破輪的智之劍，須在定之勝石上磨利。
The twelve links have been unfolded; now they are gathered into a wheel. The aftershock of aging-and-death—sorrow, lamentation, dukkha, grief, and despair—arises from the taints, establishes their presence, and leads back through the taints to ignorance: the taints condition ignorance, and ignorance conditions formations, so the wheel reconnects with its beginning. Its beginning is unknown. “With ignorance as condition, formations” does not mean that ignorance came first; it says that ignorance is principal—grasping a snake by the head lets the whole snake coil around the arm, and cutting off its head frees the arm. The wheel is without maker or experiencer: no Brahmā creates it, and no self receives it. Its twelvefold emptiness means that every link is empty of permanence, purity, pleasure, and self.
The wheel has two handles: a person of view-temperament takes it up from ignorance, a person of craving-temperament from craving. Its three times are: what was produced in the past (ignorance and formations) → what is experienced now (consciousness through feeling) + what is produced now (craving, clinging, becoming) → what will be experienced in the future (birth and aging-and-death). This double causal sequence across three times is an interpretation explicitly adopted by Buddhaghosa. If the twelve links are hard to remember, remember the three rounds: defilement drives kamma, kamma yields result, and result gives rise to defilement again. Among the three joints, only “feeling → craving” runs from result to cause, and only this joint can be left unjoined—the practical seam is here.
Read the twelve links as twelve instances of “not self”: no self makes, no self transmigrates, there is no compact self, and no self sees, knows, touches, feels, craves, clings, becomes, is born, ages, or dies. Twenty-four similes trace the sequence twice: a patient’s case history (blindness → stumble → fall → boil → pustules → pain → misguided treatment → rupture) and twelve separate pictures—the thirst of someone drinking salt water only grows with drinking. The four profundities say that even the teaching of dependent arising is profound: this chapter lays a path for the reader; it does not walk the path in the reader’s place. The four principles counter four extreme views in pairs: unity counters annihilationism, diversity counters eternalism, non-activity counters self-view, and specific conditionality counters causelessness. Right view and wrong view contemplate the same wheel; the difference lies in where they grasp and where they release.
Dependent arising removes “me” from the story of causality but leaves causality intact—the wheel turns through conditions, without need of a mover; precisely for that reason, when its conditions, ignorance and craving, are removed, the wheel stops. This is not nothingness; it is cessation. And the sword of wisdom that splits the wheel must be sharpened on the excellent whetstone of concentration.
本單元白話為本編自巴利原典之譯疏（tr. mine）；底本事項詳本單元考據。
§1 有緣生・生緣老死愁等 〔CSCD §651〕
有緣生等等之廣說
在「有緣生」等等之中，生等等的決擇，就應當依諦之解釋¹中所說的方式而知。而這裡的「有」，唯以業有²為意趣。因為那〔業有〕才是生的緣，生有則不是。而它又依業緣與親依止緣二種方式而為緣。
這裡也許有人問：那麼，怎麼能知道「有是生的緣」呢？——由於即使外緣相等，也見得有劣勝等等的差別。因為即使生父、生母、精、血、食物等等外緣相等，在諸有情——甚至是雙生者——之中，也見得有劣勝等等的差別。而那差別不是無因的，因為它並非在一切時、於一切〔有情〕都有；也不是以業有以外的別因為因，因為在那些由之而生的有情自身的相續之中沒有別的原因——所以它唯以業有為因。因為業才是有情劣勝等等差別之因。所以世尊說：「業分別有情，這就是說劣與勝。」因此就應當知道：「有是生的緣。」
而由於在沒有生的時候，就沒有所謂的老死，也沒有愁等等諸法；有了生，才有老死，也才有愁等等諸法——那是在被稱為老死的苦法所觸的愚人身上，或是由於與老死相連而有的，或是在為這樣那樣的苦法所觸而不與老死相連時而有的。所以就應當知道：這個生也是老死的緣，也是愁等等的緣。而它唯依親依止之邊而以一種方式為緣。
這就是「有緣生」等等之中的廣說。
§2 有輪之四事——無明由愁等而立・不知其初・無作者受者・十二空 〔CSCD §652〕
有輪之論
而由於這裡的愁等等是在末後說的，所以，那在這有輪³之初以「無明緣行」之語而說的無明，就應當這樣知道——
由愁等等而無明成立，這有輪不知其初； 它離作者與受者，以十二種空性而空。
——並且它是恆常不斷地轉起的。
那麼，這裡怎樣是由愁等等而無明成立？這有輪怎樣是不知其初？怎樣是離作者與受者？怎樣是以十二種空性⁴而空呢？——因為這裡的愁、憂、惱是與無明不相離的，而所謂的悲是屬於愚迷者的；所以那些一旦成立，無明就成立了。再者，經中說：「由漏之集而有無明之集。」而這些愁等等正是由漏之集而有的。
怎麼說呢？先說：在與所欲之事物相離之時，愁是由欲漏⁵之集而有的。如所說——
那個貪求諸欲、生了欲求的人， 若他的那些欲衰減了，他就如中箭一般地痛。
又如所說：「由欲而生愁。」
而這一切〔愁等等〕也都是由見漏之集而有的。如所說：「他以『我是色、色是我的』而住於纏縛，由於色的變異與變壞，就生起愁、悲、苦、憂、惱。」
正如由見漏之集而有，同樣也由有漏之集而有。如所說：「即使是那些長壽、有容色、多樂、住於高廣宮殿而久住的諸天，他們聽了如來的說法之後，也起怖畏、驚駭與悚懼。」——就像見了五種前相⁶而為死怖所迫的諸天那樣。
正如由有漏之集而有，同樣也由無明漏之集而有。如所說：「諸比丘啊，那個愚人於現法之中領受三種苦與憂。」
這樣，由於這些法是由漏之集而有的，所以這些法一旦成立，就使那作為無明之因的諸漏得以成立；而諸漏既已成立，由於緣有故彼有，無明也就成立了。這樣，就應當知道：這裡先是由愁等等而無明成立。
而由於無明這樣依緣有故彼有而成立了之後，又是「無明緣行、行緣識」，這樣因果的相續就沒有終盡。所以，那依因果之相連而轉起的十二支有輪，就成立為「不知其初」。
若問：這樣的話，「無明緣行」這句話豈不是與〔它並非說其為初始〕相違嗎？——這句話並不是說它是初始，這是說其主法。因為在三種輪轉之中，無明是主。以執取無明之故，其餘的煩惱輪與業等等就纏縛愚人——就像執了蛇頭，蛇的其餘身體就纏縛手臂一樣。而一旦作了無明的永斷，就從它們得到解脫——就像斷了蛇頭，被纏縛的手臂就解脫一樣。如所說：「正由於無明的無餘離貪之滅，而有行之滅」等等。這樣，凡是執取它就被縛、放捨它就解脫的，這句話就是說那個主法，而不是說它是初始。這樣就應當知道：這有輪是不知其初的。
而這〔有輪〕，由於行等等是由無明等等的原因而轉起的，所以它離於在那以外的、被人這樣計度為「梵天、大梵天、最勝者、能造者」的梵天等等輪迴之作者，也離於被人這樣計度為「我的這個我是能語者、能受者」的、苦樂之受者的我。這樣就應當知道它是離作者與受者的。
而由於這裡的無明，以其有生滅之法性故而空於常性，以其雜染而能雜染故而空於淨性，以其為生滅所逼故而空於樂性，以其轉起繫於緣故而空於能自在之我性；行等等諸支也是同樣。或者，由於無明不是我、不屬於我、不在我之中、也不具有我；行等等諸支也是同樣。所以就應當知道：這有輪是以十二種空性而空的。
§3 有輪之二本・三世・諸支之屬 〔CSCD §653〕
這樣知道了之後，又——
它的本是無明與渴愛，有過去等三時； 於其中依自體而言，諸支是二、八、二。
就應當知道：這有輪的本，是無明與渴愛二法。
而這〔有輪〕有二種：由取前際⁷而言，是以無明為本、以受為終的；由後際之相續而言，是以渴愛為本、以老死為終的。其中，前者是依見行者而說的，後者是依愛行者〔而說的〕。因為對見行者而言，無明是輪迴之導者；對愛行者而言，渴愛〔是輪迴之導者〕。或者，第一種是為了根除斷見，因為它顯示諸因對於果之生起是不斷絕的；第二種是為了根除常見，因為它顯示已生者的老死。或者，前者是依胎生者而說的，因為它顯示次第而轉起；後者是依化生者〔而說的〕，因為它顯示俱時而生。
而它的三時是過去、現在、未來。其中，依聖典中以自體而來者而言，「無明與行」二支是過去時的；自識以至於有的八支是現在時的；生與老死二支則是未來時的——就應當這樣知道。
§4 三連結・四攝・二十行相・三輪轉 〔CSCD §654〕
又——
此〔有輪〕含以因、果、因為先的三連結與四分之攝； 以二十行相為輻，有三種輪轉而不住地轉動。
也應當這樣知道。
其中，行與結生識之間有一個，名為因果之連結；受與渴愛之間有一個，名為果因之連結；有與生之間有一個，是因果之連結——就應當這樣知道，這就是以因、果、因為先的三連結⁸。
而它依諸連結之初與終的安立，有四種攝。就是說：無明與行是第一攝；識、名色、六處、觸、受是第二；渴愛、取、有是第三；生與老死是第四。就應當這樣知道，這就是四分之攝⁹。
過去有五因，現在有五果； 現在有五因，未來有五果。
就應當知道：以這些被稱為行相的二十種輻，而說「以二十行相為輻」¹⁰。
其中，「過去有五因」：無明與行這二者先已說了。而由於無知者渴求，渴求者取著，以他的取為緣而有有；所以渴愛、取、有也就被攝在其中了。所以說：「在前業有之中，癡是無明，積聚¹¹是行，欣求是渴愛，趣入是取，思是有——這五法在前業有之中，是此處結生的緣。」
其中，「在前業有之中」，就是在前面的業有之中，意思是在過去生中造作業有之時。「癡是無明」：當時對苦等等的癡——由之而迷的人造業——那就是無明。「積聚是行」：那是造那個業的人的諸前思，就像生起「我要布施」之心，而在一個月、乃至一年之中準備布施資具的人所生起的諸前思那樣。而把施物安置於諸受施者手中之時的思，則說為「有」。或者，在同一轉向的六個速行之中的思，名為「積聚是行」；第七個¹²〔速行的思〕則是「有」。或者說：隨便哪一個思是「有」，而與它相應的諸積聚就名為「行」。「欣求是渴愛」：造業者對於果、對於生有的欣樂與希求，那就名為渴愛。「趣入是取」：那作為業有之緣、以「作了這個，我將在某某處受用諸欲」或「我將斷滅」等等方式而轉起的趣入、執取、執著，這就名為取。「思是有」：意思就應當這樣知道——在積聚之末所說的思就是「有」。
「現在有五果」：自識以至於受，這正是聖典中所來的。如所說：「此處的結生是識，入胎是名色，淨是處，所觸是觸，所受是受——這五法在此處的生有之中，是以先前所作之業為緣的。」其中，「結生是識」：由於它是依連結於他有而生起的，所以叫作結生，那就是識。「入胎是名色」：色法與非色法在胎中的入——猶如來而進入一般——這就是名色。「淨是處」：這是依眼等等五處而說的。「所觸是觸」：那觸所緣而生起的能觸者，這就是觸。「所受是受」：那與結生識俱、或與以六處為緣的觸俱而生起的異熟之所受，那就是受——意思就應當這樣知道。
「現在有五因」：就是聖典中所來的渴愛等等，即渴愛、取、有。而取了「有」，它的前分或與它相應的諸行也就被取了；而以取渴愛與取之故，與它們相應的、或由之而迷的人造業的那個無明，也就被取了。這樣就有五個。所以說：「此處由於諸處已成熟，癡是無明，積聚是行，欣求是渴愛，趣入是取，思是有——這五法在此處的業有之中，是未來結生的緣。」其中，「此處由於諸處已成熟」，是顯示諸處已成熟的人在造業之時的迷惑。其餘的意思是明顯的。
「未來有五果」：就是識等等五者。它們是以「生」一語而說的；而老死正是它們的老死。所以說：「未來的結生是識，入胎是名色，淨是處，所觸是觸，所受是受——這五法在未來的生有之中，是以此處所作之業為緣的。」這樣就成為二十行相之輻。
而「有三種輪轉而不住地轉動」，這裡：行與有是業輪¹³，無明、渴愛、取是煩惱輪，識、名色、六處、觸、受是異熟輪——就應當知道：這有輪以這三種輪而有三種輪轉，只要煩惱輪不被斷絕，它就因為緣未斷絕而不住，並且由於一再地回轉而只是轉動不已。
§5 諦之所出與諸支之二作用 〔CSCD §655–656〕
而這樣轉動著的它——
應依諦之所出、作用、遮、譬喻， 以及甚深與理趣之別，隨其所應而了知。
其中，由於《諦分別》中說善與不善之業無差別地是集諦，所以「無明緣行」——以無明為緣的行，是第二諦之所出，而〔自身〕是第二諦。以行為緣的識，是第二諦之所出，而是第一諦。以識等等為緣的名色等等、乃至異熟之受為止，是第一諦之所出，而是第一諦。以受為緣的渴愛，是第一諦之所出，而是第二諦。以渴愛為緣的取，是第二諦之所出，而是第二諦。以取為緣的有，是第二諦之所出，而是第一與第二二諦。以有為緣的生，是第二諦之所出，而是第一諦。以生為緣的老死，是第一諦之所出，而是第一諦——這樣，先就諦之所出而言，就應當隨其所應而了知它。
而由於這裡的無明，一面在諸事上令有情迷惑，一面又為諸行之顯現的緣；同樣，諸行一面行作有為，一面又為識的緣；識也一面了別事，一面又為名色的緣；名色也一面互相支持，一面又為六處的緣；六處也一面於自境轉起，一面又為觸的緣；觸也一面觸所緣，一面又為受的緣；受也一面領受所緣之味，一面又為渴愛的緣；渴愛也一面於可染之法而染，一面又為取的緣；取也一面取著可取之法，一面又為有的緣；有也一面散置於種種趣，一面又為生的緣；生也一面生諸蘊——因為它是以令彼等出生之相而轉起的——一面又為老死的緣；老死也一面主宰諸蘊的熟與壞，一面又為他有之顯現的緣——因為它是愁等等的所依。所以，就一切句中二種轉起之作用而言，也應當隨其所應而了知它。
§6 遮邪見與二十四喻 〔CSCD §657–658〕
而由於這裡的「無明緣行」是遮見作者，「行緣識」是遮見我之移轉，「識緣名色」由於顯示了被計為「我」的事物之分析，所以是遮密聚之想，「名色緣六處」等等是遮「我見……乃至（廣說如前）……我知、我觸、我受、我渴愛、我取、我有、我生、我老、我死」等等之見。所以，就遮邪見而言，也應當隨其所應而了知這有輪。
而由於這裡的無明，由於不見諸法的自相與共相，猶如盲人；以無明為緣的行，猶如盲人的顛蹶；以行為緣的識，猶如顛蹶者的跌倒；以識為緣的名色，猶如跌倒者的生癰；以名色為緣的六處，猶如癰破而生的皰；以六處為緣的觸，猶如癰皰的被觸；以觸為緣的受，猶如被觸之苦；以受為緣的渴愛，猶如對治苦的欲求；以渴愛為緣的取，猶如由治苦的欲求而取非所宜之物；以取為緣的有，猶如塗敷所取的非所宜之物；以有為緣的生，猶如由塗敷非所宜之物而癰生變異；以生為緣的老死，猶如癰由變異而潰破。
或者，由於這裡的無明以不行道與邪行道之相而制伏有情，猶如翳之蔽目；而被它所制伏的愚人，以能生後有的諸行自纏，猶如作繭之蟲以繭之諸分自纏；為行所攝持的識在諸趣之中得到住立，猶如為輔相所攝持的王子在王位上得到住立；識由於計度生之相，就在結生之時生起種種的名色，猶如幻師之作幻；住立於名色的六處到達增長、繁茂與廣大，猶如住立於良地的叢林；由於處的觸擊而生觸，猶如鑽木相摩而生火；為觸所觸者顯現受，猶如為火所觸者之被燒；領受者的渴愛增長，猶如飲鹽水者之渴；渴者對於諸有起欲求，猶如口渴者對於飲料；那就是他的取，他以取而取有，猶如魚因貪餌而吞鉤；有了有就有生，猶如有了種子就有芽；已生者必有老死，猶如已生的樹必倒。所以，也應當這樣以譬喻隨其所應而了知這有輪。
§7 四種甚深——義・法・說・通達 〔CSCD §659〕
而由於世尊約於義、法、說、通達四方面的甚深之相¹⁴而說：「阿難啊，這緣起是甚深的，而且顯現為甚深的。」所以，就甚深之別而言，也應當隨其所應而了知這有輪。
其中，由於老死並非不從生而有，也不是離了生而從別的〔因〕而有，而且是這樣從生而來的——這樣「以生為緣而來」的意義難以了知，所以老死之「由生為緣而生而來」的意義是甚深的。同樣，生之「以有為緣……乃至（廣說如前）……」、乃至諸行之「由無明為緣而生而來」的意義，也是甚深的。所以這有輪是義甚深的——這裡先是義甚深。因為因之果說為「義」。如所說：「於因之果的智是義無礙解。」
而由於無明以何種行相、於何種分位而為這樣那樣的諸行之緣，那是難以了知的，所以無明對於諸行的緣義是甚深的。同樣，諸行……乃至（廣說如前）……乃至生對於老死的緣義也是甚深的。所以這有輪是法甚深的——這裡就是法甚深。因為「法」是因之名。如所說：「於因的智是法無礙解。」
而由於它的說法應當依這樣那樣的原因而這樣那樣地轉起，所以說法也是甚深的——在那裡，除了一切知智以外，別的智得不到立足之處。因為它在諸經之中，有處依順而說、有處依逆而說、有處依順逆而說、有處自中間起而依順或依逆而說、有處以三連結四攝而說、有處以二連結三攝而說、有處以一連結二攝而說。所以這有輪是說甚深的——這就是說甚深。
而由於這裡無明等等的那個自性——通達了它，無明等等就依自相而正被通達——那是難以深入的，所以是甚深的；因此這有輪是通達甚深的。因為這裡：無明的無知、不見、不通達諦之義是甚深的；諸行的行作、積聚、有貪、離貪之義，識的空、無作用、不移轉、結生、顯現之義，名色的俱生、可分、不可分、傾向、變壞之義，六處的增上、世間、門、田、有境之義，觸的觸、觸擊、會合、集合之義，受的領受所緣之味、樂、苦、中庸、無命者之所受之義，渴愛的歡喜、耽著、如流、如蔓、如河、如渴愛之海而難滿之義，取的執取、執持、現貪著、執著、難越之義，有的積聚、行作、與投入諸生類、諸趣、諸〔識〕住、諸〔有情〕居之義，生的生、等生、入胎、出生、顯現之義，老死的盡、滅、壞、變異之義——〔皆〕是甚深的。這裡就是通達甚深。
§8 四種理趣與品末 〔CSCD §660–661〕
而由於這裡有一性之理趣、異性之理趣、無作用之理趣、如是法性之理趣這四種義之理趣，所以，就理趣之別而言，也應當隨其所應而了知這有輪。
其中，「無明緣行、行緣識」，這樣猶如種子由成芽等等而到達成樹一般的相續不斷絕，名為一性之理趣。正見它的人，由於了知相續是依因果之相連而不斷絕的，就捨斷見；邪見它的人，由於把依因果之相連而轉起的相續之不斷絕執為一性，就取常見。
而無明等等各依自相的安立，名為異性之理趣。正見它的人，由於見到諸新新者的生起，就捨常見；邪見它的人，由於把落於同一相續者執為異性——猶如相續已斷者一般——就取斷見。
而「諸行應當由我從無明而生起」或「識應當由我們從諸行而生起」等等作用的沒有，名為無作用之理趣。正見它的人，由於了知作者的沒有，就捨我見；邪見它的人，由於不取「即使沒有作用，無明等等依自性之定則而成立的因性」，就取無作用見。
而由無明等等的原因，唯有諸行等等生起，猶如由乳等等而有酪等等，而非別的〔法〕生起——這名為如是法性之理趣。正見它的人，由於隨順於緣而了知果，就捨無因見與無作用見；邪見它的人，由於不取隨順於緣的果之轉起，卻執取「隨便什麼都能從隨便哪裡而生」，就取無因見與定命論¹⁵。這樣，這有輪——
應依諦之所出、作用、遮、譬喻， 以及甚深與理趣之別，隨其所應而了知。
因為這〔有輪〕以其極甚深而無底，以其種種理趣之稠密而難越。若不以在定之勝石上善磨利的智之劍——
破那如電輪¹⁶之常搗一般的有輪， 則超越輪迴之怖者，即使在夢中也沒有一個。
因為世尊也說了這話：「阿難啊，這緣起是甚深的，而且顯現為甚深的。阿難啊，由於不隨覺、不通達這個法，這樣的人眾就成為如亂線之聚、如打結之線球、如文闍草與波波草，不能越過惡趣、苦界、墮處與輪迴。」所以，為了自己或他人的利益與安樂而行道的人，應當捨棄其餘的事務——
智者於此甚深的緣之行相之別， 應當常具念而這樣精勤，直到得其底處。
於為令善人歡喜而造的《清淨道論》中
慧之修習之章裡
名為慧地之解釋的
第十七品〔已竟〕。
註
¹ 諦之解釋：指本論前品之〈諦〉一品；論自標生、老死、愁等等之決擇已於彼說，本篇遂不重出。
² 業有・生有（kammabhava・upapattibhava）：業有為所造之業，生有為所生之果報之有；二者之分在本品〈取緣有廣說〉之單元，本篇唯取業有為生之緣。
³ 有輪（bhavacakka）：十二支依因果相連而轉起之全體之總名；其名之首出在本品〈緣起總說〉之單元，而其正釋即在本篇。
⁴ 十二種空性（dvādasavidhasuññatā）：論以常、淨、樂、我四事乘於十二支而立，謂一一支皆空於此四。
⁵ 欲漏・見漏・有漏・無明漏（kāmāsava・diṭṭhāsava・bhavāsava・avijjāsava）：四種漏；本篇逐一引經證愁等等由此四者之集而有。
⁶ 五種前相（pubbanimittāni）：諸天命終之前所現之五種衰相。
⁷ 取前際・後際之相續（pubbantāharaṇa・aparantasantāna）：二本之二輪之別——以無明為本者取前際而終於受，以渴愛為本者顯後際之相續而終於老死。
⁸ 三連結（tisandhi）：行與結生識之間、受與渴愛之間、有與生之間三處之接。
⁹ 四分之攝（catubhedasaṅgaha）：十二支依諸連結之初與終而攝為四分，即無明行、識乃至受、渴愛取有、生老死。
¹⁰ 二十行相之輻（vīsati ākārāra）：四攝各開為五而成二十，喻之為輪之輻。
¹¹ 積聚・欣求・趣入・入胎・淨（āyūhanā・nikanti・upagamana・okkanti・pasāda）：二十行相所引之文中，行、渴愛、取、名色、處五支之異名。
¹² 第七個〔速行〕：本論立同一轉向之速行為六或七，前六之思名為「積聚是行」而第七之思名為「有」；二十九思之行之開演在本品〈無明緣行句〉之單元。
¹³ 業輪・煩惱輪・異熟輪（kammavaṭṭa・kilesavaṭṭa・vipākavaṭṭa）：三種輪轉——行與有為業輪，無明、渴愛、取為煩惱輪，識乃至受為異熟輪。
¹⁴ 四種甚深：義、法、說、通達四者；本品〈緣起總說〉之單元既標「甚深有四種，我們將於後說」，本篇即其正釋。
¹⁵ 定命論（niyatavāda）：謂一切之生皆已定而不隨緣之見；本篇以之與無因見同為不取「隨順於緣的果之轉起」者所取。
¹⁶ 電輪（asanivicakka）：如雷電之輪，常搗而不息；本篇以之喻有輪之相。
The vernacular of this unit is this edition’s own rendering-with-exposition from the Pāli original (tr. mine); see this unit’s apparatus for the base-text particulars.
