Abhidharmakośa, Volume 9

Original text: 如何有情前际愚惑。谓于前际。生如是疑。我于过去世。为曾有非有。何等我曾有。云何我曾有。如何有情后际愚惑。谓于后际。生如是疑。我于未来世。为当有非有。何等我当有。云何我当有。 

Explanation: What is the delusion and confusion of sentient beings regarding the dharma of the past limit (pūrvānta)? Sentient beings give rise to such doubts regarding the dharma of the past limit: In past lives, did I exist or not exist? What dharma did I previously have? Why did I previously have it? What is the delusion and confusion of sentient beings regarding the dharma of the future limit (aparānta)? Sentient beings give rise to such delusion and confusion regarding the dharma of the future limit: In future lives, will I exist or not exist? What dharma shall I have? Why shall I have it? 

Original text: 如何有情中际愚惑。谓于中际。生如是疑。何等是我。此我云何。我谁所有。我当有谁。为除如是。三际愚惑故。经唯说有情缘起。如其次第说无明行。 及生老死。并识至有。所以者何。以契经说。苾刍谛听。若有苾刍。于诸缘起。缘已生法。能以如实正慧观见。彼必不于三际愚惑。谓我于过去世为曾有非有等。 

Explanation: What is the delusion and confusion of sentient beings regarding the dharma of the present limit (madhya)? Sentient beings give rise to such doubts regarding the dharma of the present limit: What dharma is the self? What is this self like? To whom does this self belong? Who is it that I shall become? In order to eliminate these delusions and confusions regarding the three limits, the sūtra only speaks of the dependent arising of sentient beings, and in sequential order speaks of ignorance (avidyā) and volitional formations (saṃskāra), as well as birth and aging-and-death, together with consciousness, name-and-form, the six sense bases, contact, feeling, craving, grasping, and existence. Why is it said this way? According to what is said in the āgama sūtras: Bhikṣus, listen carefully. If a bhikṣu can observe with authentic right wisdom all the dependently arisen dharmas and the dharmas that have arisen through conditions, that bhikṣu will certainly no longer be deluded and confused about the dharmas of the three limits, such as whether I existed or did not exist in past lives, and so on; these doubts will disappear. 

Original text: 有余师说爱取有三。亦为除他后际愚惑。此三皆是后际因。故又应知。此说缘起门。虽有十二支。而三二为性。三谓惑业事。二谓果与因。其义云何。颂曰。三烦恼二业七事。亦名果。略果及略因。由中可比二。 

Explanation: Other Dharma masters say that the three—craving, grasping, and existence—can also eliminate sentient beings' delusion regarding the future limit, because these three are all the causes for the arising of the dharmas of the future limit. Therefore, one should also know that although the gateway of dependent arising spoken of here has twelve links, it takes three and two as its nature. The three refer to afflictive delusion, afflictive karma, and afflictive matters: craving is the afflictive delusion, grasping is the afflictive karma, and existence is the afflictive matter. The two refer to result and cause. What does this mean? There is a verse that says: three afflictions, two karmas, and seven matters are also called results; the abbreviated result and the abbreviated cause are, among the twelve links, roughly divided into two kinds. 

Original text: 论曰。无明爱取。烦恼为性。行及有支。以业为性。余识等七。以事为性。是烦恼业所依事故。如是七事。即亦名果。义准余五。即亦名因。以烦恼业为自性故。 

Explanation: The treatise says: the three links of ignorance, craving, and grasping take affliction as their nature, meaning these three links are afflictive delusions possessing the nature of affliction. The links of volitional formations and existence take karma as their nature, belonging to the nature of karma. The remaining seven links—consciousness, name-and-form, the six sense bases, contact, feeling, birth, and aging-and-death—take matters as their nature, belonging to the attribute of matters; they are the matters upon which affliction and karma depend. These seven matters are also called results. By extension of this meaning, the remaining five links are also called causes, because they take affliction and karma as their self-nature. 

Original text: 何缘中际。广说果因。开事为五。惑为二故。后际略果。事唯二故。前际略因。惑唯一故。由中际广。可以比度前后二际。广义已成。故不别说。说便无用。 

Explanation: For what reason are result and cause extensively expounded within the dharma of the present limit? Because matters are opened up into five links—name-and-form, the six sense bases, contact, feeling, and consciousness—and afflictive delusion is two links, craving and grasping; the cause is afflictive delusion, and the result is matters. The future limit is the abbreviated result, because matters are only two links: birth and aging-and-death. The past limit is the abbreviated cause, because afflictive delusion is only one: ignorance. Since the present limit is relatively extensive, it can be used to infer and gauge the past and future limits. The extensive meaning has already been revealed, so it is not separately stated elsewhere; stating it would serve no purpose.