佛教《六祖壇經》裡記載禪宗六祖慧能大師為開示大眾，提到 [能]，[所]的觀念. 以現代的語彙來說明，[能]即 [能知]; [所]即 [被知] . 了解[能知] 和 [被知] 對明瞭心是很重要的. 人們因把 [被知] 的東西看得太重了，而忽略了[能知] 的存在，所以產生了生死輪迴極大的痛苦，而無法出離. 釋迦牟尼佛因感嘆眾生為輪迴所苦，乃於定中深入觀察. 他發現人們痛苦之因及出離的方法，因此提出十二因緣的觀念. 十二因緣即是人的認知結構，包括十二個部分，為[無明]，[行]，[識]，[名色]，[六入]，[觸]，[受]，[愛]，[取]，[有]，[生]，到[老,死]. 這十二個部分每個部分都環環相扣. 從[無明]，[行]，[識]，到 [名色]是心靈層次; 從[六入]，[觸]，[受]，[愛]，到[取]是人的身體器官; 從[有]，[生] 到 [老，死] 是人所面對的世界. 在[無明] 之上還有[本明] ; [本明] 是自性，是本性，真性，空性，無相.[能知] 和 [被知] 構成一種複雜結構，會依注意力不同而有變化. 能知可以變成被知，被知也可以變成能知，就看人的注意力在哪裡. 我們可以從十二因緣來看這個複雜結構的變化. 譬如一個人以手拿筆，注意力在這支筆上時，[被知] 是在這支筆，[能知] 則是在[本明]到[取]間. [能知]和[被知]的界限就在[取]和[有]中間. 當人閉上眼睛，他可以感覺到身體，此時[被知] 是在身體，[能知]則是在[本明]到[名色]間. [能知]和[被知]的界限就在[名色]和[六入]中間. 當人的注意力在[名色]時，[被知]是在[名色]，[能知]則是在[本明]到[識]中間. [能知]和[被知]的界限可以因注意力的移動而繼續往[本明]方向移動，直到界限劃在[無明]和[本明]間. 至此，界限已無法再移動，因[本明]是純粹的能知，絕對無法被知. The Sixth Patriarch of the Dhyana Sec，Huineng (慧能)，taught people about the concept of ‘subject’ (能) and 'object’ (所) long time ago. In modem language，‘subject’ means 'the knower' or the one who knows something; and 'object’ means 'the known' or the object to be known. To realize one's mind，it is very important to understand 'the knower' and 'the known' People always pay too much attention to those belonging to 'the known' while neglect or even get the existence of 'the knower'. Therefore，people suffer from reincarnation and are unable to be away from the suffering. Feeling pains for people's suffering，Sakyamuni observed human mind when he was in deep meditation，and found the origin of people's suffering and the method of how to be away from the suffering. Thus he proposed the concept of the twelve dependent originations or Dvadasanga Pratityasamutpada of Buddhism.The twelve dependent originations constitute a cognitive structure that describes the human mind，the human body and the world. They are ignorance (Avidya)，volitional activities (Samskara)，consciousness (Manas-Vijnana)，name and form (Namarupa)，six senses (Shadayatana)，contact (Sparsa)，sensation (Vedana)，desire (Trspa)，grasping (Upadana)，existence (Bhava)，birth (Jati)，and decay and death (Jaramarana). These twelve levels form a chain of phenomenal cause and effect. The levels describing the human minds are from the ' ignorance to the name and form; those describing the human bodies are from the six senses to the grasping; and those describing the world are from the existence to the decay and death. Behind the ignorance，there is one more level-the self-bright that is also called self-nature，original nature，true mind，empty nature or non-characteristics.The interaction between 'the knower' and 'the known' forms a complicated structure that changes according to the shift of human's attention. On the twelve dependent originations, we can obverse this structure clearly. For instance，a man holds a pen with his attention paid on the pen. In this case，'the known' is the pen and 'the knower' is from the self-bright to the grasping. The boundary of 'the knower' and 'the known' is between the grasping and the existence. When a man closes his eyes, he can feel his body. In this case，'the known' is the body and 'the knower' is from the self-bright to the name and form. The boundary of 'the knower' and 'the known' is between the name and form，and the sixes senses. Moreover，when people pay attention to the name and form，'the knower' is the consciousness, and 'the known' is the name and form. The boundary of 'the knower' and 'the known' is between the consciousness and the name and form. The boundary can shift continuously to the place between the ignorance and the self-bright. In that case，we are unable to shift the boundary anymore，because the self-bright can not be known.
