Objects and Doors - Objects of the mind-door I
They are :
1. The five sense-organs (pasāda-rūpas)
2. The sixteen subtle rūpas (sukhuma-rūpas)
3. Citta
4. Cetasika
5. Nibbāna
6. Conventional terms or concepts (paññatti)
The first class of dhammārammana comprises the five sense-organs (pasāda-
rūpas) ; they are the rūpas which have the capacity to receive sense-
impressions. The pasāda-rūpas do not experience anything, they are rūpa,
not nāma ; they can be the doors through which cittas experience objects.
The pasāda-rūpas cannot be known through the sense-doors; they can only
be known through the mind-door. For example, we cannot experience eye-
sense through the eyes ; we know that there is eye-sense, because there is
seeing.
As regards the 'subtle rūpas' (sukhuma-rūpas), there are sixteen kinds
of subtle rūpa. Altogether there are twenty-eight kind of rūpa of which
twelve are classified as 'gross' (olarika) and sixteen as subtle (sukhuma). .
The gross rūpas include the seven objects which can be directly experienced
through the five sense-doors : four rūpas though the four sense-doors of
eyes, ears, nose and tongue respectively, and the three rūpas of solidity,
temperature and motion through the body-door. Furthermore there are the
gross rūpas which are the five senses (pasāda-rūpas), the rūpas which can be
the doors through which these objects are experienced. The five pasāda-
rūpas are classified as the first class of dhammārammana.
The sixteen kinds of subtle rūpa can be experienced only through the
mind-door. Among them are, for example, 'nutritive essence' (ojā), vaci
-viññatti, the rūpa which is the physical condition for speech, and kāya-
viññatti, the rūpa which is the physical condition for expression through
gestures (bodily expression).
It depends on the accumulated paññā whether the true nature of subtle rūpas
can be experienced or not. When one thinks about one of the subtle rūpas
it does not mean that there is paññā which directly experiences its
characteristic, as only a kind of rūpa, not self.