§1 With Becoming as Condition, Birth; with Birth as Condition, Aging-and-Death, Sorrow, and the Rest 〔CSCD §651〕
Detailed Account of “With Becoming as Condition, Birth” and the Rest
In “with becoming as condition, birth” and the clauses that follow, the determination of birth and the rest should be understood according to the method stated in the explanation of the truths.¹ Here, however, “becoming” intends only kamma-becoming.² For that is a condition for birth; rebirth-becoming is not. It conditions birth in two ways, as kamma condition and decisive-support condition.
Here someone might ask: How can it be known that “becoming is the condition for birth”?—Because even when the external conditions are equal, differences such as inferiority and superiority are seen. Even when the external conditions—father, mother, semen, blood, food, and the rest—are equal, differences such as inferiority and superiority are seen among beings, even among twins. That difference is not causeless, since it is not present at all times in all beings; nor does it have a cause other than kamma-becoming, since there is no other cause within the continuities of the beings produced by it. Therefore it has kamma-becoming alone as its cause. For kamma is the cause of the differences among beings as inferior and superior and the rest. Thus the Blessed One said: “Kamma distinguishes beings, that is, as inferior and superior.” Therefore it should be known that “becoming is the condition for birth.”
And because, when there is no birth, there is no aging-and-death and there are no dhammas such as sorrow; when there is birth, there are aging-and-death and dhammas such as sorrow—in a foolish person touched by the dukkha phenomenon called aging-and-death, whether connected with aging-and-death, or touched by this or that dukkha phenomenon while unconnected with aging-and-death. Therefore this birth should be understood as a condition both for aging-and-death and for sorrow and the rest. It conditions them in only one way, at the limit of decisive support.
This is the detailed account within “with becoming as condition, birth” and the clauses that follow.
§2 Four Things about the Wheel of Becoming—Ignorance Established by Sorrow and the Rest, Beginning Unknown, without Maker or Experiencer, Twelvefold Emptiness 〔CSCD §652〕
Discourse on the Wheel of Becoming
Because sorrow and the rest are stated here at the end, the ignorance stated at the beginning of this wheel of becoming in the words “with ignorance as condition, formations” should be understood thus—
Ignorance is established by sorrow and the rest; this wheel of becoming has an unknown beginning; it is without maker and experiencer, and is empty with twelvefold emptiness.
—and it should be understood to occur constantly and continuously.
How, then, is ignorance established here by sorrow and the rest? How does this wheel of becoming have an unknown beginning? How is it without maker and experiencer? How is it empty with twelvefold emptiness?—Here sorrow, grief, and despair are not dissociated from ignorance, and what is called lamentation belongs to someone deluded. Thus, when they are established, ignorance is established. Moreover, it is said: “With the arising of the taints comes the arising of ignorance.” And these dhammas beginning with sorrow arise from the arising of the taints.
How so? First, when separated from the objects of sensual pleasure, sorrow arises from the arising of the taint of sensual desire.⁵ As it is said—
For that person who desires sensual pleasures, in whom desire has arisen, if those sensual pleasures decline, he suffers as though pierced by an arrow.
And as it is said: “From sensual desire, sorrow is born.”
All these dhammas also arise from the arising of the taint of views. As it is said: “While he remains obsessed with ‘I am form; form is mine,’ sorrow, lamentation, dukkha, grief, and despair arise through the change and alteration of form.”
Just as they arise from the arising of the taint of views, so too they arise from the arising of the taint of becoming. As it is said: “Even those devas who are long-lived, beautiful, rich in pleasure, and dwell for a long time in lofty mansions become fearful, frightened, and stirred after hearing the Tathāgata teach the Dhamma.”—like devas who, seeing the five portents,⁶ are terrified by fear of death.
Just as they arise from the arising of the taint of becoming, so too they arise from the arising of the taint of ignorance. As it is said: “Bhikkhus, that fool experiences three kinds of dukkha and grief here and now.”
Thus, because these dhammas arise from the arising of the taints, the occurrence of these dhammas establishes the taints that are causes of ignorance. Once the taints are established, ignorance too is established, since it occurs when they are present as conditions. In this way it should be understood first that ignorance is established here by sorrow and the rest.
And because, after ignorance has thus been established through the presence of conditions, the sequence again proceeds “with ignorance as condition, formations; with formations as condition, consciousness,” there is no end to the succession of cause and result. Therefore the twelve-linked wheel of becoming, occurring through the connection of cause and result, is established as having an unknown beginning.
If it is asked: In that case, does not the phrase “with ignorance as condition, formations” conflict with the fact that it does not state a beginning?—It does not state a temporal beginning. It states the principal dhamma. For ignorance is principal among the three rounds. By grasping ignorance, the remaining round of defilement and kamma and the rest bind a fool, just as when a snake is grasped by the head, the rest of its body coils around the arm. When ignorance is cut off, there is release from them, just as when a snake’s head is cut off, the bound arm is freed. As it is said: “With the remainderless fading away and cessation of ignorance comes the cessation of formations,” and so forth. Thus the statement concerns the principal dhamma whose grasping brings bondage and whose relinquishment brings release; it does not state that dhamma as a temporal beginning. In this way the wheel of becoming should be understood as having an unknown beginning.
Because formations and the rest occur from causes such as ignorance, this wheel is without another maker of saṃsāra imagined as “Brahmā, Mahābrahmā, the Highest, the Creator,” and it is also without a self imagined as “this self of mine is the speaker and the experiencer,” an experiencer of pleasure and pain. Thus it should be understood as without maker and experiencer.
And because ignorance, being a dhamma that arises and ceases, is empty of permanence; being defiled and defiling, empty of purity; being oppressed by arising and ceasing, empty of pleasure; and, because its occurrence depends on conditions, empty of a controlling self—so too are formations and the remaining links. Or ignorance is not a self, does not belong to a self, is not in a self, and does not possess a self; so too are formations and the remaining links. Therefore this wheel of becoming should be understood as empty with twelvefold emptiness.
§3 The Wheel’s Two Roots, Three Times, and Assignment of Links 〔CSCD §653〕
Having known it thus, further—
Its roots are ignorance and craving; it has the three times beginning with the past; within them, the links stated in their own form are two, eight, and two.
It should be understood that the two dhammas ignorance and craving are the roots of this wheel of becoming.
The wheel is twofold: by drawing in the past,⁷ it is rooted in ignorance and ends with feeling; by continuation into the future, it is rooted in craving and ends with aging-and-death. Of these, the former is stated for a person of view-temperament and the latter for a person of craving-temperament. Ignorance leads a person of view-temperament through saṃsāra, while craving leads a person of craving-temperament through saṃsāra. Or the first is stated to eradicate annihilationism, because it shows that the causes do not cease before the arising of their results; the second to eradicate eternalism, because it shows the aging-and-death of what has arisen. Or the former is stated with reference to womb-born beings, because it shows gradual occurrence; the latter with reference to spontaneously born beings, because it shows simultaneous arising.
The three times of this wheel are past, present, and future. Of the links that occur in their own form in the canonical text, the two links “ignorance and formations” belong to the past; the eight links beginning with consciousness and ending with becoming belong to the present; and the two links birth and aging-and-death belong to the future. This is how they should be understood.
§4 Three Joints, Four Groupings, Twenty Modes, and Three Rounds 〔CSCD §654〕
Further—
This wheel has three joints, preceded by cause, result, and cause, and fourfold grouping; with twenty modes as its spokes, it turns through three rounds without coming to rest.
It should also be understood thus.
Here, between formations and rebirth-linking consciousness there is a joint called a cause-result joint; between feeling and craving there is a joint called a result-cause joint; and between becoming and birth there is a cause-result joint. Thus it should be understood as having three joints⁸ preceded by cause, result, and cause.
According to the definition of the beginnings and ends of the joints, it has four groupings. Namely: ignorance and formations are the first grouping; consciousness, name-and-form, the six bases, contact, and feeling are the second; craving, clinging, and becoming are the third; and birth and aging-and-death are the fourth. Thus it should be understood as having fourfold grouping.⁹
Five causes in the past, a group of five results now; five causes now, a group of five results in the future.
With these twenty modes called spokes, it should be understood as “having twenty modes as its spokes.”¹⁰
Here, “five causes in the past”: the two, ignorance and formations, have already been stated. But because an ignorant person craves, a person who craves clings, and that person’s clinging conditions becoming, craving, clinging, and becoming are also included. Thus it is said: “In the former kamma-becoming, delusion is ignorance, accumulation¹¹ is formations, hankering is craving, approach is clinging, and volition is becoming—these five dhammas in the former kamma-becoming are conditions for rebirth-linking here.”
Here, “in the former kamma-becoming” means in the earlier kamma-becoming, when kamma-becoming was being performed in a past life. “Delusion is ignorance”: the delusion at that time regarding dukkha and the rest, through which a deluded person makes kamma, is ignorance. “Accumulation is formations”: these are the prior volitions of the person making that kamma, as when someone, after arousing the thought “I will give a gift,” spends a month or a year preparing the requisites for giving. The volition when the gift is placed in the recipients’ hands is called “becoming.” Or the volitions in the first six impulsions under a single advertence are called “accumulation is formations,” while the seventh¹² is “becoming.” Or any volition may be becoming, and the associated accumulations are called formations. “Hankering is craving”: the delight and aspiration for the result and for rebirth-becoming in the person making kamma is called craving. “Approach is clinging”: the approach, taking, and adherence that conditions kamma-becoming and occurs in such modes as “Having done this, I will enjoy sensual pleasures in such-and-such a place” or “I will be annihilated” is called clinging. “Volition is becoming”: this means that the volition stated at the end of accumulation is becoming.
“A group of five results now”: consciousness through feeling are precisely those found in the canonical text. As it is said: “Rebirth-linking here is consciousness, descent is name-and-form, sensitivity is base, what is contacted is contact, and what is felt is feeling—these five dhammas here in rebirth-becoming have the kamma formerly performed as their condition.” Here, “rebirth-linking is consciousness”: because it arises in the mode of linking to another becoming, it is called rebirth-linking, and it is consciousness. “Descent is name-and-form”: the descent of material and immaterial dhammas into the womb—as though arriving and entering—is name-and-form. “Sensitivity is base”: this is stated with reference to the five bases beginning with the eye. “What is contacted is contact”: the contact that arises while touching its object is contact. “What is felt is feeling”: the resultant experience that arises either together with rebirth-linking consciousness or together with contact conditioned by the six bases is feeling. This is how the meaning should be understood.
“Five causes now”: craving, clinging, and becoming are stated in the canonical text. When becoming is included, its preliminary formations or the formations associated with it are included; when craving and clinging are included, the ignorance associated with them, or the ignorance through which a deluded person makes kamma, is also included. Thus there are five. Therefore it is said: “Here, because the bases have matured, delusion is ignorance, accumulation is formations, hankering is craving, approach is clinging, and volition is becoming—these five dhammas here in kamma-becoming are conditions for future rebirth-linking.” Here, “because the bases have matured” shows the delusion of a person with mature bases at the time of making kamma. The rest of the meaning is clear.
“A group of five results in the future”: these are the five beginning with consciousness. They are stated by the single term “birth”; aging-and-death is the aging-and-death of those same five. Therefore it is said: “Future rebirth-linking is consciousness, descent is name-and-form, sensitivity is base, what is contacted is contact, and what is felt is feeling—these five dhammas in future rebirth-becoming have the kamma performed here as their condition.” Thus the wheel has twenty modes as its spokes.
As for “it turns through three rounds without coming to rest”: formations and becoming are the round of kamma,¹³ ignorance, craving, and clinging are the round of defilement, and consciousness, name-and-form, the six bases, contact, and feeling are the round of result. Thus the wheel of becoming has three rounds through these three rounds; so long as the round of defilement is not cut off, it does not come to rest because its conditions remain uncut, and it keeps turning because it revolves again and again.
§5 Derivation from the Truths and the Two Functions of the Links 〔CSCD §655–656〕
As this wheel turns—
It should be understood as appropriate by derivation from the truths, by function, by prevention, by similes, and by the divisions of profundity and principle.
Here, because the Analysis of the Truths states that wholesome and unwholesome kamma without distinction belong to the truth of origin, formations with ignorance as condition derive from the second truth and are the second truth. Consciousness with formations as condition derives from the second truth and is the first truth. Name-and-form and the rest through resultant feeling, with consciousness and the rest as conditions, derive from the first truth and are the first truth. Craving with feeling as condition derives from the first truth and is the second truth. Clinging with craving as condition derives from the second truth and is the second truth. Becoming with clinging as condition derives from the second truth and is the pair consisting of the first and second truths. Birth with becoming as condition derives from the second truth and is the first truth. Aging-and-death with birth as condition derives from the first truth and is the first truth. Thus, first, the wheel should be understood as appropriate by derivation from the truths.
Here ignorance both deludes beings regarding things and is a condition for the appearance of formations. Formations both form the conditioned and are conditions for consciousness. Consciousness both discerns a thing and is a condition for name-and-form. Name and form support each other; name-and-form is a condition for the six bases. The six bases both occur in their respective fields and are conditions for contact. Contact both touches its object and is a condition for feeling. Feeling both experiences the taste of its object and is a condition for craving. Craving both lusts after dhammas that can be lusted after and is a condition for clinging. Clinging both takes up dhammas that can be clung to and is a condition for becoming. Becoming both casts beings into various destinations and is a condition for birth. Birth both generates the aggregates, since it occurs by bringing them forth, and is a condition for aging-and-death. Aging-and-death both presides over the maturation and breakup of the aggregates and is a condition for the appearance of another existence, since it serves as the basis for sorrow and the rest. Therefore the wheel should also be understood as appropriate by the twofold function occurring in every clause.
§6 Preventing Wrong Views and Twenty-Four Similes 〔CSCD §657–658〕
Here “with ignorance as condition, formations” prevents a view of a maker; “with formations as condition, consciousness” prevents a view of a transmigrating self; “with consciousness as condition, name-and-form,” by showing the analysis of the basis imagined as “self,” prevents the perception of a compact whole; and “with name-and-form as condition, the six bases” and the clauses that follow prevent such views as “A self sees … and so forth (as stated above) … knows, touches, feels, craves, clings, becomes, is born, ages, and dies.” Thus the wheel of becoming should also be understood as appropriate by the prevention of wrong views.
