Sūtra of the Oral Explanation of the Twelve Links of Dependent Origination from the Āgamas

(2) Original text: 人生死从内十二因缘。万物生死从外十二因缘。何等为痴。谓不礼父母。不分别白黑。从是因缘得痛。不欲弃。不信今世亦后世。已作是事。便随行不作。是亦不得。是以有痴便为行。已有行便为识。已有识便为名色。已有名色便为六入。已有六入便为栽。已有栽便为痛。已有痛便为爱。已有爱便为受。已有受便为有。已有有便为生。已有生便为老死。 

Explanation: Human birth and death come from the inner twelve links of dependent origination, and the arising and ceasing of things comes from the outer twelve links of dependent origination. What is ignorance (moha)? Ignorance means not paying respect to one's parents and being unable to distinguish right from wrong, true from false. From the condition of ignorance, grasping arises, yet one cannot abandon ignorance, and one does not believe that this life has causes and future lives have their retributions. Good deeds that have already been begun are abandoned due to ignorance and are no longer carried out, and thus no wholesome retribution is obtained. Therefore it is said that where there is ignorance there are mental formations (saṃskāra); with mental formations, the six consciousnesses will arise; with the six consciousnesses, there will be future nāma-rūpa (name-and-form); with nāma-rūpa there will be the six sense bases (ṣaḍāyatana); with the six sense bases there will be contact (sparśa); with contact there will be feeling (vedanā); with feeling there will be craving (tṛṣṇā); with craving there will be grasping (upādāna); with grasping there will be future existence (bhava); with existence there will be birth (jāti); with birth there will be aging and death (jarā-maraṇa). 

Original text: 故人生取十二因缘。得十二因缘生。无因缘亦不生。万物亦尔。不断十二因缘。不脱生死。行三十七品经。为从是得道。十二因缘有五事。一者痴。二者生死精行。是前世因缘。三者识。从识受身生。四者名色。色身复成五阴。是今世因缘。五者六衰。复作生死精行种栽。是后世因缘。前后三世转相因缘故。为有五事。 

Explanation: Therefore, after a person is born, he takes hold of the twelve links of dependent origination; only with the dharma of the twelve links of dependent origination can one be born. Without causes and conditions, not only do humans not come into birth—nothing in the world comes into birth either. The same applies to all things. If the twelve links of dependent origination are not severed, one cannot escape the cycle of birth and death. Cultivating the thirty-seven factors of enlightenment is precisely for the purpose of realizing the fruit of the Path and escaping birth and death. The twelve links of dependent origination are divided into five categories: the first is ignorance; the second is the mental formations that diligently proceed through birth and death—these two are the causes and conditions of past lives, which enable continuous birth in future lives, and thus there is the birth and death of the five aggregates in this life; the third is consciousness, from the karmic seeds of the six consciousnesses a material body will be born; the fourth is nāma-rūpa, which allows the material body to develop the functions and activities of the five aggregates—this is the cause and condition for the existence of the five-aggregate body in this life; the fifth is the six sense bases, which are the seeds capable of diligently creating karmic formations and are the cause and condition for the birth of the material body in future lives. The twelve links of dependent origination are the causes and conditions of birth and death flowing through the past, present, and future three lifetimes, and they are summarized into these five categories.