Yogācārabhūmi Śāstra, Volume 10

(Nine) Original text:问。何故诸支相望。无因缘耶。答。因缘者。自体种子缘所显故。问。若诸支相望。无因缘者。何故说言。依因果体性。建立缘起耶。答。依增上缘所摄。引发因。牵引因。生起因故。说名为因。 

Explanation: Question: Why is there no causative condition (hetu-pratyaya) among the links in their mutual relationship? Answer: The causative condition is that which is manifested through the condition of the self-nature seeds of the links themselves. (This meaning is very profound: the self-nature seeds that can produce the various links all come from the Ālayavijñāna and all exist within the Ālayavijñāna. In other words, these links are all born from the Ālayavijñāna; the Ālayavijñāna and the self-nature seeds are the causative conditions of these links.) Question: If there is no causative condition among the links in their mutual relationship, why is it said that dependent origination is established based on the nature of cause and effect? (The nature of cause and effect is that a preceding cause can produce a subsequent effect, and the subsequent effect is the dharma of dependent origination.) Answer: These links rely on the dominating condition (adhipati-pratyaya) for their embrace; the antecedent link is the initiating cause, attracting cause, and generative cause of the consequent link. These causes are causes born of the causative condition, not the kind of cause that directly gives birth; the cause that directly gives birth is the Ālayavijñāna or the consciousness of self-nature seeds.

Original text:问。几支是引因所摄。答。从无明乃至受。问。几支是生因所摄。答。从爱乃至有。问。几支是生引二因果所摄耶。答。于现法后法中。识等乃至受。于生老死位。所摄诸支。 

Explanation: Question: Among the twelve links, how many links are embraced by the initiating cause? Answer: Ignorance conditions volitional formations, volitional formations condition consciousness, consciousness conditions name-and-form, name-and-form conditions the six sense bases, the six sense bases condition contact, contact conditions feeling—these six links are embraced by the initiating cause and can initiate the arising of the subsequent link. Question: How many links are embraced by the generative cause? Answer: Feeling conditions craving, craving conditions grasping, grasping conditions existence—these four links are embraced by the generative cause. Question: How many links are embraced by both the generative cause and the initiating cause, as cause and effect? Answer: In the presently existing subsequent dharmas—consciousness conditions name-and-form, name-and-form conditions the six sense bases, the six sense bases condition contact, contact conditions feeling—these links embraced within the positions of birth and of aging-and-death are embraced by both the generative cause and the initiating cause as cause and effect. 

Ignorance can initiate volitional formations but cannot give birth to them; "initiate" means to guide, serving as a supporting condition, a dominating condition. Birth is direct production. Ignorance has no substance, no mind, and no seeds, so it cannot give birth to volitional formations; it can only serve as the trigger by which the Ālayavijñāna gives birth to volitional formations. Without this trigger, the Ālayavijñāna cannot give birth to volitional formations. Volitional formations are the initiating cause of the six consciousnesses, not the cause that directly gives birth to the six consciousnesses. Volitional formations have no self-nature and no seeds, so they cannot give birth to the six consciousnesses; it is the Ālayavijñāna that, by means of volitional formations, gives birth to the six consciousnesses. The six consciousnesses are a condition for name-and-form and cannot directly give birth to name-and-form; it is the Ālayavijñāna that, by means of the condition of the six consciousnesses, gives birth to name-and-form. The actions of the six consciousnesses can initiate the name-and-form of future lives. 

Name-and-form is the initiating cause of the six sense bases and cannot directly give birth to the six sense bases; it is the Ālayavijñāna that, by means of name-and-form, gives birth to the six sense bases. Among them, the mind base already existed originally and is not newly born from the Ālayavijñāna. The six sense bases are the initiating cause of contact and can initiate contact, but cannot directly give birth to contact, because the six sense bases have no self-nature and no seeds, and thus cannot give birth to contact; it is the Ālayavijñāna that, by means of the six sense bases as the initiating cause, gives birth to contact. Contact is the initiating cause of feeling and can initiate feeling, but cannot directly give birth to feeling, because contact has no self-nature, is not a conscious mind, and has no seeds; it is the Ālayavijñāna that, by means of contact, gives birth to feeling.