Two Functions Each
Having seen the twelve links three ways, the bodhisattva now takes them apart. Each link turns out to be doing two jobs at once — something to the person who has it, and something to the next link along. The account is dry and exact until the last item, where death is given a second function that is not an action at all.
What Each Link Does
Twelve links, twenty-four functions, in a construction that never varies. The second function is always the same — being the cause of the next link — so what carries the information is the first, which says what each link does to the being it is happening in.
「佛子！此中無明有二種業，一令眾生迷於所緣，二與行作生起因。行亦有二種業，一能生未來報，二與識作生起因。識亦有二種業，一令諸有相續，二與名色作生起因。名色亦有二種業，一互相助成，二與六處作生起因。六處亦有二種業，一各取自境界，二與觸作生起因。觸亦有二種業，一能觸所緣，二與受作生起因。
"Child of the Buddha! Herein ignorance has two functions: first, it causes beings to be bewildered about their object; second, it acts as the cause from which formations arise. Formations too have two functions: first, they are able to produce a future result; second, they act as the cause from which consciousness arises. Consciousness too has two functions: first, it causes the modes of existence to continue in succession; second, it acts as the cause from which name-and-form arises. Name-and-form too has two functions: first, its parts assist and complete one another; second, it acts as the cause from which the six sense-fields arise. The six sense-fields too have two functions: first, each takes up its own object-realm; second, they act as the cause from which contact arises. Contact too has two functions: first, it is able to touch its object; second, it acts as the cause from which feeling arises.
受亦有二種業，一能領受愛憎等事，二與愛作生起因。愛亦有二種業，一染著可愛事，二與取作生起因。取亦有二種業，一令諸煩惱相續，二與有作生起因。有亦有二種業，一能令於餘趣中生，二與生作生起因。生亦有二種業，一能起諸蘊，二與老作生起因。老亦有二種業，一令諸根變異，二與死作生起因。死亦有二種業，一能壞諸行，二不覺知故相續不絕。
Feeling too has two functions: first, it is able to receive what is loved and what is hated and the rest; second, it acts as the cause from which craving arises. Craving too has two functions: first, it is defiled attachment to whatever is lovable; second, it acts as the cause from which grasping arises. Grasping too has two functions: first, it causes the afflictions to continue in succession; second, it acts as the cause from which becoming arises. Becoming too has two functions: first, it is able to cause birth within some other destiny; second, it acts as the cause from which birth arises. Birth too has two functions: first, it is able to give rise to the aggregates; second, it acts as the cause from which old age arises. Old age too has two functions: first, it causes the faculties to alter; second, it acts as the cause from which death arises. Death too has two functions: first, it is able to destroy the formations; second, because it is not comprehended, the succession is not cut off.
The pattern holds for eleven links and then breaks. Every other second function is a doing — acting as the cause from which the next thing arises. Death's is not: 不覺知故相續不絕, because it is not comprehended, the succession is not cut off. Death does not cause the next round the way ignorance causes formations. What continues the chain at that point is a failure of understanding, and the chain would end there if anyone understood what had happened.
Note also 名色…互相助成, name-and-form's parts assisting and completing one another. Alone among the twelve, its first function is not something done to a being or to another link but something its own two halves do to each other — which is what makes it, and not consciousness, the place where an individual existence becomes self-sustaining.
Three Paths, Like a Bundle of Reeds
What conditioning means, and what its cessation means, are then stated with unusual plainness. And the twelve are sorted into three groups, which turn out to name the whole of what a life caught in this actually consists of.
「佛子！此中無明緣行，乃至生緣老死者，由無明乃至生為緣，令行乃至老死不斷，助成故。無明滅則行滅，乃至生滅則老死滅者，由無明乃至生不為緣，令諸行乃至老死斷滅，不助成故。
"Child of the Buddha! Herein, that formations are conditioned by ignorance, and so on up to old age and death being conditioned by birth, means this: because ignorance, and so on up to birth, serve as conditions, they cause formations, and so on up to old age and death, not to be cut off — since they assist and complete them. And that when ignorance ceases formations cease, and so on up to when birth ceases old age and death cease, means this: because ignorance, and so on up to birth, do not serve as conditions, they cause formations, and so on up to old age and death, to be cut off and to cease — since they no longer assist and complete them.
佛子！此中無明、愛、取不斷是煩惱道，行、有不斷是業道，餘分不斷是苦道；前後際分別滅三道斷，如是三道離我、我所，但有生滅，猶如束蘆。復次，無明緣行者，是觀過去；識乃至受，是觀現在；愛乃至有，是觀未來。於是以後，展轉相續。無明滅行滅者，是觀待斷。
Child of the Buddha! Herein, the not-cutting-off of ignorance, of craving, and of grasping is the path of the afflictions; the not-cutting-off of formations and of becoming is the path of karma; and the not-cutting-off of the remaining parts is the path of suffering. When the discriminating of an earlier limit and a later limit ceases, the three paths are cut off. These three paths are apart from a self and from what belongs to a self; there is only arising and ceasing, like a bundle of reeds. Furthermore: that formations are conditioned by ignorance is contemplating the past; consciousness on through feeling is contemplating the present; craving on through becoming is contemplating the future — and after that they continue on, one following upon another. That when ignorance ceases formations cease is contemplating the cutting off of dependence.
猶如束蘆 — like a bundle of reeds. Reeds tied upright stand only because each leans on the others; remove any one and the whole bundle falls, and no single reed is what holds it up. It is the standard image for mutual dependence, and it does the same work here that the field simile did in Part 441 — describing something that plainly stands, while denying it anything that stands on its own.
The three paths are worth reading as a diagnosis. Ignorance, craving and grasping are what one is; formations and becoming are what one does; and everything else — consciousness, name-and-form, the senses, contact, feeling, birth, ageing, death — is what one undergoes. Between them they exhaust a life, and the sūtra notes that all three are cut off by a single act: 前後際分別滅, when the discriminating of a before and an after ceases.
Part 442 Complete
This continues Abhimukhī, the sixth of the Ten Grounds. Chapter 26 continues in Part 443 as the twelve links are sorted once more — into the three kinds of suffering, with ignorance through the six sense-fields as the suffering of conditionedness, contact and feeling as plain suffering, and the rest as the suffering of change — before the bodhisattva contemplates dependent arising in ten ways, running the chain forwards and backwards.