In Buddhism, ÃÂyatana (PÃÂli; Sanskrit: à ¤Âà ¤¯à ¤¤à ¤¨) is a "center of experience" or "mental home," which create one's experience. The related term ' (PÃÂli; Skt. ') refers to six cognitive functions, namely sight, hearing, smelling, tasting, body-cognition, and mind-cognition.
ÃÂyatana may refer to both ordinary experience and the chain of processes leading to bondage, as to awakened experience centered in detachment and meditative accomplishment. The Buddhist path aims to relocate one from the ordinary, sensual centers of experience to the "mental home" of the purified, liberated awareness of the jhanas.
Traditionally, the term ÃÂyatana is translated as "sense base", "sense-media" or "sense sphere," due to the influence of later commentators like Buddhaghosa. The ' are traditionally understood as referring to the five senses and the mind.
ÃÂyatana (PÃÂli; Sanskrit: à ¤Âà ¤¯à ¤¤à ¤¨) is a Buddhist term that does not have a single definition or meaning. The standard PTS PÃÂli-English Dictionary by Davids & Stede (1921) gives the following meanings of ÃÂyatana:
While ÃÂyatana is usually translated as "base" or "sphere," or more specifically as "sense field," "sense base", "sense-media" or "sense sphere," according to Ellis, "these are inadequate translations because they are based on later Buddhist traditions and commentarial literature and not on an historical understanding of the term."
In Vedic literature ÃÂyatana is "used for a regular place, position, etc. occupied by a person." In some Upanishads it refers to a "dwelling place" or "resort," or a "resting place for the mind," indicating that ÃÂyatana means "the place in which experience happens" or a "center of experience." According to Ellis, "center of experience" or "mental home" is a more adequate interpretation than "base" or "sphere."
Ellis notes that ÃÂyatana in the suttas most commonly appears in compound form, namely saḷÃÂyatana or cha phassÃÂyatanÃÂ, the "six ÃÂyatanas of sensual experience." According to Ellis, "This context is so dominant that translators like Bodhi and Walshe translate âÂÂsense basesâ even if the PÃÂli texts only mentions ÃÂyatana, and not saḷÃÂyatana."
Ellis further notes that saḷÃÂyatana is traditionally interpreted anatomically, and understood as referring to the five senses and the mind. Yet, according to Olivelle, saḷÃÂyatana refers instead to cognitive functions, and is therefore understood by Ellis as referring to sight, hearing, smelling, tasting, body-cognition, and mind-cognition.
Throughout the Pali Canon, the saḷÃÂyatana are referenced in hundreds of discourses. In these diverse discourses, the sense bases are integrated in various mnemonic lists.
The ÃÂyatana are further refined as six internal ÃÂyatana and six corresponding external ÃÂyatana. Together they form:
The saḷÃÂyatana are related to the indriya, the five senses and the mind; the indriya become saḷÃÂyatana when they are distorted by a defiled mind. Indriya also refers to the five spiritual facultues, which contribute to an awakened state of mind.
Based on these six pairs of ÃÂyatana, a number of mental factors arise, as described in the five skandhas. Thus, for instance, when the auditive cognitive function ('the ear') is triggered by sound, the associated consciousness (Pali: ) arises. With the presence of these three elements ( dhÃÂtu) â hearing function, sound and hearing function-related consciousness â "contact" (phassa) arises, which in turn is apprehended as a pleasant or unpleasant or neutral "feeling" or "sensation" (vedanÃÂ). With feeling, "craving" (') (or aversion) arises. (See Figure 1.)
Such an enumeration can be found, for instance, in the "Six Sextets" discourse (Chachakka Sutta, MN 148), where the "six sextets" (six sense organs, six sense objects, six sense-specific types of consciousness, six sense-specific types of contact, six sense-specific types of sensation and six sense-specific types of craving) are examined and found to be empty of self.
The saḷÃÂyatana are included in the Twelve Nidanas, a list compiled of several sublists including the five skandhas, which describes the process of becoming.
In a discourse entitled, "The All" (SN 35.23), the Buddha states that there is no "all" outside of the six pairs of the saḷÃÂyatana. In the next codified discourse (SN 35.24), the Buddha elaborates that the All includes the first five aforementioned sextets (sense organs, objects, consciousness, contact and sensations). References to the All can be found in a number of subsequent discourses. In addition, the Abhidhamma and post-canonical Pali literature further conceptualize the saḷÃÂyatana as a means for classifying all factors of existence.
