English
"Craving follows ignorance" means that craving, having overcome ignorance, proceeds in suffering, thereby showing the greater strength of ignorance. For beings, overcome by ignorance, even when tormented by craving, engage in the practice of self-mortification, which is suffering and entirely harmful. "Ignorance follows craving" means that ignorance, having overcome craving, proceeds in happiness, thereby showing the greater strength of craving. Although in the experience of blameworthy happiness, ignorance is indeed strong, concealing the existing danger, craving, being even stronger than that, directs beings to ignoble happiness, which is fraught with great harm. Thus, it is said that ignorance follows it. Or, the six sense bases are the body – this is the connection. "Other phenomena dependent on the eye, etc." means phenomena that are the support for the eye, etc., and are connected with them, belonging to one's own continuum. "Having taken them as dependent on the eye, etc." means having taken them as included by the mention of the eye, etc. "The body of the eye, etc." means the aggregate of phenomena of the eye, etc., which for others is the five aggregates. "Touched by contact" means touched by contact that has arisen as if touching an object, which is experienced as pleasant or painful. For when contact arises in that way, the person endowed with it is said to be "touched." Showing that just as the six sense bases are a specific condition for contact, so too for feeling, it states: "the six sense bases are a specific condition for feeling." i said. Dependent on them: dependent on the six sense bases. Rooted in past ignorance and craving: rooted in past ignorance and craving. Breakup of the body, leading to the body: in both cases, the word 'body' refers to the five aggregates of clinging. Leading to that: rebirth, the taking of a new existence. Rooted in both: rooted in ignorance and craving. Because of not being understood: because it is the opposite of understanding. When there is ignorance: when there is ignorance. Grasping: that which is to be grasped. Therefore: because, even though the aggregates are included in the word 'aggregates', the aggregates conditioned by ignorance are mentioned separately due to their prominence, like the saying "cows and bulls", therefore. Even what is said there: excluding the aggregates that perform the act of conditioning, which are mentioned in the word 'aggregates', the other aggregates should be applied. In this way, the two aspects of extracting and being extractable are shown without confusion. "Here, by way of being describable": this indicates the aforementioned prominence of the aggregates conditioned by ignorance, even though they are included in the word 'aggregates'. "Aggregates conditioned by ignorance": this is said as a part of that. In this interpretation of the meaning, the aggregates conditioned by ignorance, though included in the aggregates mentioned by the word 'aggregates' by way of collection, are taken separately here due to their prominence as describable; the difference from the former is that they are excluded. Therefore, it says: "the two types are mentioned by way of encompassing all that is to be described." Even what is generally collected is taken separately to highlight its prominence, just like "the accumulations of merit and knowledge." That by which wholesome and unwholesome states are called "resultant states" is accumulation. What is that? It is the activity in a being where craving and ignorance are not cut off. Therefore, it says: "rebirth... and the function of accumulation." However, because it is primarily volitional, it is spoken of as having performed the function of volition. Amassing and accumulation are said because of the production of the result, which is the amassed form and formless. "Non-objectivity, indeterminacy": this because it is unobjectified, like the unobjectified. It is said that it is related to the unobjectified, and is unobjectified. "Sense-base" and "jar" should be understood as the arising of phenomena through those respective doors. "Non-comprehension" and so on are mentioned in the explanation of the term "ignorance." The feminine gender is used in "disconnected from view" due to its connection with the term "ignorance." "Because it has no form" means "because it has no body." "The existence of sorrow and so on" means: after not concluding with "birth is the cause of aging and death," but immediately thereafter mentioning sorrow and so on as existing, there would be a proliferation of factors due to them, leading to many factors in the links of dependent origination. "Only twelve" means: how only twelve? Are not sorrow and so on also other phenomena mentioned in the teaching of dependent origination? It is true they are mentioned, but not as other factors, showing this, he says "not indeed" and so on. There, "by the fruit" means by sorrow and so on, which are included in