What Are the Six Sense Faculties? Six Faculties, Six Objects and Six Consciousnesses
Sanskrit: ṣaḍindriya · Vietnamese: Lục căn
Lục căn, the six sense faculties, are the six doors through which we know the world: eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and mind. Each faculty has its own objects, called lục trần: the eye with forms, the ear with sounds, the nose with odours, the tongue with tastes, the body with touch, and the mind with mental objects such as thoughts and memories. When a faculty meets its object, a matching consciousness arises; these are the six consciousnesses. Six by Six (MN 148) teaches that the meeting of these three is contact; with contact there is feeling, and with feeling, craving. Studying the six faculties is therefore about seeing where a reaction begins: a glance, a remark, a passing thought. The All (SN 35.23) calls these six pairs of faculty and object “the all”. Guarding the six faculties means watching these doors with mindfulness, not covering your eyes and ears or suppressing the senses.
From the discourse: “the all” is the six faculties and their objects (SN 35.23)
Quoted verbatim from the Vietnamese translation by Ven. Thích Minh Châu in the Inti Dharma library (SN 35.23).
Này các Tỷ-kheo, Ta sẽ thuyết về tất cả. Hãy lắng nghe.
Và này các Tỷ-kheo, thế nào là tất cả? Mắt và các sắc; tai và các tiếng; mũi và các hương; lưỡi và các vị; thân và các xúc; ý và các pháp. Như vậy, này các Tỷ-kheo, gọi là tất cả.
Này các Tỷ-kheo, ai nói như sau: “Sau khi từ bỏ tất cả này, ta sẽ tuyên bố (một) tất cả khác”, thời lời nói người ấy chỉ là khoa ngôn.
Faculty, object and consciousness: three things meet
The word căn literally means root; in the discourses it renders the Pāli indriya, a power that governs one field of experience: the eye governs seeing, the ear governs hearing. Six by Six (MN 148) calls the six faculties the six internal bases and their objects the six external bases; Vietnamese Buddhists usually call the objects lục trần, and trần literally means dust. Dependent on the eye and forms, eye-consciousness arises; and so on, up to mind-consciousness arising dependent on the mind and mental objects. The six faculties and six objects are the twelve bases; add the six consciousnesses and you have the eighteen elements. The mind is the sixth door, where thoughts and memories are known, so even sitting alone in a closed room, this door is still open.
From contact to reaction: where irritation begins
Six by Six (MN 148) describes a very short chain: faculty, object and consciousness meeting is contact; with contact there is feeling, pleasant, painful or neutral; with feeling there is craving. The discourse adds: meet a pleasant feeling with delight and clinging, and the underlying tendency to lust grows; meet a painful feeling with sorrow and lament, and the underlying tendency to aversion grows; meet a neutral feeling without understanding it, and the underlying tendency to ignorance grows. A familiar scene: your phone signals a message, the eye reads it, displeasure rises, and the mind has already drafted a retort. Seeing each link like this gives you a pause. If emotions are overwhelming or persistent, self-observation does not replace support from loved ones or qualified professionals.
Burning: what is on fire?
In Burning (SN 35.28), the Blessed One teaches that the eye, forms, eye-consciousness, eye-contact and the feeling born of eye-contact are all burning, and so are the other five faculties: burning with the fire of greed, the fire of hatred, the fire of delusion, and with birth, aging, death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief and despair. The image does not say that seeing or hearing is bad; it shows that the fire reaches us through the sense doors themselves. A delicious dish can kindle the fire of greed, a criticism the fire of hatred, an evening of absent-minded scrolling the fire of delusion. The discourse goes on: seeing this, the noble disciple grows disenchanted; through disenchantment comes dispassion, and through dispassion, liberation. For a beginner, the first step is simply noticing which door the fire is catching at.
Guarding the six faculties: watching the door, not shutting it
Sense restraint, which the Nikāya translation calls guarding the faculties, is described in The Fruits of the Ascetic Life (DN 2): when the eye sees a form, the monk does not seize on its general sign or its details, and he guards the very point where, left unguarded, covetousness, grief and other unwholesome states would arise; so too with the other five faculties. The text says that through this he experiences an inner happiness that is unsullied. Restraint is not refusing to look or listen, or forcing yourself to feel nothing. You still see and hear clearly; you simply do not cling to the overall impression or the details that make wanting or dislike grow. For a lay person it also means choosing what you watch, listen to and read each day.
How are the six faculties related to the five aggregates?
The five aggregates and the six faculties are two ways of looking at the same experience: the aggregates divide it by component, the faculties by the door of contact. The two meet in SN 22.56: feeling is the six classes of feeling born of eye-contact through mind-contact; perception is the six classes of perception of forms, sounds, odours, tastes, tangibles and mental objects; volitional formations are the six classes of intention; consciousness is the six classes from eye-consciousness to mind-consciousness. The discourse also says that with the arising of contact, feeling, perception and formations arise. The first five faculties are bodily, that is, form; the mind faculty and whatever arises after contact belong to the mental side. So when contemplating the aggregates, you know where to look: the very moment a faculty meets an object.
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Practice today
1.Today, choose one door, such as the ear; each time a sound annoys you, silently note: hearing, unpleasant, wanting to retort.
2.Before you open your phone, pause for one breath, ask what your eyes are about to look for, and open only what you need.
3.Tonight, recall one moment of irritation or craving and trace it back: which faculty, which object, what feeling.
Frequently asked questions
What do the six faculties, six objects and six consciousnesses include?
The six faculties are eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and mind. The six objects are forms, sounds, odours, tastes, tangibles and mental objects. The six consciousnesses are eye-, ear-, nose-, tongue-, body- and mind-consciousness, arising when a faculty meets its object. In the twelve links of dependent origination, the link called the six sense bases is these six, standing just before contact.
Does guarding the six faculties mean avoiding looking and listening?
No. According to The Fruits of the Ascetic Life (DN 2), one who guards the faculties still sees and hears but does not grasp the signs that make covetousness and grief arise. Being selective about what you take in is part of restraint; suppressing or fearing the senses is not.
What do purified and impure six faculties mean?
“Purified six faculties” is a familiar Mahāyāna expression. The Lotus Sūtra’s chapter on the merits of the Dharma teacher says that whoever upholds, reads, recites, explains or copies the sūtra gains merits that adorn the six faculties and make them all pure; in plain terms, the six faculties meet their objects without being led by greed, hatred or delusion. “Impure six faculties” is the reverse, better used to examine oneself than to criticise others.
What is repentance of the six faculties?
Some Mahāyāna repentance liturgies go through the faculties one by one, reviewing the faults committed through eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and mind, then vowing to guard them. The heart of it is seeing which door a fault began at, so as to guard that door next time.
What is lục căn in English?
Lục căn is usually rendered as the six sense faculties or the six sense bases; căn corresponds to the Pāli indriya, while the six internal bases are ajjhattika āyatana. Lục trần are the six sense objects, and lục thức the six kinds of consciousness.
A short discourse in the Connected Discourses on the Six Sense Bases that calls eye and forms, ear and sounds, up to mind and mental objects “the all”, and says that anyone proclaiming another “all” is only talking.
