What is the cause of dharmas arising from causes and conditions?

The conditions required by all dharmas are auxiliary conditions and assistance, meaning to help and support; they do not play the leading role. The leading role belongs to the prior cause that brings about the arising of a dharma or a result. For example, if A is struck by B, this is an unwholesome dharma; the condition is that A and B meet—by relying on a person and an event, the phenomenon of striking someone arises. In fact, before this there was a cause that brought about the occurrence of this event. If there were no prior cause, even with conditions complete, this event would not occur. If there were no prior cause, then even if this striking incident occurred, that event would become the cause for the arising of later events. When supporting conditions appear later, because of the cause of this incident, A will want to retaliate against B, and B may then be struck, or other unpleasant behaviors may occur.

The prior cause is a dharma produced by causes and conditions, and is illusory; the later result is a dharma produced by causes and conditions, and is equally illusory. Every dharma whatsoever is a dharma produced by causes and conditions, and all are illusory and unreal. The cause is illusory, the conditions are illusory, and the result is also illusory; all are produced through the combined functioning of the eight consciousnesses. The impellers are the manas and the karmic seeds, the creator is the tathāgatagarbha, and with the cooperation of the six consciousnesses, dharmas are conjured forth. Among these, the seven consciousnesses are also conjured forth—illusory dharmas produce illusory dharmas, illusion upon illusion. Only the tathāgatagarbha is not illusory, and therefore it can conjure forth all dharmas. If the tathāgatagarbha were also illusory, then there would have to be a dharma that conjured forth the illusory tathāgatagarbha, and tracing further back, everything would be illusory. If there were no non-illusory dharma, the dharma realm could not be established.