Chapter 3. Investigation of the Sense Faculties, Beginning with the Eye

Seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching and the mind — these are the six faculties of perception; their fields are the visible and the rest.

abhidharmika wrote:

these are the six faculties of perception; their fields are the visible and the rest

For that very seeing does not see its own self; and what does not see itself — how will it see others?

The example of fire is not sufficient to establish seeing; together with seeing it has already been refuted by [the analysis of] what is being traversed, what has been traversed and what has not been traversed.

When there is no non-seeing seeing at all [that is, when there is no seeing that does not see], how is it fitting to say ‘seeing sees’?

Seeing does not see, nor does non-seeing see; and just as this has been explained by the example of seeing itself, so too should the one who sees be understood.

There is no one who sees, either together with seeing or without seeing; and if there is no one who sees, where then do the visible and seeing itself come from?

Just as it is said that the birth of a son occurs in dependence on mother and father, so too, in dependence on the eye and form, the arising of consciousness occurs.

Since there is no visible and no seeing, neither is there the foursome that begins with consciousness; and how then will the supports [of existence] and the rest arise?

Hearing, smelling, tasting, touching and the mind have been explained [in the same way as seeing]; and the one who hears, what is heard, and the rest are to be understood precisely on the example of seeing.