Early Monastic Buddhism v1.c18.s3.1

v1.c18.s3.1

Āyatanas include both the sense-organs and their objects, the former being distinguished as internal (*ajjhattika*) and the latter as external (*bāhira*), counting twelve in all.⁴ The function of the āyatanas is not only to develop the perceptions (viññāṇa) but also to entangle a being in saṃsāra (repeated existences). With the exception of mano, all the eleven āyatanas belong to rūpakkhandha¹ while mano alone belongs to viññāṇakkhandha. Mano therefore like viññāṇa can be subdivided into 89 states.² The scope of the five organs of sense is limited to their respective objects while the scope of mano is almost unlimited, extending over not only all the other sense-organs and their objects but also over all mental states, denoted in Pāli by the word dhamma.