The Yogācārabhūmi Śāstra, Volume Thirty-Four (Fifty)

Original text: 复有差别。谓了知爱是取因故。复能招集。即以其取为因有故。复能生起有为上首。当来生故。又能引发以生为缘。老病死等诸苦法故。随其所应。当知说名因集起缘。

Explanation: There are further differences among the four formations, with different sequences: knowing that craving is the cause of grasping, and craving can further gather and accumulate; then with grasping as the cause, becoming arises; then becoming can give rise to what becoming leads—the future birth; and it can further initiate old age, sickness, death, and other suffering dharmas with birth as the condition. According to the sequence of the four formations, they are respectively named: cause (hetu), accumulation (samudaya), arising (prabhava), and condition (pratyaya).

The cause of the truth of origination is craving; because there is craving, grasping arises. Whether one grasps or does not grasp, there is a mark of suffering. After the becoming of future lives is produced, the mark of birth appears, and the mark of suffering appears. Only by eradicating the root of suffering—craving—can suffering be eradicated. The cause of craving is feeling, and the cause of feeling is contact. There can be contact and feeling, but at the time of contact and feeling, if there is no craving and no mind directed toward what is contacted and felt, then the suffering of future lives will not appear, and the truth of origination ceases. Since present craving is the cause that initiates suffering, and the accumulation of craving can cause suffering to be born, the accumulation of craving is precisely the origination of suffering. After suffering is born, the feeling of suffering manifests—this is called the arising of suffering. Because craving can gather and hold the future seeds of suffering, and what craving gathers and accumulates are all seeds of suffering, capable of generating future suffering, craving, grasping, becoming, birth, and old age sequentially draw in and accumulate the various sufferings; therefore craving is the condition for suffering.

The truth of origination is one link among the twelve links of dependent origination. The path to liberation—the Śrāvaka dharma and the Pratyekabuddha dharma mutually encompass each other and share common ground; there is no independent Pratyekabuddha dharma, nor an independent Śrāvaka dharma; it is only that the two dharmas differ in the depth of the levels they involve, while liberation is no different.