A. Description of the Bases (āyatana)

1. [481] The “bases” (XIV.32) are the twelve bases, that is to say, the eye base, visible-data base, ear base, sound base, nose base, odour base, tongue base, flavour base, body base, tangible-data base, mind base, mental-data base.

2. Herein:

(1) Meaning, (2) character, (3) just so much,
(4) Order, and (5) in brief and detail,
(6) Likewise as to how to be seen—
Thus should be known the exposition.

3. 1. Herein, [as to meaning] firstly individually:

It relishes (cakkhati), thus it is an eye (cakkhu); the meaning is that it enjoys a visible datum and turns it to account.

It makes visible (rūpayati), thus it is a visible datum (rūpa); the meaning is that by undergoing an alteration in appearance (colour) it evidences what state is in the mind (lit. heart).

It hears (suṇāti), thus it is an ear (sota).

It is emitted (sappati), thus it is sound (sadda);the meaning is that it is uttered.

It smells (ghāyati), thus it is a nose (ghāna).

It is smelt (gandhayati) thus it is odour (gandha); the meaning is that it betrays its own physical basis.

It evokes (avhayati) life (jīvita), thus it is a tongue (jivhā).

Living beings taste (rasanti) it, thus it is flavour (rasa); the meaning is that they enjoy it.

It is the origin (āya) of vile (kucchita) states subject to cankers, thus it is a body (kāya), origin being the place of arising.

It is touched (phusiyati), thus it is a tangible datum (phoṭṭhabba).

It measures (munāti), thus it is a mind (mano).

They cause their own characteristic to be borne (dhārayanti), thus they are mental data (dhammā).^[1]

4. [As to meaning] in general, however, base (āyatana) should be understood as such (a) because of its actuating (āyatana), (b) because of being the range (tanana) of the origins (āya), and (c) because of leading on (nayana) what is actuated (āyata).^[2]

Now, the various states of consciousness and its concomitants belonging to such and such a door-cum-object among those consisting of the eye-cum-visibledatum, etc., (a) are actuated (āyatanti), each by means of its individual function of experiencing, etc.; they are active, strive, and endeavour in these, is what is meant. And (b) these [doors-cum-objects] provide the range for (tananti) those states that are origins (āya); they give them scope, is what is meant. And (c) as long as this suffering of the round of rebirths, which has gone on occurring throughout the beginningless round of rebirths and so is enormously actuated (āyata), does not recede, so long they lead on (nayanti); they cause occurrence, is what is meant.

So all these [482] things are called “bases” because they actuate, because they are the range of the origins, and because they lead on what is actuated.

5. Furthermore, “base, (āyatana) should be understood in the sense of place of abode, store (mine),^[3] meeting place, locality of birth, and cause. For accordingly in the world in such phrases as the lord’s sphere” (āyatana) and “Vāsudeva’s sphere” (āyatana), it is a place of abode that is called “base”; and in such phrases as “the sphere of gold” and “the sphere of silver” it is a store (mine) that is called “base.” But in the Dispensation, in such passages as:

“And so in the delightful realm (āyatana) Those flying in the air attend him” (A III 43),

it is a meeting place; and in such phrases as “The southern land is the realm (āyatana) of cattle” (?) it is the locality of birth; and in such passages as “He acquires the ability to be a witness of it … whenever there is an occasion (āyatana) for it’” (M I 494; A I 258), it is a cause.

6. And these various states of consciousness and its concomitants dwell in the eye, etc., because they exist in dependence on them, so the eye, etc., are their place of abode. And they frequent the eye, etc., because they have them [respectively] as their [material] support and as their object, so the eye, etc., are their store. And the eye, etc., are their meeting place because they meet together in one or other of them, [using them] as physical basis, door, and object. And the eye, etc., are the locality of their birth because they arise just there, having them as their respective supports and objects. And the eye, etc., are their reason because they are absent when the eye, etc., are absent.

7. So for these reasons too these things are called “bases” in the sense of place of abode, store, meeting place, locality of birth, and reason.

Consequently, in the sense already stated, it is an eye and that is a base, thus it is the eye base … They are mental data and those are a base, thus they are the mental-data base.

This is how the exposition should be known here as to meaning.

