The lens

The senses

the five tanmatras

This lens lights 5 points on the one map rather than replacing it. Each is listed at its layer; open any to read it in full, with its threads and its source.

The membrane

Gandha smell

Gandha is smell as a quality — the fifth and last tanmatra, carried by earth alone. It is the quality that marks the densest end of the descent, and the only one no other element possesses.

Rasa taste

Rasa is taste as a quality — the fourth tanmatra, carried by water and by earth. It is the sense the tradition connects most directly to what is taken in and made part of the body.

Rupa form / sight

Rupa is form and colour together — what sight is of. The Sanskrit does not separate shape from hue, which is itself a claim about what seeing delivers.

Shabda sound

Shabda is sound considered as what hearing is of — not the vibration and not the sensation, but the quality itself. It is the first tanmatra and the only one ether carries.

Sparsha touch

Sparsha is touch as a quality — contact considered in itself, before there is a surface doing the contacting. It is the second tanmatra, and air is the first element to carry two.