The Truth of Origination Begins
The treatise now opens its longest single topic — the truth of origination, which alone runs longer than the entire truth of suffering just completed. It opens by asking why the scriptures single out craving specifically, rather than affliction in general, as origination's own representative, before beginning a systematic ten-gate examination of the afflictions, starting with their number, defining mark, conditions for arising, objects, and patterns of mutual association.
1. Why Craving Represents the Truth of Origination
云何集諦？謂諸煩惱及煩惱增上所生諸業，俱說名集諦。然薄伽梵隨最勝說，若愛若後有愛、若喜貪俱行愛、若彼彼喜樂愛，是名集諦。言最勝者，是遍行義。由愛具有六遍行義，是故最勝。何等為六？一事遍行、二位遍行、三世遍行、四界遍行、五求遍行、六種遍行。
What is the truth of origination? Every affliction, together with the karma produced through affliction's own dominant force, is together called the truth of origination. Yet the Bhagavat, speaking of what is most representative, named craving specifically — craving, craving for further existence, craving bound up with delight and desire, and craving for this and that pleasure — as the truth of origination. "Most representative" means pervasive. Because craving possesses six pervasive senses, it alone is called most representative. What are the six? Pervasion by object, pervasion by occasion, pervasion by time, pervasion by realm, pervasion by seeking, and pervasion by kind.
謂於苦苦性等三位諸行中遍隨行故。於已得苦苦性位起別離愛，於未得苦苦性位起不和合愛，於壞苦性位起不別離愛及和合愛，已得未得差別故。於行苦性位起愚癡愛，由煩惱麁重所顯故，及不苦不樂受所顯故。二、位遍行，謂於三世中遍隨行故。三、世遍行，謂於過去世起追憶行遍隨行愛，於未來世起希樂行遍隨行愛，於現在世起耽著行遍隨行愛。四、界遍行，謂欲色無色三愛次第遍三界故。五、求遍行，謂由貪愛遍求欲有邪梵行故。六、種遍行，謂有無有愛遍行，斷常一切種故。
Pervasion by object: craving accompanies formations across all three states — the suffering of suffering, the suffering of change, and the suffering of conditioned existence itself. In the suffering of suffering already obtained, one craves separation from it; not yet obtained, one craves its non-occurrence. In the suffering of change, one craves non-separation from what is already obtained, and craves the union of what is not yet obtained. In the suffering of conditioned existence itself, one craves it out of sheer delusion, since it is marked only by affliction's own underlying heaviness and by neutral feeling.
Pervasion by occasion: craving accompanies every one of the three times. Pervasion by time: in the past, craving arises as a following after through recollection; in the future, as a following after through hope and delight; in the present, as a following after through absorbed attachment. Pervasion by realm: the three cravings for the desire, form, and formless realms pervade all three realms in turn. Pervasion by seeking: craving pervades the desire for sensual pleasure, the desire for further existence, and the desire for wrongful austerity. Pervasion by kind: craving for existence and craving for non-existence together pervade every kind of view, whether eternalist or annihilationist.
T1606 makes an important structural point: craving alone, among all the afflictions, actually reaches into every one of the three kinds of suffering already established in Part 23 — including, remarkably, the deepest and subtlest suffering of conditioned existence itself, where craving still operates, simply in the confused mode of delusion rather than active desire. This sixfold pervasiveness — across object, occasion, time, realm, mode of seeking, and philosophical orientation — is precisely why the scriptures single out craving by name as origination's own representative, even though the treatise's own opening line makes clear that every affliction, not craving alone, technically belongs under this truth.
2. The Ten Gates for Examining the Afflictions, and the Number
云何煩惱？謂由數故、相故、緣起故、境界故、相應故、差別故、邪行故、界故、眾故、斷故，觀諸煩惱。何等數故？謂或六或十六。謂貪、瞋、慢、無明、疑、見，十謂前五見又分五，謂薩迦耶見、邊執見、邪見、見取、戒禁取。
What are the afflictions? They are examined through ten gates: number, defining mark, conditions for arising, object, association, distinct varieties, wrongful conduct, realm, class, and abandonment. What is their number? Either six or ten. Six: craving, hatred, conceit, delusion, doubt, and view. Ten: the same, except the fifth — view — is expanded into its own five: the view of a substantial body, the extremist view, wrong view, clinging to views, and clinging to rules and rituals.
3. Defining Mark, Conditions for Arising, and Object
何等相故？謂若法生時相不寂靜，由此生故身心相續不寂靜轉，是煩惱相。何等緣起故？謂煩惱隨眠未永斷故、順煩惱法現在前故、不正思惟現前起故，如是煩惱方乃得生，是名緣起。
What is their defining mark? Whatever dharma, upon arising, is itself unsettled, and by its arising causes body and mind to continue on unsettled — this is the mark of affliction.
