The Twelve Links of Dependent Origination Taught by the World-Honored One in the Lankavatara Sutra (I)

Original text:尔时大慧菩萨摩诃萨。复问世尊说。世尊。外道亦说因缘。谓胜自在时微尘生。如是诸性生。然世尊所谓因缘生诸性言说。有间悉檀。无间悉檀。世尊。外道亦说有无有生。世尊亦说无有生。生已灭。

Explanation: The Bodhisattva Mahāsattva Mahāmati asked the World-Honored One: "World-Honored One, the non-Buddhists also say that all dharmas arise from causes and conditions. From what, then, are they born? They hold that they are born of Īśvara, the Supreme Sovereign deity—as if born of Mahābrahmā, God, or some divine spirit—or they hold that they are born of the minute particles in empty space, or of some kind of energy; in later times some even said they were born of an old mother goddess, with all sorts of differing claims. Yet the World-Honored One's statements that all dharmas arise from causes and conditions fall within the categories of worldly existence and worldly nonexistence. World-Honored One, the non-Buddhists also speak of worldly existence and worldly nonexistence, and the World-Honored One also says that all dharmas do not arise—having arisen, they cease."

Here, "arising from causes and conditions" mainly refers to the fact that sentient beings' five-aggregate bodies are born from causes and conditions; once there is a five-aggregate body, there is all the dharma of the world, including external worldly dharmas and internal worldly dharmas. The non-Buddhists' claims either fall into the extreme of existence or the extreme of nonexistence, belonging to theories of eternalism and annihilationism, and none of them are correct. Whereas the "nonexistence" spoken of by the World-Honored One means empty and without self-nature—arising and then ceasing, not real, as if illusory and conjured.

Original text:如世尊所说。无明缘行。乃至老死。此是世尊无因说。非有因说。世尊建立作如是说。此有故彼有。非建立渐生。观外道说胜。非如来也。

Explanation: The Bodhisattva Mahāmati further said: Just as the World-Honored One has said, "ignorance conditions volitional formations (avidyā-pratyayāḥ saṃskārāḥ)," down to aging and death—when the World-Honored One spoke thus of these twelve links of dependent origination, He had not yet stated the fundamental cause of aging and death, had not stated the fundamental cause of the twelve links of dependent origination; that cause You have not yet spoken of here, discussing only these false appearances of the world, not yet touching upon the truth, not touching upon the fundamental cause from which these dharmas are born. Therefore the World-Honored One established a teaching: "This being, that is"—without pointing out that these dharmas are gradually generated by one's own mind. Looking at those non-Buddhists who say the cause of birth is some divine spirit, such claims are not what the World-Honored One has said, and do not accord with what the World-Honored One has taught.