The Central Conception of Buddhism and the Meaning of the Word "Dharma" c8.1

c8.1

In the *āyatana* classification two items (Nos. 6 and 12) are devoted to the elements of mind (*citta-caitta-dharmāḥ*, *arūpino dharmāḥ*) and, according to the principle of this classification, they represent two correlative groups: a subjective one (*indriya*) and an objective one (*viṣaya*). The principle of externality of one element in regard to another, i.e. the idea of separate elements (*pṛthag-dharma*), is maintained in the field of mind just as in the field of matter. Mind is split into two chief parts. The subjective part, or mind viewed as a receptive faculty, is represented by one element called, indiscriminately, *citta*, *vijñāna*, or *manas*.² It represents pure consciousness, or pure sensation, without any content. Its content is placed in the objective part which contains the definite sensation (*sparśa*), feelings (*vedanā*), ideas (*saṃjñā*), volitions (*cetanā*), and various other mental phenomena up to the number of forty-six separate elements.³ So it is that feelings come to be viewed as objects of the mind, a position which, for other reasons, they likewise possess in the Sāṅkhya system. The category in which they are entered is called the (general) group of elements (*dharma-āyatana*) or simply “the elements” (*dharmāḥ*). As stated above, the first eleven “bases” contain one element (*dharma*) each, but this last one contains the remaining sixty-four elements of the list. Beside the forty-six mental phenomena it contains the fourteen elementary forces (*viprayukta-saṃskāra*), the element of character (*avijñapti*) and the three eternal elements (*asaṃskṛta*): among the latter is Nirvāṇa, the chief *dharma*.