Yogācārabhūmi Śāstra, Volume 10 (Twelve Links of Dependent Origination)

（二十）问。若法无明为缘。彼法是行耶。设是行者。彼无明为缘耶。答。应作四句。或有行非无明为缘。谓无漏及无覆无记。身语意行。或无明为缘。而非是行。谓除行所摄有支。所余有支。或有亦无明为缘亦是行。谓福非福。不动身语意行。除如是相。是第四句。 

Explanation: Question: If some dharmas arise with ignorance as their condition, are those dharmas volitional formations? And if they are volitional formations, does their arising take ignorance as its condition?

Answer: This question should be answered in four alternatives. First, some volitional formations do not arise with ignorance as their condition, such as untainted volitional formations and the bodily, verbal, and mental actions that are unobscured and indeterminate (avyākṛta). Second, some dharmas arise with ignorance as their condition, yet are not volitional formations, such as the other links of conditioned arising apart from the link of volitional formations — for example, the links of consciousness, name-and-form, the six sense bases (ṣaḍāyatana), contact, feeling, craving, grasping (upādāna), existence, birth, and aging-and-death. Third, some dharmas both arise with ignorance as their condition and belong to the link of volitional formations, such as meritorious bodily, verbal, and mental actions, unmeritorious bodily, verbal, and mental actions, and immovable bodily, verbal, and mental actions (pure actions that are neither meritorious nor unmeritorious). Fourth, apart from such characteristics, all the rest are subsumed under the fourth alternative. 

Untainted karmic formations no longer belong to the twelve links of dependent origination; they are beyond the scope of the twelve links and are not formations induced by ignorance. Likewise, the unobscured and indeterminate bodily, verbal, and mental actions are not subsumed under ignorance and are beyond the scope of the twelve links; therefore they carry no karma of birth-and-death and no retribution. Among the twelve links of dependent origination, the eleven links other than ignorance are all subsumed under ignorance and all contain ignorance, but ignorance directly induces the link of volitional formations, while its relation to the other links appears more indirect; hence it is said that ignorance conditions volitional formations (avidyā-pratyayāḥ saṃskārāḥ). Among the link of volitional formations subsumed under ignorance, the formations that create meritorious karma are also subsumed under ignorance: because one does not understand the principle of the Four Noble Truths and the principle of ultimate reality, engaging in formations that seek tainted merit constitutes actions of ignorance. The unmeritorious formations that create unwholesome karma are even more so formations subsumed under ignorance. And the formations of the immovable mind of the four dhyānas cultivated by non-Buddhists are also practiced because of not understanding the principle of liberation, so they too are formations subsumed under ignorance.