The Concept of the Four Conditions

Causes and conditions: a cause (hetu) is the dharma that can induce the arising of another dharma, while a condition (pratyaya) is the dharma that assists the cause in inducing the arising of another dharma. Both cause and condition are expedient factors for the birth of other dharmas, like a fuse.

The most fundamental cause of all dharmas is the tathāgatagarbha, the source from which all dharmas are born; both the cause and the condition, these two dharmas, are themselves born of the tathāgatagarbha, the most fundamental cause.

The sequential condition, also called the immediate condition (samanantara-pratyaya), refers to dharmas that are equal and identical, arising and ceasing one after another in an uninterrupted sequence, thereby inducing the arising of the next identical dharma. For example, take consciousness seeds: the previous consciousness seed (such as that of the mind consciousness) arises upon a certain object at a certain place, then ceases and returns; the next identical consciousness seed (of the mind consciousness) arises at the same place, then ceases and returns; then another consciousness seed arises upon the same object at the same place, then ceases and returns. In this way, identical consciousness seeds continuously arise and cease at the same place, forming the continuous activity of the conscious mind. The mental factors (caittas) work in the same way.

The object condition (ālambana-pratyaya): the "object" (ālambana) corresponds to the "perceiving" (ālambaka). The perceiver is the consciousness of the seven faculties, which possesses subjective agency; the consciousness of the seven faculties can perceive all dharmas, especially the realms of the six sense objects—it is the perceiving mind, while the object perceived is all dharmas or the realms of the six sense objects. The object condition is the condition for the arising of all dharmas, the condition for the arising of the realms of the six sense objects.

The predominant condition (adhipati-pratyaya) refers to all other assisting conditions that help give rise to a given dharma, apart from itself.