華嚴經探玄記 13.40

13.40

First, regarding the differentiation of the preceding and subsequent limits according to the sūtra: among these twelve links, the first two are projected causes (ākṣepaka), the next five are projected effects (ākṣipta), the next three are producing causes (janaka), and the last two are produced effects (janita). Within this, regarding the differentiation of the three limits, there are briefly three explanations in the holy teachings: First, based on this sūtra, opening the projecting and projected, it divides the preceding limit and the middle limit; combining the producing and produced, it takes them collectively as the subsequent limit—because the projecting is distant it is opened, and because the producing is proximate it is combined. Second, based on the Cheng weishi lun, it opens the producing and produced, and combines the projecting and projected; therefore the first ten are in the present and the last two are in the future, because the ten causes and two fruits are divided into two lifetimes. Third, both the producing and projecting are opened, as in the Dà zhìdù lùn: 'the first two are past, the next eight are present, and the last two are future, thus forming the three times.' In texts such as the Cheng weishi lun, the ten causes and two fruits are definitively in different lifetimes; among the causes, the first seven and the next three are either in the same or different [lifetimes]; whereas the two, the three, and the seven are each definitively in the same lifetime. In this way, the single tier of cause and effect across the twelve [links] is sufficient to reveal transmigration and freedom from annihilationism and eternalism. Moreover, through this cycle of cause and effect across the three limits, the two selves of persons and dharmas are eternally nonexistent.