瑜伽論記 14.393

14.393

答：此中外人約世人共所知火能燒於薪為滅之因，今論主還以共所知火，以為解釋。如世間人皆知別於餘處將火以燒彼薪，論主云：將火燒薪但能與彼薪為變異之因，何者？如世人共知薪有故即火有，即是與薪俱生，薪無故火無，得知與薪俱滅。又世人共知薪由火故，即有煨燼之變，論主但約世俗道理以通此救。若約大乘實理，火等諸法纔生即滅，無有將此火能燒彼物，但由外火為緣引起自心所燒變異之相初念火後纔至即此時識變為所燒相，不得言初念火為緣故與後念變異為生緣也。

Answer: Here, the opponent relies on what is commonly known to worldly people—that fire can burn firewood as the cause of destruction—and the author of the treatise now likewise uses fire as commonly known to explain it. Just as people in the world all know that one brings fire from elsewhere to burn that firewood, the author of the treatise says: bringing fire to burn firewood can only serve as the cause of transformation for that firewood. Why? Just as worldly people commonly know that because firewood exists, fire exists, which means it arises simultaneously with the firewood; and because firewood is absent, fire is absent, from which we know it perishes simultaneously with the firewood. Furthermore, worldly people commonly know that due to fire, firewood undergoes the transformation into embers and ashes. The author of the treatise merely relies on conventional principle to resolve this rescue. If considered according to the true principle of the Mahāyāna, all phenomena such as fire perish as soon as they arise; there is no such thing as bringing this fire to burn that object. Rather, it is merely that with external fire as a condition, the transformed aspect of what is burned within one's own mind is induced: after the fire of the first moment, as soon as this moment arrives, consciousness transforms into the aspect of what is burned; one cannot say that because the fire of the first moment is a condition, it serves as the condition for the arising of transformation in subsequent moments.