ever, claim that the real referent for this idea is a con-
stellation of phenomenal, transient entities that can be
summarized under five headings or “sets” (skandha).
Strictly speaking, these sets are “aggregates” of related
phenomena held together inthe idea of a single self by
our own persistent grasping (upadana). The five—
matter, sensation, conceptions/perceptions, habitual
tendencies, and awareness—include body (matter,
sensations, habitual tendencies) and mind (sensation,
conception, habitual tendencies, and awareness). The
mental components can also be analyzed in terms of a
sensorium that includes a mental sense sphere and or-
gan (manas), resulting in a hierarchical system of six
senses (ayatana), with mind as gatekeeper. The system
is further analyzed into twelve sensory elements, each
sense faculty being paired with an organ and an object
(the object being internal for the mind sense). These
twelve are called dhatu(perhaps “domain” or “basis”).
The system of the twelve sense dhatusmaintains the
close connection between body and mind already
noted (organ and input, in fact, appear to be placed
on a similar ontological plane). The connections are
further developed by proposing three faculties and
processes of awareness (vijñana) for each domain
(dhatu). This additional layer of analysis emphasizes
the privileged status of the mind, insofar as mental
awareness (consciousness proper) occupies a higher
position in the hierarchy, serving as the center for both
sensory and mental processes.
Early speculations about the constitution of the self
used these analytic categories to explain how a human
person (sattva) could be constituted, in the absence of
a simple, autonomous, and unitary self (atman). In
psychological terms, this may seem to undermine our
experience of being an autonomous agent capable of
its own perceptions, ideas, sensation, and feelings, with
the capacity to choose the path to liberation. But the
tradition insists that intentionality, moral responsibil-
ity, and personal continuity can be explained by using
the above building blocks.
Attempts to explain the natural illusion of the ele-
mental reality of self and will led to the creation of the-
ories of mind. Such theories developed as speculation
entered the more systematic stage of the ABHIDHARMA
and as the Buddhist philosophical schools engaged
other Indian philosophical systems in a centuries-long
polemical dialogue. In the abhidharmaliterature the
psychological categories of the sutra literature were or-
ganized according to canonical sets and analytic cate-
gories. Systems of terminological matrices (matrka)
helped organize sets of terms in concepts like the
Dhammasan ̇ganland the Dhatukaya(Taisho1540). In
the latter work, for instance, canonical terms for men-
tal states are reorganized under categories such as uni-
versally present states and states only present when the
mind is confused and afflicted (klista). The universally
present states or processes (sensation, conception, vo-
lition, etc.) are also organized into six groups of six
each (so-called hexads) that correspond to the inner
and outer spheres (ayatana) of sentience: factors of
consciousness, of sense contact, of sensation, of per-
ception, of conception, and of drive (or DESIRE, trsna).In the abhidharma, the apparent unity of the self is
explained by a variety of theories, but the most com-
mon types (which are not necessarily mutually exclu-
sive) are theories of causal continuity and theories of
the location of awareness. The first is epitomized by
the concept of santana—the cause and effect series of
bodily and mental events that constitutes a human life
and personality. The second is illustrated by the con-
cept of adanaor alaya(site, container, holder), ac-
cording to which past experiences leave traces on a
foundation or base of the personality (the a ́rayas ), so
that their proximity and interaction can create the il-
lusion of a single person.Ethics and liberation as theories of mind
Both types of theories share in varying degrees a gen-
eral Buddhist tendency to see intentionality or will
(cetana) as the governing force behind the causal se-
ries, and various levels of the mind as the locus for the
encoding and “storage” of karma and its consequences.
These models generate, and attempt to explain, a va-
riety of problems that can be covered only briefly in
this entry. One may mention, as representative exam-
ples, the doctrine of vasana(traces), the theory of un-
manifest processes (avijñapti), and the problem of
mentation and mental construction (prajñapti).The doctrine of vasana was fundamental to Bud-
dhist “moral psychology” in India, and represented an
attempt to explain both moral habits (propensities)
and the process of karmic traces and consequences.
The interaction between mental states and consequent
suffering was seen as a process whereby intention and
its behavioral manifestations left faint traces (blja,
planted seeds) that constituted a system of habitual and
mostly unconscious drives. The process was summa-
rized in the metaphor of a cloth impregnated by a per-
fume or a dye (the technical sense of the term vasana).
In the same way that the perfume instills some of itsPSYCHOLOGY