Commentary on the Sutra of the Compendium of Father and Son (74)

The Six Sense Bases Condition the Six Sense Objects to Give Rise to the Six Consciousnesses

The six sense bases respectively condition the six sense objects: the eye faculty conditions visible forms, the ear faculty conditions sounds, the nose faculty conditions odors, the tongue faculty conditions tastes, the body faculty conditions tactile sensations, and the mental faculty conditions objects of thought. Objects of thought refer to a type of form included in the mental sphere, manifested upon the first five sense objects. For example, when I look at a book, a mental object of "book" arises from the visible form of the book. This includes the book's shape, size, length, width, squareness or roundness, paper quality and thickness, font size and typeface, as well as its informational content—all belong to objects of thought, which are the aspects discerned by mental consciousness. When the mental faculty interacts with the mental object (book), and the eye faculty interacts with the book's colors, both mental consciousness and eye consciousness simultaneously arise to discern the book, though the scope and level of detail in their discernment differ.