(Sanskrit: “faculty”), according to Indian philosophy, the instruments of a person’s direct perception of the outside world. They are of two kinds, motoric and sensory. The motoric faculties are those of speaking, grasping, walking, ejaculating, and evacuating. The sensory faculties, or senses, are hearing, touching, seeing, tasting, and smelling. Both sets of faculties are correlated with the five elements, respectively: ether, wind, fire, water, and earth. Simultaneous separate impressions of the senses are coordinated in the “mind,” which is often called the 11th faculty.
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