the aging and death factor, which is the fruit. "To show the root factor" means: to show the ignorance factor, which is the root of this teaching of dependent origination, by speaking of falling into delusion through lamentation and so on, those sorrows and so on are mentioned to show the non-interruption of the cycle of existence. "Aging and death are the cause of these" means aging and death are the cause of sorrow and so on; their existence is the causality of aging and death. "Aging and death are the sign of this" means aging and death are the sign. Here, "that" in "those signs" refers to the Sutta. "Those signs" means sorrow and so on, which are signs of suffering. "From beyond that" means from the future, from beyond the second existence, in the third existence and so on, in rebirth. "Causes of causes" means causes of the cause. For rebirth, formations are the cause, and ignorance is the cause of those. "Sutta" refers to this Sutta: "The uninstructed ordinary person" (M.N. 1.2, 17; S.N. 2.61; Dh.S. 1007). Ignorance is shown to be the cause of sorrow and so on by the statement of their arising, which illuminates the overwhelming power of ignorance through being uninstructed. "The Sutta does not prove that sorrow and so on are merely a sign of aging and death for the fool" —to make this stated meaning clear, "nor indeed" and so on is said. Therefore, not a sign of aging and death. That very suffering is suffering, but it is shown that the sign of ignorance should be understood here in the manner stated. Thus, having made a single summary of sorrow and so on with old age and death, the twelve links of dependent origination should be known. Why is the teaching here made to end with old age and death? Is it that there is no further continuation beyond that? No, it is not that there is none. For one whose defilements are not abandoned, from kamma, and from rebirth, which is the culmination of consciousness and so on, there is the manifestation of re-linking. Thus, old age and death, which are the cessation of that process, are the cause for the arising of new existence. But since that is shown by birth from the existence of kamma and rebirth, it is declared by "with existence as condition, birth," and is not stated again, not because there is no further continuation. And for the continuum produced by a single kamma, old age and death are the culmination. When the cycle of defilements exists, there is rebirth again through kamma. But when it does not exist, the teaching is made to culminate in old age and death, saying "this is the end of suffering." Since there is no old age without death for all those that arise, due to the immediate breaking up of their fruition, and no death without old age, due to the absence of breaking up without fruition, therefore, both are made into one factor, not like name-and-form, where both arise together in two places, or like the six sense bases, where they are equal in function as sense bases. And this manifestation of new existence, which is shown to reach its end, thereby "with consciousness as condition, name-and-form," and so on, and in the absence of defilements and kamma, their absence, "with ignorance as condition, volitional formations," and so on, is indeed declared in meaning. Thus, the wandering through the three cycles without cessation is shown. Or, by the grasping of old age, name-and-form and so on, and sorrow and so on, occurring in the sequence of ripening and further ripening, are grasped, as is the ignorance present at the time of its ripening. As it is said: "That boy, monks, having grown up, having attained the ripening of the faculties, endowed and furnished with the five cords of sensual pleasure, enjoys forms cognizable by the eye... ...and tangibles cognizable by the body... ...which are alluring. He, being Here, having seen a form, he delights in a pleasing form, he is averse to an unpleasing form, and he dwells with mindfulness of the body not established, with a limited mind. And he does not understand as it really is that liberation of mind and liberation by wisdom, where those evil unwholesome states cease without remainder. Here, for one with mature faculties, by the grasping of lust, etc., at the six doors, and by not understanding liberation, which is inseparable from that, ignorance, which is the cause of sorrow, etc., is revealed. Moreover, by the saying, "Sorrow, lamentation, pain, dejection, and despair arise from what is dear," the cankers of sensuality and becoming are indicated; by the saying, "For one who is obsessed with 'I am form, form is mine'... from the change and alteration of form, sorrow, lamentation, pain, dejection, and despair arise," the canker of views is indicated; by the saying, "the uninstructed," etc., the arising of sorrow, etc., from the canker of ignorance is shown. Thus, the cankers are grasped as their cause. They themselves, being of the nature of aging, are grasped by the grasping of aging.