Abhidharmakośa, Volume Nine

(8) Original text: 然今正释。契经意者。颂曰。此中意正说。因起果已生。论曰。诸支因分。说名缘起。由此为缘。能起果故。诸支果分。说缘已生。由此皆从缘所生故。如是一切二义俱成。诸支皆有因果性故。 

Explanation: Now the meaning of the āgama sūtra is to be correctly explained. There is a verse that says: the correct teaching in this sūtra is that when the cause arises, the effect has already arisen—for example, when contact arises, feeling has already been produced. The treatise says: the cause-aspect of the links is called dependent origination, because by means of these as conditions, the effects can be brought forth. The effect-aspect of the links is said to be "arisen from conditions," because all of these are produced from conditions. In this way, both meanings are established for all of them, because all the links possess the nature of both cause and effect. 

Original text: 若尔安立。应不俱成。不尔所观有差别故。谓若观此。名缘已生。非即观斯。复名缘起。犹如因果。父子等名。尊者望满。 

Explanation: If this assertion is established—that all dharmas are established as possessing the nature of cause and effect—then cause and effect should not be established simultaneously. For example, feeling is the effect of the link of contact, and contact is the cause of feeling. When contact first arises, feeling does not arise simultaneously; feeling arises only when contact is complete and fully present. Cause and effect are not simultaneous. If one insists that cause and effect arise simultaneously, then the dharmas observed would have discrepancies and omissions. For example, if one observes this link of contact and says that, as a condition, the feeling link produced by it has already arisen, and it is also called a dharma of dependent origination—yet clearly feeling is not simultaneously dependently originated. It is like the names of cause and effect, father and son, and so on: these can only be established when the causes and conditions are complete. If the causes are not yet complete, the effect cannot immediately appear. If the causes are not complete and the effect does not appear, then there is no such thing as cause and effect; if the conditions for being a son are not yet complete, the name "father" cannot be established, and there is no such thing as father and son. 

Original text: 意谓诸法有是缘起。非缘已生。应作四句。第一句者。谓未来法。第二句者。谓阿罗汉最后心位。过现诸法。第三句者。余过现法。第四句者。诸无为法。经部诸师作如是白。此中所说为述己情。为是经义。若是经义。经义不然。所以者何。且前所说。分位缘起十二。五蕴为十二支。违背契经。经异说故。 

Explanation: The meaning in the sūtra says that the existence of dharmas is dependent origination, yet dharmas that have already arisen are not conditions and cannot induce the arising of subsequent dharmas. Dharmas that are not dependently originated should be explained in four alternatives. The first alternative is future dharmas: the present conditions have not yet induced the dharmas of future lives, so dependent origination has not yet appeared. The second alternative is the past and present dharmas at the stage of the final mind-moment of an arhat: although the arhat's past and present conditions have arisen, there will be no subsequent existence, so dependent origination no longer arises. The third alternative is the past and present dharmas other than those at the final mind-moment of an arhat: although these dharmas are conditions, the dharmas they could induce have not yet been born, so dependent origination does not exist. The fourth alternative is all unconditioned dharmas: since they are called unconditioned dharmas, there is no grasping mind, so everything done in the present will not induce the appearance of dharmas in future lives—dependent origination no longer exists.

Regarding this, the various masters of the Sautrāntika explained as follows: are they stating their own personal views, or the original meaning of the sūtra? If it is the meaning of the sūtra, the sūtra's meaning is not so. Why is this said? Just as stated above, the dependent origination of the various stages has twelve links, with the five aggregates as the twelve links—this contradicts the āgama sūtra, because the sūtra teaches otherwise.