Buddhist Philosophy in India and Ceylon c10.s3.13

c10.s3.13

The six sense organs are viewed in a double light; the first five, eye, ear, smell, taste, touch, are material but invisible, thus being distinguished from the fleshy organ in which they reside; they function by resistance contact (paṭigha); the same term (āyatana) is used for the objects as spheres or fields of sense in another aspect of the word; these objects are material and external.¹ The mind is immaterial, invisible, not affected by resistance contact; it is composed of a mind element of obscure character and has a physical basis of some sort; its objects are both exterior objects mediated by the other senses and ideas.² The relation of the six senses to name and form is simple; they really represent them in another formulation, as the texts³ show which omit from the list either the six senses or both consciousness and name and form.