Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra: Volume 34 (50)

Furthermore, there are distinctions. It is said that craving is understood as the cause of grasping; craving further accumulates and, with grasping as the cause, gives rise to becoming. Becoming, as the foremost among conditioned phenomena, produces future rebirth. Rebirth, serving as the condition, then induces such dharmas of suffering as aging, sickness, and death. According to their respective functions, they are known as cause, accumulation, arising, and condition.

Explanation: The four activities also have distinctions in their sequence. It is understood that craving is the cause of grasping; craving further accumulates, and grasping becomes the cause of future becoming, thereby producing future becoming. With becoming as the condition, the five aggregates of the future life arise, which then induce the great mass of suffering including aging, sickness, and death, with rebirth serving as the condition. Based on the sequence of the four activities, they are respectively termed: cause, accumulation, arising, and condition.

The cause of the truth of the origin (samudaya) is craving. Because craving exists, grasping arises. Whether grasping is attained or not, the aspect of suffering is present. Once future becoming is produced, the aspect of birth appears, and the aspect of suffering manifests. Only by eliminating the root cause of suffering—craving—can suffering be eradicated. The cause of craving is feeling, and the cause of feeling is contact. Contact and feeling may occur, but if there is no craving during contact and feeling—no attachment to what is contacted or felt—then future suffering will not arise, and the truth of the origin ceases. Since present craving is the cause that induces suffering, and the accumulation of craving causes suffering to arise, the accumulation of craving is the accumulation of suffering. Once suffering arises, the feeling of suffering manifests; this is called the arising of suffering. Because craving can accumulate the seeds of future suffering, what craving accumulates are all seeds of suffering that can produce future suffering. Craving, grasping, becoming, and birth successively induce the accumulation and arising of various sufferings. Therefore, craving is the condition for suffering.

The truth of the origin belongs to one link in the twelve links of dependent origination. The path to liberation is mutually inclusive in the Śrāvaka Dharma and the Pratyekabuddha Dharma; they share common ground. There is no independent Pratyekabuddha Dharma, nor is there an independent Śrāvaka Dharma. The difference lies only in the depth of the levels each approach involves, while the liberation attained is without distinction.