Saṃyuktāgama (296), Part Two

Original text:彼如来自觉知。成等正觉。为人演说。开示显发。谓缘生故。有老病死忧悲恼苦。此等诸法。法住法空。法如法尔。法不离如。法不异如。审谛真实。不颠倒。如是随顺缘起。是名缘生法。谓无明行识。名色六入处。触受爱取有。生老病死忧悲恼苦。是名缘生法。

Explanation: Those Tathāgatas who cultivated and accomplished realization in accordance with this Dharma all awakened by themselves and realized it for themselves, becoming perfectly and completely enlightened (samyak-saṃbuddha); afterward, everywhere they expounded the Dharma for people, revealing and making manifest the Dharma of dependent origination and the dharmas that arise dependently. This is what is meant by: because of the phenomenon of arising, there is aging, sickness, death, sorrow, grief, suffering, and distress (śoka-parideva-duḥkha-daurmanasyopāyāsa). These dharmas of dependent origination and these dependently arisen dharmas abide permanently in the world; even so, all these dharmas are empty, having always been thus — the principle is just so. These dharmas also do not exist apart from suchness (tathatā), nor are they different from suchness; upon careful examination, they are all true reality, not inverted. Dharmas that arise in dependence on conditions in this way are called dependently arisen dharmas. Specifically, it means: with ignorance (avidyā) as condition, the formations of the manas arise; with the formations of the manas as condition, the six consciousnesses arise; with the six consciousnesses as condition, name-and-form (nāma-rūpa) arises; with name-and-form as condition, the six sense bases (ṣaḍāyatana) arise; with the six sense bases as condition, contact arises; with contact as condition, feeling arises; with feeling as condition, craving arises; with craving as condition, grasping (upādāna) arises; with grasping as condition, existence arises; with existence as condition, birth arises; with birth as condition, aging, sickness, death, sorrow, grief, suffering, and distress arise — this is what is called dependently arisen dharmas.

The Four Noble Truths, the twelve links of dependent origination, ignorance, birth, aging, sickness, and death — these worldly dependently arisen dharmas all abide permanently within the world, but these dharmas exist only in appearance, not in substance; they are empty. They are all manifested by the eighth consciousness and are all the eighth consciousness itself — this is the meaning of "dharmas are such" (法如). They are also not different from the eighth consciousness; they come from the eighth consciousness and carry the attributes of the eighth consciousness — this is called "not different from suchness" (不异如). These principles have always been this way — this is called "dharmas are thus of themselves" (法尔). All the dharmas of the five aggregates, the dharmas of the six faculties, the dharmas of the six sense objects, the dharmas of the six consciousnesses, the Dharma of the Four Noble Truths, and the Dharma of the twelve links of dependent origination are not apart from suchness; only suchness is real, while all other dharmas arise in dependence upon suchness, and therefore are false, subject to arising and ceasing, and impermanent. Here the Buddha explicitly stated that dependently arisen dharmas are not apart from suchness and not apart from the eighth consciousness.