In "The Vipers" discourse (Asivisa Sutta, SN 35.197), the Buddha likens the internal saḷÃÂyatana to an "empty village" and the external saḷÃÂyatana to "village-plundering bandits." Using this metaphor, the Buddha characterizes the "empty" sense organs as being "attacked by agreeable & disagreeable" sense objects.
Elsewhere in the same collection of discourses (SN 35.191), the Buddha's Great Disciple Sariputta clarifies that the actual suffering associated with sense organs and sense objects is not inherent to these saḷÃÂyatana but is due to the "fetters" (here identified as "desire and lust") that arise when there is contact between a sense organ and sense object.
In the "Fire Sermon" (Adittapariyaya Sutta, SN 35.28), delivered several months after the Buddha's awakening, the Buddha describes all saḷÃÂyatana and related mental processes in the following manner:
The Buddha taught that, in order to escape the dangers of the saḷÃÂyatana, one must be able to apprehend the saḷÃÂyatana without defilement. In "Abandoning the Fetters" (SN 35.54), the Buddha states that one abandons the fetters "when one knows and sees ... as impermanent" (Pali: anicca) the [saḷÃÂyatana], objects, sense-consciousness, contact and sensations. Similarly, in "Uprooting the Fetters" (SN 35.55), the Buddha states that one uproots the fetters "when one knows and sees ... as nonself" (anatta) the aforementioned five sextets.
To foster this type of penetrative knowing and seeing and the resultant release from suffering, in the Satipatthana Sutta (MN 10) the Buddha instructs monks to meditate on the saḷÃÂyatana and the dependently arising fetters as follows:
In the Four Noble Truths, one of many summaries of the Buddhist path to liberation, dukkha ('suffering') is observed to arise with craving (Pali: ; Skt.: ', lit. 'thirst'). In the chain of Dependent Origination, craving arises with sensations when the saḷÃÂyatana is activated by contact. To detach from tanha and dukkha, one should develop awareness (sati (mindfullness) and sampajañña (clear comprehension)) of the chain of events triggered by the saḷÃÂyatana, and practice restraint and detachment (sammÃÂ-vÃÂyÃÂma (right effort) and dhyana ('meditation')).
Ellis notes that ÃÂyatana may also refer to the various stages of meditation (jhana), and "even the state of liberated Buddhist masters is termed ÃÂyatana."' As such, they are also a "center of experience" or "mental home," in which our normal states of mind are abandoned and one relocates in the purified, liberated awareness of the jhanas.
The Vimuttimagga, the Visuddhimagga, and associated Pali commentaries and subcommentaries all contribute to traditional knowledge about the saḷÃÂyatana.
When the Buddha speaks of "understanding" the eye, ear, nose, tongue and body, what is meant?
According to the first-century CE Sinhalese meditation manual, Vimuttimagga, the sense organs can be understood in terms of the object sensed, the consciousness aroused, the underlying "sensory matter," and an associated primary or derived element that is present "in excess." These characteristics are summarized in the table below.
The compendious fifth-century CE Visuddhimagga provides similar descriptors, such as "the size of a mere louse's head" for the location of the eye's "sensitivity" (Pali: pasÃÂda; also known as, "sentient organ, sense agency, sensitive surface"), and "in the place shaped like a goat's hoof" regarding the nose sensitivity (Vsm. XIV, 47âÂÂ52). In addition, the Visuddhimagga describes the sense organs in terms of the following four factors:
Thus, for instance, it describes the eye as follows:
In regards to the sixth internal ÃÂyatana of mind (mano), Pali subcommentaries (attributed to DhammapÃÂla Thera) distinguish between consciousness arising from the five physical saḷÃÂyatana and that arising from the primarily post-canonical notion of a "life-continuum" or "unconscious mind" (bhavaga-mana):
In the fifth-century CE exegetical Visuddhimagga, Buddhaghosa identifies knowing about the saḷÃÂyatana as part of the "soil" of liberating wisdom. Other components of this "soil" include the aggregates, the faculties, the Four Noble Truths and Dependent Origination.