Bāla- Pandita Sutra: The Fool & the Wise Person

While dwelling at Savatthi the Blessed One preached, 

"When a fool is obstructed by ignorance and conjoined with craving, this body thus results. Now there is both this body and external name-&-form. Here, in dependence on this duality, there is contact at the six senses. Touched by these, or one or another of them, the fool is sensitive to pleasure & pain.”
"When a wise person is obstructed by ignorance and conjoined with craving, this body thus results. Now there is both this body and external name-&-form. Here, in dependence on this duality, there is contact at the six senses. Touched by these, or one or another of them, the wise person is sensitive to pleasure & pain.”

This is a profound teaching by the Buddha. The body he referred to here is not the body which is known as a sense faculty, it’s the corporeal which consists of all sense bases or the body where consciousness arise through the eye, the ear, the nose, the tongue, the body and the mind. This body is a result of being obstructed by ignorance and conjoined with craving. Further, we consider name-form as external since all our sense impressions and conventions are linked to the external (experienced externally). As long as the mind is free from all external inputs it is bright and radiant. The Buddha has explained this in another sutra in Anguttara Nikaaya, 'Monks, this mind is radiant, it is polluted with foreign defilements. Only the Enlightened have a mind that is free of impurities.' The mind is polluted with external name-matter.'

Why is it said that six sense faculties arise when internal body (where consciousness arise) and external name-matter conjoin as pairs? The six sense faculties arise when sense bases, eye - visible form, ear-sound, nose odour, tongue-taste, body-tactile sensation and mind – mental objects, conjoin as pairs.

The eye, the ear, the nose, the tongue, the body and the mind become sense faculties only when each of them pair with visible form, sound, odour, taste, tactile and mental objects respectively. The eye is never a sense faculty unless when it impinges a visible object, similarly an ear isn’t without sound, nose isn’t without an odour, tongue isn’t without a taste, body isn’t without a tactile sensation and mind isn’t without a mental object.

The presence of consciousness is vital for a sense faculty to arise. Tathagatha identified the consciousness as an illusion, as an act by a professional illusionist who performs in the middle of a road intersection. An illusion performed in the middle of an intersection must be done with greater care and skill as it can be viewed from all sides, unlike a one that is performed on stage. Consciousness is responsible for creating the duality, the eye and the visible object, as two opposite ends. Not knowing the truth, it creates the notion that there is an object and an eye that sees the object. When all three, eye, object and eye consciousness come together, it results in sensation, perception and formation. Furthermore this deceptive consciousness arises again to make one to believe that sensations, perceptions and formations that arise in this manner are real (The role of consciousness is elaborated in Sutras such as Rahulovada (S.N), Maha Hatthipadopama(M.N) , Maha Wedalla (M.N).   

As discussed, while it creates the duality of an eye that exists and an external object that can be seen, this illusory consciousness enables knowing the visible form in detail. Such is its deceptive nature and one cannot recognise it until he develops the eye of wisdom. The person needs an exceptional state of wisdom to comprehend the nature of impermanence that is expressed here. It works in the same way with regard to all six senses.

Only when the six sense bases arise that one feels pleasure and pain and that’s when the world is created. One needs to examine this teaching over and over again to understand its profound content. 

Excerpt from 'Sathyaye Arunodaya' - Ven Alawwe Anomadassi Thero.