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Ellis - Āyatana, the Buddha's forgotten teaching

Article · March 2021

DOI: 10.20935/AL749.

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 ACADEMIA Letters
Āyatana, the Buddha’s forgotten teaching
Gabriel Ellis

Early Buddhism coined several spiritual concepts, with some having gained wider popularity,
like the Four Noble Truths and Dependent Origination. In this article I want to examine the
concept of āyatana which is of central importance to the understanding of early Buddhism,
but has so far not received proper scholarly attention. Moreover, it is not only of academic
interest but affects our understanding of meditation practice and Buddhist psychology.
In the Buddhist Pāli suttas āyatana is usually translated as ‘base’ [1, 2, 3, 4, 5], ‘sphere’ [6,
7], or ‘sense field’ [8]. I argue that these are inadequate translations because they are based on
later Buddhist traditions and commentarial literature and not on an historical understanding
of the term.
Āyatana has a rich pre-Buddhist history in Vedic literature, most thoroughly investigated
by Jan Gonda [9]. Gonda (ibid., p. 178) reviews different etymologies of the Sanskrit āyatana
and favors Oldenberg’s solution of defining Skt. yatati as ‘to set oneself up’, and for yatate as
‘to allocate the right place to somebody’. He concludes regarding āyatana that “the term is
used for a regular place, position, etc. occupied by a person” (1975, p. 184). Examples range
from a concrete ‘homestead’, and ‘home’ to more metaphorical connotations like ‘refuge’,
‘resort’, and ‘substratum’, thus covering both literal and metaphorical meanings of a ‘regular
place’.
While āyatana is not to be found in the Ṛgveda, and rarely in the Atharvaveda, there is
extensive use of it in the Yajurveda, pre-Buddhist Brahmanas like the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa
(ŚB), and pre-Buddhist Upaniṣads like the Chāndogya (CU) and the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad
(BU) [10, p. 12-13; 11].
In the Yajurveda recension of the Kāṭhaka-Saṃhitā 23.9 āyatana denotes a ‘home’, in
Aitareya Upaniṣad 1.2.1 a ‘house’ or ‘dwelling-place’, similarly in CU 7.24.2. More metaphor-
ically, in the Yajurveda recension of the Taittirīya-Saṃhitā 1.7.5.3 and 7.1.5.2 it means ‘resort’

Academia Letters, March 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Gabriel Ellis, gabriel.ellis2@gmail.com

Citation: Ellis, G. (2021). Āyatana, the Buddha’s forgotten teaching. Academia Letters, Article 749.
https://doi.org/10.20935/AL749.

1
or ‘support’ (see Gonda 1975, p. 234). Similarly, in (ŚB) 2.5.1.12 it signifies a ‘foundation’.
Likewise, in ŚB 6.2.1.14 and ŚB 11.8.1.3 āyatana refers to a ritual-religious ‘home’ (see also
Gonda 1975, p.191 and p. 235). And in CU 6.8.2 and 6.8.6-7 it means a resting place for the
mind, repeated also in other passages where the mind (manas) is an āyatana in the sense of
‘refuge’ (in CU 5.1.5, CU 5.1.13-14, BU 6.1.5, BU 6.1.14, and BU 6.3.2).
In conclusion, the pre-Buddhist Vedic uses of āyatana clearly signify a concept of ‘home
place’, be it concretely or metaphorically in a mental or religious-ritual sense. More generally,
it is ‘the place in which experience happens’. Hence I will refer to the pre-Buddhist āyatana
as ‘center of experience’. With this in mind I turn to the Buddhist suttas, suggesting that
also there āyatana as ‘center of experience’ is more adequate than the overly general and
misleading translation as ‘base’ or ‘sphere’.
The single most prominent context in which āyatana appears in the suttas is as a compound
in the ‘six āyatanas of sensual experience’ (i.e. saḷāyatana or cha phassāyatanā). This context
is so dominant that translators like Bodhi and Walshe translate ‘sense bases’ even if the Pāli
texts only mentions āyatana, and not saḷāyatana (e.g. in Saṃyutta Nikāya (SN) 8.12, SN
22.57, SN 35.31, SN 35.92, Dīgha Nikāya (DN) 33). The term saḷāyatana (derived from ṣaṣ-
for ‘six-’) also appears as the fifth limb in the traditional twelve-link-formula of the Dependent
Origination (paṭiccasamuppāda).
Specifically, saḷāyatana refers to the six internal (ajjhattika) āyatanas, e.g. in SN 12.2:
cakkhāyatana, sotāyatana, ghānāyatana, jivhāyatana, kāyāyatana, manāyatana. Bodhi in-
terprets them anatomically and translates as eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind. I follow,
however, the Vedic translator Olivelle [10, p.22f.] who argues that they have to be understood
as cognitive functions, because the physiological organs are termed differently. Also in Pāli
the anatomical eye is actually akkhi, so that the āyatana cakkhā rather signifies ‘sight’ and
not the ‘eye’. In consequence, I understand the six internal saḷāyatanas as ‘sight’, ‘hearing’,
‘smelling’, ‘tasting’, ‘body-cognition, and ‘mind-cognition’.
Reviewing the sixāyatanas, it does indeed make sense to see them as ‘centers of experi-
ence’ and not just as mere ‘spheres’, since we perceive ourselves fundamentally as sensually
informed beings.
The second most common application of āyatana in the suttas is in the context of med-
itation, namely the four abstract meditative states: dwelling of infinite space (ākāsānañcāy-
atana), dwelling of infinite consciousness (viññāṇañcāyatana), dwelling of nothingness (āk-
iñcaññāyatana), dwelling of neither-cognition-nor-non-cognition (nevasaññānāsaññāyatana).
These meditation dwellings are mentioned very often in the suttas in a repetitive way with lit-
tle variation (e.g. in Aṅguttara Nikāya (AN) 3.166). The more common Buddhist meditation
states are called Jhānas, and it is noteworthy that AN 9.43-45 describe the Jhānas also as

