Abhidharmakośa, Volume Nine

（四）原文：如何有情前际愚惑。谓于前际。生如是疑。我于过去世。为曾有非有。何等我曾有。云何我曾有。如何有情后际愚惑。谓于后际。生如是疑。我于未来世。为当有非有。何等我当有。云何我当有。 

释：What is the delusion of sentient beings regarding the dharmas of the past limit? Regarding the dharmas of the past limit, sentient beings give rise to such doubt: Did I exist in past lives or not? What dharma did I formerly have? Why did I formerly have it? What is the delusion of sentient beings regarding the dharmas of the future limit? Regarding the dharmas of the future limit, sentient beings give rise to such delusion: Should I exist in future lives or not? What dharma should I have? Why should I have it? 

原文：如何有情中际愚惑。谓于中际。生如是疑。何等是我。此我云何。我谁所有。我当有谁。为除如是。三际愚惑故。经唯说有情缘起。如其次第说无明行。 及生老死。并识至有。所以者何。以契经说。苾刍谛听。若有苾刍。于诸缘起。缘已生法。能以如实正慧观见。彼必不于三际愚惑。谓我于过去世为曾有非有等。 

释：What is the delusion of sentient beings regarding the dharmas of the present limit? Regarding the dharmas of the present limit, sentient beings give rise to such doubt: What dharma is my self? What is this self like? To whom does this self belong? Who is it that I shall come to have in the future? In order to eliminate these delusions of the three limits, the sūtra only speaks of the dependent arising of sentient beings, and in sequence speaks of ignorance and formations, and of birth and aging-death, plus consciousness, name-and-form, the six sense bases, contact, feeling, craving, grasping, and existence. Why is it said this way? According to the sūtra: "Monks, listen carefully. If a monk can observe with true and correct wisdom all dependent arising and the dharmas that have arisen from conditions, he will certainly no longer be deluded regarding the dharmas of the three limits—such as whether I existed in past lives or not—and these doubts will disappear. 

原文：有余师说爱取有三。亦为除他后际愚惑。此三皆是后际因。故又应知。此说缘起门。虽有十二支。而三二为性。三谓惑业事。二谓果与因。其义云何。颂曰。三烦恼二业七事。亦名果。略果及略因。由中可比二。 

释：Other Dharma masters say that craving, grasping, and existence can also eliminate sentient beings' delusion regarding the future limit, because these three are all causes for the arising of the dharmas of the future limit. Therefore it should be known that although the gateway of dependent arising spoken of here has twelve limbs, it is characterized by three and two: the three are affliction-delusion, afflictive karma, and afflictive phenomena—craving is affliction-delusion, grasping is afflictive karma, and existence is afflictive phenomena; the two are the fruit and the cause of afflictive karma. What does this mean? There is a verse saying: three kinds of afflictions, two kinds of karma, and seven kinds of phenomena are also called fruits; the abbreviated fruits and the abbreviated causes are roughly divided into two kinds among the twelve limbs. 

原文：论曰。无明爱取。烦恼为性。行及有支。以业为性。余识等七。以事为性。是烦恼业所依事故。如是七事。即亦名果。义准余五。即亦名因。以烦恼业为自性故。 

释：The treatise says: ignorance, craving, and grasping—these three limbs take afflictions as their nature, meaning that these three limbs are affliction-delusions possessing the nature of afflictions; the limbs of formations and existence take karma as their nature, belonging to the nature of karma; the remaining seven limbs—consciousness, name-and-form, the six sense bases, contact, feeling, birth, and aging-death—take phenomena as their nature, belonging to the attribute of phenomena, being the phenomena upon which afflictions and karma depend. These seven phenomena are also called fruits; this meaning also extends to the remaining five limbs, which are also called causes, because they take afflictions and karma as their self-nature. 

原文：何缘中际。广说果因。开事为五。惑为二故。后际略果。事唯二故。前际略因。惑唯一故。由中际广。可以比度前后二际。广义已成。故不别说。说便无用。 

释：For what reason are fruit and cause extensively expounded in the present-life dharmas of the middle limit? The phenomena are opened up into five limbs—name-and-form, the six sense bases, contact, feeling, and consciousness—while the affliction-delusions are two limbs, craving and grasping; the cause is affliction-delusion, and the fruit is phenomena. The future limit is the abbreviated fruit, with phenomena being only two limbs, birth and aging-death. The past limit is the abbreviated cause, with only one affliction-delusion, ignorance. Since the middle limit is more extensive, the past and future limits can be inferred from it. The extensive meaning has already been revealed, so it is not separately stated; stating it would serve no purpose.