Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra, Volume Ten (The Twelve Links of Dependent Origination)

（三十三）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 arising? Answer: With two kinds of wisdom, namely the wisdom of the abiding of dharma (dharmasthiti-jñāna) and the wisdom of reality. How is it known with the wisdom of the abiding of dharma? For example, the twelve links of dependent arising that the Buddha has established and revealed should all be known without inversion, possessing the wisdom that truly and actually realizes the dharma of causes and conditions. How is it known with the wisdom of reality? For example, after cultivating and studying the dharma of the twelve links of dependent arising, one sees the trace of the noble path, realizes the contemplation of dependent arising, attains purity of the dharma eye, and can then observe the profound meaning of the dharma of dependent arising. 

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: As the World-Honored One has said, all these dharmas of dependent arising 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 not, the dharmas of dependent arising abide in the nature of dharma and dwell in the realm of dharma; this is an ever-enduring principle. What is the nature of dharma? What is the realm of dharma? Answer: The nature of dharma is that all these dharmas of dependent arising, from beginningless kalpas onward, have the nature of the accomplishment of this principle—the nature by which the principle is formed. Just like the nature of the accomplishment of the principle, when it is established through words and phrases without inversion, this is called the abiding of dharma. Because this abiding of dharma takes that nature of dharma as its cause, it is therefore called the realm of dharma. 

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 sutra says, if the link of birth did not exist, there would be no place and no stage for the five aggregates to transmigrate. Yet birth does exist; if birth in all its seeds did not exist, then "birth conditions aging-and-death" could not be obtained. What is meant by "place of birth" is the environment where a life is born, the three realms and nine levels of existence. What is meant by "stage of birth" refers 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 spoken in accordance with the arising of the fruit manifested from the seeds of the living being's own substance. That is, the links of consciousness, name-and-form, the six sense bases, contact, and down to feeling are the seeds of birth; to elucidate this principle, it is spoken of as birth. Because these exist, at a later time these very links become the fruit links—this is "existence conditions 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: as stated in the sutra, in accordance with each corresponding dharma, all should be understood in this way.