Here, because ignorance does not see the individual and general characteristics of dhammas, it is like a blind person; formations with ignorance as condition are like the blind person’s stumbling; consciousness with formations as condition is like the fall of someone who has stumbled; name-and-form with consciousness as condition is like the appearance of a boil on someone who has fallen; the six bases with name-and-form as condition are like pustules caused when the boil bursts; contact with the six bases as condition is like the striking of the boil’s pustules; feeling with contact as condition is like the pain of the strike; craving with feeling as condition is like the wish to remedy the pain; clinging with craving as condition is like taking an unsuitable remedy through the wish to remedy the pain; becoming with clinging as condition is like applying the unsuitable remedy that was taken; birth with becoming as condition is like the alteration appearing in the boil through the application of the unsuitable remedy; aging-and-death with birth as condition is like the boil bursting through the alteration.
Or here ignorance overpowers beings through non-practice and wrong practice, like a film covering the eyes. A fool overpowered by it binds himself with formations that produce renewed becoming, like a cocoon-making worm with strands of its cocoon. Consciousness taken up by formations gains a footing in destinations, like a prince supported by a minister who gains a footing in his kingdom. Through construing the sign of rebirth, consciousness produces name-and-form of many kinds at rebirth-linking, like an illusionist producing an illusion. The six bases established in name-and-form reach growth, increase, and fullness, like a woodland established in good soil. Contact arises from the impingement of the bases, like fire from rubbing fire-sticks together. Feeling appears in a person touched by contact, like burning in a person touched by fire. Craving grows in a person who feels, like the thirst of a person drinking salt water. A thirsty person desires the various kinds of becoming, like someone thirsty for drink; that is clinging. Through clinging, a person takes up becoming, like a fish swallowing a hook through greed for bait. When becoming is present, birth occurs, like a sprout when a seed is present. For someone born, aging-and-death are inevitable, like the fall of a tree that has grown. Thus the wheel of becoming should also be understood as appropriate through these similes.
§7 Four Profundities—Meaning, Dhamma, Teaching, and Penetration 〔CSCD §659〕
Because the Blessed One, referring to profundity in meaning, dhamma, teaching, and penetration,¹⁴ said, “This dependent arising is profound, Ānanda, and appears profound,” the wheel of becoming should also be understood as appropriate by the divisions of profundity.
Here, aging-and-death does not fail to occur from birth, nor does it occur from some other cause apart from birth, and it arises from birth in precisely this way. Because the meaning of arising with birth as condition is hard to understand, the meaning of aging-and-death as born and arisen from birth as condition is profound. Likewise, the meaning of birth as born and arisen with becoming as condition … and so forth (as stated above) … through the meaning of formations as born and arisen with ignorance as condition is profound. Thus this wheel of becoming is profound in meaning; this is the profundity of meaning here. For the result of a cause is called “meaning.” As it is said: “Knowledge of the result of a cause is discrimination of meaning.”
Because it is hard to understand in what mode and under what circumstances ignorance conditions particular formations, the conditional meaning of ignorance in relation to formations is profound. Likewise, the conditional meaning of formations … and so forth (as stated above) … through birth in relation to aging-and-death is profound. Thus this wheel of becoming is profound in dhamma; this is the profundity of dhamma here. For a cause is called “dhamma.” As it is said: “Knowledge of a cause is discrimination of dhamma.”
Because its teaching must proceed in different ways for different reasons, the teaching too is profound; no knowledge other than omniscient knowledge gains a footing there. Thus in some suttas it is taught in forward order, in some in reverse order, in some in both forward and reverse order, in some beginning from the middle and proceeding forward or backward, in some as three joints and four groupings, in some as two joints and three groupings, and in some as one joint and two groupings. Therefore this wheel of becoming is profound in teaching; this is the profundity of teaching.
And because the nature of ignorance and the other links—through penetrating which they are rightly penetrated according to their individual characteristics—is hard to fathom, it is profound; therefore this wheel of becoming is profound in penetration. Here the meanings of ignorance as unknowing, not seeing, and non-penetration of the truths are profound; the meanings of formations as forming, accumulation, with lust, and without lust; of consciousness as empty, inactive, non-transmigrating, rebirth-linking, and manifestation; of name-and-form as conascent, separable, inseparable, bending, and changing; of the six bases as predominance, world, door, field, and possession of a domain; of contact as touching, impingement, meeting, and convergence; of feeling as experiencing the taste of the object, pleasure, pain, neutrality, and soulless experience; of craving as delighting, adherence, stream, creeper, river, and the hard-to-fill ocean of craving; of clinging as taking, grasping, fixation, adherence, and hard to cross; of becoming as accumulation, forming, and casting into births, destinations, stations of consciousness, and abodes of beings; of birth as birth, full birth, descent, production, and manifestation; and of aging-and-death as exhaustion, decay, breakup, and change—all are profound. This is the profundity of penetration here.
§8 Four Principles and the Chapter Close 〔CSCD §660–661〕
Because there are here four principles of meaning—the principle of unity, the principle of diversity, the principle of non-activity, and the principle of specific conditionality—the wheel of becoming should also be understood as appropriate by the divisions of principle.
Here the uninterruptedness of the continuum in the sequence “with ignorance as condition, formations; with formations as condition, consciousness,” like a seed arriving at the state of a tree through becoming a sprout and so forth, is called the principle of unity. Seeing it rightly, a person abandons annihilationism through understanding the continuum’s non-interruption by the connection of cause and result. Seeing it wrongly, a person adopts eternalism by grasping as unity the non-interruption of a continuum occurring through the connection of cause and result.
The definition of ignorance and the rest according to each link’s own characteristic is called the principle of diversity. Seeing it rightly, a person abandons eternalism by seeing the arising of ever-new dhammas. Seeing it wrongly, a person adopts annihilationism by grasping what falls within a single continuum as diversity, as though the continuum had been broken.
The absence of activity such as “formations must be produced by me from ignorance,” or “consciousness must be produced by us from formations,” is called the principle of non-activity. Seeing it rightly, a person abandons self-view by understanding the absence of a maker. Seeing it wrongly, a person adopts the view of no action by failing to grasp the causal efficacy of ignorance and the rest, established by the regularity of their own natures even though there is no such activity.
From causes such as ignorance, only their corresponding effects such as formations arise, just as curd and the rest arise from milk and the rest, and not other effects: this is called the principle of specific conditionality. Seeing it rightly, a person abandons causelessness and the view of no action by understanding a result in accordance with its conditions. Seeing it wrongly, a person adopts causelessness and determinism¹⁵ by failing to grasp the occurrence of results in accordance with their conditions and imagining that anything can arise from anywhere. Thus this wheel of becoming—
should be understood as appropriate by derivation from the truths, by function, by prevention, by similes, and by the divisions of profundity and principle.
For this wheel is bottomless because it is exceedingly profound, and hard to cross because of its thicket of many principles. Without the sword of wisdom well sharpened on the excellent whetstone of concentration—
unless the wheel of becoming, crushing ceaselessly like a thunderbolt-wheel, is split, no person escapes the fear of saṃsāra, even in a dream.
For the Blessed One also said: “This dependent arising is profound, Ānanda, and appears profound. Ānanda, through not awakening to and not penetrating this Dhamma, this generation has become like a tangled skein, like a knotted ball of thread, like matted muñja grass, unable to pass beyond bad destinations, states of deprivation, ruin, and saṃsāra.” Therefore a person practicing for the welfare and happiness of self or others should abandon all remaining duties—
Here in the profound distinctions of the modes of conditions, the wise should always train mindfully until they gain a footing.
In the Visuddhimagga, composed for the joy of good people,
in the section on the development of wisdom,
called the Explanation of the Ground of Wisdom,
the seventeenth chapter is complete.
Notes
¹ Explanation of the truths: the chapter on the truths in the preceding part of this treatise; the treatise states that the determination of birth, aging-and-death, sorrow, and the rest has already been given there and so does not repeat it here.
² Kamma-becoming and rebirth-becoming (kammabhava・upapattibhava): kamma-becoming is the kamma produced, while rebirth-becoming is the resultant becoming produced; their distinction appears in this chapter’s unit on the detailed account of clinging conditioning becoming, and the present unit takes only kamma-becoming as the condition for birth.
³ Wheel of becoming (bhavacakka): the collective name for the whole formed by the twelve links turning through the connection of cause and result; the name first appears in this chapter’s general account of dependent arising, while its proper explanation occurs here.
⁴ Twelvefold emptiness (dvādasavidhasuññatā): the treatise establishes permanence, purity, pleasure, and self in relation to each of the twelve links, saying that every link is empty of all four.
⁵ Taint of sensual desire, taint of views, taint of becoming, and taint of ignorance (kāmāsava・diṭṭhāsava・bhavāsava・avijjāsava): the four taints; this unit cites sources in turn to establish that sorrow and the rest arise from the arising of these four.
⁶ Five portents (pubbanimittāni): the five signs of decline that appear before a deva’s death.
⁷ Drawing in the past and continuation into the future (pubbantāharaṇa・aparantasantāna): the two spans associated with the wheel’s two roots—the span rooted in ignorance draws in the past and ends with feeling, while the span rooted in craving shows continuation into the future and ends with aging-and-death.
⁸ Three joints (tisandhi): the three connections between formations and rebirth-linking consciousness, between feeling and craving, and between becoming and birth.
⁹ Fourfold grouping (catubhedasaṅgaha): the twelve links gathered into four groups according to the beginnings and ends of the joints—ignorance and formations; consciousness through feeling; craving, clinging, and becoming; birth and aging-and-death.
¹⁰ Twenty modes as spokes (vīsati ākārāra): each of the four groupings is opened into five, yielding twenty; these are likened to the spokes of a wheel.
¹¹ Accumulation, hankering, approach, descent, and sensitivity (āyūhanā・nikanti・upagamana・okkanti・pasāda): alternate names in the passage on the twenty modes for formations, craving, clinging, name-and-form, and base.
¹² The seventh [impulsion]: the treatise counts six or seven impulsions under a single advertence; the volitions of the first six are called “accumulation is formations,” while the volition of the seventh is called “becoming.” The exposition of the twenty-nine volitions classed as formations appears in this chapter’s unit on the clause “with ignorance as condition, formations.”
¹³ Round of kamma, round of defilement, and round of result (kammavaṭṭa・kilesavaṭṭa・vipākavaṭṭa): the three rounds—formations and becoming are the round of kamma; ignorance, craving, and clinging are the round of defilement; consciousness through feeling are the round of result.
¹⁴ Four profundities: meaning, dhamma, teaching, and penetration; this chapter’s general account of dependent arising earlier stated, “Profundity is fourfold; we shall discuss it later,” and the present unit gives that proper explanation.
¹⁵ Determinism (niyatavāda): the view that all arising is fixed and does not accord with conditions; this unit groups it with causelessness as a view taken by those who fail to grasp “the occurrence of results in accordance with their conditions.”
¹⁶ Thunderbolt-wheel (asanivicakka): like a wheel of lightning, ceaselessly crushing; the unit uses it as a simile for the wheel of becoming.
輪子靠條件自轉，不需要推手——也正因如此，拔掉條件，輪子就停
大局 — 把十二支合成一個輪
前十單元逐句拆完，本單元先收最後三句「有緣生、生緣老死愁等」（白話 §1），然後把整條鏈合起來看成有輪：它由愁等而回到無明、不知其初、離作者受者、十二種空（白話 §2）；二本、三時、諸支之屬（白話 §3）；三連結、四攝、二十行相、三輪轉（白話 §4）；諦之所出與二作用（白話 §5）；遮邪見與二十四喻（白話 §6）；四種甚深（白話 §7）；四種理趣與品末（白話 §8）。十二支最容易被讀成一條「從無明到老死」的單向直線。更有用的讀法：它是一個自我餵養的迴路——老死之後不是終點，果位的眾生繼續無明、繼續愛取，輪子接回開頭；三輪（§04）最能顯這個圈。一點詮釋的提醒：本單元那套「三世兩重因果」（白話 §3–§4），是《清淨道論》明確採取的釋——把十二支攤在三生上，為南傳註釋傳統之主流。讀者宜知這是覺音所採之一種尺度；傳統中亦有將十二支讀為當下、乃至剎那即具之條件相續者。本義疏忠於 Vism，主述三世釋，餘讀僅此一提，不展開。〔所見〕
§01 有緣生・生緣老死愁等 → 白話 §1
生等之決擇依諦之解釋；此處「有」唯以業有為意趣——業有才是生的緣，生有不是；依業緣與親依止緣二種為緣（白話 §1）。何以知有是生的緣？——外緣相等（生父生母精血食物）而有情乃至雙生者仍有劣勝差別；差別非無因、非業有以外之別因——「業分別有情，這就是說劣與勝」。無生則無老死無愁等；有生才有老死與愁等（在被稱為老死的苦法所觸的愚人身上，或與老死相連、或不相連而為苦法所觸時）——生依親依止一種為老死與愁等之緣。〔讀法〕「即使是雙生者」——同父同母同食同時，仍不一樣：論主拿最難反駁的例子證「有是生的緣」。而「愁等不必與老死相連」一句先鋪了下一節：愁可以在活著的任何時候起——它是輪子接回開頭的接縫。
§02 有輪之四事——無明由愁等而立・不知其初・無作者受者・十二空 → 白話 §2
愁等在末後說，故初句之無明應知：由愁等而無明成立，這有輪不知其初；它離作者與受者，以十二種空性而空——並且恆常不斷地轉起（白話 §2）。由愁等而無明成立：愁憂惱與無明不相離、悲屬愚迷者，故它們一成立無明就成立；「由漏之集而有無明之集」——愁等正由漏之集而有：欲漏（「那個貪求諸欲、生了欲求的人，若他的那些欲衰減了，他就如中箭一般地痛」）、見漏（「他以『我是色、色是我的』而住於纏縛，由於色的變異與變壞，就生起愁悲苦憂惱」）、有漏（長壽多樂之諸天聞如來說法亦怖畏悚懼——如見五種前相為死怖所迫）、無明漏（「那個愚人於現法之中領受三種苦與憂」）；愁等成立→諸漏成立→無明成立。不知其初：無明依緣有故彼有而成立後又是無明緣行……因果相續無終盡；「無明緣行」非說初始，是說主法——三種輪轉中無明是主，執取無明則餘煩惱輪與業等纏縛愚人如執蛇頭則蛇身纏臂，永斷無明則解脫如斷蛇頭則臂解。離作者受者：行等由無明等之因而轉起，故離「梵天、大梵天、最勝者、能造者」之作者，離「我的這個我是能語者、能受者」之受者。十二空：無明以生滅之法性空於常、以雜染而能雜染空於淨、以為生滅所逼空於樂、以轉起繫於緣空於能自在之我；行等諸支同；或無明不是我、不屬於我、不在我之中、不具有我，餘支同。〔讀法〕這一節是十二支合成輪子的樞紐：愁等→漏→無明→行——老死的餘波（愁悲苦憂惱）就是下一圈的無明的養料。「執蛇頭」之喻則回答了「無明是不是第一因」：不是頭在時間上最先，是抓住它整條蛇都纏上來、斷了它整條蛇都脫落——它是主，不是始。〔所見〕
§03 有輪之二本・三世・諸支之屬 → 白話 §3
有輪之本＝無明與渴愛二法；二種有輪：取前際者以無明為本、以受為終（依見行者；為根除斷見——顯諸因對果之生起不斷絕；依胎生者——顯次第而轉起）；後際之相續者以渴愛為本、以老死為終（依愛行者；為根除常見——顯已生者的老死；依化生者——顯俱時而生）（白話 §3）。三時：無明與行二支過去時；識至有八支現在時；生與老死二支未來時。〔讀法〕輪子有兩個把手：見行的人從無明抓起，愛行的人從渴愛抓起——這對應 17-01 §06「輪說之二首」；而兩種讀法各治一種邊見（斷、常）。三時的分配（2・8・2）是南傳釋的骨架：過去造的（無明行）→現在受的（識至受）＋現在造的（渴愛取有）→未來受的（生老死）。
§04 三連結・四攝・二十行相・三輪轉 → 白話 §4
三連結：行與結生識之間（因果）、受與渴愛之間（果因）、有與生之間（因果）（白話 §4）。四攝：無明行／識名色六處觸受／渴愛取有／生老死。二十行相：過去五因（無明・行——「在前業有之中，癡是無明，積聚是行，欣求是渴愛，趣入是取，思是有」：積聚＝造業者之諸前思如準備布施資具者一月一年之前思、或同一轉向六速行之思，第七速行之思或安置施物於受施者手中之思＝有；欣求＝對果對生有之欣樂希求；趣入＝「作了這個我將在某處受用諸欲」「我將斷滅」之執取）；現在五果（「此處的結生是識，入胎是名色，淨是處，所觸是觸，所受是受」）；現在五因（渴愛取有及所取之行與無明——「此處由於諸處已成熟，癡是無明……思是有」）；未來五果（「未來的結生是識……所受是受」）。三輪轉：行與有＝業輪，無明渴愛取＝煩惱輪，識名色六處觸受＝異熟輪——只要煩惱輪不斷，緣未斷而不住，一再回轉。〔讀法〕若十二支記不住，記三輪就夠：煩惱（無明、渴愛、取）→推動造業（行、有）→結成果報（識、名色、六處、觸、受）→果報之身又起煩惱…… 輪子就這樣轉。這張圖的修行用處極大：它直接告訴你下手處在哪。你改不了已成的果報（受已生），但你能在煩惱輪動手——尤其在「受→渴愛」那一個接點：外境來、受生起，這都還是果報，不由你；但「受→起貪愛」那一步，是新煩惱的起點，是輪子續轉的扳機。修行的縫，就在這裡（17-08）。而三連結中「受與渴愛之間」正是唯一的「果因」連結——三個接縫裡只有這一個是從果接到因：果已生不由你，因未起則可以不起，所以它是當下最切近的下手處（永斷無明則全輪解脫——本單元蛇頭之喻自明之，但那是道果之事；此刻手邊能不接的，是這一個接縫）。〔所見〕
§05 諦之所出與諸支之二作用 → 白話 §5
