To see mentality-materiality, says Sayadaw, we must know and see the sense doors, the objects that strike them, and the consciousness that arises thereby. On PAGE EIGHT, he notes that the Buddha divides them into five materiality doors (eye, ear, nose, tongue, body) and one mentality door, the mind-door. BUT, while the five material doors depend on their respective material sense, the sixth 'mental' sense door depends on 'the materiality that is the heart-base'. Wait, what? From a commentary on the Abhidharma:
The heart or mind-base element (hadaya vatthu): in the Buddha's time the view was held that the heart forms the seat of consciousness. The Buddha never accepted or rejected this theory. He referred to the basis of consciousness indirectly as: ya.m ruupa.m nissaaya — "that material thing depending on which mind-element and mind-consciousness-element arise." Since mind and matter are inter-dependent, it is reasonable to conclude that by the phrase "that material thing" the Buddha intended any tissue in the body that can function as a basis for consciousness, except those serving as the basis for sensory consciousness. We can understand it as the living nerve cell. http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/mendis/wheel322.html
I sorta get it. This refers mostly to simply the physical body that holds, temporarily, consciousness(es).
He ends out the page noting the Buddha's instruction that the five sense bases each have a distinct field that is totally separate until the mind becomes involved, which experiences all of them.
Lots to consider. I want to see the door, the object striking it, and the consciousness arising.
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