The 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 physical sense organs are on the surface of the body; sentient beings can see, touch, and feel them with the naked eye, and they can be damaged and altered, exhibiting birth-and-death phenomena visible to the naked eye. The supreme faculties (rūpa-prasāda) of the five faculties are located in the back of the brain; they can be seen through surgery, and they too are material form that can be seen, touched, and felt, capable of being damaged and altered, and are conditioned dharmas subject to birth and death, impermanent and suffering. When the five faculties are damaged, 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 seeds of consciousness. Therefore it is not material form but mind (citta), possessing the functions of a conscious mind. Material form is a dharma produced by causes and conditions; it has no autonomy and is passively born and manifested through the conjunction of the tathāgatagarbha and the manas. It cannot do without the impelling function of the manas; if the manas does not impel it, material form vanishes immediately. The manas, however, was not born later; it has existed together with the tathāgatagarbha since beginningless kalpas, sustained continuously by the tathāgatagarbha providing seeds of consciousness, requiring no other causes and conditions—it is not a dharma produced by causes and conditions. So long as the manas has anything to grasp at, 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 undergo ceaseless birth and death, the manas never perishes; no one can destroy the manas—except when arhats and pratyekabuddhas enter nirvāṇa.

The mind faculty, a mental dharma without material form, differs enormously in function from the five faculties, which have 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, a mental dharma, are extremely powerful. It has the role of governing and making decisions regarding the body of the five aggregates, dominating the arising, alteration, and eventual perishing of all worldly dharmas. It has the mental-factor functions of a conscious mind; it has both defiled and pure natures; it has the capacities of recognition, discernment, judgment, and decision-making; it has the tendency to seek advantage 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' birth-and-death in saṃsāra, determine their turning 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, possesses them. Therefore the manas is a mental dharma, not material form—it is a formless faculty.

A faculty has 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 their birth. What directly gives birth to the six consciousnesses is the tathāgatagarbha, which, borrowing karmic conditions and the six faculties, gives rise to the six consciousnesses. But if the manas has no mind toward any dharma, the tathāgatagarbha cannot give birth to the six consciousnesses. Thus the conditions for the arising of the five faculties are very passive, whereas the conditions for the arising of the manas are extremely active and proactive; its impetus for giving birth to the six consciousnesses and all dharmas is immensely powerful, and it also determines whether the five faculties arise at all. Such autonomous, powerful impetus can only be possessed by a formless mental dharma, not by the five faculties that have material form. Therefore the manas is a mental dharma, not material form; it is a formless faculty, not a faculty with form.