8. 2. Character: Here too the exposition should be known as to the characteristic of the eye and so on. But their characteristics should be understood in the way given above in the Description of the Aggregates (XIV.37ff.).

9. 3. As to just so much: as just so many.^[4] What is meant is this: The eye, etc., are mental data too; that being so, why is “twelve bases” said instead of simply “mental-data base?” It is for the sake of defining door-cum-object for the arising of the six consciousness groups. And here they are stated as twelve since this is how they are classed when so defined. [483]

10. For only the eye base is the door of arising, and only the visible-data base is the object, of the consciousness group comprised in a cognitive series containing eye-consciousness. Likewise the others for the others.

But only one part of the mind base, in other words, the life-continuum mind,^[5] is the door of arising, and only the mental-data base not common to all is the object, of the sixth [consciousness group].

So they are called “the twelve” because they define door-cum-object for the arising of the six consciousness groups. This is how the exposition should be known here as to just so much.

11. 4. As to order: here too, from among “order of arising,” etc., mentioned above (XIV.211), only “order of teaching” is appropriate. For the eye is taught first among the internal bases since it is obvious because it has as its objective field what is visible with resistance (see last triad, Dhs 2). After that the ear base, etc., which have as their objective fields what is invisible with resistance. Or alternatively, the eye base and ear base are taught first among the internal bases because of their great helpfulness as [respective] causes for the “incomparable of seeing” and the “incomparable of hearing” (see D III 250). Next, the three beginning with the nose base. And the mind base is taught last because it has as its resort the objective fields of the [other] five (M I 295). But among the external bases the visible-data base, etc., [are taught] each one next [to its corresponding internal base] because they are the respective resorts of the eye base, and so on.

12. Furthermore, their order may be understood as that in which the reasons for consciousness’s arising are defined; and it is said: “Due to eye and to visible objects eye-consciousness arises, … due to mind and mental objects mindconsciousness arises” (M I 111).

This is how the exposition should be known here as to order.

13. 5. In brief and in detail: in brief the twelve bases are simply mentalitymateriality because the mind base and one part of the mental-data base are included in mentality, and the rest of the bases in materiality.

14. But in detail, firstly as regards the internal bases, the eye base is, as to kind, simply eye sensitivity; but when it is classified according to condition, destiny, order [of beings], and person,^[6] it is of infinite variety. Likewise the four beginning with the ear base. And the mind base, when classified according to profitable, unprofitable, resultant, and functional consciousness, is of eighty-nine kinds or of one hundred and twenty-one kinds,^[7] but it is of infinite variety when classified according to physical basis, progress, and so on.^[8] The visible-data, sound, odour, and flavour bases are of infinite variety when classified according to dissimilarity, condition, and so on.^[9] The tangible-data base is of three kinds as consisting of earth element, fire element, and air element;[484] but when classified according to condition, etc., it is of many kinds. The mental-data base is of many kinds when classified according to the several individual essences of feeling, perception, formations, subtle matter, and Nibbāna (see Vibh 72).

This is how the exposition should be known in brief and in detail.

15. 6. As to how to be seen: here all formed bases should be regarded as having no provenance and no destination. For they do not come from anywhere prior to their rise, nor do they go anywhere after their fall. On the contrary, before their rise they had no individual essence, and after their fall their individual essences are completely dissolved. And they occur without mastery [being exercisable over them] since they exist in dependence on conditions and in between the past and the future. Hence they should be regarded as having no provenance and no destination.

Likewise they should be regarded as incurious and uninterested. For it does not occur to the eye and the visible datum, etc., “Ah, that consciousness might arise from our concurrence.” And as door, physical basis, and object, they have no curiosity about, or interest in, arousing consciousness. On the contrary, it is the absolute rule that eye-consciousness, etc., come into being with the union of eye with visible datum, and so on. So they should be regarded as incurious and uninterested.

16. Furthermore, the internal bases should be regarded as an empty village because they are devoid of lastingness, pleasure, and self; and the external ones as village-raiding robbers (S IV 175) because they raid the internal ones. And this is said: “Bhikkhus, the eye is harassed by agreeable and disagreeable visible objects” (S IV 175). Furthermore, the internal ones should be regarded as like the six creatures (S IV 198–99) and the external ones as like their resorts.

This is how the exposition should be known here as to how to be seen.

