Lecture Notes on the Sūtra of the Collection of the Father and Son (57)

What is the eye base (cakṣur-āyatana)?

Original text: 大王。云何眼处。谓四大种。地界水界。火界风界。所造净色。若地界清净。则眼处清净。若水火风界清净。则眼处清净。

Explanation: The Buddha said: Great King, what is the eye base? The eye base is the pure material faculty constructed from the four great element seeds—the earth element, water element, fire element, and wind element. If the earth element is pure, then the eye base constructed from it is pure; if the water element, fire element, and wind element are pure, then the eye base constructed from their combination is pure.

The eye faculty is a material form composed of the four great element seeds—earth, water, fire, and wind—combined together, containing the solidity of earth, the moisture of water, the warmth of fire, and the motility of wind. The eye faculty includes the external eye faculty (the visible eyes on the face) and the supreme faculty of the eye (indriya) located at the back of the brain, both of which are formed from the four great element seeds.

The four great element seeds are inherent seeds within the tathāgatagarbha. When the causes and conditions for producing the eye faculty mature, the tathāgatagarbha transmits the four great element seeds outward, and the eye faculty is formed. Both the internal and external eye faculties are gradually formed within the mother's womb. In the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, the World-Honored One described the human eye faculty as resembling a grape blossom in shape—that is the eye base.

The four great element seeds of earth, water, fire, and wind within the tathāgatagarbha are originally pure, without defilement, without the afflictions of greed, anger, and delusion. These four great element seeds combine in certain proportions to form the eye faculty; when the proportions of the combined seeds differ, the material forms produced also differ. Because the four great element seeds are pure, the eye faculty formed from them is pure, without the afflictions of greed, anger, and delusion, without defilement. However, the six consciousnesses of eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind, which arise depending on the eye faculty as a condition, do have defilement and afflictions. The eye faculty itself has no defilement, nor does it have joy, anger, sorrow, or happiness, because the eye faculty has no mental activity.