Six Kinds of Cause, and Four Kinds of Speech
Mahāmati asks the Buddha to explain the marks of cause and condition behind every dharma. The Buddha answers with an external and an internal kind of condition, then six specific kinds of cause, before dismantling the very question of whether anything arises gradually or all at once — neither describes how anything actually comes to be. The page then turns to four kinds of speech, each rooted in a different pattern of false thought, and closes with the teaching that neither the words a teacher speaks nor the meaning those words point to is, strictly speaking, ultimate truth — only self-realized wisdom itself is that.
Six Kinds of Cause
爾時大慧菩薩摩訶薩復請世尊：「唯願為說一切諸法緣因之相，以覺緣因相故，我及諸菩薩離一切性，有無妄見；無妄想見，漸次俱生。」
佛告大慧：「一切法二種緣相，謂外及內。外緣者，謂泥團柱輪繩水木人工諸方便緣，有瓶生。如泥瓶、縷疊、草席、種芽、酪酥等，方便緣生，亦復如是。是名外緣前後轉生。云何內緣？謂無明、愛、業等法，得緣名，從彼生陰、界、入法，得緣所起名。彼無差別，而愚夫妄想。是名內緣法。大慧！彼因者有六種，謂：當有因、相續因、相因、作因、顯示因、待因。當有因者，作因已，內外法生。相續因者，作攀緣已，內外法生陰種子等。相因者，作無間相，相續生。作因者，作增上事，如轉輪王。顯示因者，妄想事生已，相現作所作，如燈照色等。待因者，滅時作相續斷，不妄想性生。大慧！彼自妄想相愚夫，不漸次生，不俱生。所以者何？若復俱生者，作所作無分別，不得因相故。若漸次生者，不得我相故。漸次生不生，如不生子，無父名。大慧！漸次生相續方便不然，但妄想耳。因攀緣次第、增上緣等生所生故。大慧！漸次生不生，妄想自性計著相故。漸次俱不生，自心現受用故。自相共相外性非性。大慧！漸次俱不生，除自心現，不覺妄想故相生。是故因緣作事方便相，當離漸次俱見。」
爾時，世尊欲重宣此義，而說偈言：
「一切都無生， 亦無因緣滅，
於彼生滅中， 而起因緣想。
非遮滅復生， 相續因緣起，
唯為斷凡愚， 癡惑妄想緣。
有無緣起法， 是悉無有生，
習氣所迷轉， 從是三有現。
真實無生緣， 亦復無有滅，
觀一切有為， 猶如虛空華。
攝受及所攝， 捨離惑亂見，
非已生當生， 亦復無因緣。
一切無所有， 斯皆是言說。」
Then Mahāmati Bodhisattva-Mahāsattva again made a request of the World-Honored One: "I beg you to teach the marks of condition and cause belonging to every dharma, so that, by understanding the marks of condition and cause, I and every bodhisattva may leave behind every false view of existence and non-existence — and, once free of that false view, may [understand how phenomena] arise, gradually or all at once."
The Buddha told Mahāmati: "Every dharma has two kinds of conditioning mark: the external and the internal. As for the external condition: it is like a lump of clay, a supporting post, a wheel, string, water, wood, and human labor — through such skillful conditions as these, a vessel comes to be. Just as with a clay vessel, so too with woven cloth, a straw mat, a sprouting seed, curds and ghee, and the rest — they arise through just such skillful conditions. This is called the external condition, arising as one thing after another in turn. What is the internal condition? It is that ignorance, craving, karma, and such dharmas as these come to be called 'condition,' from which the dharmas of the aggregates, elements, and sense-fields arise, taking, in turn, the name of what that condition gives rise to. In themselves, [external and internal conditions] admit of no [real] distinction — it is only the ignorant who falsely discriminate between them. This is called the internal conditioning dharma. Mahāmati, that [internal] cause is of six kinds: the potential cause, the continuing cause, the immediate cause, the productive cause, the manifesting cause, and the dependent cause. The potential cause is this: once the [potential] cause has operated, both internal and external dharmas arise. The continuing cause is this: once conditions have been grasped at, internal and external dharmas — the seeds, as it were, of the aggregates — arise. The immediate cause is this: it operates without any interval, continuing to arise one moment after the next. The productive cause is this: it operates by adding further force, just as a wheel-turning king [builds on what he already has]. The manifesting cause is this: once a matter of false thought has arisen, its mark becomes manifest, doer and deed both appearing together, just as a lamp illumines a form. The dependent cause is this: at the moment [something] ceases, the very continuity [of what comes after] is thereby cut off, and what arises does so without [that prior] false-thought nature. Mahāmati, this same false-thought mark, [taken as real] by the ignorant, arises neither gradually nor all at once. Why is this? If it arose all at once, then the doer and the deed would be indistinguishable, since no [real] causal mark could be apprehended at all. If it arose gradually, then no [real] self-identical mark could be apprehended either — gradual arising is, in truth, no arising at all, just as one cannot speak of 'a father' where no child has yet been born. Mahāmati, the notion that arising proceeds