摩訶止觀 9.97

9.97

此因緣門隨機不同，《瓔珞》明十種；《大集》明果報一念；諸師多傳三世。龍樹作《中論》，初明〈因緣品〉，論師謂攝法不盡，不以因緣為宗，但是世諦；破因緣盡，是真諦，故以二諦為宗。今言：何品非世諦而皆破盡？此乃通途，非別意也。論初，通觀因緣；次〈染染品〉等，別破愛、取支；〈六情品〉，別破苦支；乃至後兩品，別出聲聞觀因緣。通、別等意，皆觀因緣，豈不以因緣為宗？北師取後品中救義，六因、四緣為宗，此乃是生滅因緣，後兩品意，非論正宗。佛去世後人根轉鈍，取著因緣決定相，不解佛意，故作此論明十二因緣觀門也。

This gate of causes and conditions differs according to capacities: the Yingluo jing explains ten kinds; the Daji jing explains a single thought-moment of karmic retribution; the various masters mostly transmit the three periods of time. When Nāgārjuna composed the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā, he first explained the 'Chapter on Causes and Conditions'. The treatise masters claimed that it did not subsume all phenomena, not taking causes and conditions as the central theme, but merely conventional truth; and that completely refuting causes and conditions is ultimate truth, hence taking the two truths as the central theme. Now I say: which chapter is not conventional truth and yet all are completely refuted? This is the general approach, not a particular intention. At the beginning of the treatise, it contemplates causes and conditions generally; next, in the 'Chapter on the Impassioned and Passion' and others, it specifically refutes the links of craving and grasping; in the 'Chapter on the Six Faculties', it specifically refutes the link of suffering; down to the last two chapters, it specifically brings out the śrāvakas' contemplation of causes and conditions. In both general and specific purports, all contemplate causes and conditions; how could it not take causes and conditions as the central theme? The northern masters took the rescue argument in the later chapters—taking the six causes and four conditions as the central theme—which is just causes and conditions of arising and ceasing, the intention of the last two chapters, not the primary theme of the treatise. After the Buddha passed away, people's faculties grew increasingly dull; grasping the definitive characteristics of causes and conditions, they did not understand the Buddha's intent; therefore this treatise was composed to illuminate the gate of contemplation of the twelve links of dependent origination.