依諦之所出（善不善之業無差別是集諦）：行——第二諦所出而是第二諦；識——第二諦所出而是第一諦；名色至受——第一諦所出而是第一諦；渴愛——第一諦所出而是第二諦；取——第二諦所出而是第二諦；有——第二諦所出而是第一與第二二諦；生——第二諦所出而是第一諦；老死——第一諦所出而是第一諦（白話 §5）。二作用：無明一面令有情迷惑一面為行之緣；行一面行作有為一面為識之緣；識一面了別一面為名色之緣；名色一面互相支持一面為六處之緣；六處一面於自境轉起一面為觸之緣；觸一面觸所緣一面為受之緣；受一面領受所緣之味一面為渴愛之緣；渴愛一面於可染之法而染一面為取之緣；取一面取著一面為有之緣；有一面散置於種種趣一面為生之緣；生一面生諸蘊一面為老死之緣；老死一面主宰諸蘊之熟與壞一面為他有之顯現之緣（愁等之所依）。〔讀法〕十二支只有兩種顏色：苦諦（果）與集諦（因）——整條鏈就是苦與集在交替。而「二作用」說每一支都同時做兩件事：做自己的事、並且是下一支的緣——沒有一支只是「果」，每一支都同時在推。
§06 遮邪見與二十四喻 → 白話 §6
遮邪見：「無明緣行」遮見作者；「行緣識」遮見我之移轉；「識緣名色」顯被計為「我」之事物之分析而遮密聚之想；「名色緣六處」等遮「我見……我知、我觸、我受、我渴愛、我取、我有、我生、我老、我死」之見（白話 §6）。癰之組：無明如盲人；行如盲人之顛蹶；識如顛蹶者之跌倒；名色如跌倒者之生癰；六處如癰破而生的皰；觸如癰皰之被觸；受如被觸之苦；渴愛如對治苦的欲求；取如由治苦之欲求而取非所宜之物；有如塗敷所取的非所宜之物；生如由塗敷非所宜之物而癰生變異；老死如癰由變異而潰破。他之組：無明如翳之蔽目；行如作繭之蟲以繭自纏；識如為輔相所攝持的王子在王位上得住立；名色如幻師之作幻；六處如住立於良地的叢林增長繁茂；觸如鑽木相摩而生火；受如為火所觸者之被燒；渴愛如飲鹽水者之渴；取如口渴者對飲料之欲求、如魚因貪餌而吞鉤；有如有了種子就有芽；生老死如已生的樹必倒。〔讀法〕遮邪見一段把十二支讀成十二個「不是我」：不是我在造、不是我在移轉、不是一個整體的我、不是我在看知觸受愛取有生老死。二十四喻則給讀者兩條路走一遍十二支：癰之組是一個病人的病歷（盲→跌→癰→皰→觸→痛→亂治→更壞→潰破）；他之組是十二幅獨立的畫（繭・王子・幻師・叢林・鑽木・鹽水・魚鉤・種芽・樹倒）。飲鹽水者之渴——受緣渴愛的喻——大概是全書最準的一筆：越喝越渴。〔所見〕
§07 四種甚深——義・法・說・通達 → 白話 §7
「阿難啊，這緣起是甚深的，而且顯現為甚深的」——四甚深（白話 §7）：義甚深——老死不從別因而唯從生來，「以生為緣而來」之義難知（因之果為「義」——義無礙解）；法甚深——無明以何行相於何分位為諸行之緣難知（因為「法」——法無礙解）；說甚深——說法依種種原因種種轉起：順、逆、順逆、自中間起、三連結四攝、二連結三攝、一連結二攝——除一切知智外別智得不到立足；通達甚深——無明的無知不見不通達諦之義，行的行作積聚有貪離貪之義，識的空無作用不移轉結生顯現之義，名色的俱生可分不可分傾向變壞之義，六處的增上世間門田有境之義，觸的觸觸擊會合集合之義，受的領受所緣之味樂苦中庸無命者之所受之義，渴愛的歡喜耽著如流如蔓如河如渴愛之海難滿之義，取的執取執持現貪著執著難越之義，有的積聚行作投入諸生類趣住居之義，生的生等生入胎出生顯現之義，老死的盡滅壞變異之義——皆甚深。〔讀法〕四甚深呼應 17-01 §06 四無礙解（義／法＝果／因）。而「說甚深」一條是論主對自己這一品的自覺：他把緣起說了十一單元，仍說「除一切知智外別智得不到立足處」——這一品是在為讀者鋪路，不是在替讀者走完。
§08 四種理趣與品末 → 白話 §8
四理趣（白話 §8）：一性之理趣——如種子由芽而樹的相續不斷絕；正見者知相續依因果相連不斷而捨斷見，邪見者執相續為一性而取常見。異性之理趣——無明等各依自相安立；正見者見新新者之生起而捨常見，邪見者執同一相續者為異性如相續已斷而取斷見。無作用之理趣——「諸行應當由我從無明生起」等作用之無；正見者知作者之無而捨我見，邪見者不取「即使無作用、無明等依自性之定則而成立的因性」而取無作用見。如是法性之理趣——由無明等唯有行等生起如由乳而有酪；正見者隨順於緣了知果而捨無因見與無作用見，邪見者執「隨便什麼都能從隨便哪裡生」而取無因見與定命論。有輪極甚深而無底、種種理趣稠密難越——「若不以在定之勝石上善磨利的智之劍，破那如電輪之常搗一般的有輪，則超越輪迴之怖者，即使在夢中也沒有一個」；世尊：「由於不隨覺、不通達這個法，這樣的人眾就成為如亂線之聚、如打結之線球、如文闍草與波波草，不能越過惡趣、苦界、墮處與輪迴」；「智者於此甚深的緣之行相之別，應當常具念而這樣精勤，直到得其底處。」品末奧書：於為令善人歡喜而造的《清淨道論》中，慧之修習之章裡，名為慧地之解釋的第十七品。〔讀法〕四理趣是全品最精的收束：一性與異性、無作用與如是法性，兩兩對治四種邊見——一性治斷見（有相續），異性治常見（每一支是新的），無作用治我見（沒有作者），如是法性治無因見（果隨緣）。正見與邪見看的是同一個輪，差在哪裡取、哪裡放。而末偈說「智之劍」須「在定之勝石上磨利」——回到全書的次第：慧的刀，磨在定的石上。〔所見〕
破執 — 把「我」請出因果，卻留下因果〔解碼者的讀法〕
這是緣起最鋒利、也最反直覺的一刀。白話 §2 立了三事：不知其初、離作者受者、十二種空（另見 §8 四理趣：無第一因、無我轉生、離常斷二邊）。解碼成一句：緣起拆掉了「有一個我在造業、受報、輪迴」的故事，卻沒有拆掉因果本身。 對「有一個常住的我」（常見）：緣起說——找不到那個我，只有條件生條件。對「死了就一了百了」（斷見）：緣起說——條件仍相續，業仍結生，「非一非異」（17-05：不是同一個我投胎，也不是斷滅無關）。這就是前面第 14 品那把尺推到盡頭：第 14 品把「我」拆成五蘊，這一品把那五蘊放回時間之流，顯示它們依緣自轉、不需要一個擁有者。而正因為輪子是條件轉的，斷掉條件（無明、渴愛）它就停——白話 §2「斷了蛇頭，被纏縛的手臂就解脫」。減法的終點不是虛無，是輪子的止息。〔所見〕
給一般讀者 — 你今天就能用的
- 記三輪，別背二十四緣。 一句話帶走：煩惱推動造業，造業結成果報，果報又起煩惱。 這就夠你看懂輪子（白話 §4）。
- 盯住「受→渴愛」那個接點。 日常裡實修的縫就在這：不舒服的感受升起（受，這你擋不住），下一刻你撲上去想推開它、或抓住舒服的（渴愛、取，這你抓得住）。在這一步看見、不自動接上，就是當下把輪子鬆一格（17-08）。
- 緣起不是宿命論。 它說的恰恰相反：正因為一切依緣，條件變了，果就變——包括苦。這是希望的結構，不是認命的結構（白話 §8 如是法性之理趣：邪見者才取定命論）。
想讀本單元全文：白話 §1–§8 即有緣生等三句、有輪之四事、二本三時、三連結四攝二十行相三輪轉、諦之所出與二作用、遮邪見與二十四喻、四甚深、四理趣與品末的全段逐段全譯。本品極長，建議搭配三輪（白話 §4）邊讀邊對。
一句話收束：緣起把「我」請出了因果故事，卻留下因果——輪子靠條件自轉，不需要推手；也正因如此，拔掉條件（無明、渴愛），輪子就停。這不是虛無，是止息。
The Wheel Turns by Conditions, without Need of a Mover—and Precisely Because of This, When the Conditions Are Removed, the Wheel Stops
The Big Picture — Gathering the Twelve Links into a Wheel
After the preceding ten units have unfolded the clauses one by one, this unit first gathers the final three clauses, “with becoming as condition, birth; with birth as condition, aging-and-death, sorrow, and the rest” (vernacular §1), and then views the entire chain together as the wheel of becoming: ignorance is established by sorrow and the rest, the wheel’s beginning is unknown, it is without maker or experiencer, and it is empty with twelvefold emptiness (vernacular §2); its two roots, three times, and assignment of links (vernacular §3); three joints, four groupings, twenty modes, and three rounds (vernacular §4); derivation from the truths and two functions (vernacular §5); prevention of wrong views and twenty-four similes (vernacular §6); four profundities (vernacular §7); and four principles together with the chapter close (vernacular §8). The twelve links are easily read as a one-way line “from ignorance to aging-and-death.” A more useful reading is that they are a self-feeding circuit—aging-and-death is not the end: beings in the resultant phase continue in ignorance and continue to crave and cling, so the wheel reconnects with its beginning; the three rounds (§04) show this circuit most clearly. An interpretive reminder: this unit’s scheme of “two causal sequences across three times” (vernacular §§3–4) is an explicit interpretation adopted by the Visuddhimagga: it lays the twelve links across three lives and became the mainstream Theravāda commentarial reading. Readers should know that this is a scale adopted by Buddhaghosa; the tradition also contains readings of the twelve links as a present, even momentary, conditional continuum. This exposition remains faithful to the Vism and presents the three-time interpretation as primary; the other reading is only noted here and not developed. 〔Observation〕
§01 With Becoming as Condition, Birth; with Birth as Condition, Aging-and-Death, Sorrow, and the Rest → Vernacular §1
The determination of birth and the rest follows the explanation of the truths; here “becoming” intends kamma-becoming alone—kamma-becoming, not rebirth-becoming, is the condition for birth, and it conditions birth in two modes, as kamma condition and decisive-support condition (vernacular §1). How is it known that becoming is the condition for birth? Although the external conditions—father, mother, semen, blood, and food—are equal, beings, even twins, still differ as inferior and superior; the difference is neither causeless nor due to another cause besides kamma-becoming—“Kamma distinguishes beings, that is, as inferior and superior.” Without birth there is no aging-and-death and no sorrow and the rest; with birth there are aging-and-death and sorrow and the rest (in a foolish person touched by the dukkha called aging-and-death, whether connected with aging-and-death or, when touched by another painful dhamma, unconnected with it)—birth is their condition in a single mode, as decisive support. 〔Reading〕 “Even twins”: the same parents, food, and time, yet they remain different. The Commentator uses the hardest case to refute in establishing that becoming is the condition for birth. And the statement that “sorrow need not be connected with aging-and-death” prepares the next section: sorrow can arise at any time while life continues—it is the seam by which the wheel connects back to its beginning.
§02 Four Things about the Wheel of Becoming—Ignorance Established by Sorrow and the Rest, Beginning Unknown, without Maker or Experiencer, Twelvefold Emptiness → Vernacular §2
Because sorrow and the rest are stated at the end, the ignorance stated in the opening clause is to be understood thus: ignorance is established by sorrow and the rest; this wheel of becoming has an unknown beginning; it is without maker and experiencer and is empty with twelvefold emptiness—and it turns continuously without interruption (vernacular §2). Ignorance is established by sorrow and the rest: sorrow, grief, and despair are not dissociated from ignorance, and lamentation belongs to someone deluded; when they are established, ignorance is established. “With the arising of the taints comes the arising of ignorance”—sorrow and the rest arise from the taints: the taint of sensual desire (“For that person who desires sensual pleasures, in whom desire has arisen, if those sensual pleasures decline, he suffers as though pierced by an arrow”); the taint of views (“While he remains obsessed with ‘I am form, form is mine,’ sorrow, lamentation, dukkha, grief, and despair arise through form’s change and alteration”); the taint of becoming (even long-lived devas rich in pleasure become fearful and stirred on hearing the Tathāgata’s teaching—like devas terrified by the five portents); and the taint of ignorance (“That fool experiences three kinds of dukkha and grief here and now”). Thus the occurrence of sorrow and the rest establishes the taints, and the taints condition ignorance. Beginning unknown: once ignorance is established through conditions, the sequence continues again as ignorance conditions formations and formations condition consciousness, without an end to the succession of cause and result. “With ignorance as condition, formations” does not name a temporal first point; it names the principal dhamma. Ignorance is principal among the three rounds: grasping a snake by the head lets the rest of its body coil around the arm, while cutting off the head frees the bound arm; in the same way, grasping ignorance allows the remaining round of defilement and kamma to bind the fool, and cutting off ignorance brings release from them. The simile marks ignorance as principal, not temporally first. Without maker or experiencer: because formations and the rest occur from conditions such as ignorance, the wheel is without a creator of saṃsāra imagined as “Brahmā, Mahābrahmā, the Highest, the Creator,” and without a self imagined as speaker and experiencer of pleasure and pain. Twelvefold emptiness: ignorance is empty of permanence because it arises and ceases, empty of purity because it is defiled and defiling, empty of pleasure because it is oppressed by arising and ceasing, and empty of a controlling self because its occurrence depends on conditions; all the other links are the same. Or ignorance is not self, does not belong to a self, is not in a self, and does not possess a self; the remaining links are the same. 〔Reading〕 This section is the pivot that turns the twelve links into a wheel: sorrow and the rest establish the taints; the taints condition ignorance; ignorance conditions formations—the aftershock of aging-and-death feeds the next circuit. The snake-head simile answers “Is ignorance a first cause?” No: the head is not temporally first; when it is grasped, the whole snake coils around the arm, and when it is cut, the arm is freed. Ignorance is principal, not first. 〔Observation〕
§03 The Wheel’s Two Roots, Three Times, and Assignment of Links → Vernacular §3
The wheel has two roots, ignorance and craving. It has two spans: the span that draws in the past is rooted in ignorance and ends with feeling (stated for a person of view-temperament; to eradicate annihilationism by showing that causes do not cease before their results arise; and for womb-born beings by showing gradual occurrence); the continuation into the future is rooted in craving and ends with aging-and-death (stated for a person of craving-temperament; to eradicate eternalism by showing the aging-and-death of what has arisen; and for spontaneously born beings by showing simultaneous arising) (vernacular §3). Its three times are: the two links ignorance and formations in the past; the eight links consciousness through becoming in the present; and the two links birth and aging-and-death in the future. 〔Reading〕 The wheel has two handles: a person of view-temperament takes it up from ignorance, and a person of craving-temperament from craving—this corresponds to the “two heads of discourse on the round” in 17-01 §06; the two presentations each counter one extreme view, annihilationism and eternalism. The allocation across three times (2–8–2) is the framework of the Theravāda interpretation: what was produced in the past (ignorance and formations) → what is experienced now (consciousness through feeling) + what is produced now (craving, clinging, becoming) → what will be experienced in the future (birth and aging-and-death).
§04 Three Joints, Four Groupings, Twenty Modes, and Three Rounds → Vernacular §4
Three joints: between formations and rebirth-linking consciousness (cause to result), between feeling and craving (result to cause), and between becoming and birth (cause to result) (vernacular §4). Four groupings: ignorance and formations / consciousness, name-and-form, six bases, contact, feeling / craving, clinging, becoming / birth and aging-and-death. Twenty modes: five past causes (ignorance and formations—“in the former kamma-becoming, delusion is ignorance, accumulation is formations, hankering is craving, approach is clinging, volition is becoming”: accumulation means the preparatory volitions of a person making kamma, such as the prior volitions of someone who spends a month or a year preparing requisites for a gift, or the volitions in the first six impulsions under a single advertence; the seventh impulsion, or the volition that places the gift in the recipient’s hands, is becoming; hankering is delight and aspiration for the result and for rebirth-becoming; approach is the taking expressed as “having done this, I will enjoy sensual pleasures there” or “I will be annihilated”); five present results (“rebirth-linking here is consciousness, descent is name-and-form, sensitivity is base, what is contacted is contact, what is felt is feeling”); five present causes (craving, clinging, and becoming together with the included formations and ignorance—“here, when the bases have matured, delusion is ignorance … volition is becoming”); and five future results (“future rebirth-linking is consciousness … what is felt is feeling”). Three rounds: formations and becoming are the round of kamma; ignorance, craving, and clinging are the round of defilement; consciousness, name-and-form, the six bases, contact, and feeling are the round of result. So long as the round of defilement is not cut off, the conditions remain and the wheel continues to turn. 〔Reading〕 If the twelve links are hard to remember, remember the three rounds: defilement (ignorance, craving, clinging) → drives kamma (formations, becoming) → yields result (consciousness, name-and-form, six bases, contact, feeling) → the resultant life gives rise to defilement again. This is how the wheel turns. The practical use of the diagram is that it shows where practice can enter. A result already arisen cannot be undone, but work can occur in the round of defilement—most immediately at the joint “feeling → craving”: an object arrives and feeling arises; craving need not automatically follow. Among the three joints, only this joint runs from result to cause; because the result has already arisen while the next cause has not, this is the only joint at which the next link can be left unmade in the immediate practice frame. The snake-head simile shows that the complete cutting off of ignorance releases the whole round. 〔Observation〕
§05 Derivation from the Truths and the Two Functions of the Links → Vernacular §5
By derivation from the truths (wholesome and unwholesome kamma alike belong to the truth of origin): formations derive from the second truth and are the second truth; consciousness derives from the second and is the first; name-and-form through feeling derive from the first and are the first; craving derives from the first and is the second; clinging derives from the second and is the second; becoming derives from the second and is both the first and second; birth derives from the second and is the first; aging-and-death derives from the first and is the first (vernacular §5). Each link has two functions: ignorance deludes beings regarding things and conditions formations; formations form the conditioned and condition consciousness; consciousness discerns and conditions name-and-form; name and form support each other, and name-and-form conditions the six bases; the six bases occur in their respective fields and condition contact; contact touches its object and conditions feeling; feeling experiences the taste of its object and conditions craving; craving lusts after what can be lusted after and conditions clinging; clinging takes up what can be clung to and conditions becoming; becoming casts beings into various destinations and conditions birth; birth generates the aggregates and conditions aging-and-death; aging-and-death presides over the maturation and breakup of the aggregates and conditions the appearance of another existence by serving as the basis for sorrow and the rest. 〔Reading〕 The twelve links have only two colors, the truth of dukkha (result) and the truth of origin (cause)—the whole chain alternates between result and cause. And “two functions” means that each link does two things at once: it performs its own function and conditions the next link. No link is merely a result; each also pushes onward.
