Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra, Volume Ten

(9) Original text: 问。何故诸支相望。无因缘耶。答。因缘者。自体种子缘所显故。问。若诸支相望。无因缘者。何故说言。依因果体性。建立缘起耶。答。依增上缘所摄。引发因。牵引因。生起因故。说名为因。 

Explanation: Question: Why is there no causative condition (hetu-pratyaya) among the links in their mutual relationship? Answer: The causative condition is that which is manifested through the condition of the seeds of the self-nature of these links. (This meaning is extremely profound: the seeds of the self-nature that give rise to the links all come from the ālayavijñāna and all exist within the ālayavijñāna. In other words, these links are all born from the ālayavijñāna; the ālayavijñāna and the seeds of self-nature are the causative conditions of these links.) Question: If there is no causative condition among the links in their mutual relationship, why is it said that dependent arising is established based on the nature of cause and effect? (The nature of cause and effect is that a preceding cause can give rise to a subsequent effect, and the subsequent effect is the dharma of dependent arising.) Answer: These links rely on being embraced by the dominant condition (adhipati-pratyaya); the antecedent link (pūrvāṅga) is the initiating cause (pravartaka-hetu), attracting cause (ākṣepaka-hetu), and generative cause (janaka-hetu) of the consequent link (paścādṅga). These causes are causes born of the causative condition, not the kind of cause that directly gives birth. The cause that directly gives birth is the ālayavijñāna or the consciousness of seeds of self-nature.

Original text: 问。几支是引因所摄。答。从无明乃至受。问。几支是生因所摄。答。从爱乃至有。问。几支是生引二因果所摄耶。答。于现法后法中。识等乃至受。于生老死位。所摄诸支。 

Explanation: Question: Among the twelve links, how many links are embraced by the attracting cause? Answer: Ignorance conditions volitional formations (avidyā-pratyayāḥ saṃskārāḥ), formations condition consciousness, consciousness conditions name-and-form, name-and-form conditions the six sense bases (ṣaḍāyatana), the six sense bases condition contact, and contact conditions feeling—these six links are embraced by the attracting cause and can induce the arising of the subsequent link. Question: How many links are embraced by the generative cause? Answer: Feeling conditions craving, craving conditions grasping (upādāna), and grasping conditions existence—these four links are embraced by the generative cause. Question: How many links are embraced by both the generative cause and the initiating cause? Answer: In the presently existing and subsequent dharmas, from consciousness through name-and-form, the six sense bases, contact, and feeling, the links embraced within the stages of birth and aging-and-death are embraced by both the generative cause and the initiating cause. 

Ignorance can induce the arising of volitional formations but cannot give birth to them; "inducing" means guiding, serving as a supporting condition, a dominant condition. "Giving birth" means directly producing. Ignorance has no substance, no mind, and no seeds, so it cannot give birth to volitional formations; it can only serve as the trigger for the ālayavijñāna to give birth to volitional formations. Without this trigger, the ālayavijñāna cannot give birth to volitional formations. Volitional formations are the inducing cause of the six consciousnesses, not the cause that directly gives birth to the six consciousnesses. Volitional formations lack self-nature and have no seeds, so they cannot give birth to the six consciousnesses; it is the ālayavijñāna that, by means of volitional formations, gives birth to the six consciousnesses. The six consciousnesses are a condition for name-and-form and cannot directly give birth to name-and-form; it is the ālayavijñāna that, by means of the condition of the six consciousnesses, gives birth to name-and-form. The actions of the six consciousnesses can induce the name-and-form of future lives. 

Name-and-form is the inducing cause of the six sense bases and cannot directly give birth to the six sense bases; it is the ālayavijñāna that, by means of name-and-form, gives birth to the six sense bases. Among them, the manas base already existed originally and is not newly born from the ālayavijñāna. The six sense bases are the inducing cause of contact and can induce the arising of contact, but cannot directly give birth to contact, because the six sense bases lack self-nature and have no seeds, and thus cannot give birth to contact; it is the ālayavijñāna that, by means of the six sense bases as the inducing cause, gives birth to contact. Contact is the inducing cause of feeling and can induce the arising of feeling, but cannot directly give birth to feeling, because contact lacks self-nature, is not a mind consciousness, and has no seeds; it is the ālayavijñāna that, by means of contact, gives birth to feeling.