Established Base - 04 : Not Everything "Material" is Physical
How Buddhist Abhidharma Classifies Form, Sound, Taste, and Beyond
Readers who have followed this series up to this point are truly commendable. You can already be said to have entered the gateway to the correct understanding of the Dharma and to have taken the very first step.
The entire discipline of Collected Topics of Epistemology (a pramāṇa-based analytical study) exists to provide us with tools for interpreting the scriptures and for penetrating the subtler layers of thought and analysis.
What truly distinguishes whether one possesses the capacity for genuine practice lies in whether one can engage in deep, precise, and accurate critical independent thinking. There has never been a single practitioner of the Dharma who lacked this capacity and yet “miraculously” attained liberation. From a logical standpoint, such a notion is simply untenable.
Therefore, I encourage everyone to continue practicing diligently and advancing with sustained effort.
དངོས་པོ་སོགས་ལ་དབྱེ་ན།
The classification of entity and so on:
གཟུགས། ཤེས་པ། ལྡན་མིན་འདུ་བྱེད་དང་གསུམ།
There are three: form, consciousness, non-associated formation.
Entities can be classified into three categories: form, consciousness, and non-associated formations. Any dharma that is equivalent to “entity” falls within one of these three.
གཟུགས་སུ་རུང་བ། གཟུགས་ཀྱི་མཚན་ཉིད།
Being suitable to be form, is the definition of form.
“Being suitable to be form” is the definition of form. The Tibetan expression rendered as “suitable to be” means “admissible as” or “capable of being.” Thus, “suitable to be form” means “that which can legitimately be established as form.”
The fundamental characteristic of form is obstructive contact. Obstructive contact refers to the capacity for interaction—namely, the ability to affect or alter the state of another. This interaction is not limited to direct physical contact. For example, two magnets of the same polarity repel each other even without touching; this repulsive force is a form of obstructive contact.
From the perspective of modern physics, matter and fields possess the capacity to interact. Anything that has this characteristic of obstructive contact can be established as form; anything that lacks it cannot be classified as form.
One might object that the definition “suitable to be form” is circular, since it contains the term “form,” which is itself a definiendum. Normally, to understand a definiendum, one must first understand its definition. Yet here, to understand the definition, one seems already required to understand the definiendum “form.”
This objection is commonly answered in two ways:
1. In the expression “suitable to be form,” the term “form” is not used as a definiendum but as an expression of content or meaning. When a sentence defines a certain content and happens to use the same word as the label for that content, no contradiction arises.
2. A definition often contains multiple key components. Some components serve to eliminate mistaken conceptions and must be understood first; others serve merely to exclude overextension and do not require prior understanding. When a definition includes the “definiendum” itself, it belongs to the latter category and is included only to prevent overextension, not because prior understanding of the definiendum is required.
དབྱེ་ན། གཟུགས་ཀྱི་སྐྱེ་མཆེད། སྒྲའི་སྐྱེ་མཆེད། དྲིའི་སྐྱེ་མཆེད། རོའི་སྐྱེ་མཆེད། རེག་བྱའི་སྐྱེ་མཆེད། ཆོས་ཀྱི་སྐྱེ་མཆེད་པའི་གཟུགས་དང་དྲུག
Classified as six: form-base, sound-base, scent-base, taste-base, texture-base, form included in the dharma-base.
The term “base”carries two implications: generation and augmentation. A base is that which gives rise to and enhances cognitions that take it as their object.
For example, when form-base is present, eye-consciousness arises in its first moment. Continued reliance on form-base allows this consciousness to persist across multiple moments. The accumulation of moments strengthens the cognition, allowing it to progress from a vague appearance to genuine ascertainment of the object. From this, further virtuous, non-virtuous, or neutral cognitions may also arise.
In this classification, the first five bases are directly apprehended by the five sense consciousnesses (eye, ear, nose, tongue, and body). Form included in the dharma-base is apprehended exclusively by mental consciousness.
མིག་ཤེས་ཀྱི་གཟུང་བྱ། རྣ་ཤེས་ཀྱི་མཉན་བྱ། སྣ་ཤེས་ཀྱི་སྣུམ་བྱ། ལྕེ་ཤེས་ཀྱི་མྱོང་བྱ། ལུས་ཤེས་ཀྱི་རེག་བྱ། ཡིད་ཤེས་ཁོ་ན་ལ་སྣང་བའི་གཟུགས་སུ་རུང་བ། ཞེས་གོ་རིམ་བཞིན་དུ་མཚན་ཉིད་སྦྱར་རོ།།
Their definitions: object apprehended by an eye-consciousness, object heard by an ear-consciousness, object experienced by a nose-consciousness, object experienced by a tongue-consciousness, object felt by a body-consciousness, that which is suitable to be form only appearing to mental consciousness, respectively.
