Bodhicharyavatara Chapter 9, Stanzas 114-115

In these next two verses, we continue the discussion on the truth of interdependent arising, returning once more to examining the interplay of causes, conditions and their result to establish that no phenomena and therefore consciousness––exists independent of ‘other,’ because if that were the case, all phenomena would be in stasis, nothing would change or evolve.

The text uses the example of a seed becoming a flower, and points out that without analysis there is no evidence of the flower’s causation––a seed––in its fruition, because if examined without that evidence, it appears to be an independent entity. However we can test the truth of cause, result and interdependence by planting a seed which in the right conditions grows into a plant that bears no evidence of its origins.

Rinpoche goes on to briefly describe the three ways of reasoning which examine the cause, the object and the result which together uphold the doctrine of emptiness and interdependence, as explained in the Madyamika treatises.

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