§06 Preventing Wrong Views and Twenty-Four Similes → Vernacular §6
Preventing wrong views: “with ignorance as condition, formations” prevents a view of a maker; “with formations as condition, consciousness” prevents a view of a transmigrating self; “with consciousness as condition, name-and-form” prevents the perception of a compact whole by analyzing what is imagined as a self; “with name-and-form as condition, the six bases” and the rest prevent the views “I see … I know, I touch, I feel, I crave, I cling, I become, I am born, I age, I die” (vernacular §6). The boil group: ignorance is like a blind person; formations like the blind person’s stumbling; consciousness like the stumble’s fall; name-and-form like the fallen person’s boil; the six bases like pustules caused when the boil bursts; contact like striking the boil’s pustules; feeling like the pain of the strike; craving like the wish to remedy the pain; clinging like taking an unsuitable remedy in that wish; becoming like applying the unsuitable remedy; birth like the boil’s alteration caused by the application; aging-and-death like the boil bursting through that alteration. The other group: ignorance is like a film covering the eyes; formations like a cocoon-making worm binding itself in a cocoon; consciousness like a prince supported by a minister and established in his kingdom; name-and-form like an illusion made by an illusionist; the six bases like a woodland growing and flourishing in good soil; contact like fire made by rubbing fire-sticks; feeling like burning when touched by fire; craving like the thirst of someone drinking salt water; clinging like a thirsty person’s desire for drink and like a fish swallowing a hook through greed for bait; becoming like a sprout when a seed is present; birth together with aging-and-death like the fall of a tree that has grown. 〔Reading〕 The prevention of wrong views reads the twelve links as twelve instances of “not self”: no self makes, no self transmigrates, there is no compact self, and no self sees, knows, touches, feels, craves, clings, becomes, is born, ages, or dies. The twenty-four similes offer two walks through the twelve links: the boil group is a patient’s case history (blindness → stumble → fall → boil → pustules → strike → pain → bad remedy → worsening → rupture); the other group is twelve distinct pictures (cocoon, prince, illusionist, woodland, fire-sticks, salt water, fishhook, seed and sprout, falling tree). The thirst of someone drinking salt water—the simile for feeling conditioning craving—is perhaps among the book’s most exact images: the more that is drunk, the greater the thirst. 〔Observation〕
§07 Four Profundities—Meaning, Dhamma, Teaching, and Penetration → Vernacular §7
“This dependent arising is profound, Ānanda, and appears profound”—four profundities (vernacular §7): profundity of meaning—aging-and-death comes from no other cause but birth, and the meaning of “arising with birth as condition” is hard to know (the result of a cause is “meaning,” hence discrimination of meaning); profundity of dhamma—the modes and situations in which ignorance conditions formations are hard to know (a cause is “dhamma,” hence discrimination of dhamma); profundity of teaching—teaching proceeds in various ways for various reasons: forward, reverse, forward and reverse, from the middle forward or backward, as three joints and four groupings, two joints and three groupings, or one joint and two groupings; no knowledge other than omniscient knowledge gains a footing there; profundity of penetration—the meanings of ignorance as unknowing, not seeing, and non-penetration of the truths; formations as forming, accumulation, with lust, and without lust; consciousness as empty, inactive, non-transmigrating, rebirth-linking, and manifestation; name-and-form as conascent, separable, inseparable, bending, and changing; the six bases as predominance, world, door, field, and possession of a domain; contact as touching, impingement, meeting, and convergence; feeling as experiencing the taste of the object, pleasure, pain, neutrality, and soulless experience; craving as delighting, adherence, stream, creeper, river, and the hard-to-fill ocean of craving; clinging as taking, grasping, fixation, adherence, and hard to cross; becoming as accumulation, forming, and casting into births, destinations, stations, and abodes; birth as birth, full birth, descent, production, and manifestation; aging-and-death as exhaustion, decay, breakup, and change—all are profound. 〔Reading〕 The four profundities answer the four discriminations of 17-01 §06 (meaning and dhamma as result and cause). The “profundity of teaching” is the Commentator’s judgment on this chapter itself: after eleven units on dependent arising, he still says that no knowledge short of omniscient knowledge gains a footing here. The chapter lays a path for the reader; it does not walk that path in the reader’s place.
§08 Four Principles and the Chapter Close → Vernacular §8
Four principles (vernacular §8): the principle of unity—the continuum does not break as a seed becomes a sprout and then a tree; seeing it rightly, a person understands continuity through the connection of cause and result and abandons annihilationism, while seeing it wrongly, a person takes continuity as unity and adopts eternalism. The principle of diversity—ignorance and the rest are each defined by their own characteristic; seeing it rightly, a person observes ever-new arising and abandons eternalism, while seeing it wrongly, a person treats what falls within a single continuum as if it belonged to a broken continuum and adopts annihilationism. The principle of non-activity—there is no activity such as “formations must be produced by me from ignorance”; seeing it rightly, a person understands the absence of a maker and abandons self-view, while seeing it wrongly, a person fails to grasp the causal efficacy established by the nature-bound regularity of ignorance and the rest even without such activity, and adopts the view of no action. The principle of specific conditionality—from causes such as ignorance only the corresponding effects such as formations arise, just as curd comes from milk; seeing it rightly, a person understands results in accordance with their conditions and abandons causelessness and the view of no action, while seeing it wrongly, a person imagines that anything may arise from anywhere and adopts causelessness and determinism. The wheel of becoming is bottomless in its profundity and hard to cross because of its thicket of many principles: “Unless the sword of wisdom, well sharpened on the excellent whetstone of concentration, splits the wheel of becoming that crushes ceaselessly like a thunderbolt-wheel, no person escapes the fear of saṃsāra, even in a dream”; the Blessed One says that through not awakening to and penetrating this Dhamma, humankind becomes like a tangled skein, a knotted ball of thread, and matted muñja grass, unable to pass beyond bad destinations, states of deprivation, ruin, and saṃsāra; “Here in the profound distinctions of the modes of conditions, the wise should always train mindfully until they gain a footing.” The colophon closes the seventeenth chapter, the Explanation of the Ground of Wisdom, within the section on the development of wisdom in the Visuddhimagga, composed for the joy of good people. 〔Reading〕 The four principles are the chapter’s most exact conclusion: unity and diversity, non-activity and specific conditionality, in pairs counter four extreme views—unity counters annihilationism because there is continuity; diversity counters eternalism because each link is new; non-activity counters self-view because there is no maker; specific conditionality counters causelessness because results accord with conditions. Right view and wrong view look at the same wheel; the difference is where they grasp and where they release. The final verse says that the sword of wisdom must be sharpened “on the excellent whetstone of concentration”—returning to the order of the whole book: wisdom’s blade is sharpened on concentration’s stone. 〔Observation〕
Breaking the Fixation—Removing “Me” from Cause and Result without Removing Causality 〔Decoder’s Reading〕
This is dependent arising’s sharpest and most counterintuitive cut. Vernacular §2 establishes three things: beginning unknown, without maker or experiencer, twelvefold emptiness (compare the four principles in §8: no first cause, no self transmigrating, and freedom from the extremes of permanence and annihilation). Decoded in a sentence: dependent arising dismantles the story that “a self makes kamma, receives its result, and transmigrates,” but it does not dismantle causality itself. Against “there is a permanent self” (eternalism), dependent arising says: no such self can be found; there are only conditions giving rise through conditions. Against “at death everything is simply over” (annihilationism), it says: conditions continue, kamma still issues in rebirth, and there is “neither identity nor absolute difference” (17-05: no identical self is reborn, yet there is no disconnected annihilation). This carries the measure from Chapter 14 to its furthest point: Chapter 14 analyzes “me” into five aggregates; this chapter returns those aggregates to the flow of time and shows that they turn through conditions, without need of an owner. And precisely because the wheel turns through conditions, when its conditions—ignorance and craving—are cut off, it stops. Vernacular §2’s snake simile says that when ignorance is cut off, the bound arm is freed. The endpoint of subtraction is not nothingness; it is cessation. 〔Observation〕
For the General Reader — What You Can Use Today
- Remember the three rounds; do not memorize the twenty-four conditions. Take away one sentence: defilement drives kamma, kamma yields result, result gives rise to defilement again. That is enough to recognize the wheel (vernacular §4).
- Watch the joint “feeling → craving.” The opening for daily practice is here: an unpleasant feeling arises (feeling—you cannot prevent that already-arisen result); in the next moment the mind lunges to push it away or grasps what is pleasant (craving and clinging—this automatic continuation can be seen). Seeing this step without automatically linking onward loosens the wheel here and now (17-08).
- Dependent arising is not fatalism. It says the opposite: precisely because everything depends on conditions, when conditions change, results change—including dukkha. This is a structure of possibility, not resignation (vernacular §8, the principle of specific conditionality: wrong view, not right view, adopts determinism).
To read this unit in full: vernacular §§1–8 translate in full, paragraph by paragraph, the three final clauses beginning with becoming conditioning birth, the four things about the wheel, its two roots and three times, its three joints and four groupings, twenty modes and three rounds, derivation from the truths and two functions, prevention of wrong views and twenty-four similes, four profundities, four principles, and the chapter close. This unit is very long; reading it alongside the three rounds (vernacular §4) provides a useful map.
In a sentence: dependent arising removes “me” from the story of causality but leaves causality intact—the wheel turns through conditions, without need of a mover; precisely for that reason, when its conditions, ignorance and craving, are removed, the wheel stops. This is not nothingness; it is cessation.
考據Apparatus
一、科判定位
譯底 本單元之譯底＝CSCD（內用不上站）。本層一切巴利逐字取自本單元原典欄之譯底，定位一式：〔CSCD §NN〕式對譯底欄逐字可核。本品無自家對頁之巴利，故頁域一概不記。
篇名 譯底欄自帶 ### 小節 2 個：### Bhavapaccayājātiādivitthārakathā 與 ### Bhavacakkakathā——本單元涵二科。讀者面之篇題取其首而漢題涵其二，二題之幅不同度；本單元之切界所以合二科為一者，即前科唯 1,548 位元組而其所立（業有為生之緣）正為後科有輪之所承。誌其實，不代裁。
段號域 譯底欄之段號自〔CSCD §651〕至〔CSCD §661〕，實落段號 11 個，號序連續無缺。本篇於譯底欄之幅為 22,162 位元組——為本品十一單元中第三長之篇。
二科之幅 ### Bhavapaccayājātiādivitthārakathā 1,548 位元組・### Bhavacakkakathā 20,614 位元組（本欄實測，以第二 ### 行之行首為界）——後科為前科之十三倍餘，為本品內部單元之科幅之最不均者。
前科之骨 〔CSCD §651〕唯一段而立二事：①「有」唯取業有（Bhavoti panettha kammabhavova adhippeto. So hi jātiyā paccayo, na upapattibhavo）；②生為老死與愁等之緣唯親依止一種（Sā pana upanissayakoṭiyā ekadhāva paccayo hotīti）。論自標生老死等之決擇 saccaniddese vuttanayeneva veditabbo（如諦之解釋所說）而不重出。
後科之骨——一偈四事開全章，一偈六門收全品 後科之起為 Sokādīhi avijjā, siddhā bhavacakkamaviditādimidaṃ; 與 Kārakavedakarahitaṃ, dvādasavidhasuññatāsuññaṃ. 一偈四事（由愁等而無明成・有輪不知其初・無作者受者・十二種空性之空），〔CSCD §652〕逐一答之。其後〔CSCD §653〕立二本三世、〔CSCD §654〕立三連結四攝二十行相三輪，而〔CSCD §655〕更立一總綱偈 Saccappabhavato kiccā, vāraṇā upamāhi ca; 與 Gambhīranayabhedā ca, viññātabbaṃ yathārahaṃ. 開六門（諦之所出・作用・遮・喻・甚深・理趣之別），〔CSCD §655〕至〔CSCD §660〕逐一釋之而末於〔CSCD §660〕重出其偈為收。一單元之內二總綱偈，為本品獨例。
六門之收式 六門皆以 viññātabbaṃ yathārahaṃ 一語收之——本欄實測其六收逐字作 evaṃ tāvidaṃ saccappabhavato viññātabbaṃ yathārahaṃ・Tasmā sabbapadesu dvedhā pavattikiccatopi idaṃ viññātabbaṃ yathārahaṃ・Tasmā micchādassananivāraṇatopetaṃ bhavacakkaṃ viññātabbaṃ yathārahaṃ・Tasmā evaṃ upamāhipetaṃ bhavacakkaṃ viññātabbaṃ yathārahaṃ・tasmā gambhīrabhedatopetaṃ bhavacakkaṃ viññātabbaṃ yathārahaṃ・tasmā nayabhedatopetaṃ bhavacakkaṃ viññātabbaṃ yathārahaṃ。六收同式，為本品最整之排比之一。
品末 本篇之末四行為全品之收（Iti sādhujanapāmojjatthāya kate visuddhimagge／Paññābhāvanādhikāre／Paññābhūminiddeso nāma／Sattarasamo paricchedo.）——本品之品末唯此一處，十一單元中唯本篇有之。
前後接點 前承取緣有廣說之單元：本篇前科之判 kammabhavova adhippeto 逐字承彼篇之業有與生有之分而取其一。本篇為本品之末，其後接第十八品——論不於本篇自標其後接。
