Early Monastic Buddhism v1.c18.s2.1

v1.c18.s2.1

The term *dhātu* carries a very wide meaning in the Buddhist literature. When the *dhātu* is said to be constituted (*saṃkhata*), it means all the beings and things of the world, e.g., the three spheres of existence, Kāma, Rūpa and Arūpa; the four great elements (*mahābhūtas*) and the things formed out of these elements; the sense-organs, their objects (*āyatanas*), as also their perceptions; the material and non-material constituents (*khandhas*). The *Bahudhātuka-sutta*¹ states that for attaining nibbāna, one must be proficient in the dhātus (*dhātukusalo*), and then enumerates besides the above the following as dhātus: mental and physical pain and pleasure, equanimity, ignorance, desire, renunciation, hatred, and absence of hatred, as also Ākāsa and Nibbāna or Nirodha but the last two are called unconstituted (*asaṃkhata*) dhātus.