The Twelve Sense Bases

Next, Abhidharma-Samuccaya lists how many sense bases (or spheres as this is sometimes translated) there are, as well as each one.

skye mched is sense basis, sphere, ayatana in Sanskrit. We will get a better understanding of this after we have listed each one.

rnams is a plural ending, so this means that we are dealing with multiple spheres.

ni is an emphasis particle, it means that the right side will emphasize the left, i.e. how many are there.

bcu is ten. gnyis is two. bcu gnyis is twelve. If you now know bcu as ten, and the first nine numbers, you should now be able to count from one to nineteen.

te is the semi-final particle, it indicates that we will indeed list the twelve spheres or sense bases now. We will do three at a time, or so, as they will sound familiar.