The Vipassana Retreat

　　12. The Six Sense-spheres

　　The teaching of the sense-spheres is to be found in the Contemplation of Mind (dhammanupassana) in the text we are following: the Satipatthana Sutta, which by now is familiar to you as the Four Establishments of Mindfulness.

　　After each section in the text in the Satipathana Sutta, you will find this passage: "In this way he abides contemplating the body as a body (or feelings, mind states and mental phenomena) internally, externally, and both internally and externally". What does this mean

　　 It means that the focus of one”s attention changes from the subjective (internal) to the objective (external) and by "both" is meant the understanding of the interrelationship or interdependence.

　　The focus of the practice so far has been mainly introspective; now the watchfulness or attentiveness can be expanded to include the external as well. That is, the attention is switched from the subjective to the objective. This is done by orientating to the sense-spheres, which are about the relationship between oneself and the outer world. Practising both internal and external satipatthanas can prevent self-absorption, and achieve a skilled balanced between introversion and extroversion.

　　The importance of contemplation of the sense-spheres is that it directs awareness to the six “internal” and “external” sense-spheres and the fetters (samyojana) arising in dependence on them. Although a fetter arises dependent on sense and object, the attaching nature of such a fetter should not be attributed to the senses or objects themselves, but to the influence of the hankering pull of desire (tanha).

　　The fetters have to be taken into consideration in the practice, as a fetter is a shackle or something that causes bondage. There are ten types of fetters that need to be discarded, which are belief in a substantial and permanent self, doubt, dogmatic clinging to particular rules and rituals, sensual desire, aversion to, and craving for, immaterial existence, conceit, restlessness, and ignorance.

　　All our experience is limited to the senses and their objects, with the mind counted as the sixth. The five outer senses collect data only in the present but mind, the sixth, where this information is collected and processed, adds memories from the past and hopes and fears for the future as well as thoughts of various kinds relating to the present. Beyond these six bases of sense and their corresponding six objective bases, we know nothing.

　　Each of these sense-spheres includes both the sense organ and the sense object. Besides the five physical senses (eye, ear, nose, tongue and body) and their respective objects (sight, sound, smell, taste and touch), the mind is included as the sixth sense. Mind represents mainly the activity of thoughts, such as reasoning, memory, and reflection. Thus all perceptual processes rely to some extent on the interpretive processes of the mind, since it “makes sense” out of the other spheres.

　　Here are the instructions for this practice from the text: “He knows the eye, he knows forms, and he knows the fetter that arise dependent on both, and he also knows how an unarisen fetter can arise, how an arisen fetter can be removed, and how a future arising fetter can be prevented.

　　He knows the ear, he knows sounds, He knows the fetter that arises dependent on both, and . . . He know the nose, he knows the odours, and he knows the fetter that arises dependent on them both, and . . . He knows the tongue, he knows flavours, and he knows the fetter that arises dependent on them both, and . . . He knows the body, he knows the tangibles, and he knows the fetter that arises dependent on them both, and . . . He knows the mind, he knows mind-objects, and he knows the fetter that arises dependent on t…

《The Vipassana Retreat: 12· The Six Sense-spheres》全文未完，請進入下頁繼續閱讀…