gradually, through a continuing sequence of skillful means, does not hold up either — it is nothing but false thought. [What actually operates are] the conditions of grasping a cause, of immediate succession, of adding force, and the rest, [through which] what arises merely appears to arise. Mahāmati, gradual arising is, in truth, no arising at all — it is merely the mark of attachment to the imagined own-nature. Neither gradual nor simultaneous arising truly occurs, since [what appears] is only received and made use of through one's own mind's manifestation; [apart from that,] neither the own mark nor the shared mark of anything external has any [fixed] nature at all. Mahāmati, apart from one's own mind's manifestation, neither gradual nor simultaneous arising occurs — it is only through failing to perceive [this] that false thought gives rise to the appearance of a mark at all. It is for this reason that, with respect to the marks of the skillful means by which cause and condition bring about their effects, one should leave behind the view of both gradual and simultaneous arising."
Then the World-Honored One, wishing to restate this meaning, spoke in verse: "Nothing at all ever truly arises, nor does anything truly cease through cause and condition; it is within that arising and ceasing that the very notion of cause and condition is conceived.
This is not to deny that cessation and renewed arising continue on, one condition after another — it is only to cut off the ignorant and the foolish from their own deluded, false-thought conditions.
Dependent origination, whether framed as existence or non-existence, is, in every case, without any true arising at all; it is only the confusion of habituated force turning one astray, and from this the three realms of existence appear.
In genuine reality there is no conditioned arising, nor is there any true ceasing either; observe every conditioned thing to be just like a flower in space.
The grasped, and the one who grasps — leave behind the confused and deluded view of both; nothing has already arisen, nor will anything arise in the future, nor is there, in truth, any cause or condition at all.
Nothing whatsoever truly exists — all of this is merely a manner of speaking."
The commentators clarify the terse potter's-vessel example with the standard distinction it assumes: "內外因緣皆有親疎之義，謂親生為因，疎助為緣...泥團為因，柱、輪等為緣，和合為瓶" — "both internal and external causation involve a distinction between what is intimate and what is merely supportive: what directly generates the effect is called the cause, while what merely assists from outside is called the condition... the lump of clay is the cause; the post, the wheel, and the rest are the conditions; together they combine to produce the vessel." On the six named kinds of cause, the commentators gloss the productive cause with a concrete image worth keeping in mind: "作因者，謂於因上作因，如轉輪王已獲勝報，更作勝因，名增上也" — "the productive cause means adding a further cause on top of an existing cause, the way a wheel-turning king, having already attained his excellent reward, goes on to cultivate a still more excellent cause — this is called 'adding force.'" A cause is not always a bare starting point; sometimes what is already ripening is itself further cultivated into something greater.
On why neither gradual nor sudden arising can be sustained as an account of how anything actually comes to be, the commentators trace the argument to its root: "若一切法頓生者，則能作之因、所作之法無有分別，求其因相不可得也。若一切法漸生者，求其體相亦不可得，故喻云『如不生子安有父名』" — "if every dharma arose all at once, then the cause that acts and the dharma acted upon would admit of no distinction at all, and no causal mark could ever be found; if every dharma arose gradually, its own essential mark likewise could never be found — hence the simile: 'just as one cannot speak of a father where no child has yet been born.'" Both models, examined closely, presuppose the very distinct, independently existing cause and effect that the teaching on emptiness has already ruled out — which is why the passage's own conclusion is not a third model of arising to replace the first two, but the recognition that what appears to arise "但自心現受用故" — is, in every case, nothing more than one's own mind's manifestation, received and made use of, with no arising, gradual or sudden, actually taking place behind it at all.
