Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra, Volume 10: The Twelve Nidānas

(25) Original text: Question: What is the absence of ignorance such that volitional formations are absent? What is the cessation of ignorance such that volitional formations cease? Answer: There are three types of ignorance that give rise to afflictive bonds, latent tendencies, and ignorance itself. With the cessation of this ignorance, that ignorance ceases. Due to its cessation, volitional formations also cease accordingly.

Explanation: Question: What kind of ignorance, when absent, causes volitional formations to be absent? What kind of ignorance, when extinguished, causes volitional formations to cease? Answer: There are three kinds of ignorance that can give rise to ignorance: afflictive bonds, latent tendencies, and ignorance itself. When these three types of ignorance cease, the ignorance within the twelve links ceases. Because ignorance ceases, volitional formations consequently cease.

Original text: Question: What is the absence of volitional formations such that consciousness is absent? What is the cessation of volitional formations such that consciousness ceases? Answer: All volitional formations, having arisen and ceased within their own continuum, and before the antidote has arisen, and further, because mental volition exists, bodily and verbal volition arise. Due to the existence of this, that exists; due to the absence of that, the consciousness dependent on it also ceases. When this is completely extinguished, it should be known that consciousness also ceases accordingly.

Explanation: Question: What kind of volitional formations, when absent, cause consciousness to be absent? What kind of volitional formations, when extinguished, cause consciousness to cease? Answer: All volitional formations of the mental faculty, while operating continuously within their own entity, cease as soon as they arise, and before any dharma can counteract the volition of the mental faculty, because the volition of the mental faculty exists, the bodily, verbal, and mental volitions of the six consciousnesses arise. Because the mental faculty possesses volition, the six consciousnesses exist; when the volition of the mental faculty ceases, the six consciousnesses also cease. If the volition of the mental faculty is completely extinguished, it should be understood that the six consciousnesses consequently cease entirely.

Original text: Question: What is the absence of consciousness such that name-and-form is absent? What is the cessation of consciousness such that name-and-form ceases? Answer: Due to the absence of the seed consciousness, the resultant consciousness is absent. With the cessation of both, name-and-form also ceases. As is the principle of consciousness in relation to name-and-form, so too for the remaining links up to feeling; it should be understood accordingly in each case.

Explanation: Question: What kind of consciousness, when absent, causes name-and-form to be absent? What kind of consciousness, when extinguished, causes name-and-form to cease? Answer: When the consciousness that creates karmic seeds is absent, the resultant consciousness is absent. When both types of consciousness cease together, name-and-form also ceases entirely. Just as is the principle of consciousness conditioning name-and-form, so too for the remaining links, up to feeling conditioning craving—it should be understood similarly for each corresponding factor.

The birth of name-and-form requires karmic seeds. Karmic seeds arise from the choices made by the volition of the mental faculty, which produce the karmic seeds created by the six consciousnesses. When the six consciousnesses create karmic actions, karmic seeds are left behind. In future lives, when these karmic seeds ripen, name-and-form will arise, and new six consciousnesses will experience the retribution. If the six consciousnesses cease creating karmic actions, the resultant consciousness will not arise, and name-and-form will certainly not arise again. The root cause lies in the mental faculty no longer having volition. For the mental faculty to cease having volition, the precondition is to extinguish the ignorance within the mental faculty, after which it will no longer engage in volitional activity.