This, firstly, is the section of the detailed explanation dealing with the bases.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

The following words in §3 are not in PED: cakkhati (it relishes), rūpayati (it makes visible—only referred to under rūpa), sappati (it is emitted; pass. of sapati, to swear (Ud 45)), udāhariyati (it is uttered, lit. “is carried up to”), gandhayati (it is smelt), sūcayati (it betrays), rasati (it tastes). Be ed. of Vibh-a reads manayati (not in PED) for muṇāti in parallel passage.

Vism-mhṭ (p. 508) explains cakkhati (relishes) semantically by “tasting a flavour as in ‘relishing’ honey or sauce” and cites M I 503. Linguistically it connects the word with ācikkhati (to show).

“When a visible form (rūpa) undergoes, like the visible aspect of a chameleon, an alteration in appearance (colour) at times when [the mind is] dyed with greed or corrupted with hate, etc., it makes visible what state [is prevalent] in the heart (i.e. the mind) and makes that evident as though it were an actual visible object; the meaning is that it demonstrates it by giving it, as it were, a graspable entity (saviggaha). Or the word rūpa means demonstration, and that is the same as evidencing. Or the word rūpa can be regarded as evidencing of elements too, since it has many meanings. Rūpayati (it makes visible) is a derivative (nibbacana) of the word rūpa that expresses appearance (colour), while ruppati (it is molested) is a derivative that expresses the materiality aggregate. [As to sound] only the sound of words (vacana-sadda) would be covered by the meaning ‘is uttered (udāhariyati),’ and here sound is not only the sound of words, but rather all that can be cognized by the ear is what ‘is emitted (sappati)’; the meaning is that by means of its own conditions it is emitted (sappiyati), is made cognizable by the ear” (Vism-mhṭ 508) (cf. also sappari, to crawl). “‘It evokes life (jīvitaṃ avhayati)’ owing to appetite for tastes in food (āhāra), which is the cause of life (jīvita), since the act of swallowing is rooted in approval of tastes. This is the linguistic characteristic of the word jivhā (tongue)” (Vism-mhṭ 509).

[2]:

The following words in §4 are not in PED: āyatana (actuating: verbal n. fm. āyatati, to actuate); tanana (range: verbal n. fm. tanoti, to provide a range for, to extend—q.v. PED—; mentioned under āyatana, base); nayana (lead in on: verbal n. fm. neti, to lead on; lit, meaning not in PED); āyatati (to actuate—cakkhuviññāṇādīnaṃ uppādanaṃ āyatanaṃ, Vism-mhṭ). See also āyāpenti Paṭis II 21.

[3]:

Ākara means either a mine or a store (PED apparently believes in mining for pearls—see ratanākara).

[4]:

“Because of the absence of anything whatever not included in the twelve bases, there is no arguing that they are more than twelve” (Vism-mhṭ 510).

[5]:

“‘In other words, the life-continuum mind’: that which occurs twice in disturbance (see Ch. XIV, note 46). Only when there has been the occurrence of the life-continuum in a state of disturbance (in a state of dissimilar occurrence) is there the arising of adverting, not otherwise. Taking it thus as the reason for adverting, what is called ‘life-continuum mind’ is a door of arising. ‘Not common to all’ means not common to eye-consciousness and the rest” (Vism-mhṭ 510). See M I 293.

[6]:

“‘Condition’ is kamma, etc., ‘destiny’ is from hell upwards; ‘order [of beings]’ refers to such species as elephants, horses, etc., or to the castes of the khattiyas (warrior nobles), and so on; ‘person’ refers to any given living being’s continuity” (Vism-mhṭ 511).

[7]:

There are eighty-one mundane sorts of consciousness; and since there is no path or fruition without jhāna, when the four paths and four fruitions are multiplied by the five jhānas, there are forty kinds of supramundane consciousness: 81+40 = 121.

[8]:

“‘Physical basis’ is that consisting of the eye, etc.; according to that ‘Progress’ is a painful progress, and the other three. ‘And so on’ refers to jhāna, predominance, plane, object, and so on” (Vism-mhṭ 512).

[9]:

“Blue is similar to blue; it is dissimilar to any other colour. ‘Condition’ is kamma, and so on” (Vism-mhṭ 512).