Six Sense Faculties, Six Sense Objects, and Six Consciousnesses

The eighteen dhātus include the six faculties, the six sense objects, and the six consciousnesses. The six faculties include the eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind faculties. Among these, the first five faculties are composed of the four great seeds of earth, water, fire, and wind. The gross faculties (saṃsthāna) are on the surface of the body; sentient beings can see, touch, and feel them with the naked eye, and they can be destroyed and altered, with arising-and-ceasing phenomena visible to the naked eye. The supreme faculties (indriya) of the five faculties are located at the back of the head; they can be seen through surgery, and are also material form that can be seen, touched, and felt, capable of being destroyed and altered, and are impermanent, arising-and-ceasing, suffering dharmas. When the five faculties are destroyed, the functions of the physical body are obstructed and abandoned, resulting in a vegetative state or even death.

The manas, however, is not composed of the four great seeds of earth, water, fire, and wind; it is formed from consciousness seeds. Therefore it is not material form but a mental dharma, possessing the functions of a conscious mind. Material form is a dharma born of causes and conditions; it has no autonomy and is passively produced and manifested through the conjunction of the tathāgatagarbha and the manas. It cannot do without the driving force of the manas; if the manas does not drive it, material form vanishes immediately. The manas, however, was not born later; it has coexisted with the tathāgatagarbha since beginningless kalpas, sustained continuously by the consciousness seeds provided by the tathāgatagarbha, without needing other causes and conditions—it is not a dharma born of causes and conditions. As long as the manas has anything to be attached to, it will not perish but continue to exist, and the world of the five aggregates will likewise continue to arise and cease. Although the five aggregates and five faculties ceaselessly arise and perish, the manas never perishes; no one can annihilate the manas—except when arhats and pratyekabuddhas enter nirvāṇa.

The conscious mind and manas, which lack material form, differ enormously in function from the five faculties, which possess material form. The five faculties have no capacity for recognition, no mental factors (caittas), and no defiled or pure nature. They can be influenced by the manas; their function of receiving the five sense objects is directed by the manas, but they cannot direct the five sense objects or the five consciousnesses, much less direct the manas—though they can influence the manas's feeling and decision-making functions.

The functional capacities of the manas as a mental dharma are extremely powerful. It has the role of directing and making choices for the body of the five aggregates; it dominates the arising, alteration, and eventual perishing of all worldly dharmas. It has the functioning of the mental factors of a conscious mind; it has both defilement and purity; it has recognition, discernment, judgment, and the capacity to take charge; it has the tendency to seek benefit and avoid harm; it has both self-nature and selflessness; it has both foolishness and wisdom; it has habitual tendencies, habits, and afflictions; it has the imputed nature (parikalpita-svabhāva); it can determine sentient beings' saṃsāra of birth and death, and determine whether sentient beings turn toward nirvāṇa and accomplish the buddha path. Heaven above and earth below are governed by the manas. The five faculties, being material form, lack these characteristics; only the manas, a mental dharma, has them. Therefore the manas is a mental dharma, not material form—it is a formless faculty.

"Faculty" (indriya) carries the meaning of giving birth to the conscious mind, but this so-called birth is not direct generation; rather, it can lead to the arising of the six consciousnesses, being the most immediate condition for the arising of the six consciousnesses. What directly gives birth to the six consciousnesses is the tathāgatagarbha; the tathāgatagarbha borrows karmic conditions and the six faculties to give birth to the six consciousnesses. But if the manas has no mind toward any dharma, the tathāgatagarbha cannot give birth to the six consciousnesses. Therefore the arising condition of the five faculties is very passive, whereas the arising condition of the manas is extremely active and proactive; its driving force for giving birth to the six consciousnesses and all dharmas is immensely powerful, and it also determines whether the five faculties arise or not. Such an autonomous, powerful driving force can only be possessed by a formless mental dharma, not by the five faculties that possess material form. Therefore the manas is a mental dharma, not material form—a formless faculty, not a faculty with material form.