Phenomena awareness (Buddhism)

The term, dhamma (sanskrit, dharma), besides denoting the liberating Law discovered by Buddha and summed up in the four Noble Truths (ariya-sacca), means a thing or object that "bears" something. A stone bearing inscriptions of laws could be dhamma, but in the subtle and mental worlds, dhamma is an object of consciousness. Thus all mental (and material) phenomena could be comprised of elements called dhammas. More often dhamma refers to phenomena generally, or mental phenomena. Physical and partly physical elements are called dhatu. All mental processes are based on 22 elements: the 4 producing corporeality, the 5 sense organs, the 5 corresponding objects, and the 5 specialized (corresponding) conformations of consciousness. In addition there is a mind-element (mano-dhatu) and its corresponding mind-object (dharmadhatu or dhamma-dhatu) and a mind-consciousness element (mano-vinnana-dhatu).