Lecture Notes on the Sūtra of the Collection of the Father and Son (VI)

What Are the Six Elements?

Original text: 佛言大王。如是六界。六触处十八意所伺察。是补噜沙。为缘得生。云何六界。所谓地界水界。火界风界。空界识界。

Explanation: The Buddha said to King Śuddhodana: Great King, the six elements just mentioned are what can be observed and contemplated through the six contact bases and the eighteen dhātus; it is by taking these six elements as a condition, relying on the six elements, that a person comes into being. If one were like an arhat abiding in nirvāṇa without remainder, with no five-aggregate body in the world of the three realms, then there would be no current functioning of the six elements. What are the six elements? They are the earth element, water element, fire element, wind element, space element, and consciousness element.

The six elements are the six great seed elements of earth, water, fire, wind, space, and consciousness. The six contact bases are the eye contact base, ear contact base, nose contact base, tongue contact base, body contact base, and mind contact base; the eighteen dhātus are the six faculties, six sense objects, and six consciousnesses. "Puruṣa" means "person," referring to the illusory self; that is to say, the illusory self can only come into being with the six elements as a condition. If this illusory person called "I" wishes to be born, it must take the six great seed elements as a condition: among them, the five elements of earth, water, fire, wind, and space give rise to the five-aggregate body of sentient beings, and the consciousness element gives rise to the conscious mind of sentient beings. Together, the six elements give rise to the five aggregates of sentient beings—the aggregate of form, the aggregate of feeling, the aggregate of perception, the aggregate of volitional formations, and the aggregate of consciousness.