Academia Letters, March 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Gabriel Ellis, gabriel.ellis2@gmail.com

Citation: Ellis, G. (2021). Āyatana, the Buddha’s forgotten teaching. Academia Letters, Article 749.
https://doi.org/10.20935/AL749.

2
āyatanas, which is therefore the broader term. Rarely, even the state of liberated Buddhist
masters is termed āyatana (in Majjhima Nikāya 44 and 137). It is, therefore, reasonable to
suggest that āyatana was broadly applied to the exceptional state of the accomplished medi-
tator and even the liberated master.
In conclusion, my interpretation of āyatana as ‘center of experience’ and ‘mental home’
throws new light on how to interpret Buddhist meditation states. It is commonly believed that
meditation states can be achieved also for very short periods of time. This, however, would
not qualify as a ‘center of experience’ or a ‘mental home’. For such an accomplishment one
would have to ‘build a camp’ in these states, setting them up as veritable centers of experience,
from where our normal states of mind are seen as located in the remote distance. Hence, the
proper achievement in meditation would have to result in a ‘redefinition’, seeing oneself not
primarily as a sensual being, but as a being who is centered in the refined joy of the Jhānas or
the even more refined experiences of infinite space, infinite consciousness, etc. Moreover, I
suggest that the Buddhist perspective of seeing beings located in specific centers of experience
might stimulate psychological concepts which deal with a sustainable change of experience,
specifically in psychotherapy and self-development.

References
1. Ñāṇamoli, B. & Bodhi, B. (Trans.). (1995). The Middle Length Discourses of the
Buddha. A Translation of the Majjhima Nikāya. Boston: Wisdom Publications.

2. Bodhi, B. (Trans.). (2000). The Connected Discourses of the Buddha. A Translation of

the Saṃyutta Nikāya. Boston: Wisdom Publications.

3. Bodhi, B. (Trans.). (2012). The Numerical Discourses of the Buddha. A Translation of

the Aṅguttara Nikāya. Boston: Wisdom Publications.

4. Walshe, M. (Trans.). (2005). The Long Discourses of the Buddha. Boston: Wisdom
Publications.

5. Holder, J. J. (Ed.). (2006). Early Buddhist Discourses. Hackett Publishing.

6. Rhys Davids, C. A. (1975, originally 1900). A Buddhist Manual of Psychological

Ethics. London: Royal Asiatic Society.

7. Gethin, R. (Ed.). (2008). Sayings of the Buddha: New translations from the Pali
Nikayas. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Academia Letters, March 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Gabriel Ellis, gabriel.ellis2@gmail.com

Citation: Ellis, G. (2021). Āyatana, the Buddha’s forgotten teaching. Academia Letters, Article 749.
https://doi.org/10.20935/AL749.

3
 8. Sujato, B. (2018). Online: https://suttacentral.net

9. Gonda, J. (1975). Selected Studies: Sanskrit Word Studies. (Vol. 2). Brill.

10. Olivelle, P. (Trans.) (1998). The Early Upanishads: Annotated Text and Translation.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.

11. Witzel, M. (2009). Moving Targets? Texts, language, archaeology and history in the
Late Vedic and early Buddhist periods. Indo-Iranian Journal 52, 287–310.

Academia Letters, March 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Gabriel Ellis, gabriel.ellis2@gmail.com

Citation: Ellis, G. (2021). Āyatana, the Buddha’s forgotten teaching. Academia Letters, Article 749.
https://doi.org/10.20935/AL749.

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