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References

1. Bodhi (2005b), starting at time 50:00. Bodhi (2005b) references, for instance, Majjhima Nikaya Sutta No. 149, where the Buddha instructs: "...[K]nowing & seeing the eye as it actually is present, knowing & seeing [visible] forms... consciousness at the eye... contact at the eye as they actually are present, knowing & seeing whatever arises conditioned through contact at the eye – experienced as pleasure, pain, or neither-pleasure-nor-pain – as it actually is present, one is not infatuated with the eye... forms... consciousness at the eye... contact at the eye... whatever arises.... The craving that makes for further becoming – accompanied by passion & delight, relishing now this & now that – is abandoned by him. His bodily disturbances & mental disturbances are abandoned. His bodily torments & mental torments are abandoned. His bodily distresses & mental distresses are abandoned. He is sensitive both to ease of body & ease of awareness..." (Thanissaro, 1998c). http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.149.than.html
2. This diagram is based on comments made by Bhikkhu Bodhi during a dharma talk (Bodhi, 2005, starting at time 50:00). Of course, reference to the Four Noble Truths in this context is redundant as the whole endless cycle of the Twelve Causes is a form of suffering and the last two causes, Birth and Old Age & Death, are explicitly identified as components of suffering by the Buddha in the Four Noble Truths (for instance, see the Dhammacakka Sutta). Nonetheless, Bodhi's formulation here provides a conciseness – both conceptually and, in this diagram, visually – that might otherwise not be as compelling and readily comprehended.
3. The greatest concentration of discourses related to the sense bases is in the Samyutta Nikaya, chapter 35, entitled "The Book of the Six Sense Bases" (Saḷāyatana-vagga). For instance, in Bodhi (2000b) edition of the Samyutta Nikaya, this chapter alone has 248 discourses. The Rhys Davids & Stede (1921–25) entry for "Āyatana" (p. 105) also mentions other discourses in each of the Pali nikayas. https://archive.today/20120707190050/http://dsal.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/philologic/getobject.pl?c.0:1:2840.pali
4. Ñāṇamoli & Bodhi (2001), pp. 1129–36; and, Thanissaro (1998a). http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.148.than.html
5. Bodhi (2000b), p. 1140; and, Thanissaro (2001b). According to Bodhi (2000b), p. 1399, n. 7, the Pali commentary regarding the Sabba Sutta states: "...[I]f one passes over the twelve sense bases, one cannot point out any real phenomenon." Also see Rhys Davids & Stede (1921–25), p. 680, "Sabba" entry where sabbaŋ is defined as "the (whole) world of sense-experience." http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn35/sn35.023.than.html
6. Bodhi (2000b), p. 1140; and, Thanissaro (2001a). http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn35/sn35.024.than.html
7. For instance, SN 35.25 through 35.29, including the famed "Fire Sermon" (SN 35.28).
8. Bodhi (2000b), p. 1122.
9. Note that the Twelve Causes and Six Sextets describe the relationship between the sense bases and consciousness in different ways. Relatedly, there are canonical discouses that put forth hybrid models of these various psychophysical factors, such as described in "The World Discourse" (Loka Sutta, SN 12.44) (Thanissaro, 1998b; and, Bodhi, 2005a, pp. 358–59) where the aforementioned six "sextets" (from the eye and form to craving) condition the last four "causes" (clinging, becoming, birth, old age & death) and suffering. In reference to this and similar "variant" discourses, Bodhi (2005a) notes: "These variants make it plain that the sequence of factors should not be regarded as a linear causal process in which each preceding factor gives rise to its successor through the simple exercise of efficient causality. Far from being linear, the relationship among the factors is always complex, involving several interwoven strands of conditionality." (Bodhi, 2005a, p. 316.) http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn12/sn12.044.than.html
10. In the context of SN 35.197, the term "empty" might simply be meant to convey "passive." It could also be used in the Buddhist sense of self-less, as in anatta (see). In fact, in SN 35.85, the Buddha applies this latter notion of emptiness (suññata) to all internal and external sense bases (Bodhi, 2000b, pp. 1163–64; and Thanissaro, 1997c). http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn35/sn35.085.than.html
11. Bodhi (2000b), pp. 1237–1239 (where this discourse is identified as SN 35.238); Buddhaghosa (1999), p. 490 (where this discourse is identified as S.iv,175); and, Thanissaro (2004). Similarly, in the last sutta of the Samyutta Nikaya's Salayatana-samyutta, entitled "The Sheaf of Barley" (which Bodhi, 2000b, identifies as SN 35.248 and Thanissaro, 1998d, as SN 35.207), the Buddha describes the sense organs as "struck" or "thrashed" by "agreeable and disagreeable" sense objects (Bodhi, 2000b, pp. 1257–59; Thanissaro, 1998d). http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn35/sn35.197.than.html
12. Bodhi (2000b), pp. 1230–1231 (where this discourse is identified as SN 35.232); and, Thanissaro (1997b). http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn35/sn35.191.than.html
13. Thanissaro, 1993. For other references to the sense bases as "the All," see Thanissaro (2001b) and Thanissaro (2001a). The sense bases are "the All" insomuch that all we know of the world is known through the sense bases. http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn35/sn35.028.than.html
