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āyatana

A Dictionary of Buddhism | 2004 | 682 words | Copyright

āyatana (Skt.). In Buddhist psychology, the twelve āyatanas are the six senses or modes of perception and the six kinds of object they correspond to, namely: (1) sight and colour/form (rūpa-āyatana); (2) hearing and sound (śabda-āyatana); (3) smell and scent (gandha-āyatana); (4) taste and flavours (rasa-āyatana); (5) touch and tangible objects (sparśa-āyatana); and (6) the mind and ideas (mano-āyatana). Each āyatana is thus the sphere or domain of a particular sense, and encompasses everything that can be experienced through that particular ‘sense-door’. See also ṣad-āyatana.

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