Twenty-two faculties

Twenty-two classifications of faculties are identifiied within the Sanskrit Abhidharma tradition. According to this tradition, all other types of faculties (Skt. indriya) are subsumed within these twenty-two.

1-6) The six sense faculties

Further information: Six sense faculties

There are five facutlies that process information from the physical sense organs:

• eye faculty (cakṣurindriya) - the capacity to process visual information
• ear faculty (śrotrendriya) - the capacity to process sounds
• nose faculty (ghrāṇendriya) - the capacity to process smells
• tongue faculty (jihvendriya) - the capacity to process tastes
• body faculty (kāyendriya) - the capacity to process touch

And one faculty that processes mental objects:

• mind faculty (manendriya)

These six faculties control the apprehending of their individual objects (the six sense objects).

7) Life faculty

The life faculty (Skt. jīvitendriya) is the continuation of type of being from one moment to the next, until death. It controls the remaining in a class of sentient beings.

8-9) The male and female faculties

The

• male sexual faculty (Skt. puruṣendriya) and
• female sexual faculty (Skt. strīndriya)

form the respective physical supports for being male or female, are the basis for sexual pleasure, and control the unbroken continuity of births from a womb.

10-14) The five faculties of sensations

Further information: Five faculties of sensations

The five faculties of sensations control the experience of the ripening of previously accumulated karma. They are:

• The faculty of pleasure (Skt. sukhendriyam; Tib. བདེ་བའི་དབང་པོ་, Wyl. bde ba’i dbang po)
• The faculty of suffering (Skt. duḥkhendriyam; Tib. སྡུག་བསྔལ་གྱི་དབང་པོ་, Wyl. sdug bsngal gyi dbang po)
• The faculty of mental ease (Skt. saumanasyendriyam; Tib. ཡིད་བདེ་བའི་དབང་པོ་, Wyl. yid bde ba’i dbang po)
• The faculty of mental discomfort (Skt. daurmanasyendriyam; Tib. ཡིད་མི་བདེ་བའི་དབང་པོ་, Wyl. yid mi bde ba’i dbang po)
• The faculty of indifference or neutrality (Skt. upekṣendriyam; Tib. བཏང་སྙོམས་ཀྱི་དབང་པོ་, Wyl. btang snyoms kyi dbang po).

15-19) The five faculties that control mundane virtues

These faculties control the mundane virtues (or purity) of ordinary beings (pṛthagjana). For example, these faculties enable an ordinary being to accumulate positive karma for a higher rebirth. They are:

• The faculty of śraddhā (faith) (Skt. śraddhendriyam; Tib. དད་པའི་དབང་པོ་, Wyl. dad pa’i dbang po)
• The faculty of vīrya (diligence) (Skt. vīryendriyam; Tib. བརྩོན་འགྲུས་ཀྱི་དབང་པོ་, Wyl. brtson ‘grus kyi dbang po)
• The faculty of smṛti (mindfulness) (Skt. smṛtīndriyam, Tib. དྲན་པའི་དབང་པོ་, Wyl. dran pa’i dbang po)
• The faculty of samādhi (concentration) (Skt. samādhīndriyam; Tib. ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན་གྱི་དབང་པོ་, Wyl. ting nge ‘dzin gyi dbang po)
• The faculty of prajñā (wisdom) (Skt. prajñendriyam; Tib. ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་དབང་པོ་, Wyl. shes rab kyi dbang po)

These are also known as the five spiritual faculties.

20-22) The three pure faculties that control supramundane virtues

The three pure faculties that control supramundane virtues of a "noble person" (arya pudgala), are:

• the faculty of 'making all understood' (Skt. anājñātamājñāsyāmīndriya; Tib. ཀུན་ཤེས་པར་བྱེད་པའི་དབང་པོ་, Wyl. kun shes par byed pa’i dbang po)
• the faculty of 'understanding all' (Skt. ajñendriya; Tib. ཀུན་ཤེས་པའི་དབང་པོ་, Wyl. kun shes pa’i dbang po)
• the faculty of 'having understood all' (Skt. ajñātāvindriya; Tib. ཀུན་ཤེས་པ་དང་ལྡན་པའི་དབང་པོ་, Wyl. kun shes pa dang ldan pa’i dbang po)

These three are correlated to nine of the previous faculties (faith, diligence, mindfulness, samādhi, wisdom, pleasure, suffering, mental ease and mental discomfort), of respectively, someone on the paths of seeing, meditation, and no-more-learning.

Other Divisions

• The first five sense faculties (1-5) and the male and female faculties (8-9) are form faculties.
• Mental faculty is main mind.
• The five faculties of sensations (10-14) and the five faculties that control mundane virtues (15-19) are mental states.
• Life faculty (7) is a formation that belongs neither to mind nor form.
• The three pure faculties that control supramundane virtues (20-22) belong to mind and mental states.

See also

• Ten topics of knowledge
• Twelve ayatanas

Sources

• Mipham Rinpoche (2004), Gateway to Knowledge, vol. I, translated by Kunsang, Erik Pema, Rangjung Yeshe Publications 
• Faculties, Rigpa Shedra Wiki

Further reading

• Chim Jampaiyang (2019), Jinpa, Thupten, ed., Ornament of Abhidharma: A Commentary on Vasubandhu's Abhidharmakosa, translated by Coghlan, Ian James (Apple Books ed.), Library of Tibetan Classics 
• Dharmachakra Translation Committee (2007), Middle Beyond Extremes: Maitreya's Madhyantavibhaga with Commentaries by Khenpo Shenga and Ju Mipham, Snow Lion Publications