movement 品夾《總覽》繫本單元於 §B〈十二支〉・§C〈三世兩重因果 — 論主所採之判攝〉・§D〈三輪 — 輪子怎麼轉〉・§F〈還滅 — 緣滅則苦滅〉・§G〈緣起所立 — 無第一因、無我轉生、離二邊〉五節——為本品十一單元中所承之 § 最多者；其所繫之章§逐字見該表，本目不重錄、不截取——段號與章§二系不明對映，不推估不換算。五 § 之逐字所本：§C 之三世四攝二十行相三連結在〔CSCD §653〕〔CSCD §654〕；§D 之三輪在〔CSCD §654〕之 Tivaṭṭamanavaṭṭhitaṃ bhamatīti；§F 之還滅在〔CSCD §652〕之 ''avijjāyatveva asesavirāganirodhā saṅkhāranirodho''tiādi（全品唯此一處）；§G 之無作者受者與離二邊在〔CSCD §652〕與〔CSCD §660〕。
二、詞義與譯語
本目只記本篇用法與其定位；名相定讀以規範詞表為準，詞表所未定者，本目不代定。前此諸品或本品前單元已立之讀不重解——本篇所涉者為 bhava（有）・kammabhava・upapattibhava（業有・生有，於前一單元既立）・jāti（生）・jarāmaraṇa（老死）・soka（愁）・avijjā（無明）・taṇhā（渴愛）・upādāna（取）・saṅkhāra（行）・viññāṇa（識）・nāmarūpa（名色）・saḷāyatana（六處）・phassa（觸）・vedanā（受）・āsava（漏）・sassatadiṭṭhi・ucchedadiṭṭhi（常見・斷見）・paṭisambhidā（無礙解）・二十四緣之諸名。以下唯列本篇新出者。
有輪之四事〔CSCD §652〕
| 巴利 | 本編用語 | 本篇用法之要 | 定位 |
|---|---|---|---|
| bhavacakka | 有輪 | 本科之總名；於緣起總說之單元首出而於本科為其正釋 | 〔CSCD §652〕 |
| aviditādi | 不知其初 | 四事之二；論自釋 hetuphalaparamparāya pariyosānaṃ natthi | 〔CSCD §652〕 |
| kārakavedakarahita | 離作者與受者 | 四事之三 | 〔CSCD §652〕 |
| dvādasavidhasuññatāsuñña | 十二種空性之空 | 四事之四；論以常・淨・樂・我四事乘十二支而立之 | 〔CSCD §652〕 |
| kāmāsava・diṭṭhāsava・bhavāsava・avijjāsava | 欲漏・見漏・有漏・無明漏 | 愁等之所由生之四；論逐一引經證之 | 〔CSCD §652〕 |
| padhānadhammakathana | 說其主法 | 論之答：「無明緣行」非說其初而說其主 | 〔CSCD §652〕 |
| sappasiraggahaṇa | 執蛇頭 | 論之喻；以無明喻蛇首而餘煩惱喻蛇身 | 〔CSCD §652〕 |
| avijjāsamuccheda | 無明之永斷 | 與上為對：斷首則餘縛皆解 | 〔CSCD §652〕 |
| asesavirāganirodha | 無餘離貪之滅 | 還滅之語；全品唯此一處 | 〔CSCD §652〕 |
| vado vedeyyo | 能語者能受者 | 論所遮之計我之語 | 〔CSCD §652〕 |
| udayabbayadhammakattā | 以有生滅之法性故 | 十二空之第一由：故非常 | 〔CSCD §652〕 |
| paccayāyattavuttittā | 以其轉繫於緣故 | 十二空之第四由：故非有自在之我 | 〔CSCD §652〕 |
二本・三世・連結・攝・行相・輪〔CSCD §653〕–〔CSCD §654〕
| 巴利 | 本編用語 | 本篇用法之要 | 定位 |
|---|---|---|---|
| mūla | 本 | 有輪之二本：avijjā taṇhā cāti dve dhammā mūlanti veditabbā | 〔CSCD §653〕 |
| pubbantāharaṇa・aparantasantāna | 取前際・後際之相續 | 二本之二輪之別：無明本者終於受，渴愛本者終於老死 | 〔CSCD §653〕 |
| diṭṭhicarita・taṇhācarita | 見行者・愛行者 | 二本之所對之人 | 〔CSCD §653〕 |
| saṃsāranāyikā | 輪迴之導者 | 二本之義 | 〔CSCD §653〕 |
| gabbhaseyyaka・opapātika | 胎生者・化生者 | 二輪之第三配：前者顯次第而轉，後者顯俱時而生 | 〔CSCD §653〕 |
| hetuphalasandhi・phalahetusandhi | 因果之連結・果因之連結 | 三連結之二式；論逐一定其位 | 〔CSCD §654〕 |
| tisandhi | 三連結 | 行與結生識之間・受與渴愛之間・有與生之間 | 〔CSCD §654〕 |
| catubhedasaṅgaha | 四分之攝 | 四攝：無明行・識名色六處觸受・愛取有・生老死 | 〔CSCD §654〕 |
| vīsati ākārāra | 二十行相之輻 | 四攝各五：Atīte hetavo pañca, idāni phalapañcakaṃ | 〔CSCD §654〕 |
| āyūhanā | 積聚 | 二十行相中「行」之異名 | 〔CSCD §654〕 |
| nikanti | 欣求 | 二十行相中「渴愛」之異名 | 〔CSCD §654〕 |
| upagamana | 趣入 | 二十行相中「取」之異名 | 〔CSCD §654〕 |
| okkanti | 入胎 | 二十行相中「名色」之異名 | 〔CSCD §654〕 |
| pasāda | 淨 | 二十行相中「處」之異名，指五淨色 | 〔CSCD §654〕 |
| kammavaṭṭa・kilesavaṭṭa・vipākavaṭṭa | 業輪・煩惱輪・異熟輪 | 三輪：行與有・無明愛取・識名色六處觸受 | 〔CSCD §654〕 |
| anavaṭṭhita | 不住 | 有輪之相：煩惱輪未斷則其緣不斷而輪轉不息 | 〔CSCD §654〕 |
六門〔CSCD §655〕–〔CSCD §660〕
| 巴利 | 本編用語 | 本篇用法之要 | 定位 |
|---|---|---|---|
| saccappabhava | 諦之所出 | 六門之一；論逐支定其為第幾諦之所出而自身為第幾諦 | 〔CSCD §655〕 |
| dvedhā pavattikicca | 二種轉起之作用 | 六門之二；每一支皆一面自作其事、一面為次支之緣 | 〔CSCD §656〕 |
| kārakadassananivāraṇa | 遮見作者 | 六門之三之第一遮 | 〔CSCD §657〕 |
| attasaṅkantidassananivāraṇa | 遮見我之移轉 | 六門之三之第二遮 | 〔CSCD §657〕 |
| ghanasaññānivāraṇa | 遮密聚之想 | 六門之三之第三遮 | 〔CSCD §657〕 |
| micchādassananivāraṇa | 遮邪見 | 六門之三之總名 | 〔CSCD §657〕 |
| gaṇḍa・pīḷakā | 癰・皰 | 六門之四之第一組喻之主；十一喻連下 | 〔CSCD §658〕 |
| paṭala | 翳 | 第二組喻之首 | 〔CSCD §658〕 |
| kosakārakimi | 作繭之蟲 | 第二組喻之二 | 〔CSCD §658〕 |
| atthagambhīratā・dhammagambhīratā・desanāgambhīratā・paṭivedhagambhīratā | 義甚深・法甚深・說甚深・通達甚深 | 六門之五之四種；論引無礙解之文自釋前二 | 〔CSCD §659〕 |
| duppariyogāha | 難深入 | 通達甚深之由 | 〔CSCD §659〕 |
| ekattanaya・nānattanaya・abyāpāranaya・evaṃdhammatānaya | 一性之理趣・異性之理趣・無作用之理趣・如是法性之理趣 | 六門之六之四種；論逐一定其正見所捨與邪見所取 | 〔CSCD §660〕 |
| akiriyadiṭṭhi・ahetukadiṭṭhi・niyatavāda | 無作用見・無因見・定命論 | 四理趣之邪見所取者 | 〔CSCD §660〕 |
| ñāṇāsi・samādhipavarasilā | 智之劍・定之勝石 | 品末之喻之二具 | 〔CSCD §661〕 |
| asanivicakka | 電輪 | 品末之喻：破有輪如電輪之常搗 | 〔CSCD §661〕 |
| tantākulakajāta | 如亂線之聚 | 所引經文之語；世人不通達緣起之相 | 〔CSCD §661〕 |
本編既有校讀須併觀之五處 ①既有校讀之 §C 立三世判攝作「過去（因）：無明、行；現在（果）：識、名色、六入、觸、受；現在（因）：愛、取、有；未來（果）：生、老死」——與譯底欄〔CSCD §653〕之 ''avijjā, saṅkhārā cā''ti dve aṅgāni atītakālāni. Viññāṇādīni bhavāvasānāni aṭṭha paccuppannakālāni. 與 Jāti ceva jarāmaraṇañca dve anāgatakālānīti veditabbāni. 逐一相合，定讀逐字保入。②既有校讀之 §C 立「四攝（catu-saṅkhepa）」「二十行相（vīsatākāra）」「三連結（tisandhi）」三名——與譯底欄〔CSCD §654〕之 catubhedasaṅgaha・vīsati ākārāra・tisandhi 相合，定讀逐字保入；唯既有校讀之「二十行相」所附之巴利形（其括注作 vīsatākāra）與譯底欄之 vīsati ākārāraṃ（更含「輻」一義）不全同。本目誌其字面之異而不代改。③既有校讀之 §D 立三輪作「煩惱輪（kilesa-vaṭṭa）：無明、愛、取；業輪（kamma-vaṭṭa）：行、有（業有）；異熟輪／果報輪（vipāka-vaṭṭa）：識、名色、六入、觸、受（及生、老死）」——與譯底欄〔CSCD §654〕之 saṅkhārabhavā kammavaṭṭaṃ, avijjātaṇhupādānāni kilesavaṭṭaṃ, viññāṇanāmarūpasaḷāyatanaphassavedanā vipākavaṭṭanti 逐一相合，定讀逐字保入；唯既有校讀於異熟輪更括入「生、老死」而譯底欄之列止於受。本目誌其實而不代改既有校讀。④既有校讀之 §F 立還滅之定型句；其逐字所本即譯底欄〔CSCD §652〕之 ''avijjāyatveva asesavirāganirodhā saṅkhāranirodho''tiādi——全品唯此一處，且其於譯底欄非獨立之段而在論證「說其主法」之中。本目誌其位之可核而不代裁其於《總覽》之獨立成 § 是否相稱。⑤既有校讀之 §G 立「離二邊」；與譯底欄〔CSCD §660〕之四理趣（正見者捨常斷我無因四見，邪見者取之）相合，然譯底欄更立「無作用見」與「定命論」二邪見，既有校讀未出。誌其實，不代補。
三、異讀
材料之面 本篇無自家對頁之巴利，故無校勘段可錄；可查之面唯譯底欄自身。誌錄不判。
普查之實測 譯底欄全篇逐字普查：異讀括注式（(sī.)・(syā.)・(kaṃ.)・(pī.) 等）零命中；異誦之標識詞 pāṭho 零命中；異說之標識詞 Porāṇā／porāṇā 零命中。方括注唯二式（[§NN] 段號 11 個與版頁記 11 個，後者皆在註記之內）。引號 '' 實測 50 處為偶數，逐一成對。查無即記無：譯底欄自身無異讀之記。
本欄自出之一處括注之大小寫不齊 〔CSCD §652〕之二括注相鄰而其書名之首字母一小一大：(su. ni. 773) 與 (Dha. pa. 215)——後者作大寫 Dha. 而本品他處之法句括注作小寫（取緣有廣說之單元之 (dha. pa. 194)）。一書二式並見於一品之內，本欄誌其字面之實而不判其為傳本之式或清檔之記。
本欄自出之一處同書二式之號 paṭi. ma. 1.47 與 paṭi. 1.47 二式並見於〔CSCD §654〕一段之內（前者三見、後者一見），其號相同而書名之標一詳一略。一段之內二式，誌其實不代改。
本欄自出之一處引號之位 〔CSCD §652〕之 Yathāha – 之後，其所引之文不作縮排而逕接於次行之行首（''Tassa 'ahaṃ rūpaṃ mama rūpa'nti pariyuṭṭhaṭṭhāyino 等三處），而同段之另二引（''Tassa ce kāmayānassa, chandajātassa jantuno; 之偈）則作縮排。一段之內引之形二式並見，誌其實不代改。
本欄之界 上列皆為譯底欄之字面之實；未與 PTS 掃描頁對勘。本欄之零命中唯就譯底欄一面，不以之推斷他本。
四、論主引據
論主自引之處，逐處繫段號錨；出處唯本文自標者記之，不代考定。「本文自標之出處」欄之括注逐字照錄，不代譯其經名。
| 位置 | 引式〔逐字〕 | 所引之要 | 本文自標之出處 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 〔CSCD §651〕 | Tenāha bhagavā ''kammaṃ satte vibhajati yadidaṃ hīnappaṇītatāyā''ti | 業分有情為劣勝——前科唯一之引，亦即「有為生之緣」之全據 | (ma. ni. 3.289) |
| 〔CSCD §652〕 | ''Āsavasamudayā avijjāsamudayo''ti | 無明由漏而生——本品三見之關鍵句之末出 | (ma. ni. 1.103) |
| 〔CSCD §652〕 | Yathāha –／''Tassa ce kāmayānassa, chandajātassa jantuno; | 愁由欲漏而生 | (su. ni. 773) |
| 〔CSCD §652〕 | Yathā cāha – ''kāmato jāyati soko''ti. | 同上之第二證 | (Dha. pa. 215) |
| 〔CSCD §652〕 | Yathāha –／''Tassa 'ahaṃ rūpaṃ mama rūpa'nti pariyuṭṭhaṭṭhāyino rūpavipariṇāmaññathābhāvā uppajjanti sokaparidevadukkhadomanassupāyāsā''ti | 愁等由見漏而生 | (saṃ. ni. 3.1) |
| 〔CSCD §652〕 | Yathāha –／''Yepi te devā dīghāyukā vaṇṇavanto sukhabahulā uccesu vimānesu ciraṭṭhitikā, tepi tathāgatassa dhammadesanaṃ sutvā bhayaṃ santāsaṃ saṃvegamāpajjantī''ti | 愁等由有漏而生 | (saṃ. ni. 3.78) |
| 〔CSCD §652〕 | Yathāha –／''Sa kho so, bhikkhave, bālo tividhaṃ diṭṭheva dhamme dukkhaṃ domanassaṃ paṭisaṃvedetī''ti | 愁等由無明漏而生 | (ma. ni. 3.246) |
| 〔CSCD §652〕 | Yathāha – ''avijjāyatveva asesavirāganirodhā saṅkhāranirodho''tiādi | 還滅之定型句——全品唯此一處 | (saṃ. ni. 2.1; mahāva. 1) |
| 〔CSCD §652〕 | ''brahmā mahābrahmā seṭṭho sajitā''ti | 所遮之作者之計 | (dī. ni. 1.42) |
| 〔CSCD §654〕 | Tenāha ''purimakammabhavasmiṃ moho avijjā, āyūhanā saṅkhārā, nikanti taṇhā, upagamanaṃ upādānaṃ, cetanā bhavoti ime pañca dhammā purimakammabhavasmiṃ idha paṭisandhiyā paccayā''ti | 過去五因——二十行相之第一組 | (paṭi. ma. 1.47) |
| 〔CSCD §654〕 | Yathāha – ''idha paṭisandhi viññāṇaṃ, okkanti nāmarūpaṃ, pasādo āyatanaṃ, phuṭṭho phasso, vedayitaṃ vedanā, ime pañca dhammā idhūpapattibhavasmiṃ purekatassa kammassa paccayā''ti | 現在五果——第二組 | (paṭi. 1.47) |
| 〔CSCD §654〕 | Tenāha ''idha paripakkattā āyatanānaṃ moho avijjā, āyūhanā saṅkhārā, nikanti taṇhā, upagamanaṃ upādānaṃ, cetanā bhavoti ime pañca dhammā idha kammabhavasmiṃ āyatiṃ paṭisandhiyā paccayā''ti | 現在五因——第三組 | (paṭi. ma. 1.47) |
| 〔CSCD §654〕 | Tenāha – ''āyatiṃ paṭisandhi viññāṇaṃ（其後有版頁記插於引句之中）／ime pañca dhammā āyatiṃ upapattibhavasmiṃ idha katassa kammassa paccayā''ti | 未來五果——第四組 | (paṭi. ma. 1.47) |
| 〔CSCD §659〕 | ''gambhīro cāyaṃ, ānanda, paṭiccasamuppādo gambhīrāvabhāso cā''ti | 緣起之甚深——緣起總說之單元所預告之四種甚深，於此正釋 | (dī. ni. 2.95; saṃ. ni. 2.60) |
| 〔CSCD §659〕 | Yathāha – ''hetuphale ñāṇaṃ atthapaṭisambhidā''ti | 「義」即因果——義甚深之名之據 | (vibha. 720) |
| 〔CSCD §659〕 | Yathāha – ''hetumhi ñāṇaṃ dhammapaṭisambhidā''ti | 「法」即因——法甚深之名之據；與上為同號之對句 | (vibha. 720) |
| 〔CSCD §661〕 | Vuttampi hetaṃ bhagavatā – ''gambhīro cāyaṃ, ānanda, paṭiccasamuppādo gambhīrāvabhāso ca. Etassa cānanda, dhammassa ananubodhā appaṭivedhā evamayaṃ pajā tantākulakajātā kulāgaṇṭhikajātā muñjapabbajabhūtā apāyaṃ duggatiṃ vinipātaṃ saṃsāraṃ nātivattatī''ti | 品末之總引——與〔CSCD §659〕之引為同一經之詳略二式 | (mahāva. 95; saṃ. ni. 2.60) |
一經二引而號不同 〔CSCD §659〕之引繫 (dī. ni. 2.95; saṃ. ni. 2.60)，而〔CSCD §661〕之詳引繫 (mahāva. 95; saṃ. ni. 2.60)——同一經文之略引與詳引，其第一號一作長部一作律藏而第二號同。誌其字面之實而不代考定。
引式之數〔本欄實測〕 Yathāha 8 處（本品十一單元中次密，僅次於發趣二十四緣之單元之 15 處）・Tenāha 3 處・Vuttampi hetaṃ 1 處・Vuttañhetaṃ・Tena vuttaṃ・Porāṇā・kira 俱零命中。本文自標之圓括注出處 14 處・14 種，其分布為相應部 4・中部 3・律藏 2（其一與相應部合繫）・無礙解道 4・長部 2・經集 1・法句 1・分別論 2——為本品十一單元中出處之書最雜者（八書）。此數唯就本篇之域，不及全書。
五、譬喻·修辭
本目只記本篇譬喻之所在與其所配，不作文學評價。
甲・譬喻 本篇之比況語實測：viya 詞界 30 見、連聲之比況形 1 見（asanivicakkamiva）、upamā 諸形 3 見、sadisa 諸形 零命中。三十一喻於 22,162 位元組，為本品十一單元中譬喻最密之篇——與行緣識廣說之單元（30,590 位元組而比況詞唯二）恰成兩極。其中〔CSCD §658〕一段獨得 22 喻（癰之十一與他之十一），為全品譬喻之淵。
〔CSCD §658〕之二十四喻（逐一列之；原作二十二，實測癰之組十二・他之組十二）
| 組 | 譬喻 | 所配之支 |
|---|---|---|
| 癰之組 | salakkhaṇasāmaññalakkhaṇavasena dhammānaṃ adassanato andho viya avijjā | 無明如盲 |
| 癰之組 | Andhassa upakkhalanaṃ viya avijjāpaccayā saṅkhārā | 行如盲者之顛蹶 |
| 癰之組 | Upakkhalitassa patanaṃ viya saṅkhārapaccayā viññāṇaṃ | 識如顛蹶者之倒 |
| 癰之組 | Patitassa gaṇḍapātubhāvo viya viññāṇapaccayā nāmarūpaṃ | 名色如倒者之生癰 |
| 癰之組 | Gaṇḍabhedapīḷakā viya nāmarūpapaccayā saḷāyatanaṃ | 六處如癰之破而生皰 |
| 癰之組 | Gaṇḍapīḷakāghaṭṭanaṃ viya saḷāyatanapaccayā phasso | 觸如癰皰之被觸 |
| 癰之組 | Ghaṭṭanadukkhaṃ viya phassapaccayā vedanā | 受如觸之苦 |
| 癰之組 | dukkhassa paṭikārābhilāso viya vedanāpaccayā taṇhā | 渴愛如求治苦 |
| 癰之組 | Paṭikārābhilāsena asappāyaggahaṇaṃ viya taṇhāpaccayā upādānaṃ | 取如由求治而取非宜 |
| 癰之組 | Upādiṇṇaasappāyālepanaṃ viya upādānapaccayā bhavo | 有如塗其所取之非宜 |
| 癰之組 | Asappāyālepanena gaṇḍavikārapātubhāvo viya bhavapaccayā jāti | 生如由塗非宜而癰變 |
| 癰之組 | Gaṇḍavikārato gaṇḍabhedo viya jātipaccayā jarāmaraṇaṃ | 老死如癰變而癰潰 |
| 他之組 | paṭalaṃ viya akkhīni | 無明伏有情如翳蔽目 |
| 他之組 | kosakārakimi viya kosappadesehi | 愚者以行自纏如蠶作繭 |
| 他之組 | pariṇāyakapariggahito viya rājakumāro rajje | 識得處如王子為輔相所攝而得國 |
| 他之組 | māyākāro viya māyaṃ | 識生名色如幻師作幻 |
| 他之組 | subhūmiyaṃ patiṭṭhito vanappagumbo viya | 六處增長如良地之叢林 |
| 他之組 | araṇisahitābhimanthanato aggi viya | 觸生如鑽木出火 |
| 他之組 | agginā phuṭṭhassa dāho viya | 受起如觸火而燒 |
| 他之組 | loṇūdakaṃ pivato pipāsā viya | 渴愛增如飲鹽水而渴 |
| 他之組 | pipāsito viya pānīye | 渴者於有起欲如渴者於飲 |
| 他之組 | āmisalobhena maccho baḷisaṃ viya | 以取取有如魚貪餌而吞鉤 |
| 他之組 | bīje sati aṅkuro viya | 有則有生如有種則有芽 |
| 他之組 | uppannassa rukkhassa patanaṃ viya | 生則有老死如已生之樹必倒 |
十二支逐一配二喻 癰之組十二喻與他之組十二喻，逐一皆配十二支之一——一支二喻，二十四喻成一整表（viya 之詞界實測三十見，其六在他段）。論以 Yasmā vā panettha 一語轉入第二組，二組之界逐字可核。
他段之六喻
| 位置 | 譬喻 | 所配之義 |
|---|---|---|
| 〔CSCD §652〕 | Pañca pubbanimittāni disvā maraṇabhayena santajjitānaṃ devānaṃ viya | 如見五衰相而怖死之諸天——有漏所生之愁 |
| 〔CSCD §652〕 | Sappasiraggahaṇena sesasappasarīraṃ viya bāhaṃ | 如執蛇首則蛇身纏臂——執無明則餘煩惱與業縛愚者 |
| 〔CSCD §652〕 | Sappasiracchede kate palibodhitabāhāvimokkho viya | 如斷蛇首則所纏之臂解——斷無明則解脫；與上為一喻之正反二節 |
| 〔CSCD §660〕 | bījassa aṅkurādibhāvena rukkhabhāvappatti viya santānānupacchedo | 如種成芽而至成樹——一性之理趣 |
| 〔CSCD §660〕 | khīrādīhi dadhiādīnaṃ viya | 如由乳等而有酪等——如是法性之理趣 |
| 〔CSCD §661〕 | Bhavacakkamapadāletvā, asanivicakkamiva niccanimmathanaṃ | 如常搗之電輪——不破有輪則不越輪迴之怖；連聲之比況形 |
乙・修辭之可核觀察 ①本篇之骨為二總綱偈與其逐門之收（見目一），六收同式而逐字可核。②vaṭṭ 之語族全篇 16 見（bhavacakka 之三輪與輪轉之語），為本品之最。③Yathāha 8 見・Tenāha 3 見・Tattha siyā – 1 見・Kasmā? 自問零命中・? 全篇 3 見。④偈頌實測：縮排之行 23 行，其中論主自作之偈六首・所引之偈一首・品末四行。⑤…pe… 省略式 3 見。⑥「應知」一語之屈折諸形全篇 16 見（與行緣識廣說之單元並列本品之最）。⑦〔CSCD §656〕之十二支之二作用逐支以「一面自作其事、一面為次支之緣」之對句成文（avijjā vatthūsu ca satte sammoheti, paccayo ca hoti saṅkhārānaṃ 之族），十二句同式，為本篇最整之排比。⑧〔CSCD §659〕之通達甚深段以「某義甚深」之收式逐支列其所通達之義（如 paccayaṭṭho gambhīro），十二支逐一，句式全同。
以上諸數唯就本篇之域實測，不及全書。
六、章內互讀
每指皆帶段號錨；所指之處唯就本篇文中可核之名相立——本篇之段號與章§二系不明對映，故所指不繫章§，亦不推估換算。不代考定。
| 本篇之處 | 所指 | 可核之由 |
|---|---|---|
〔CSCD §651〕 Bhavoti panettha kammabhavova adhippeto. So hi jātiyā paccayo, na upapattibhavo | 取緣有廣說之單元〔CSCD §646〕 | 彼篇立業有與生有之分，本篇逐字取其一 |
〔CSCD §651〕 jātiādīnaṃ vinicchayo saccaniddese vuttanayeneva veditabbo | 前品〈諦〉之單元 | 論自標生老死等之決擇已於彼說，本篇不重出；與緣起總說之單元〔CSCD §588〕之同式自標相貫 |
〔CSCD §652〕 ''Āsavasamudayā avijjāsamudayo''ti | 緣起總說之單元〔CSCD §584〕・無明緣行廣說之單元〔CSCD §617〕 | 三處相引；彼二處以之證無明非無因，本篇以之逆成無明由愁等而立 |
〔CSCD §652〕 ''avijjāyatveva asesavirāganirodhā saṅkhāranirodho''tiādi | 緣起總說之單元〔CSCD §570〕 | 彼篇引順生之定型句而本篇引其還滅之句——二句合為《總覽》§B 與 §F 之全 |
〔CSCD §653〕 Viññāṇādīni bhavāvasānāni aṭṭha paccuppannakālāni | 行緣識廣說之單元〔CSCD §621〕以下 | 彼篇廣說識之結生與轉起，即本篇所配之現在八支之首 |
〔CSCD §654〕 Sattame bhavo | 無明緣行句之單元〔CSCD §592〕 | 彼篇立二十九思之行，本篇以速行之第七思為「有」而別之於行 |
〔CSCD §658〕 Bhave sati jāti hoti bīje sati aṅkuro viya | 行緣識廣說之單元〔CSCD §634〕 | 彼篇以菴羅種之喻立「果不屬他」，本篇復以種芽之喻立「有則有生」 |
〔CSCD §659〕 ''gambhīro cāyaṃ, ānanda, paṭiccasamuppādo gambhīrāvabhāso cā''ti | 緣起總說之單元〔CSCD §574〕 | 彼篇引同句而自標 Gambhīrattañca nāma catubbidhaṃ, taṃ parato vaṇṇayissāma——本篇即其所預告之正釋 |
〔CSCD §660〕 santānānupacchedo ekattanayo | 行緣識廣說之單元〔CSCD §631〕 | 彼篇立 Santānabandhato natthi, ekatā nāpi nānatā，本篇以一性異性二理趣立同一義而更配其正邪二見 |
七、傳本
作者、傳本與注疏源流諸問題，本編不於考據內立說。
I. Placement in the Outline
Base text This unit’s base text is CSCD (for internal use and never published online). Every Pāli string in this layer is copied verbatim from this unit’s base-text column, and loci uniformly take the form 〔CSCD §NN〕 for verbatim checking against that column. Because this chapter has no edition-owned facing Pāli, no page range is recorded.
