The Sense Organs

For the experience of objects through the senses there have to be sense organs and these are rūpas. Visible object and also the rūpa which is eyesense are conditions for seeing. Eyesense does not know anything since it is rū pa, but it is a necessary condition for seeing. Eyesense is a rūpa in the eye, capable of receiving visible object, so that citta can experience it. For hearing, the experience of sound, there has to be earsense, a rūpa in the ear, capable of receiving sound. There must be smellingsense for the experience of odour, tastingsense for the experience of flavour and bodysense for the experience of tangible object. Through the bodysense are experienced: the earth element, appearing as hardness or softness; the fire element, appearing as heat or cold; the wind element, appearing as motion or pressure. When these characteristics appear they can be directly experienced wherever there is bodysense. The bodysense is all over the body, also inside the body. Thus, there are five kinds of sense organs. These sense organs can be the doorways for the cittas that experience sense objects. As we have seen, visible object, sound, odour, flavour and tangible object (which consists of three of the four Great Elements) are experienced through the corresponding sense-doors and they can also be experienced through the mind-door. Rūpas of the body and also rūpas outside the body do not arise without there being conditions for their arising. There are four factors that produce rūpas of the body: kamma, citta, temperature (the element of heat) and nutrition. As we have seen, kamma is actually the volition that motivates good and evil deeds. Kamma that has been committed has fallen away, but since it is a mental activity it is accumulated and can produce result later on. Throughout our life kamma produces seeing, hearing and the other sense-impressions that are vipākacittas, cittas that are results. Rebirth-consciousness is the mental result of kamma, vipākacitta, but at that moment kamma also produces rūpas and kamma keeps on producing rūpas throughout life; when it stops producing rūpas our life-span has to end. Kamma produces particular kinds of rūpas such as the sense organs. Citta also produces rūpas. Our different moods become evident by our facial expressions and then it is clear that citta produces rū pas. Temperature, which is actually the element of heat, also produces rūpas. Throughout life the element of heat produces rūpas. Nutrition is another factor that produces rūpas. When food has been taken by a living being it is assimilated into the body and then nutrition can produce rūpas. Some of the groups of rūpas of our body are produced by kamma, some by citta, some by temperature and some by nutrition. The four factors which produce the rūpas of our body support and consolidate each other and keep this shortlived body going. If we see the intricate way in which different factors condition the rūpas of our body we shall be less inclined to think that the body belongs to a self. There are not only rūpas of the body, there are also rūpas which are the material phenomena outside the body. What we take for rocks, plants or houses are rūpas and these originate from temperature. We may wonder whether there are no other factors apart from the element of heat that contribute to the growth of plants, such as soil, light and moisture. It is true that these factors are the right conditions that have to be present so that a plant can grow. But what we call soil, light and moisture are, when we are more precise, different combinations of rūpas, none of which can arise without the element of heat or temperature that produces them. Rūpas outside the body are only produced by temperature, not by kamma, citta or nutrition.