Five senses or six senses? --ED
"Ayatana is a Buddhist term that has been translated as "sense base,"
"sense-media," or "sense sphere." In Buddhism, there are six internal
sense bases (also known as, "organs", "gates", "doors", "powers" or
"roots") and six external sense bases (or "sense objects"; also known as
"domains").
Thus, there are six internal-external (organ-object) pairs of sense
bases:
* eye and visible objects
* ear and sound
* nose and odor
* tongue and taste
* body and touch
* mind and mental objects
Buddhism, as well as other Indian epistemologies, identifies six
"senses" as opposed to the Western identification of five.
In Buddhism, "mind" denotes an internal sense organ which interacts with
sense objects that include sense impressions, feelings, perceptions and
volition.
Salayatana refers to all six sense objects and six sense organs and is
generally used in the context of the Twelve Causes of the chain of
Dependent Origination."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayatana
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayatana>