Section title The base-text column carries 2 ### subheadings: ### Bhavapaccayājātiādivitthārakathā and ### Bhavacakkakathā—this unit encompasses two sections. The reader-facing title takes the first, while the Chinese title encompasses both, so the scopes of the two titles differ. The reason these two sections are joined in one unit is simply that the former is only 1,548 bytes and what it establishes—kamma-process becoming as the condition for birth—is precisely what the latter’s wheel of becoming takes up. The fact is recorded without adjudicating the title.
Paragraph-number range The base-text column runs from 〔CSCD §651〕 through 〔CSCD §661〕, containing 11 paragraph numbers with no gap in sequence. Its span in the base-text column is 22,162 bytes—the third-longest of this chapter’s eleven units.
Relative spans of the two sections ### Bhavapaccayājātiādivitthārakathā occupies 1,548 bytes and ### Bhavacakkakathā 20,614 bytes (measured in this column, with the beginning of the second ### line as the boundary)—the latter is more than thirteen times the former, the most uneven internal section ratio among the units of this chapter.
Skeleton of the first section The sole paragraph, 〔CSCD §651〕, establishes two points: (1) “becoming” means kamma-process becoming alone (Bhavoti panettha kammabhavova adhippeto. So hi jātiyā paccayo, na upapattibhavo); and (2) birth is a condition for aging-and-death and for sorrow and the rest in the single mode of decisive support alone (Sā pana upanissayakoṭiyā ekadhāva paccayo hotīti). The treatise marks the analysis of birth, aging-and-death, and the rest with saccaniddese vuttanayeneva veditabbo (“it should be understood in the manner stated in the exposition of the truths”) and does not repeat it here.
Skeleton of the second section—one verse opens the whole section through four matters; one verse closes the whole chapter through six approaches The second section opens with Sokādīhi avijjā, siddhā bhavacakkamaviditādimidaṃ; and Kārakavedakarahitaṃ, dvādasavidhasuññatāsuññaṃ., one verse stating four matters (ignorance is established through sorrow and the rest; the beginning of the wheel of becoming is unknown; it is without an agent or experiencer; it is empty with twelvefold emptiness), each answered in 〔CSCD §652〕. Next, 〔CSCD §653〕 establishes two roots and three times, and 〔CSCD §654〕 three junctions, four groupings, twenty modes, and three rounds. Then 〔CSCD §655〕 sets out a further programmatic verse, Saccappabhavato kiccā, vāraṇā upamāhi ca; and Gambhīranayabhedā ca, viññātabbaṃ yathārahaṃ., opening six approaches (origin in the truths, function, prevention, similes, profundity, and distinctions of method). These are explained one by one from 〔CSCD §655〕 through 〔CSCD §660〕, and the verse is repeated at the end of 〔CSCD §660〕 as a close. Two programmatic verses within one unit are unique in this chapter.
Closing formula of the six approaches All six end with the same expression, viññātabbaṃ yathārahaṃ. Literal measurement in this column gives the six closes as evaṃ tāvidaṃ saccappabhavato viññātabbaṃ yathārahaṃ; Tasmā sabbapadesu dvedhā pavattikiccatopi idaṃ viññātabbaṃ yathārahaṃ; Tasmā micchādassananivāraṇatopetaṃ bhavacakkaṃ viññātabbaṃ yathārahaṃ; Tasmā evaṃ upamāhipetaṃ bhavacakkaṃ viññātabbaṃ yathārahaṃ; tasmā gambhīrabhedatopetaṃ bhavacakkaṃ viññātabbaṃ yathārahaṃ; and tasmā nayabhedatopetaṃ bhavacakkaṃ viññātabbaṃ yathārahaṃ. This shared sixfold close is among the most orderly parallel constructions in the chapter.
End of the chapter The final four lines of this unit close the entire chapter (Iti sādhujanapāmojjatthāya kate visuddhimagge / Paññābhāvanādhikāre / Paññābhūminiddeso nāma / Sattarasamo paricchedo.)—this is the chapter’s only closing formula, and this unit alone among the eleven contains it.
Connection before and after The preceding unit is the detailed account of clinging as condition for becoming: this unit’s determination, kammabhavova adhippeto, takes up verbatim that unit’s distinction between kamma-process becoming and rebirth-process becoming and selects one of them. This unit closes the chapter and is followed by Chapter Eighteen—the treatise itself does not label what follows within this unit.
Movements The chapter Overview assigns this unit to five movements: §B “The Twelve Links,” §C “Three Times and Twofold Cause and Effect—the Commentator’s Adopted Classification,” §D “The Three Rounds—How the Wheel Turns,” §F “Cessation—When the Conditions Cease, Suffering Ceases,” and §G “What Dependent Origination Establishes—No First Cause, No Self Transmigrating, Freedom from the Two Extremes”—more movements than any of the chapter’s other ten units. The chapter-section wording to which they refer appears verbatim in that table and is neither repeated nor excerpted here; because the paragraph-number and chapter-section systems have no known mapping, none is inferred or converted. Verbatim bases for the five movements: the three times, four groupings, twenty modes, and three junctions of §C are in 〔CSCD §653〕 and 〔CSCD §654〕; the three rounds of §D appear in 〔CSCD §654〕 as Tivaṭṭamanavaṭṭhitaṃ bhamatīti; cessation in §F appears in 〔CSCD §652〕 as ''avijjāyatveva asesavirāganirodhā saṅkhāranirodho''tiādi (the only occurrence in the chapter); and the absence of an agent and experiencer and the freedom from the two extremes in §G appear in 〔CSCD §652〕 and 〔CSCD §660〕.
II. Terms and Renderings
This section records only usage and placement within this unit; normative readings of technical terms follow the normative glossary, and this section does not adjudicate terms absent from it. Readings already established in earlier chapters or earlier units of this chapter are not explained again. Those involved here are bhava (becoming); kammabhava・upapattibhava (kamma-process becoming and rebirth-process becoming, established in the preceding unit); jāti (birth); jarāmaraṇa (aging-and-death); soka (sorrow); avijjā (ignorance); taṇhā (craving); upādāna (clinging); saṅkhāra (formations); viññāṇa (consciousness); nāmarūpa (name-and-form); saḷāyatana (the six bases); phassa (contact); vedanā (feeling); āsava (taint); sassatadiṭṭhi・ucchedadiṭṭhi (eternalist view and annihilationist view); paṭisambhidā (discrimination); and the names of the twenty-four conditions. Only terms new in this unit are listed below.
The Four Matters of the Round of Becoming 〔CSCD §652〕
| Pāli | Rendering | Usage in this unit | Locus |
|---|---|---|---|
| bhavacakka | wheel of becoming | General name of this section; first appears in the general discussion of dependent origination and is explained directly here | 〔CSCD §652〕 |
| aviditādi | beginning unknown | Second of the four matters; the treatise explains it as hetuphalaparamparāya pariyosānaṃ natthi | 〔CSCD §652〕 |
| kārakavedakarahita | without an agent and experiencer | Third of the four matters | 〔CSCD §652〕 |
| dvādasavidhasuññatāsuñña | empty with twelvefold emptiness | Fourth of the four matters; the treatise establishes it by applying the four qualities permanence, purity, pleasure, and self to each of the twelve links | 〔CSCD §652〕 |
| kāmāsava・diṭṭhāsava・bhavāsava・avijjāsava | taint of sensual desire, taint of views, taint of becoming, taint of ignorance | The four sources from which sorrow and the rest arise; each is supported by a citation in the treatise | 〔CSCD §652〕 |
| padhānadhammakathana | statement of the principal phenomenon | The treatise’s reply: “with ignorance as condition, formations” does not state the beginning but states the principal phenomenon | 〔CSCD §652〕 |
| sappasiraggahaṇa | grasping the snake’s head | The treatise’s simile: ignorance is likened to the snake’s head and the remaining defilements to its body | 〔CSCD §652〕 |
| avijjāsamuccheda | complete cutting off of ignorance | The counterpart to the preceding image: when the head is cut off, all the remaining bonds are released | 〔CSCD §652〕 |
| asesavirāganirodha | cessation through remainderless fading of passion | Formula of cessation; its only occurrence in the whole chapter | 〔CSCD §652〕 |
| vado vedeyyo | speaker and experiencer | Language for a conceived self that the treatise rejects | 〔CSCD §652〕 |
| udayabbayadhammakattā | because it has the nature of arising and passing away | First ground of the twelvefold emptiness: therefore it is not permanent | 〔CSCD §652〕 |
| paccayāyattavuttittā | because its occurrence depends upon conditions | Fourth ground of the twelvefold emptiness: therefore it is not a self that exercises mastery | 〔CSCD §652〕 |
Two Roots, Three Times, Junctions, Groupings, Modes, and Rounds 〔CSCD §653〕–〔CSCD §654〕
| Pāli | Rendering | Usage in this unit | Locus |
|---|---|---|---|
| mūla | root | The two roots of the wheel of becoming: avijjā taṇhā cāti dve dhammā mūlanti veditabbā | 〔CSCD §653〕 |
| pubbantāharaṇa・aparantasantāna | bringing in the past end; continuity into the future end | Distinguishes the two cycles rooted in the two roots: the one rooted in ignorance ends with feeling, and the one rooted in craving ends with aging-and-death | 〔CSCD §653〕 |
| diṭṭhicarita・taṇhācarita | one of view-temperament; one of craving-temperament | The persons corresponding to the two roots | 〔CSCD §653〕 |
| saṃsāranāyikā | guide through saṃsāra | The significance of the two roots | 〔CSCD §653〕 |
| gabbhaseyyaka・opapātika | womb-born being; spontaneously arisen being | Third pairing of the two cycles: the former illustrates successive occurrence, the latter simultaneous arising | 〔CSCD §653〕 |
| hetuphalasandhi・phalahetusandhi | cause-to-fruit junction; fruit-to-cause junction | The two kinds among the three junctions; each position is fixed individually in the treatise | 〔CSCD §654〕 |
| tisandhi | three junctions | Between formations and rebirth-linking consciousness, between feeling and craving, and between becoming and birth | 〔CSCD §654〕 |
| catubhedasaṅgaha | grouping in four divisions | Four groupings: ignorance and formations; consciousness, name-and-form, six bases, contact, and feeling; craving, clinging, and becoming; birth and aging-and-death | 〔CSCD §654〕 |
| vīsati ākārāra | twenty spokes of modes | Five in each of the four groupings: Atīte hetavo pañca, idāni phalapañcakaṃ | 〔CSCD §654〕 |
| āyūhanā | accumulation | Alternative designation for “formations” among the twenty modes | 〔CSCD §654〕 |
| nikanti | longing | Alternative designation for “craving” among the twenty modes | 〔CSCD §654〕 |
| upagamana | approach | Alternative designation for “clinging” among the twenty modes | 〔CSCD §654〕 |
| okkanti | descent into the womb | Alternative designation for “name-and-form” among the twenty modes | 〔CSCD §654〕 |
| pasāda | clarity | Alternative designation for “base” among the twenty modes, referring to the five sensitive material qualities | 〔CSCD §654〕 |
| kammavaṭṭa・kilesavaṭṭa・vipākavaṭṭa | round of kamma, round of defilements, round of ripening | The three rounds: formations and becoming; ignorance, craving, and clinging; consciousness, name-and-form, six bases, contact, and feeling | 〔CSCD §654〕 |
| anavaṭṭhita | not standing still | Character of the wheel of becoming: while the round of defilements is not cut off, its conditions are not cut off and it revolves without stopping | 〔CSCD §654〕 |
The Six Approaches 〔CSCD §655〕–〔CSCD §660〕
| Pāli | Rendering | Usage in this unit | Locus |
|---|---|---|---|
| saccappabhava | origin in the truths | First of the six approaches; the treatise determines for each link from which truth it originates and which truth it itself is | 〔CSCD §655〕 |
| dvedhā pavattikicca | twofold function in occurrence | Second of the six approaches; every link both performs its own task and serves as a condition for the next link | 〔CSCD §656〕 |
| kārakadassananivāraṇa | prevention of seeing an agent | First prevention within the third approach | 〔CSCD §657〕 |
| attasaṅkantidassananivāraṇa | prevention of seeing a self transmigrate | Second prevention within the third approach | 〔CSCD §657〕 |
| ghanasaññānivāraṇa | prevention of the perception of compactness | Third prevention within the third approach | 〔CSCD §657〕 |
| micchādassananivāraṇa | prevention of wrong seeing | General name of the third approach | 〔CSCD §657〕 |
| gaṇḍa・pīḷakā | abscess; pustules | Principal images in the first set of the fourth approach, followed by eleven similes | 〔CSCD §658〕 |
| paṭala | cataract | First image in the second set of similes | 〔CSCD §658〕 |
| kosakārakimi | cocoon-making worm | Second image in the second set | 〔CSCD §658〕 |
| atthagambhīratā・dhammagambhīratā・desanāgambhīratā・paṭivedhagambhīratā | profundity of meaning, profundity of phenomena, profundity of teaching, profundity of penetration | The four kinds in the fifth approach; the treatise explains the first two by citing the text on the discriminations | 〔CSCD §659〕 |
| duppariyogāha | hard to fathom | Ground for the profundity of penetration | 〔CSCD §659〕 |
| ekattanaya・nānattanaya・abyāpāranaya・evaṃdhammatānaya | method of unity, method of diversity, method of non-activity, method of suchness of phenomena | The four kinds in the sixth approach; for each, the treatise specifies what right view abandons and what wrong view adopts | 〔CSCD §660〕 |
| akiriyadiṭṭhi・ahetukadiṭṭhi・niyatavāda | view of non-action, view of causelessness, doctrine of destiny | Wrong views adopted through the four methods | 〔CSCD §660〕 |
| ñāṇāsi・samādhipavarasilā | sword of knowledge; excellent whetstone of concentration | Two implements in the chapter-ending simile | 〔CSCD §661〕 |
| asanivicakka | thunderbolt-wheel | Chapter-ending simile: smashing the wheel of becoming like the constant pounding of a thunderbolt-wheel | 〔CSCD §661〕 |
| tantākulakajāta | become like a tangled skein | Expression in the cited discourse; the world does not penetrate dependent origination | 〔CSCD §661〕 |
Five points to be read together with this edition’s existing critical reading (1) The existing critical reading in §C classifies the three times as “past (causes): ignorance and formations; present (fruits): consciousness, name-and-form, six bases, contact, feeling; present (causes): craving, clinging, becoming; future (fruits): birth and aging-and-death.” This agrees item by item with ''avijjā, saṅkhārā cā''ti dve aṅgāni atītakālāni. Viññāṇādīni bhavāvasānāni aṭṭha paccuppannakālāni. and Jāti ceva jarāmaraṇañca dve anāgatakālānīti veditabbāni. in 〔CSCD §653〕, and the fixed reading is retained verbatim. (2) The existing critical reading in §C establishes the terms “four groupings (catu-saṅkhepa),” “twenty modes (vīsatākāra),” and “three junctions (tisandhi).” These agree with catubhedasaṅgaha, vīsati ākārāra, and tisandhi in 〔CSCD §654〕, and the fixed readings are retained verbatim; only the Pāli form attached to “twenty modes” in the existing reading (its parenthesis has vīsatākāra) is not fully identical to the base-text column’s vīsati ākārāraṃ (which additionally carries the sense “spokes”). The literal difference is recorded without altering the reading. (3) The existing critical reading in §D gives the three rounds as “round of defilements (kilesa-vaṭṭa): ignorance, craving, clinging; round of kamma (kamma-vaṭṭa): formations and becoming (kamma-process becoming); round of ripening / result (vipāka-vaṭṭa): consciousness, name-and-form, six bases, contact, feeling (and birth and aging-and-death).” This agrees item by item with saṅkhārabhavā kammavaṭṭaṃ, avijjātaṇhupādānāni kilesavaṭṭaṃ, viññāṇanāmarūpasaḷāyatanaphassavedanā vipākavaṭṭanti in 〔CSCD §654〕, and the fixed reading is retained verbatim; only the existing reading additionally includes “birth and aging-and-death” in the round of ripening, whereas the base-text list stops at feeling. The fact is recorded without altering the existing critical reading. (4) The existing critical reading in §F establishes the standard formula of cessation. Its verbatim basis is ''avijjāyatveva asesavirāganirodhā saṅkhāranirodho''tiādi in 〔CSCD §652〕—its only occurrence in the chapter; in the base-text column it is not an independent paragraph but part of the argument concerning “statement of the principal phenomenon.” Its verifiable position is recorded without adjudicating whether its independent status as an Overview movement is proportionate. (5) The existing critical reading in §G establishes “freedom from the two extremes.” This agrees with the four methods in 〔CSCD §660〕 (right seeing abandons four views—eternalism, annihilationism, self, and causelessness—while wrong seeing adopts them), but the base-text column additionally sets out the view of non-action and the doctrine of destiny, which the existing reading does not include. The fact is recorded without supplying them.
III. Variant Readings
Material available This unit has no edition-owned facing Pāli, so there is no collation section to record; the only searchable surface is the base-text column itself. What follows records without adjudicating.
Results of a comprehensive scan A literal scan of the full base-text column gives zero matches for parenthetical variant-reading sigla ((sī.), (syā.), (kaṃ.), (pī.), and the like); zero matches for the variant-reading marker pāṭho; and zero matches for the alternative-attribution markers Porāṇā / porāṇā. Square brackets occur only in two forms (11 [§NN] paragraph numbers and 11 edition-page records, the latter all inside notes). The double-single-quote marker '' occurs 50 times, an even number, pairing in every case. Nothing found is recorded as nothing found: the base-text column itself records no variant reading.
