When Did the Mid-Autumn Festival First Appear?

What originally did not exist but now exists—a dharma that appears afterward—is dependent origination (paratantra-svabhāva), a dharma born of causes and conditions. When the causes and conditions disappear, or what it depends upon changes or vanishes, the dharma accordingly changes and disappears as well.

When worldly people develop greed and attachment toward dharmas that arise in dependence on others, this is the imputed nature (parikalpita-svabhāva). That which accords with causes and conditions to perfectly accomplish dharmas that arise in dependence on others, as well as that which forms and manifests the dependent nature (paratantra-svabhāva) and the imputed nature (parikalpita-svabhāva), is the perfected nature (pariniṣpanna-svabhāva). Observe how foolish and ignorant your own imputed nature (parikalpita-svabhāva) is—all worldly habits are formed in this way. Dharmas that arise in dependence on others are so illusory and unreal, yet one insists on grasping at them, then forms habits, and finally they become deeply rooted in the mind, unbreakable. From this, birth-and-death, delusion, karma, and suffering arise.

Here is a contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) assignment for everyone: observe your own and others' grasping (upādāna) at the Mid-Autumn Festival, and ponder the illusory and ignorant nature produced by the imputed nature (parikalpita-svabhāva), as well as the illusory unreality of dharmas arising in dependence on others. If you often contemplate in this way, you will be able to see through many meaningless worldly matters, and also see through the illusory unreality of the habits formed by sentient beings, and see through the arising, ceasing, and mutability of all dharmas, thereby reducing greed and attachment.

The Mid-Autumn Festival, a human-made convention that went from nonexistence to existence, is also grasped at as something inherently existent and clung to as a custom—all of this is nothing but putting shackles on oneself.