The Six Internal and External Sense Bases in Buddhism - List

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Buddhist deity with the six sense faculties

The sense organs can be understood in terms of the object sensed, the consciousness aroused, the underlying sensory matter and an associated primary or derived element that is present in excess.
The five or six sensory faculties of Buddhism are basically the organs which make up the body and the objects they sense, so the ear senses sound for example.
In the Four Noble Truths, the Buddha identifies that the origin of suffering is craving. In the chain of dependent origination, the Buddha identifies that craving arises from sensations that result from contact at the six sense bases. Therefore, to overcome craving and its resultant suffering, one should develop restraint of and insight into the sense bases.
When the senses and objects are meditated upon we many come to realize what we think of as our self is not made up from these parts.
Sometimes two more are added for example becoming the eight consciousnesses which are the defiled mental consciousness or emotional consciousness (or deluded awareness) and the all-ground consciousness (or storehouse or reflex consciousness).
When combined the six sense bases, the six types of consciousness and the six objects of these sense become the eighteen realms of the senses or phenomena.
Ultimately the twelve sense fields are empty and their own-nature is without any essential nature, when this knowledge of emptiness is born, one obtains in part ‘fearlessness of the equality of the own-nature of all dharmas.’