Samyukta Āgama (296, Part 2)

(2) Original Text: That Tathāgata, having realized through self-awakening, attained perfect enlightenment. He expounded for others, revealing and illuminating, stating that conditioned by birth arise old age, death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair. These dharmas abide as dharmas; dharmas are empty. The dharmas are suchness itself; the dharmas are inherently thus. The dharmas do not depart from suchness; the dharmas are not different from suchness. They are thoroughly examined as true reality, not inverted. Thus, following dependent arising in this way, this is called the dependently arisen dharmas. Namely: conditioned by ignorance, volitional formations arise; conditioned by volitional formations, consciousness arises; conditioned by consciousness, name-and-form arises; conditioned by name-and-form, the six sense-bases arise; conditioned by the six sense-bases, contact arises; conditioned by contact, feeling arises; conditioned by feeling, craving arises; conditioned by craving, clinging arises; conditioned by clinging, becoming arises; conditioned by becoming, birth arises; conditioned by birth, old age, death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair arise. This is called the dependently arisen dharmas.

Explanation: Those Tathāgatas who accomplish realization by relying on this Dharma are all self-awakened and self-attested, attaining perfect enlightenment. Thereafter, they expound everywhere for others, revealing and illuminating the Dharma of dependent origination and the dependently arisen dharmas. This refers to the teaching that conditioned by birth arise old age, death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair. These dharmas of dependent origination and dependently arisen dharmas abide perpetually in the world. Yet, although this is so, these dharmas are also empty, inherently thus, and the principle is exactly this. These dharmas also do not exist apart from suchness, nor are they different from suchness. Upon careful examination, they are all seen as true principle, not inverted. Such dharmas that arise following conditions in this manner are called dependently arisen dharmas. Specifically: conditioned by ignorance, volitional formations of the mental faculty arise; conditioned by volitional formations, consciousness arises; conditioned by consciousness, name-and-form arises; conditioned by name-and-form, the six sense-bases arise; conditioned by the six sense-bases, contact arises; conditioned by contact, feeling arises; conditioned by feeling, craving arises; conditioned by craving, clinging arises; conditioned by clinging, becoming arises; conditioned by becoming, birth arises; conditioned by birth, old age, death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair arise. This is called the dependently arisen dharmas.

The Four Noble Truths, the Twelve Links of Dependent Origination, ignorance, birth, old age, death—these worldly dependently arisen dharmas all abide within the world. However, these dharmas exist only in appearance; in essence, they are non-existent, they are empty. They are all manifested by the eighth consciousness, and they are also the eighth consciousness itself—this is the meaning of "the dharmas are suchness." They are also not different from the eighth consciousness, originating from the eighth consciousness and bearing its attributes; this is called "not different from suchness." These principles are inherently thus, called "inherently thus" (dharmatā). All dharmas—the five aggregates, the six sense faculties, the six sense objects, the six consciousnesses, the Four Noble Truths, the Twelve Links of Dependent Origination—do not depart from suchness. Only suchness is real; all other dharmas arise dependent on suchness and are therefore false, impermanent, and subject to birth and death. Here, the Buddha explicitly states that the dependently arisen dharmas do not depart from suchness; they do not depart from the eighth consciousness.