Four Kinds of Speech Bound Up with False Thought
爾時，大慧菩薩摩訶薩復白佛言：「世尊！唯願為說言說妄想相心經。(此同上佛語心也)世尊！我及餘菩薩摩訶薩，若善知言說妄想相心經，則能通達言說所說二種義，疾得阿耨多羅三藐三菩提，以言說所說二種趣，淨一切眾生。」
佛告大慧：「諦聽諦聽，善思念之，當為汝說。」
大慧白佛言：「善哉，世尊！唯然受教。」
佛告大慧：「有四種言說妄想相，謂：相言說、夢言說、過妄想計著言說、無始妄想言說。相言說者，從自妄想色相計著生。夢言說者，先所經境界，隨憶念生，從覺已境界無性生。過妄想計著言說者，先怨所作業，隨憶念生。無始妄想言說者，無始虛偽計著過自種習氣生。是名四種言說妄想相。」
爾時大慧菩薩摩訶薩，復以此義勸請世尊：「唯願更說言說妄想所現境界。世尊！何處、何故、云何、何因，眾生妄想言說生？」
佛告大慧：「頭胸喉鼻脣舌齗齒和合出音聲。」
大慧白佛言：「世尊！言說妄想為異為不異？」
佛告大慧：「言說、妄想非異非不異。所以者何？謂彼因生相故。大慧！若言說、妄想異者，妄想不應是因。若不異者，語不顯義，而有顯示。是故非異非不異。」
大慧復白佛言：「世尊！為言說即是第一義，為所說者是第一義？」
佛告大慧：「非言說是第一義，亦非所說是第一義。所以者何？謂第一義聖樂言說所入是第一義，非言說是第一義。第一義者，聖智自覺所得，非言說妄想覺境界。是故言說、妄想，不顯示第一義。言說者，生滅動搖展轉因緣起。若展轉因緣起者，彼不顯示第一義。大慧！自他相無性故，言說相不顯示第一義。復次，大慧！隨入自心現量故，種種相外性非性，言說、妄想不顯示第一義。是故，大慧！當離言說、諸妄想相。」
爾時，世尊欲重宣此義而說偈言：
「諸性無自性， 亦復無言說，
甚深空空義， 愚夫不能了。
一切性自性， 言說法如影，
自覺聖智子， 實際我所說。」
Then Mahāmati Bodhisattva-Mahāsattva again said to the Buddha: "World-Honored One, I beg you to teach the sūtra of mind that concerns the mark of speech and false thought. (This 'mind' is the same as the 'mind' of the Buddha's own word spoken of above.) World-Honored One, if I and the other bodhisattva-mahāsattvas thoroughly understand the sūtra of mind that concerns the mark of speech and false thought, we will be able to penetrate the two meanings of speech and what is spoken, swiftly attain unsurpassed, complete enlightenment, and, by way of these same two meanings, bring every sentient being to purity."
The Buddha told Mahāmati: "Listen well! Listen well! Consider this carefully — I shall now explain it to you."
Mahāmati said to the Buddha: "Excellent, World-Honored One! I gladly receive your teaching."
The Buddha told Mahāmati: "There are four kinds of speech bound up with false thought: speech bound up with [attachment to] mark, speech that occurs in dreams, speech born of past attachment through false thought, and speech born of beginningless false thought. Speech bound up with mark is what arises from attachment to the mark of form manifested by one's own false thought. Speech that occurs in dreams is what arises in dependence on memory of a domain previously experienced, and, once one has awakened, arises from a domain that has, in truth, no [real] nature at all. Speech born of past attachment through false thought is what arises in dependence on the memory of some deed done by an enemy in the past. Speech born of beginningless false thought is what arises through the beginninglessly false attachment and habituated force accumulated across one's own past. These are called the four kinds of speech bound up with false thought."
Then Mahāmati Bodhisattva-Mahāsattva, by way of this same meaning, again urged a request upon the World-Honored One: "I beg you to explain further the domain manifested through speech and false thought. World-Honored One: in what place, for what reason, in what manner, and by what cause does a sentient being's false-thought speech arise?"
The Buddha told Mahāmati: "The head, chest, throat, nose, lips, tongue, gums, and teeth come together to produce the sound of the voice."
Mahāmati said to the Buddha: "World-Honored One, are speech and false thought different, or not different?"