14. Bodhi (2000b), p. 1148.
15. Bodhi (2000b), p. 1148. For a correspondence between impermanence and nonself, see Three marks of existence.
16. Soma (1999), section entitled, "The Six Internal and the Six External Sense-bases." http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.010.soma.html
17. In terms of the Pali commentaries, for instance, there is overlap between the Visuddhimagga and the commentary to the Dhammasangani, Atthasālinī (e.g., cf. Vsm. XIV,49 [Buddhaghosa, 1999, p. 446] and Asl. 310 [Rhys Davids, 1900, p. 178 n. 2]).
18. In regards to defining the sense bases in terms of excess primary elements, the Visuddhimagga (Vsm. XIV, 42) is critical: "... Others say that the eye is sensitivity of those [primary elements] that have fire in excess, and that the ear, nose, tongue, and body are [sensitivity] of those [primary elements] that have [respectively] aperture, air, water and earth in excess. They should be asked to quote a sutta. They will certainly not find one." (Buddhaghosa, 1999, p. 444, para. 42.)
19. This table is based on Upatissa et al. (1995), pp. 238–240.
20. Rhys Davids & Stede (1921–25), p. 446, entry for "Pasāda" (retrieved 2008-04-16 from "U. Chicago" at http://dsal.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/philologic/getobject.pl?c.2:1:2481.pali).
21. Buddhaghosa (1999), pp. 445–6. While this Visuddhimagga chapter (XIV) actually pertains to the Five Aggregates, this characterization is referenced in the Visuddhimagga chapter (XV) on the Sense Bases (Buddhaghosa, 1999, p. 489, verse 8).
22. Vsm. XIV, 37 (trans. Buddhaghosa, 1999, p. 443; square-bracketed text in original). The Pali (from the Burmese CSCD, retrieved 2008-04-16 from "VRI" at http://www.tipitaka.org/romn/cscd/e0102n.mul2.xml) associated with this passage is: Tattha rūpābhighātārahatappasādalakkhaṇaṃ daṭṭhukāmatānidānakammasamuṭṭhānabhūtappasādalakkhaṇaṃ vā cakkhu, rūpesu āviñchanarasaṃ, cakkhuviññāṇassa ādhārabhāvapaccupaṭṭhānaṃ, daṭṭhukāmatānidānakammajabhūtapadaṭṭhānaṃ.
23. Regarding bhavaṅga being a primarily post-canonical concept, see Matthews (1995, p. 128) where he states for instance: "Bhavaṅga does not occur in the Sutta Pitaka, but its appearance in both the Dhammasaṅgaṇi and the Paṭṭhāna assured that it received much post-classical attention in the Theravāda." He further amplifies this in an endnote (p. 140, n. 34): "... [A]lthough bhavaṅga does appear in the Abhidhamma Piṭaka, it is not until the post-classical era that it receives much attention." Citing Ñāṇamoli and others, Matthews (1995, p. 123) defines the "classical age" as "ended about the 4th century A.D.," just prior to the "great age of commentaries."
24. Soma (2003), p. 133. This excerpt is from the subcommentary to the Majjhima Nikāya, the Līnatthapakāsanā Tīkā.
25. Buddhaghosa & Ñāṇamoli (1999), pp. 442–43.
26. See, for instance, SN 35.91 where the Buddha proclaims: "Whatever, bhikkhus, is the extent of the aggregates, the elements, and the sense bases, [a right-practicing monk] does not conceive that, does not conceive in that, does not conceive from that, does not conceive, 'This is mine.' Since he does not conceive anything thus, he does not cling to anything in the world. Not clinging, he is not agitated. Being unagitated, he personally attains Nibbāna..." (Bodhi, 2000b, p. 1171).
27. See, for instance, Bodhi (2000b), pp. 1122–24. Beyond the five aggregates, Nibbana is also identified as a "mental object" perceivable by "mind" (mano) (see, for instance, Bodhi, 2000a, p. 288).
28. See, for instance, Bodhi (2000b), pp. 1124–26; and, Bodhi (2005b), starting at time 48:47. Also see the article on upadana for the canonical explanation of the four types of clinging: sense-pleasure, wrong-view, rites-and-rituals and self-doctrine.
29. The Pāli word referenced here as "element," dhātu, is used in multiple contexts in the Pāli canon. For instance, Bodhi (2000b), pp. 527–8, identifies four different ways that dhātu is used including in terms of the "eighteen elements" and in terms of "the four primary elements" (catudhātu).
30. In Buddhist literature, when a sense object and sense organ make contact (Pali, phassa), sense-consciousness arises. (See for instance MN 148.)
31. Bodhi (2005b), pp. 1211–12. See also Thanissaro (1997a). http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn35/sn35.145.than.html