50. The Six Sense Spheres
By Luang Pu Thate Desaraṅsī
March 17, 1988
Today I will give a Dhamma talk on the "Sense Spheres" (āyatana). The sense spheres are also an old topic. There are six of them: forms, sounds, smells, tastes, tactile objects, and mental phenomena (dhammārammaṇa). They have existed for a very long time—even before the Buddha was born, they were already there. After the Buddha attained enlightenment, they were still there. After the Buddha passed away into final Nibbāna, right up to the present day, we still have to deal with them. We must have form, name, and the six sense spheres. That is why it is said to be an old topic—one that we never seem to finish with, never exhaust. That is, when we contemplate this old thing, if we truly understand these things, then there is an end, a completion.
Someone once asked the Buddha, "Is this world so vast that it has no end?" The Buddha replied that it does have an end. The end is: a cubit wide, a fathom long, a span thick. That is the end right here. He knew and understood it, so there is an end. What He called the end is the end of thinking and conceiving, the end of following after things. The whole world is vast because of the "Six Sense Spheres." When condensed, they are contained within the "Six Elements." And ultimately, they all come down to a single thing: "knowing."
Take the eye: just go on seeing, see as much as you like—there is no end, no finish. There is delight and satisfaction, or dissatisfaction and displeasure. You live with those two things. You don't escape from them. The reason there is no end is that the mind projects itself outward onto forms. The more it projects outward, the more there is no end. The mind sends itself out after the external sense spheres, so it cannot find an end. That is why they say the world is vast. The same with sounds: they have no self, no substance. No matter how much you listen, there is no end. Sounds have no place to be stored. After you hear them, they disappear—you don't know where they've been kept. So this too never ends.
But when you come to understand these things—"Oh! Sounds have no end like this"—then who is it that hears? When you know the one who hears, you can determine and truly understand that the hearer is the one projecting outward through the sense spheres. That hearer is simply the single mind. It grasps at conventions and designations: "pleasant sound, good sound, satisfying or unsatisfying sound." All of this arises from that single mind. Once you know this, it all converges. You know how to end it, how to finish it. The same applies to smells, tastes, tactile objects, and mental phenomena. The mind projects itself onto these things. Thoughts and imaginings are called the mind's objects. Forms, sounds, smells, tastes, tactile objects, mental phenomena—in summary, they all come down to objects of the mind. They arise from the mind. If you truly understand them, you can catch the one who goes out—that is the mind—the one that projects through the sense spheres and contacts. Then the whole matter is finished. The Buddha said that the end of the world is just this single mind. When the mind projects through the sense spheres, there is no end at all. But if you gather it in and catch the mind itself, then there is an end.
When the Buddha said, "The end is a cubit wide, a fathom long, a span thick," He was referring to the physical body. That is, it is within this body. In truth, it is the mind itself. It expands outward because of the citta (mind as active consciousness). It converges because of the heart (the essential knowing nature). The end is the heart. That which has no end is the citta. I have explained before that whatever practice you do, you do it in order to converge. If you converge, then it is in line with the Buddha's teaching. If you expand outward, it is not correct. We human beings are born encountering these sense spheres. We scatter outward through them, vast and without end. The Buddha investigated to find the end. He discovered that it ends with this single heart.
Thus, it is said that the Dhamma has an end. This world has no end. The Buddha's teaching leads to the end. It leads down to the single heart. We practice in order to see the heart. Everything arises at the heart. All kinds of visions, forms, sounds, smells, tastes, tactile objects—they are all at the heart. The heart is neutrality. It is neutral toward all things. No merit, no demerit. No good, no evil. No past, no future. It comes down to the present—that is called the heart. It is the neutral thing. We can make it neutral at all times. The Dhamma will prosper precisely because we attain that neutrality.
Catch hold of that neutral one. Make it understand the neutral one. If anger or aversion arises, or love or hatred toward any person, set love aside as one thing, hatred as another, anger as another, non-anger and non-hatred as another. See the neutral one placed right in the middle—then the whole matter is finished. You can try it out. Sickness, discomfort, or well-being and comfort—take both of them, set them aside, then make the mind stay right in the middle and see. It will become calm right away. But it may not become completely calm, or the calm may not last, because we haven't truly investigated the causes and conditions. If we investigate cause and effect, past and future first, then we understand reality. That is what allows us to remain neutral. Then it may last a long time. Well, that's enough.