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.

梵語 dvāvijśatīndriyāni。指於事特有增上義之二十二種法。即：眼、耳、鼻、舌、身、意等六根，男根、女根、命根，苦、樂、喜、憂、捨等五受根，信、勤、念、定、慧之五善根，未知當知、已知、具知之三無漏根。根為增上之義。眼、耳、鼻、舌、身之五根各於莊嚴身、導養身、生識等，及不共之事等四事能增上，故立為根；男女二根，於諸有情分別男女，及別異形相、言音等有增上之義；命根於眾同分能續、能持，有增上之義；意根能續後有及自在隨行，於此二事有增上之義；五受隨增貪等之隨眠，於染有增上之義；五善根及三無漏根增長諸清淨法，即於淨有增上之義，故立為根。若就二十二根之體而言，男根、女根為身根之一部分，並無別體；三無漏根以意根、三受根（喜、樂、捨）、五善根等九根為體，而無別體，故其體之數實為十七。〔俱舍論卷三、大毘婆沙論卷一四二〕佛光電子大辭典，頁數171。

Internal Links

• Five sense faculties