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cakkhuviññāṇantveva

cakkhuviññāṇa

nominative singular neuter (instrumental -tveva in emphatic juxtaposition: 'by eye-consciousness alone'; surface form is cakkhuviññāṇa + -tveva, instrumental + eva 'just, only')

1. eye-consciousness
2. visual awareness
3. the cognitive moment that arises at the eye-sense door

Built from

• cakkhu — root · eye
  From √cakṣ 'to see'. Sanskrit cakṣus, Latin oculus; the sensory organ and its function merge in Indo-European.
• vi — prefix · apart, asunder
  Latin dis-, Greek dia-. Marks knowing that discriminates and separates qualities.
• ññā — root · know
  √jñā (Sanskrit jñā). Cognate with English 'know', German 'Kenntnis'. The root carries the sense of mental grasping and recognition.
• ana — ending · abstract noun
  Neuter suffix forming abstract nominals from verb roots; here viññāṇa is the abstract 'knowing-apart', i.e. consciousness as a type of cognition.
• -tva — ending · instrumental marker
  Nominalizing suffix that creates an instrumental form, often used predicatively or emphatically to express agency or means.
• -eva — ending · just, only
  Enclitic emphatic particle strengthening the preceding word, here giving 'by eye-consciousness alone' or 'through eye-consciousness just'.

Analysis. cakkhu (eye) + viññāṇa (consciousness). In the doctrine of the six sense-doors (chadvāra), cakkhuviññāṇa is the consciousness that arises specifically at the eye-base when eye and visible object meet. The phrase illustrates how contact (phassa) generates sensation (vedanā), which drives craving and clinging.

Etymology. cakkhu: from √cakṣ (to see), related to Sanskrit cakṣus and Latin oculus (both 'eye'). viññāṇa: from vi + √jñā (to know), 'knowing apart', hence consciousness as discriminative awareness. The -tveva construction uses instrumental -tva (abstract noun marker) + eva (emphatic particle), common in making emphatic nominalsused predicatively or in apposition.

Meanings from the Digital Pāḷi Dictionary; morphology and etymology by Claude.

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