The Twelve Links of Dependent Origination Taught by the World-Honored One in the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra (1)

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 are they said to be born? They hold that they are born from Īśvara (Maheśvara), as if born from Mahābrahmā, God, or some deity; or they hold that they are born from dust motes in space or from some kind of energy; in later times there were even those who said they were born from the Old Mother, with all sorts of differing accounts. Yet the World-Honored One's teaching that all dharmas arise from causes and conditions falls within the categories of worldly existence and worldly non-existence. World-Honored One, the non-Buddhists also speak of worldly existence and worldly non-existence, and the World-Honored One also says that all dharmas do not truly arise—having arisen, they cease."

Here, "arising from causes and conditions" mainly refers to the fact that sentient beings' bodies of the five aggregates are born from causes and conditions. Once there is a body of the five aggregates, there are all the dharmas of the world, including external worldly dharmas and internal worldly dharmas. The non-Buddhists' accounts either fall into the extreme of existence or into the extreme of non-existence, belonging to theories of eternalism and annihilationism, and none of them are correct. As for the "non-existence" spoken of by the World-Honored One, it means that they are empty and without self-nature: having arisen, they then cease and are not real, appearing as if illusory transformations.

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 taught—ignorance conditions volitional formations (avidyā-pratyayāḥ saṃskārāḥ), down to aging and death—when the World-Honored One taught these twelve links of dependent origination in this way, He had not yet spoken of the fundamental cause of aging and death; He had not stated the fundamental cause of the twelve links of dependent origination. That cause, You have not yet spoken of here; You have only discussed these false appearances of the world, not yet touching upon the true reality, not touching upon the fundamental cause from which these dharmas are born. Therefore the World-Honored One established a teaching: "This being present, that comes to be," without pointing out that these dharmas are gradually produced by one's own mind. Looking at those non-Buddhists who say that the cause of birth is some kind of deity—these accounts are not what the World-Honored One taught, and do not accord with what the World-Honored One has said.