Faculties
According to the Abhidharma teachings, all physical and mental faculties (Skt. indriya; Tib. དབང་པོ་, wangpo, Wyl. dbang po) are encompassed by a list of twenty-two faculties.[1]
1-6) The six sense faculties
These six control the apprehending of their individual objects. They are:
- Visual faculty (Skt. cakṣurindriya; Tib. མིག་གི་དབང་པོ་, Wyl. mig gi dbang po)
- Auditory faculty (Skt. śrotrendriya; Tib. རྣ་བའི་དབང་པོ་, Wyl. rna ba’i dbang po)
- Olfactory faculty (Skt. ghrāṇendriya; Tib. སྣའི་དབང་པོ་, Wyl. sna’i dbang po)
- Gustatory faculty (Skt. jihvendriya; Tib. ལྕེའི་དབང་པོ་ , Wyl. lce’i dbang po)
- Tactile faculty (Skt. kāyendriya; Tib. ལུས་ཀྱི་དབང་པོ་, Wyl. lus kyi dbang po)
- Mental faculty (Skt. manendriya; Tib. ཡིད་ཀྱི་དབང་པོ་, Wyl. yid kyi dbang po)
7) Life faculty
The life faculty (Skt. jīvitendriya) controls the remaining in a similar class of sentient beings.
8-9) The male and female faculties
The male (Skt. puruṣendriya) and female sexual faculties (Skt. strīndriya) form the respective physical supports for being male or female, are the basis for sexual pleasure, and control the unbroken continuity of births from a womb.
10-14) The five faculties of sensations
The five faculties of sensations control the experiences of the fully ripened results of karma. They are:
- The faculty of pleasure (Skt. sukhendriyam; Tib. བདེ་བའི་དབང་པོ་, Wyl. bde ba’i dbang po)
- The faculty of suffering (Skt. duḥkhendriyam; Tib. སྡུག་བསྔལ་གྱི་དབང་པོ་, Wyl. sdug bsngal gyi dbang po)
- The faculty of mental ease (Skt. saumanasyendriyam; Tib. ཡིད་བདེ་བའི་དབང་པོ་, Wyl. yid bde ba’i dbang po)
- The faculty of mental discomfort (Skt. daurmanasyendriyam; Tib. ཡིད་མི་བདེ་བའི་དབང་པོ་, Wyl. yid mi bde ba’i dbang po)
- The faculty of indifference or neutrality (Skt. upekṣendriyam; Tib. བཏང་སྙོམས་ཀྱི་དབང་པོ་, Wyl. btang snyoms kyi dbang po).
15-19) The five spiritual faculties
These faculties control the mundane virtues or the purity [of detachment]. They are:
- The faculty of faith (Skt. śraddhendriyam; Tib. དད་པའི་དབང་པོ་, Wyl. dad pa’i dbang po)
- The faculty of diligence (Skt. vīryendriyam; Tib. བརྩོན་འགྲུས་ཀྱི་དབང་པོ་, Wyl. brtson ‘grus kyi dbang po)
- The faculty of mindfulness (Skt. smṛtīndriyam, Tib. དྲན་པའི་དབང་པོ་, Wyl. dran pa’i dbang po)
- The faculty of concentration (Skt. samādhīndriyam; Tib. ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན་གྱི་དབང་པོ་, Wyl. ting nge ‘dzin gyi dbang po)
- The faculty of wisdom (Skt. prajñendriyam; Tib. ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་དབང་པོ་, Wyl. shes rab kyi dbang po)
- 20-22) The faculties of 'making all understood', of 'understanding all,' and of ‘having understood all' consist of faith and so forth in the stream-of-being of, [respectively, someone on the paths of] seeing, cultivation, and no-training. They control the supramundane purities [of noble beings].
Faculties are therefore called controlling faculties.
Notes
- ↑ List based on Mipham Rinpoche’s Khenjuk