PART ONE: Summary of Verses 1 -7
Verse 1 = Although the Buddha talks about ‘arising,’ ‘abiding,’ and ‘ceasing, etc, these are only conventional terms.
Verse 2 = Designations are without significance. All expressible things are empty (śūnya) of own-being (svabhāva).
Verse 3 = Therefore all dharmas are empty (śūnyatā).
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Verse 4 = There is no arising of something that exists, since it already exists. There is no arising of the nonexistent, since it does not exist. There is no arising of that which is both existent and non-existent, since that very concept is contradictory. If there is no arising, there is no abiding (i.e. being) or ceasing (i.e. destruction, death, etc).
Verse 5 = That which has already been born cannot be born (again), nor can that which has not yet been born have been born.
Verse 6 = It is not possible to say that something is a “cause” before something that is its specific effect has not arisen. Therefore there are no ‘causes’ in the past. ‘Causes’ cannot exist in the past, present, or future.
Verse 7 = Without one, there are not many. Without many, one is not possible. Whatever arises dependently lacks essential characteristics.
PART TWO: The Links of Dependent Origination, Verses 8 - 12
Verse 8 = The twelve links of dependent-origination are ‘unborn’. They exist neither in a single mind-moment nor in the continuity of successive mind-moments.
Verse 9 = Impermanence and permanence, not-self and self, impurity and purity, and suffering and bliss, these do not exist inherently. Because of this, the Four Inversions (paryaya) do not exist inherently.
Verse 10 = Since the Four Inversions do not exist, Ignorance (Avidyā - the first of the 12 links), which arises due to Inversion, does not exist; since it does not exist, saṃskāras (conditioned behaviors, i.e. habits) do not arise, nor the remaining 10 links.
Verse 11 = Since Ignorance does not arise without saṃskāras, and without it the saṃskāras do not arise, both, because they are the mutual cause of each other, cannot have inherent existence.
Verse 12 = Not one of the 12 links can arise all by itself. If something is acknowledged as not having inherent nature, how could something with inherent nature arise from it?
PART THREE: Conclusion, Verses 13 & 14
Verse 13 = The father is not the son and the son is not the father, yet both cannot be what they are without the other. And one cannot be both the father and the son simultaneously. The 12 links are like this.
Verse 14 = Just as in a dream, happiness and suffering depend on dream objects that do not actually exist, likewise any phenomenon which arises in dependence on another dependent phenomenon should be known not to exist in the manner of its appearance.