Yogācārabhūmi Śāstra, Volume Ten (The Twelve Links of Dependent Origination)

Original text: 问。六处亦以饮食为缘。何故此中。但说名色为缘耶。答。此中说名色。是彼生因故。彼既生已。亦以饮食。为任持因。问。触以三和为缘。何故此中。但说六处为缘。答。若有六处。定有余二无阙故。又六处胜故。由六处摄二种故。 

Explanation: Question: The eye base, ear base, nose base, tongue base, body base, and mind base also arise with food and drink as their condition; when there is food and drink, nāma-rūpa grows, and the five bases among the six sense bases also grow accordingly. Why does this passage say only that the six sense bases arise with nāma-rūpa as their condition? Answer: What is said here is that nāma-rūpa is the causal basis for the arising of the six sense bases; the six sense bases arise directly upon nāma-rūpa, and without nāma-rūpa the six sense bases could not possibly exist. In the womb, the initial nāma is the mind base, and the five sense bases arise gradually upon the rūpa of the fertilized egg; therefore nāma-rūpa is the condition for the arising of the six sense bases. After the six sense bases have arisen, they also take food and drink as the condition for their spontaneous operation; therefore it is not said that food and drink are the causal basis for the arising of the six sense bases. 

Question: Contact (sparśa) arises with the conjunction of the three—faculty, object, and consciousness—as its condition. Why does this passage say only that contact arises with the six sense bases as its condition? Answer: If there are the six sense bases, the other two—the six sense objects and the six consciousnesses—will certainly appear without being lacking; therefore the six sense bases are taken as the representative. Moreover, because among the three, the six sense bases are superior to the six sense objects and the six consciousnesses, playing the decisive role in the conjunction of the three, the six sense bases subsume the six sense objects and the six consciousnesses; therefore it is said that "contact" appears with the six sense bases as its condition. 

Original text: 问。若自所逼迫。若他所逼迫。若时候变异。若先业所引。皆得生受。何故此中。但显触为彼缘。答。触是彼近因故。由触所引故。余缘所生受。亦从触生故。必不离触。是故偏说。

Explanation: Question: If one is oppressed by oneself, or oppressed by others, or the conditions of time have changed, or it is induced by karmic actions created in past lives—in all such cases feeling arises. Why does this passage show only that contact is the condition for the arising of feeling? Answer: Because "contact" is the proximate cause of feeling; feeling is induced by contact. The feelings produced by other conditions also arise from the condition of contact; feeling certainly cannot exist apart from contact. Therefore it is specifically stated that contact is the condition for feeling. 

Original text: 问。经中亦说。无明为缘生爱。顺爱境界。亦得为缘。何故此中。但说受为缘耶。答。以受力故。于相似境。或求和合。或求乖离。由愚痴力。但于诸受。起尽等相。不如实知。由此不能。制御其心。 

Explanation: Question: The sūtras also say that with ignorance as the condition, "craving" is produced; ignorance is the condition for "craving." The six sense-object realms that accord with craving are also a condition for "craving" and can also give rise to craving. Why does this passage say only that "feeling" is the condition for producing "craving"? Answer: Because of the force of feeling as a condition, when facing realms similar to the real ones, one either seeks union with the realm or seeks divergence and escape from the realm—one is pleasant feeling, the other is painful feeling. Due to delusion, one does not truly understand the marks of the arising and ceasing of these feelings, and therefore cannot subdue one's mind, and craving is produced. That is why feeling is said to be the condition for craving.