大般涅槃經義記 5.286

5.286

Within the former, it provisionally speaks of the twelve links of dependent origination to discuss expanding and condensing. First it discusses them extensively; from "Just as for the sake of sentient beings one conditioned link..." downward, it adduces those conditioned links to analogously reveal the immeasurables. In the extensive discussion: it may be one—the twelve links of dependent origination as a whole are solely the conditioned; or it may be divided into two—solely cause and effect: in the past lifetime, ignorance and karmic formations, and in the present lifetime, craving, grasping, and becoming, are the causal part; consciousness and the rest in the present, along with birth-and-death in the future, are the fruitional part. Or they may be spoken of as three—afflictions, karma, and suffering: ignorance, craving, and grasping are the path of afflictions; the two parts of karmic formations and becoming are the path of karma; the remaining parts of the conditioned links are the path of suffering.