楞伽阿跋多羅寶經註解 3.194

3.194

Here the Buddha personally shows that the true teaching does not go beyond the three paths: from 'beginningless' down to 'vāsanās' is the path of defilements; 'various evils' is the path of karma; 'the three realms of existence' is the path of suffering. 'Causes' means that defilements and evil karma are the causes of the path of suffering. Because beings cannot realize that all dharmas are manifestations of mind-only, they give rise to false conceptualizations and grasp after those external dharmas—this is the true explanation of causes and conditions, which the tīrthikas do not know. Furthermore, when he says 'unlike the doctrine of the tīrthikas,' he restates their assertion to counter their doctrine. When it says 'cognition arises from the conjunction of the three—the self, the sense faculties, and the sense objects,' it means that through the conjunction of the three conditions of the self, faculties, and objects, cognition arises—cognition being consciousness. The Buddha's teaching differs from this, and therefore he says: 'I do not speak of a cause, nor do I speak of no-cause.' 'Cause' is causes and conditions, while 'no-cause' is spontaneous nature; he speaks of dependent origination solely based on the deceptive mind in terms of the grasper and the grasped, which cannot be measured by you or other tīrthikas who cling unbrokenly to the grasp of selfhood. The mention of 'nirvāṇa, space, and cessation' seems to arise abruptly in the text, but examining Mahāmati's question reveals that since he asked whether the Tathāgata's teaching was identical to the enumerations of the tīrthikas, [the Buddha] tells him: these three unconditioned dharmas are merely three in count, not three real entities. The meaning of the three unconditioned dharmas is seen in the earlier commentary.