Yogācārabhūmi Śāstra, Volume 10 (The Twelve Links of Dependent Origination)

(Thirty-three) Original text: 问。应以几智知缘起耶。答。二。谓以法住智。及真实智。云何以法住智。谓如佛施设开示。无倒而知。云何以真实智。谓如学见迹。观甚深义。 

Explanation: Question: With how many kinds of wisdom should one know dependent origination? Answer: With two kinds of wisdom, namely the wisdom of the establishment of dharmas (dharmasthiti-jñāna) and the wisdom of reality. How is it that one knows dependent origination with the wisdom of the establishment of dharmas? For example, the twelve links of dependent origination that the Buddha has established and expounded should all be fully known without inversion, possessing the wisdom that truly and actually realizes the dharma of causes and conditions. How is it that one knows dependent origination with the wisdom of reality? For example, after cultivating and studying the dharma of the twelve links of dependent origination, one sees the trace of the noble path, realizes the contemplation of dependent origination, attains purity of the dharma eye, and is then able to observe the profound meaning of the dharma of dependent origination. 

Original text: 问。如世尊言。是诸缘起。非我所作。亦非余作。所以者何。若佛出世。若不出世。安住法性。法住法界。云何法性。云何法住。云何法界。答。是诸缘起。无始时来。理成就性。是名法性。如成就性。以无颠倒。文句安立。是名法住。由此法住。以彼法性为因。是故说彼名为法界。 

Explanation: Question: Just as the World-Honored One said, all these dharmas of dependent origination were not made by me, nor were they made by anyone else. Why is this said? Because whether a Buddha appears in the world or does not appear in the world, the dharmas of dependent origination abide in the nature of dharmas (dharmatā) and dwell in the dharmadhātu; this is an ever-enduring principle. What is the nature of dharmas? What is the establishment of dharmas? What is the dharmadhātu? Answer: The nature of dharmas means that all these dharmas of dependent origination, from beginningless kalpas onward, have the nature of the principle's accomplishment, the nature of the principle's formation. Just like the nature of the principle's accomplishment, when the principle is established with words and phrases that are without inversion, this is called the establishment of dharmas. Because this establishment of dharmas takes the nature of dharmas of those principles as its cause, therefore it is called the dharmadhātu. 

Original text: 问。如经言。生若无者。无处无位。生可是有。若一切种生非有者。生缘老死。应不可得。何故此中说。彼自性缘自性耶。答。依自种子果生说故。谓识乃至受支。是生种子故。义说为生。由此有故。后时即此果支。名有缘生。如是余支。如经所说。随其所应。尽当知。

Explanation: Question: As the sūtra says, if the link of birth did not exist, there would be no place and no stage for the five aggregates to flow on. Yet birth does exist; if birth of all seeds did not exist, then "birth conditions aging-and-death" could not be obtained. The place of birth refers to the environments where life is born, the three realms and nine levels of existence. The stages of birth refer to the several stages of a life's growth, such as the fetal stage, the infant stage, early childhood, adolescence, youth, middle age, old age, the stage of death, and so on. 

Why then does this text say that the self-nature of birth conditions the self-nature? Answer: It is said that there is birth in reliance on the fruit manifested from the seeds of one's own life-body. The link of the six consciousnesses, the link of name-and-form, the link of the six sense bases, the link of contact, and down to the link of feeling are the seeds of birth; to elucidate this meaning it is called birth. Because these exist, at a later time these very fruit-links are called "existence conditioning birth." The same applies to the remaining links—existence, grasping, craving, feeling, contact, the six sense bases, name-and-form, the six consciousnesses, volitional formations, ignorance, and so on—just as stated in the sūtra; according to what corresponds to them, all should be understood in this way.