宗鏡錄 53.12

53.12

Answer: "Faculties" are the five faculties. Because they have the meaning of predominant arising, they are named "faculties." Among them, there are the five pure form-faculties and the five auxiliary form-faculties. The five pure form-faculties take invisible, obstructive, pure form as their substance; they can produce the five consciousnesses and possess the function of illuminating objects. The five auxiliary form-faculties assist the pure faculties so that they can illuminate their objects, while their own substance cannot illuminate objects. Because the auxiliary faculties are coarse and manifest forms, they do not hinder being the support for the pure faculties. The Pañcaskandhaprakaraṇa states: "'Faculty' has the meaning of supreme, the meaning of mastery, the meaning of lord, and the meaning of predominant; this is the meaning of faculty. What is the eye-faculty? It takes visible form as its sphere and pure form as its nature. That is, a portion of pure form within the eye, like pure clarified butter (sarpirmaṇḍa); because this nature exists, the eye-consciousness can arise; if it is absent, it does not arise. And so on up to the body-faculty taking tangible objects as its sphere, all taking pure form as their nature; if it is absent, it does not arise."