Faculties 根／二十二根
There are twenty-two faculties (Tib. དབང་པོ་, Skt. indriya) according to Mipham’s Khenjuk:
- 1-6) The six of the eye faculty, ear faculty, nose faculty, tongue faculty, body faculty the mind faculty. These six control the apprehending of their individual objects.
- 7) The life faculty controls the remaining in a similar class [of sentient beings].
- 8-9) The male and female faculties form the respective physical supports [for being male or female] and control the unbroken continuity of births from a womb.
- 10-14) The five faculties of the sensations of pleasure, pain, mental pleasure, mental pain, and of neutral sensation control the experiences of the fully ripened results [of karma].
- 15-19) The five faculties of faith, diligence, recollection, concentration, and discrimination control the mundane virtues or the purity [of detachment].
- 20-22) The faculties of 'making all understood', of 'understanding all,' and of ‘having understood all' consist of faith and so forth in the stream-of-being of, [respectively, someone on the paths of] seeing, cultivation, and no-training. They control the supramundane purities [of noble beings].
Faculties are therefore called controlling faculties.
