Mental Elements

Ok, we are down to the last three elements, and as mentioned before, the elements and various interactions will be explained later in Abhidharma-Samuccaya.

ཡིད་ yid is mind (Sanskrit manas), or also you could say the mental organ or mental faculty, so ཡིད་ཀྱི་ཁམས་ yid kyi khams is the mind element or the mental organ element (mano-dhatu.) I think here the mental organ translation is better, as it reflects one of the six sense systems, where actually the mental organ is one of those.

ཆོས་ chos, Sanskrit dharma, has many meanings, here it is related to mental objects, so ཆོས་ཀྱི་ཁམས་ chos kyi khams is mental object element (dharma-dhatu.)

ཡིད་ཀྱི་རྣམ་པར་ཤེས་པའི་ཁམས་ yid kyi rnam par shes pa'i khams is then the mental consciousness element (mano-vijnana-dhatu.) As this is the ending of the long listing of the eighteen elements, the last word ends with an 'so construct.

The interesting observations here is that the mental senses are grouped into a triad of elements, where each one is needed for mental parts to be formed.

Next, we will start looking at spheres!