華嚴經內章門等雜孔目章 4.18

4.18

Third, clarifying the causes and conditions of rebirth: attaining rebirth is accomplished by six causes and four conditions. The four conditions are: (1) direct cause condition (hetu-pratyaya); (2) equal and immediate condition (samanantara-pratyaya), also called sequential condition; (3) object condition (ālambana-pratyaya), also called condition of conditions; and (4) predominant condition (adhipati-pratyaya). The karmic seeds in the fundamental consciousness are the direct cause condition; the mind aspiring for rebirth is the sequential condition; the pure land and other objective spheres are the object condition; and the absence of obstruction from remaining dharmas is the predominant condition. The six causes are: (1) efficient cause (kāraṇa-hetu), also called functioning cause; (2) co-existent cause (sahabhū-hetu), also called common cause; (3) associated cause (saṃprayuktaka-hetu); (4) homogeneous cause (sabhāga-hetu), also called self-category cause; (5) universal cause (sarvatraga-hetu), also called pervasive cause; and (6) maturation cause (vipāka-hetu), also called retribution cause. The six causes produce five fruits: The two causes of association and co-existence induce the predominant fruit (adhipati-phala). The self-category cause and universal cause induce the conditioning fruit. The functioning, self-category, associated, and co-existent causes induce the fruit of emancipation and the virile fruit (puruṣakāra-phala), also named the fruit of exertion. The retribution cause induces the retribution fruit. In rebirth in the pure land, five causes induce five fruits, excluding the pervasive cause. These terms and numbers of the six causes and four conditions are common to the teachings of the Triyāna. The Hīnayāna of ignorant view has no pure land, so its designations of causes and conditions are not adopted. Relying on the initial teaching of the Mahāyāna, the six causes and four conditions, as well as mutual causality, generating and leading causes, ten causes, twenty causes, and so forth, are to be understood accordingly. The final teaching has only four conditions and mutual causality. The sudden teaching has only mutual causality. The perfect teaching has all causes. Why is this? Because all teachings accomplish rebirth. The remaining meanings can be understood accordingly.