The Buddha told Mahāmati: "Speech and false thought are neither different nor not different. Why is this? Because it is that same [false thought] which is the cause, and speech its resulting mark. Mahāmati, if speech and false thought were different, then false thought could not be its cause; if they were not different, then words could not display any meaning at all, and yet they plainly do display one. It is for this reason that they are neither different nor not different."
Mahāmati again said to the Buddha: "World-Honored One, is speech itself ultimate truth, or is what is spoken ultimate truth?"
The Buddha told Mahāmati: "Neither speech itself nor what is spoken is ultimate truth. Why is this? Because ultimate truth is that bliss of the noble ones which speech merely leads one into — it is that domain which is ultimate truth, not the speech itself. Ultimate truth is what is attained by noble wisdom through self-realization alone; it is not the domain of awareness reached through speech and false thought. It is for this reason that speech and false thought do not, themselves, display ultimate truth. Speech itself arises through arising and ceasing, through motion, through one cause and condition turning into the next in succession; and if it arises through this turning succession of cause and condition, it cannot, itself, display ultimate truth. Mahāmati, because [any speaker's] own mark and another's mark alike have no [fixed] nature, the mark of speech cannot display ultimate truth. Furthermore, Mahāmati, because [everything] enters, entirely, into the very measure of one's own mind's manifestation, every kind of mark belonging to what is external has no [fixed] nature at all — and so speech and false thought do not display ultimate truth. It is for this reason, Mahāmati, that one should leave behind speech, and every mark of false thought."
Then the World-Honored One, wishing to restate this meaning, spoke in verse: "Every [fixed] nature has no own-nature at all, and neither, in truth, does speech itself; this profound meaning, empty even of emptiness, the ignorant are simply unable to fathom.
Every nature's own-nature, and the dharma of speech, are alike no more than a shadow — this, spoken to the self-realized noble one's own children, is what I teach as the true limit itself."
The commentators are careful with the parenthetical gloss embedded in Mahāmati's own request — "此同上佛語心也," identifying "the sūtra of mind" named here with the sūtra's own chapter title, "the Buddha's word-mind" — reading it as confirmation that speech and false thought are not a side topic but bear directly on the sūtra's central concern: "上云一切無所有，斯皆是言說。然凡愚多於言說起諸妄想，不能會理，故大慧發如是問" — "the preceding page said 'nothing whatsoever truly exists — all of this is merely a manner of speaking'; yet the ignorant and the foolish, for the most part, give rise to every kind of false thought exactly by way of speech itself, unable to penetrate through to the principle it points to — and it is for this reason that Mahāmati raises this very question." Having just been told that the entire teaching on cause and condition is "merely a manner of speaking," Mahāmati immediately asks the natural follow-up: what, then, is the relationship between that speaking and the false thought it seems to both express and provoke?
On why neither speech nor its content can be ultimate truth, the commentators press the distinction Mahāmati's question elides: "問意謂此二者孰為第一義耶？佛答能說、所說皆非第一義者，雖所詮是理，而非自得之妙，似是而非，惟聖樂處因言而入非言說即是也" — "Mahāmati's question assumes one of the two — the speaking or the thing spoken about — must be the ultimate truth; the Buddha's answer, that neither the speaker nor the spoken is ultimate truth, means that although what is conveyed may indeed be [correct] principle, it is not yet the marvel one attains for oneself — it resembles the truth without actually being it. Only the bliss the noble ones abide in, which speech merely serves as a gateway into, is the thing itself; speech is not that thing." Correct doctrine about ultimate truth, however precisely stated, remains a description of the truth rather than the truth's own self-realization — which is exactly why the sūtra can spend eleven pages of Fascicle One and this much of Fascicle Two in careful doctrinal speech while still insisting, at the close of both fascicles' major teachings, that none of it is to be clung to as the thing itself.
Part 13 Complete
This closes Part 13: the external and internal conditions and the six kinds of cause behind everything that arises, the dismantling of both gradual and sudden arising as genuine accounts of causation, the four kinds of speech rooted in false thought, and the teaching that neither speech nor its content is ultimate truth — only the bliss of self-realization that speech merely leads one toward. Part 14 turns to a long sequence of similes — a mirage, a dream, a shadow in water, a painted image, an echo, a heat-shimmer, a figure animated by sorcery — all aimed at a single teaching: that every dharma is apart from the four extremes of identity, difference, both, and neither, and from existence, non-existence, both, and neither, as well.
Continue to Part 14 — Apart from the Four Extremes →