What are their conditions for arising? An affliction only actually arises given three conditions together: the corresponding latent affliction not yet having been permanently severed; a circumstance conducive to that affliction actually being present; and incorrect attention actually occurring. This is what "conditions for arising" means.
何等境界故？謂一切煩惱還用一切煩惱為所緣境，及緣諸煩惱事。又欲界煩惱，除無明見疑，餘不能緣上地為境。上地諸煩惱不能緣下地為境，已離彼地欲故。又緣滅道諦諸煩惱，不能親緣滅道為境，唯由依彼妄起分別說為所緣。又煩惱有二種，謂緣無事及緣有事。緣無事者，謂見及見相應法。所餘煩惱名緣有事。
What are their objects? Every affliction can take every other affliction as its own object, and can also take the underlying basis of the afflictions as its object. Further, desire-realm afflictions, apart from delusion, view, and doubt, cannot take a higher realm as their object. A higher realm's own afflictions cannot take a lower realm as their object at all, since desire for that lower realm has already been left behind. Further, the afflictions that take the truths of cessation and the path as their object cannot directly take cessation and the path themselves as their genuine object — they merely, through wrongful discrimination based on those truths, are said to have them as their object in only this indirect sense. Further, afflictions are of two kinds: those that take a non-existent referent as their object, and those that take a genuinely existent referent. Taking a non-existent referent means views, and the dharmas associated with them. Every remaining affliction takes a genuinely existent referent.
T1606 clarifies the three-part condition for an affliction's arising as a genuine, jointly necessary set — none sufficient alone: the corresponding latent tendency must still be present (uprooted afflictions simply cannot resurface at all, however conducive the circumstances); an actually conducive object or circumstance must be encountered (a latent tendency for anger does not manifest without something to be angry at); and, crucially, incorrect attention — apprehending the object through a distorted lens, such as seeing something impermanent as permanent — must actually occur at that moment, since even a genuinely conducive object encountered with correct, undistorted attention will not, by itself, trigger the affliction. On the object-taking asymmetry between higher and lower realms: T1606 explains that a lower-realm mind can, in principle, conceptually reach toward a higher realm it has not yet transcended, but a higher-realm mind has, by definition, already left the lower realm's desire behind, and so genuinely has nothing left there to take as an object of affliction at all.
4. Association
何等相應故？謂貪不與瞋相應，如瞋疑亦爾，餘皆得相應。如貪，瞋亦爾，謂瞋不與貪慢見相應，慢不與瞋疑相應。無明有二種：一一切煩惱相應無明、二不共無明。不共無明者，謂於諦無智。見不與瞋、疑相應。疑不與貪、慢、見相應。忿等隨煩惱更互不相應。
What is their association? Craving is never associated with hatred, and likewise hatred is never associated with doubt; every other pairing can be associated. As with craving, so too with hatred: hatred is never associated with craving, conceit, or view; conceit is never associated with hatred or doubt.
Delusion is of two kinds: delusion associated with every affliction, and unshared delusion. Unshared delusion means simply ignorance regarding the truths. View is never associated with hatred or doubt. Doubt is never associated with craving, conceit, or view. The secondary afflictions — wrath and the rest — are mutually never associated with one another.
無慚、無愧於一切不善品中恒共相應，若離不顧自他不善現行無是處故。惛沈、掉舉、不信、懈怠、放逸，於一切染污品中恒共相應，若離無堪任性等染污性成無是處故。
Lack of shame and lack of embarrassment are constantly associated together across every unwholesome state, since it would be impossible for unwholesome conduct to actually occur without this disregard for self-respect and for others' opinion. Torpor, restlessness, lack of faith, laziness, and heedlessness are constantly associated together across every defiled state, since it would likewise be impossible for a genuinely defiled state to arise without this unfitness for use and its accompanying features.
T1606 explains the underlying logic of each exclusion rather than leaving it as mere memorized rule: craving and hatred cannot coexist because they are diametrically opposed orientations toward the very same object — love and aversion cannot both be directed at one thing simultaneously. Hatred and conceit cannot coexist because feeling superior to something and feeling hatred toward it pull in different directions at once. And doubt is incompatible with craving, conceit, and view alike because doubt is, by its own nature, a state of unsettled hesitation — and none of the other three can genuinely fasten onto an object the mind has not yet even settled its stance toward. This whole compatibility matrix closely parallels the Cheng Weishi Lun's own, more extensively debated treatment of the same question, already translated on this site — worth comparing for readers who want the fuller argument behind each exclusion.
Part 32 Complete
The truth of origination opens with craving's own sixfold pervasiveness, and the first five of ten gates for examining the afflictions: their number, defining mark, conditions for arising, objects, and patterns of association. Part 33 turns to the sixth gate — the afflictions' distinct varieties — beginning with the nine fetters that bind a being to continued suffering.
Continue to Part 33 — The Nine Fetters →