成唯識論演祕 6.253

6.253

This is fully explained as in the Commentary. There is an opinion: Although the substantial entity (mūla-dharmin) such as a person or object exists as a substantial entity, phenomena such as water and mirrors can bear their own aspects; yet without that substantial entity, water and mirrors still exist. That substantial entity is only able to produce the image in the mirror and so on, but does not produce the mirror itself. It is not merely producing an image that is called a 'condition'; only when it must produce that which can illuminate is it called a 'condition.' Therefore, the substantial entity is not that which is cogitated by the mirror and the like, nor is it that which is relied upon. For this reason, one should distinguish them by both of these two meanings.