“Apprehended object by eye-consciousness” refers specifically to the object uniquely and exclusively accessible to eye-consciousness—namely, form-base itself. This should not be confused with the grasped object of eye-consciousness in a broader sense. The grasped object includes whatever appears to eye-consciousness, such as impermanence or conditioned status, which are non-associated formations. Eye-consciousness cannot directly apprehend non-associated formations; therefore, such aspects belong to its object but not to what it directly apprehends. The same principle applies to the other sense consciousnesses.
“That which is suitable to be form only appearing to mental consciousness” defines form included in the dharma-base (FIDB). Although it is not accessible to the five sense consciousnesses, it is still classified as form.
According to the Sautrāntika position, FIDB includes five types:
1. Extremely subtle form
Coarse forms are analytically divided down to their finest particles, beyond the reach of sense consciousness but accessible to mental consciousness, comparable to atomic or molecular levels.
2. Extremely distant form
Forms located at such great distances that they cannot be directly apprehended by sense consciousness, but can be apprehended by mental consciousness, such as celestial bodies light-years away.
3. Form induced by acceptance
This refers to disciplinary forms, including moral restraint, immoral restraint, and neutral vows. These arise from the act of taking vows, lack obstructive contact, and are classified as unmanifest form.
4. Imputedly arisen form
Images appearing in visualization or dreams. The image itself exists, but the corresponding external object does not. For example, a dreamed elephant does not exist externally, but the image of the elephant does exist. This image is classified as imputedly arisen form because it is constructed by conceptualizer prior to its appearance.
5. Form produced through meditative mastery
Forms that arise through the autonomous power of meditative concentration. Because meditative absorption renders the mind highly pliable and capable, such forms can manifest directly.
དབྱེ་ན་མཛོད་ལས། གཟུགས་རྣམ་གཉིས་དང་རྣམ་ཉི་ཤུ།། སྒྲ་ནི་རྣམ་པ་བརྒྱད་ཡོད་དེ།། རོ་ནི་རྣམ་དྲུག་དྲི་རྣམ་བཞི།། རེག་བྱ་བཅུ་གཅིག་བདག་ཉིད་དོ།། ཞེས་གསུངས་པ་ལྟར་ཡོད་དོ།།
These are classified as per “Kosha Treatise”: “Form has twenty two kinds. Sound is of eight types alone. Taste has six, smell has four kinds. Touch is of eleven natures.”
The Abhidharmakośa provides a more detailed classification of form. Although it is a text of the Vaibhāṣika school, it is frequently cited in Collected Topics of Epistemology literature for comparative purposes.
The statement “form is two or twenty” refers specifically to form-base, not to form in general. Form-base may be classified either into two types—color and shape—or into twenty types, based on a more detailed analysis involving primary and derivative forms.
“Sound is of eight types alone”
Sound-base is classified through three binary layers, resulting in eight types:
1. Produced by appropriated great elements / not produced by appropriated great elements
Sounds produced by sentient-continuum–appropriated matter, such as vocal sounds, versus sounds produced by non-sentient matter, such as drums or bells.
2. Communicative / non-communicative
Sounds that convey meaning versus sounds that do not.
3. Pleasant / unpleasant
Sounds that give rise to pleasant experiences versus unpleasant experiences.
“Taste has six, smell has four kinds”
• Six tastes: sweet, sour, salty, pungent (spicy), bitter, and astringent
• Four scents: pleasant, unpleasant, neutral (mild), and intense
“Touch is of eleven natures”
Texture-base consists of eleven types, divided into causes and results:
• Causal textures (four): earth, water, fire, and wind (the four producing great elements)
• Resultant textures (seven): smoothness, roughness, heaviness, lightness, cold, hunger, and thirst
Produced forms are not limited to texture-base alone; they also exist within form-base and sound-base. However, producing forms exist only within the texture-base. Cold, hunger, and thirst are established based on the object itself—namely, internal material conditions that give rise to such sensations—rather than on feeling alone.
This article primarily introduces the classification of form (rūpa). Some of these forms can be directly observed in our everyday experience, while others cannot.
From a modern perspective, physics can be regarded as the specialized discipline devoted to the study of form. As for how physics may be integrated with Buddhist explanations of form—and even of the interaction between form and mind—I will attempt to explore this topic with you in a separate, dedicated article.
The previous post in this series:
How should I give an example of ‘ Form produced through meditative mastery’ ?
It’s really hard for me to understand.
Today, I learned the following from the text:
The bottle (form base), the color of the bottle (form base), the impermanence of the
bottle (non-associated compositional factor), and the conditioned nature of the
bottle (non-associated compositional factor) are all objects apprehended by the eye
consciousness apprehending the bottle. Among them, the bottle, the color of the
bottle, and so forth can be both apprehended and directly perceived by the eye
consciousness. However, the impermanence of the bottle and the conditioned
nature of the bottle, being non-associated compositional factors, cannot be directly
perceived by the eye consciousness—they can only be apprehended. The eye
consciousness can only directly perceive the form base.