Dhātu
| Key Term | dhātu |
|---|---|
| In Tibetan Script | ཁམས་ |
| Wylie Tibetan Transliteration | khams |
| Devanagari Sanskrit Script | धातु |
| Romanized Sanskrit | dhātu |
| Tibetan Phonetic Rendering | Kham |
| Chinese Script | 界 |
| Chinese Pinyin | jiè |
| English Standard | element |
| Karl Brunnhölzl's English Term | basic element |
| Richard Barron's English Term | realm; constitutent element; fundamental nature |
| Jeffrey Hopkin's English Term | essential consistuent |
| Ives Waldo's English Term | region; realm; element; nature; cause and seed |
| Term Type | Noun |
| Source Language | Sanskrit |
| Basic Meaning | Element |
| Did you know? | In the Ratnagotravibhāga, dhātu is synonymous with gotra, the final element that enables all beings to become buddhas. (Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, p 254) |
| Related Terms | Gotra; Buddha-dhātu |
| Definitions | |
| Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism |
See page 254: In Sanskrit and Pāli, “element”; a polysemous term with wide application in Buddhist contexts. In epistemology, the dhātus refer to the eighteen elements through which sensory experience is produced: the six sense bases, or sense organs (indriya; viz., eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind); the six corresponding sense objects (ālambana; viz., forms, sounds, odors, tastes, tangible objects, and mental phenomena); and the six sensory consciousnesses that result from contact (sparśa) between the corresponding base and object (vijñāna; viz., visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, tactile, and mental consciousnesses). As this list makes clear, the eighteen dhātus also subsume the twelve āyatana (sense-fields). The dhātus represent one of the three major taxonomies of dharmas found in the sūtras (along with skanda and āyatana), and represent a more primitive stage of dharma classification than the elaborate analyses found in much of the mature abhidharma literature (but cf. Dharmaskandha). In a physical sense, dhātu is used to refer to the constituent elements of the physical world, of which four are usually recognized in Buddhist materials: earth, water, fire, and wind. Sometimes two additional constituents are added to the list: space (ākāśa) and consciousness (vijñāna). In the Ratnagotravibhāga, dhātu is synonymous with gotra, the final element that enables all beings to become buddhas. |
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