Nāgārjuna’s Four Conditions

Reading Nāgārjuna’s “Fundamental Verses on the Middle Way” #3

I would like to continue my commentary on Nāgārjuna’s Fundamental Verses on the Middle Way. We are at the beginning of the first chapter. As a reminder, you can find the previous posts here: Articles on Nāgārjuna.

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Sanskrit

catvāraḥ pratyayā hetuś cālambanam anantaram |
tathaivādhipateyaṃ ca pratyayo nāsti pañcamaḥ ||

Chinese (by Kumārajīva)

因緣次第緣 緣緣增上緣
四緣生諸法 更無第五緣

English (my tentative translation from the Sanskrit)

The four conditions are: cause (hetu), object (ālambana), immediate antecedent (anantara), and likewise, dominant condition (ādhipateya). There is no fifth condition.

Commentary

(The order of the Sanskrit and Chinese texts is not exactly the same. I am following the order of the Sanskrit text.)

Earlier Buddhist literature, such as Vasubandhu’s Abhidharmakośa, provides detailed and systematic analyses of various conditions (pratyaya). In the Abhidharmakośa, four types of conditions are as follows:

1. Causal condition (hetu-pratyaya): Refers to the primary cause that gives rise to a result. A classic example would be the seed, which is the causal condition for the growth of a plant.

2. Object condition (ālambana-pratyaya): Refers to the objects of knowledge that serve as the basis of consciousness. The appearance of something is what creates the visual awareness of that thing.

3. Immediately preceding condition (samanantara-pratyaya): Refers to the object present in the previous moment that becomes the cause of another mental activity. It is, for example, a thought that leads to another thought in the next moment.

4. Dominant condition (adhipati-pratyaya): This condition includes all causes that are effective in generating a thing or not preventing its existence, except those mentioned in the previous three conditions. A good example in the context of the seed and its growth would be the sunlight, water, and nutrients needed for the plant to grow.

These four conditions in Buddhist philosophy provide a framework for understanding the path to nirvāṇa. Different lists have appeared in different scriptures and have varied in detail.

In this passage, Nāgārjuna identifies four different kinds of conditions, similar to those mentioned in Vasubandhu’s Abhidharmakośa: cause (hetu), object (ālambana), immediate antecedent (anantara), and dominant condition (ādhipateya).

What is important to note is that he does not include a fifth condition, thus implicitly rejecting lists with more than four conditions.

A translation from the Chinese might be:

Causal condition, sequential condition, object condition, dominant condition. Four conditions give rise to all phenomena; there is no fifth condition beyond them.