One inconsistent capitalization in the column’s own parenthetical references Two parenthetical references next to one another in 〔CSCD §652〕 capitalize the first letter of the title differently: (su. ni. 773) and (Dha. pa. 215)—the latter has capital Dha., whereas the chapter’s other Dhammapada reference is lowercase ((dha. pa. 194) in the detailed account of clinging as condition for becoming). Two forms for one work occur within one chapter. This column records the literal fact and does not determine whether it reflects the transmission or the cleaned file.
One work cited by two forms of its siglum within the column paṭi. ma. 1.47 and paṭi. 1.47 both occur within the single paragraph 〔CSCD §654〕 (the former three times and the latter once), with the same number but one full and one abbreviated work siglum. Two forms within one paragraph are recorded without emendation.
One variation in the placement of quotation formatting within the column After Yathāha – in 〔CSCD §652〕, the cited text is not indented but begins flush at the start of the following line in three cases (including ''Tassa 'ahaṃ rūpaṃ mama rūpa'nti pariyuṭṭhaṭṭhāyino), whereas two other citations in the same paragraph (the verse beginning ''Tassa ce kāmayānassa, chandajātassa jantuno;) are indented. Two quotation formats occur within one paragraph. The fact is recorded without emendation.
Scope of this column Everything above is a literal fact of the base-text column. This column has not been collated against the scanned PTS pages. Zero matches here concern only the single surface of the base-text column and support no inference about other witnesses.
IV. The Commentator’s Citations
Each place cited by the commentator is keyed to a paragraph-number anchor. A source is recorded only when the text itself supplies it, without independent identification. The “Source as Marked in the Text” column reproduces each parenthetical reference verbatim and does not translate the work title.
| Location | Citation Formula [Verbatim] | Point Cited | Source as Marked in the Text |
|---|---|---|---|
| 〔CSCD §651〕 | Tenāha bhagavā ''kammaṃ satte vibhajati yadidaṃ hīnappaṇītatāyā''ti | Kamma divides beings into inferior and superior—the first section’s sole citation and the entire textual basis offered there for “becoming is a condition for birth” | (ma. ni. 3.289) |
| 〔CSCD §652〕 | ''Āsavasamudayā avijjāsamudayo''ti | Ignorance arises from the taints—the last occurrence of this key sentence, which appears three times in the chapter | (ma. ni. 1.103) |
| 〔CSCD §652〕 | Yathāha – / ''Tassa ce kāmayānassa, chandajātassa jantuno; | Sorrow arises from the taint of sensual desire | (su. ni. 773) |
| 〔CSCD §652〕 | Yathā cāha – ''kāmato jāyati soko''ti. | Second support for the same point | (Dha. pa. 215) |
| 〔CSCD §652〕 | Yathāha – / ''Tassa 'ahaṃ rūpaṃ mama rūpa'nti pariyuṭṭhaṭṭhāyino rūpavipariṇāmaññathābhāvā uppajjanti sokaparidevadukkhadomanassupāyāsā''ti | Sorrow and the rest arise from the taint of views | (saṃ. ni. 3.1) |
| 〔CSCD §652〕 | Yathāha – / ''Yepi te devā dīghāyukā vaṇṇavanto sukhabahulā uccesu vimānesu ciraṭṭhitikā, tepi tathāgatassa dhammadesanaṃ sutvā bhayaṃ santāsaṃ saṃvegamāpajjantī''ti | Sorrow and the rest arise from the taint of becoming | (saṃ. ni. 3.78) |
| 〔CSCD §652〕 | Yathāha – / ''Sa kho so, bhikkhave, bālo tividhaṃ diṭṭheva dhamme dukkhaṃ domanassaṃ paṭisaṃvedetī''ti | Sorrow and the rest arise from the taint of ignorance | (ma. ni. 3.246) |
| 〔CSCD §652〕 | Yathāha – ''avijjāyatveva asesavirāganirodhā saṅkhāranirodho''tiādi | Standard formula of cessation—its only occurrence in the whole chapter | (saṃ. ni. 2.1; mahāva. 1) |
| 〔CSCD §652〕 | ''brahmā mahābrahmā seṭṭho sajitā''ti | Conception of an agent that is rejected | (dī. ni. 1.42) |
| 〔CSCD §654〕 | Tenāha ''purimakammabhavasmiṃ moho avijjā, āyūhanā saṅkhārā, nikanti taṇhā, upagamanaṃ upādānaṃ, cetanā bhavoti ime pañca dhammā purimakammabhavasmiṃ idha paṭisandhiyā paccayā''ti | Five past causes—the first set of the twenty modes | (paṭi. ma. 1.47) |
| 〔CSCD §654〕 | Yathāha – ''idha paṭisandhi viññāṇaṃ, okkanti nāmarūpaṃ, pasādo āyatanaṃ, phuṭṭho phasso, vedayitaṃ vedanā, ime pañca dhammā idhūpapattibhavasmiṃ purekatassa kammassa paccayā''ti | Five present fruits—the second set | (paṭi. 1.47) |
| 〔CSCD §654〕 | Tenāha ''idha paripakkattā āyatanānaṃ moho avijjā, āyūhanā saṅkhārā, nikanti taṇhā, upagamanaṃ upādānaṃ, cetanā bhavoti ime pañca dhammā idha kammabhavasmiṃ āyatiṃ paṭisandhiyā paccayā''ti | Five present causes—the third set | (paṭi. ma. 1.47) |
| 〔CSCD §654〕 | Tenāha – ''āyatiṃ paṭisandhi viññāṇaṃ (followed by an edition-page record inserted within the quotation) / ime pañca dhammā āyatiṃ upapattibhavasmiṃ idha katassa kammassa paccayā''ti | Five future fruits—the fourth set | (paṭi. ma. 1.47) |
| 〔CSCD §659〕 | ''gambhīro cāyaṃ, ānanda, paṭiccasamuppādo gambhīrāvabhāso cā''ti | Profundity of dependent origination—the fourfold profundity announced in the general discussion of dependent origination is explained here directly | (dī. ni. 2.95; saṃ. ni. 2.60) |
| 〔CSCD §659〕 | Yathāha – ''hetuphale ñāṇaṃ atthapaṭisambhidā''ti | “Meaning” is cause and fruit—the textual basis for the name “profundity of meaning” | (vibha. 720) |
| 〔CSCD §659〕 | Yathāha – ''hetumhi ñāṇaṃ dhammapaṭisambhidā''ti | “Phenomenon” is cause—the textual basis for the name “profundity of phenomena”; a paired sentence with the preceding citation under the same number | (vibha. 720) |
| 〔CSCD §661〕 | Vuttampi hetaṃ bhagavatā – ''gambhīro cāyaṃ, ānanda, paṭiccasamuppādo gambhīrāvabhāso ca. Etassa cānanda, dhammassa ananubodhā appaṭivedhā evamayaṃ pajā tantākulakajātā kulāgaṇṭhikajātā muñjapabbajabhūtā apāyaṃ duggatiṃ vinipātaṃ saṃsāraṃ nātivattatī''ti | Chapter-ending general citation—a fuller and a shorter form of the same discourse as the citation in 〔CSCD §659〕 | (mahāva. 95; saṃ. ni. 2.60) |
One discourse cited twice under differing numbers The citation in 〔CSCD §659〕 is marked (dī. ni. 2.95; saṃ. ni. 2.60), while the fuller citation in 〔CSCD §661〕 is marked (mahāva. 95; saṃ. ni. 2.60)—the shorter and fuller forms of one discourse assign the first reference once to the Dīgha Nikāya and once to the Vinaya, while the second reference is the same. The literal fact is recorded without independent identification.
Counts of citation formulas [measured in this column] Yathāha occurs 8 times (the second-densest of this chapter’s eleven units, after the unit on the twenty-four Paṭṭhāna conditions with 15); Tenāha 3 times; Vuttampi hetaṃ once; and Vuttañhetaṃ, Tena vuttaṃ, Porāṇā, and kira zero times each. Parenthetical sources explicitly marked in the text number 14 occurrences and 14 kinds, distributed as Saṃyutta Nikāya 4, Majjhima Nikāya 3, Vinaya 2 (one jointly cited with the Saṃyutta Nikāya), Paṭisambhidāmagga 4, Dīgha Nikāya 2, Sutta Nipāta 1, Dhammapada 1, and Vibhaṅga 2—the broadest mixture of source works among the chapter’s eleven units (eight works). These figures concern this unit alone, not the whole work.
V. Similes and Rhetoric
This section only records where the unit’s similes occur and what they are paired with; it offers no literary evaluation.
A. Similes Literal measurement of comparative expressions in this unit gives 30 word-boundary occurrences of viya, 1 sandhi form (asanivicakkamiva), 3 forms of upamā, and zero forms of sadisa. Thirty-one similes in 22,162 bytes make this the densest unit in similes among the chapter’s eleven units—the opposite extreme from the detailed account of formations as condition for consciousness (30,590 bytes but only two comparison terms). Within it, 〔CSCD §658〕 alone yields 22 similes (eleven in the abscess set and eleven in the other set), the chapter’s richest reservoir of similes.
The Twenty-Four Similes of 〔CSCD §658〕 (listed one by one; the original said twenty-two, while measurement gives twelve in the abscess set and twelve in the other set)
| Set | Simile | Link Paired with It |
|---|---|---|
| Abscess set | salakkhaṇasāmaññalakkhaṇavasena dhammānaṃ adassanato andho viya avijjā | Ignorance is like a blind person |
| Abscess set | Andhassa upakkhalanaṃ viya avijjāpaccayā saṅkhārā | Formations are like a blind person’s stumbling |
| Abscess set | Upakkhalitassa patanaṃ viya saṅkhārapaccayā viññāṇaṃ | Consciousness is like the fall of a person who has stumbled |
| Abscess set | Patitassa gaṇḍapātubhāvo viya viññāṇapaccayā nāmarūpaṃ | Name-and-form is like an abscess appearing on a person who has fallen |
| Abscess set | Gaṇḍabhedapīḷakā viya nāmarūpapaccayā saḷāyatanaṃ | The six bases are like pustules arising when an abscess breaks |
| Abscess set | Gaṇḍapīḷakāghaṭṭanaṃ viya saḷāyatanapaccayā phasso | Contact is like an abscess and its pustules being struck |
| Abscess set | Ghaṭṭanadukkhaṃ viya phassapaccayā vedanā | Feeling is like the pain from being struck |
| Abscess set | dukkhassa paṭikārābhilāso viya vedanāpaccayā taṇhā | Craving is like the desire to remedy pain |
| Abscess set | Paṭikārābhilāsena asappāyaggahaṇaṃ viya taṇhāpaccayā upādānaṃ | Clinging is like taking what is unsuitable out of a desire for a remedy |
| Abscess set | Upādiṇṇaasappāyālepanaṃ viya upādānapaccayā bhavo | Becoming is like applying the unsuitable thing that was taken |
| Abscess set | Asappāyālepanena gaṇḍavikārapātubhāvo viya bhavapaccayā jāti | Birth is like an abscess changing after an unsuitable application |
| Abscess set | Gaṇḍavikārato gaṇḍabhedo viya jātipaccayā jarāmaraṇaṃ | Aging-and-death is like the abscess bursting after its change |
| Other set | paṭalaṃ viya akkhīni | Ignorance overcomes beings as a cataract obscures the eyes |
| Other set | kosakārakimi viya kosappadesehi | A fool binds himself with formations like a worm making a cocoon |
| Other set | pariṇāyakapariggahito viya rājakumāro rajje | Consciousness obtains a footing in a destination like a prince guided by a counselor gains a kingdom |
| Other set | māyākāro viya māyaṃ | Consciousness generates name-and-form like an illusionist making an illusion |
| Other set | subhūmiyaṃ patiṭṭhito vanappagumbo viya | The six bases grow like a woodland thicket established on good soil |
| Other set | araṇisahitābhimanthanato aggi viya | Contact arises like fire from rubbing fire-sticks together |
| Other set | agginā phuṭṭhassa dāho viya | Feeling appears like burning when one is touched by fire |
| Other set | loṇūdakaṃ pivato pipāsā viya | Craving grows like thirst in a person who drinks salt water |
| Other set | pipāsito viya pānīye | One thirsting desires forms of becoming as a thirsty person desires a drink |
| Other set | āmisalobhena maccho baḷisaṃ viya | Through clinging one takes up becoming as a fish greedy for bait swallows a hook |
| Other set | bīje sati aṅkuro viya | When becoming is present, birth occurs as a sprout occurs when a seed is present |
| Other set | uppannassa rukkhassa patanaṃ viya | When birth has occurred, aging-and-death follows as a tree that has arisen must fall |
Each of the twelve links is paired with two similes The twelve similes of the abscess set and the twelve similes of the other set each pair, one by one, with one of the twelve links—two similes per link, making a complete table of twenty-four (literal measurement gives thirty word-boundary occurrences of viya, six of them elsewhere). The treatise turns to the second set with the phrase Yasmā vā panettha, making the boundary between the two sets verbatim verifiable.
Six Similes Elsewhere
| Location | Simile | Meaning Paired with It |
|---|---|---|
| 〔CSCD §652〕 | Pañca pubbanimittāni disvā maraṇabhayena santajjitānaṃ devānaṃ viya | Like deities terrified by fear of death on seeing the five omens—sorrow produced by the taint of becoming |
| 〔CSCD §652〕 | Sappasiraggahaṇena sesasappasarīraṃ viya bāhaṃ | As the snake’s body coils around the arm when its head is grasped, so grasping ignorance leaves the other defilements and kamma binding the fool |
| 〔CSCD §652〕 | Sappasiracchede kate palibodhitabāhāvimokkho viya | As the bound arm is freed when the snake’s head is cut off, so cutting off ignorance brings release; the positive and negative halves of one simile together with the preceding row |
| 〔CSCD §660〕 | bījassa aṅkurādibhāvena rukkhabhāvappatti viya santānānupacchedo | As a seed becomes a sprout and then a tree—the method of unity |
| 〔CSCD §660〕 | khīrādīhi dadhiādīnaṃ viya | As curd and the like come from milk and the like—the method of suchness of phenomena |
| 〔CSCD §661〕 | Bhavacakkamapadāletvā, asanivicakkamiva niccanimmathanaṃ | Like the constant pounding of a thunderbolt-wheel—unless the wheel of becoming is shattered, the fear of saṃsāra is not transcended; a sandhi comparison form |
B. Verifiable Rhetorical Observations (1) The unit’s skeleton consists of two programmatic verses and the close of each approach (see Section I); the six closes share one form that is verbatim verifiable. (2) The vaṭṭ word family occurs 16 times throughout the unit (in the three rounds and in language of the turning of the bhavacakka), the chapter’s highest count. (3) Yathāha occurs 8 times, Tenāha 3 times, Tattha siyā – once, the self-question Kasmā? zero times, and ? 3 times in the unit. (4) Literal verse count: 23 indented lines, comprising six verses composed by the commentator, one cited verse, and the four chapter-ending lines. (5) The ellipsis form …pe… occurs 3 times. (6) Inflected forms of the expression “should be understood” occur 16 times in the unit (tying the detailed account of formations as condition for consciousness for the chapter’s highest count). (7) In 〔CSCD §656〕, the two functions of the twelve links are each cast in the paired form “on the one hand it performs its own task; on the other, it is a condition for the next link” (the family beginning avijjā vatthūsu ca satte sammoheti, paccayo ca hoti saṅkhārānaṃ); twelve sentences share the same form, the most orderly parallel construction in the unit. (8) The profundity-of-penetration passage in 〔CSCD §659〕 lists, for each link, the meaning that is penetrated and closes each with “the meaning of X is profound” (for example, paccayaṭṭho gambhīro); all twelve links are treated one by one in the same sentence form.
All figures above are measured only within this unit, not throughout the work.
VI. Intratextual Cross-Reading
Every pointer bears a paragraph-number anchor, and each points only to terms verifiable within this unit. Because the paragraph-number and chapter-section systems have no known mapping, these pointers are not tied to chapter sections and no conversion is inferred. No independent identification is made.
| Place in This Unit | Points To | Verifiable Basis |
|---|---|---|
〔CSCD §651〕 Bhavoti panettha kammabhavova adhippeto. So hi jātiyā paccayo, na upapattibhavo | The unit on the detailed account of clinging as condition for becoming, 〔CSCD §646〕 | That unit distinguishes kamma-process becoming from rebirth-process becoming; this unit selects one verbatim |
〔CSCD §651〕 jātiādīnaṃ vinicchayo saccaniddese vuttanayeneva veditabbo | The preceding chapter’s unit on the truths | The treatise itself states that the analysis of birth, aging-and-death, and the rest was given there and does not repeat it here; this continues the same form of self-reference in the general discussion of dependent origination, 〔CSCD §588〕 |
〔CSCD §652〕 ''Āsavasamudayā avijjāsamudayo''ti | The general-discussion unit, 〔CSCD §584〕, and the detailed account of ignorance as condition for formations, 〔CSCD §617〕 | Cited in all three places; the other two use it to establish that ignorance is not causeless, while this unit reasons backward from sorrow and the rest to establish ignorance |
〔CSCD §652〕 ''avijjāyatveva asesavirāganirodhā saṅkhāranirodho''tiādi | The general-discussion unit, 〔CSCD §570〕 | That unit cites the standard forward-arising formula, while this unit cites its cessation formula—together the two sentences fully supply Overview §B and §F |
〔CSCD §653〕 Viññāṇādīni bhavāvasānāni aṭṭha paccuppannakālāni | The detailed account of formations as condition for consciousness, from 〔CSCD §621〕 onward | That unit explains consciousness in detail as rebirth-linking and life-continuum occurrence; it is the first of the eight present links assigned here |
〔CSCD §654〕 Sattame bhavo | The unit on the phrase “with ignorance as condition, formations,” 〔CSCD §592〕 | That unit establishes formations as twenty-nine volitions; this unit calls the seventh impulsion volition “becoming” and distinguishes it from formations |
〔CSCD §658〕 Bhave sati jāti hoti bīje sati aṅkuro viya | The detailed account of formations as condition for consciousness, 〔CSCD §634〕 | That unit uses the mango-seed simile to establish that “the fruit does not belong to another”; this unit again uses the seed-and-sprout simile to establish that “when becoming is present, birth occurs” |
〔CSCD §659〕 ''gambhīro cāyaṃ, ānanda, paṭiccasamuppādo gambhīrāvabhāso cā''ti | The general-discussion unit, 〔CSCD §574〕 | That unit cites the same sentence and marks Gambhīrattañca nāma catubbidhaṃ, taṃ parato vaṇṇayissāma—this unit is the direct explanation promised there |
〔CSCD §660〕 santānānupacchedo ekattanayo | The detailed account of formations as condition for consciousness, 〔CSCD §631〕 | That unit establishes Santānabandhato natthi, ekatā nāpi nānatā; this unit sets out the same point through the methods of unity and diversity and additionally pairs each with right and wrong views |
VII. Transmission
This apparatus advances no thesis concerning authorship, transmission, or the history of the commentaries.