BUDDHACARITA 14.66: Contact Arises Depending on Six Senses (7→6)

[No Sanskrit text]

Tibetan:

| de nas reg pa rgyu yin źes | | de yis bsams par gyur pa’o |

| de nas skye mched drug gi ni | | rgyu can ñid du des mkhyen te | 

de nas: then

reg pa: contact

rgyu: cause

zhes: [quotation particle]

bsams pa: think

de nas: then

skye mched drug: six sense-spheres

rgyu can: caused by

nyid du: self, same (eva)

mkhyen: knowing, seeing

EHJ's translation from the Tibetan:

66. Next he considered that contact has a cause. Thereon he recognised the cause to lie in the six organs of sense.

Revised:

66. Next he considered that contact has a cause. Thereon he recognised the cause to lie in six senses.

Chinese:

觸從六入生 

sparśa (contact) is born from the six entrances (ayatanas) ; (SB)

Contact is produced by the six sense faculties,

COMMENT:

In the Sanskrit ṣaḍāyatanam, there is nothing to indicate whether the definite article “the” should precede "six senses."

But since the Buddha's teaching seems to be that ṣaḍāyatanam arise from consciousness split six ways, and from divided body and mind, which in turn arise from doings born of ignorance, I am going against convention and refusing to dignify ṣaḍāyatanam with the definite article. In other words, I am translating ṣaḍāyatanam not as the six senses but, more skeptically, as six senses.

punar-bhavāya saṁskārān avidyā-nivṛtas tridhā |

abhisaṁskurute yāṁs tair gatiṁ gacchati karmabhiḥ ||MMK26.1||

vijñānaṁ saṁniviśate saṁskāra-pratyayaṁ gatau |

saṁniviṣṭe 'tha vijñāne nāma-rūpaṁ niṣicyate ||2||

niṣikte nāma-rūpe tu ṣaḍāyatana-saṁbhavaḥ |

ṣaḍāyatanam āgamya saṁsparśaḥ saṁpravartate ||3||

cakṣuḥ pratītya rūpaṁ ca samanvāhāram eva ca |

nāma-rūpaṁ pratītyaivaṁ vijñānaṁ saṁpravartate ||4||

saṁnipātas trayāṇāṁ yo rūpa-vijñāna-cakṣuṣām |

sparśaḥ saḥ tasmāt sparśāc ca vedanā saṁpravartate ||5||

vedanā-pratyayā tṛṣṇā vedanārthaṁ hi tṛṣyate |

tṛṣyamāṇa upādānam upādatte catur-vidham ||6||

upādāne sati bhava upādātuḥ pravartate |

syād dhi yady anupādāno mucyeta na bhaved bhavaḥ ||7||

pañca skandhāḥ sa ca bhavaḥ bhavāj jātiḥ pravartate |

jarā-maraṇa-duḥkhādi śokāḥ sa-paridevanāḥ ||8||

daurmanasyam upāyāsā jāter etat pravartate |

kevalasyaivam etasya duḥkha-skandhasya saṁbhavaḥ ||9||

saṁsāra-mūlaṁ saṁskārān avidvān saṁskaroty ataḥ |

avidvān kārakas tasmān na vidvāṁs tattva-darśanāt ||10||

avidyāyāṁ niruddhāyāṁ saṁskārāṇām asaṁbhavaḥ |

avidyāyā nirodhas tu jñānasyāsyaiva bhāvanāt ||11||

tasya tasya nirodhena tat tan nābhipravartate |

duḥkha-skandhaḥ kevalo 'yam evaṁ samyaṅ nirudhyate ||12||

The doings that lead to yet further becoming, the one enclosed in ignorance, in three ways, does do; and by these actions he goes to a sphere of existence. Divided consciousness, with doings as its causal grounds, seeps into the sphere of existence. And so, divided consciousness having seeped in, psycho-physicality is instilled. 

Conversely, once psycho-physicality is instilled, there is the coming about of six senses; six senses having arrived, there occurs contact; and – depending upon an eye, upon physical form, and upon the two being brought together – depending thus upon psycho-physicality, there occurs divided consciousness.

Combination of the threesome of physical form, consciousness and eye, is contact; and from that contact there occurs feeling. With feeling as its causal grounds, there is thirsting – because the object of feeling is thirsted after. While thirsting is going on, taking hold takes hold in the four ways. While there is taking hold, the becoming arises of the taker – because becoming, if it were free of taking, would be liberated and would not become becoming. The five aggregates, again, are becoming itself. Out of the becoming arises birth. The suffering and suchlike of aging and death; sorrows accompanied by lamentations; dejectedness, troubles: all this arises out of birth. In this way this whole aggregate of suffering comes into being.

The doings which are the root of saṁsāra thus does the ignorant one do. The ignorant one therefore is the doer; the wise one is not, because of realizing reality. In the destruction of ignorance, there is the non-coming-into-being of doings. The destruction of ignorance, however, is because of the bringing-into-being of just this knowing. By the destruction of this one and that one, this one and that one no longer advance. This whole aggregate of suffering in this way is well and truly destroyed.

The ignorant one is the doer. The wise one is not because of reality/realizing. Here is the fundamental teaching of Fukan-zazengi, and here is the fundamental point of Zazen itself -- the practice and experience of not being the doer.