What Is the Cause of Dharmas That Arise from Causes and Conditions?

The conditions required by dharmas are a kind of assisting condition and assisting force, meaning to help and facilitate; they do not play the leading role. The leading role belongs to the prior cause that brings about the arising of a dharma or a result. For example, suppose A is struck by B—this is an unwholesome dharma; the condition is that A and B meet. With the aid of a person and an event, the phenomenon of striking someone arises. In fact, before this there was a cause that brought about the occurrence of this incident; without the prior cause, even if the conditions were complete, this event would not happen. If there were no prior cause, then even if this incident of striking occurred, the incident itself would become the cause for the arising of future events: when assisting conditions appear later, because of the cause of this incident, A will want to retaliate against B, and B may then be struck, or other unpleasant behaviors may occur.

The prior cause is a dharma produced by causes and conditions, and is illusory; the subsequent result is a dharma produced by causes and conditions, and is equally illusory. Whatever dharma it is, it is a dharma produced by causes and conditions, all illusory and unreal. The cause is illusory, the condition is illusory, and the result is also illusory; all are produced through the combined functioning of the eight consciousnesses. The driving force is the manas and the karmic seeds, the maker is the tathāgatagarbha, and with the six consciousnesses cooperating, dharmas are conjured forth. Among these, the seven consciousnesses are also conjured—illusory dharmas produce illusory dharmas, illusion upon illusion. Only the tathāgatagarbha is not illusory, and thus it can conjure forth all dharmas. If the tathāgatagarbha were also illusory, then there would have to be a dharma that conjured the illusory tathāgatagarbha, and tracing further back, everything would be illusory. If there were no non-illusory dharma, the dharma realm could not be established.