Eighteen dhatus

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Eighteen dhatus (Skt. aṣṭadaśa dhātu; Tib. ཁམས་བཅོ་བརྒྱད་, kham chobgyé, Wyl. khams bco brgyad) — a classification of all knowable things into eighteen 'elements'.

  • the six sense objects (Skt. viṣayadhātu; Tib. དམིགས་ཡུལ་གྱི་ཁམས་, Wyl. dmigs yul gyi khams):
    • visible forms (Skt. rūpa-dhātu)
    • sounds (Skt. śabda-dhātu)
    • smells (Skt. gandha-dhātu)
    • tastes (Skt. rasa-dhātu)
    • textures (Skt. spraṣṭavya-dhātu)
    • mental objects (Skt. dharma dhātu)
  • six sense faculties (Skt. indriyadhātu; Tib. དབང་པོའི་ཁམས་, Wyl. dbang po'i khams):
    • eye faculty (Skt. cakṣur-dhātu)
    • ear faculty (Skt. śrotra-dhātu)
    • nose faculty (Skt. ghrāṇa-dhātu)
    • tongue faculty (Skt. jihva-dhātu)
    • body faculty (Skt. kāya-dhātu)
    • mental faculty (Skt. mano-dhātu)
  • the six sense consciousnesses (Skt. vijñānadhātu; Tib. རྣམ་ཤེས་ཀྱི་ཁམས་, Wyl. rnam shes kyi khams)
    • eye-consciousness (Skt. cakṣur-vijñanadhātu)
    • ear-consciousness (Skt. śrotra-vijñanadhātu)
    • nose-consciousness (Skt. ghrāṇa-vijñanadhātu)
    • tongue-consciousness (Skt. jihva-vijñanadhātu)
    • body-consciousness (Skt. kāya-vijñanadhātu)
    • mind-consciousness (Skt. mano-vijñanadhātu)

According to Abhidharma, the eighteen dhatus are categorized differently, i.e. in relation to the five skandhas.

Alternative Translations

  • eighteen components of perception (LCN)
  • eighteen elements
  • eighteen psychophysical bases (Dorje & Kapstein)
  • eighteen sensory spectra (Dorje & Coleman)