Put another way, if we were to self-identify with an aggregate, we would cling (upadanaUpādāna is a word used in both Buddhism and Hinduism.*In Buddhism, upādāna is a critical link in the arising of suffering.*In Hinduism, upādāna is the material manifestation of Brahman.-Buddhism:...
) to it; and, given that all aggregates are impermanent (anicca), it would then be likely that at some level we would experience agitation (paritassati), loss, grief, stress, or suffering (see dukkhaDukkha is a Pali term roughly corresponding to a number of terms in English including suffering, pain, unsatisfactoriness, sorrow, affliction, anxiety, dissatisfaction, discomfort, anguish, stress,...
). Therefore, if we want to be free of suffering, it is wise to experience the aggregates clearly, without clinging or craving (tanha' or ' literally means "thirst," figuratively denotes "desire" or "craving," and is traditionally juxtaposed with "peace of mind" .Synonyms:*愛 Cn: ài; Jp: ai; Vi: ái...
), apart from any notion of self (anattaIn Buddhism, anattā or anātman refers to the notion of "not-self". One scholar describes it as "meaning non-selfhood, the absence of limiting self-identity in people and things."...
).
Many of the suttas in the Khandhavagga express the aggregates in the context of the following sequence:
- An uninstructed worldling (assutavā puthujjana)
- regards: form as self; self as possessing form; form as in self; self as in form.
- lives obsessed by the notions: I am form; form is mine
- this form changes
- with the changes of form, there arises dukkha
- An instructed noble disciple (sutavā ariyasāvaka) does not regard form as self and so on, and thus when form changes, dukkha does not arise. (Note: in each of the suttas where the above formula is used, subsequent verses replace "form" with each of the other aggregates: sensation, perception, mental formations and consciousness.)
|
{{Buddhist term
| pi= khandha
| sa= स्कन्ध (skandha)
| zh=五蘊(T) / 五蕴(S)
| zh-Latn=wǔyùn
| vi=Ngũ uẩn
| ja=五蘊
| bo=ཕུང་པོ་ལྔ་
| bo-Latn=phung po lnga
| en=aggregate, mass, heap
| my=ခန္ဒာငါးပါး
| my-Latn= khan da nga: ba:, {{IPA-all|kʰã̀ dà ŋá bá}}
|}}
In BuddhistBuddhism, as traditionally conceived, is a path of salvation attained through insight into the ultimate nature of reality. It encompasses a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha...
phenomenology and soteriologyChristian Soteriology is the branch of Christian theology that deals with salvation. It is derived from the Greek sōtērion + English -logy...
, the five skandhas (SanskritSanskrit is a historical Indo-Aryan language, one of the liturgical languages of Hinduism and Buddhism, and one of the 22 official languages of India. It is also declared as a classical language by the government of India....
) or khandhas (Pāli
) are five "aggregates" which categorize all individual experience, among which there is no "SelfThe Ātman is a philosophical term used within Hinduism and Vedanta to identify the soul. It is one's true self beyond identification with the phenomenal reality of worldly existence.-Etymology:The word ātman is connected with the Indo-European root *ēt-men and is cognate with Old English "æþm",...
" to be found.
In the TheravadaTheravada Theravada Theravada (Pāli: थेरवाद theravāda (cf Sanskrit: स्थविरवाद sthaviravāda); literally, "the Teaching of the Elders" or "the Ancient Teaching", is the oldest surviving Buddhist school. It was founded in India...
tradition, sufferingDukkha is a Pali term roughly corresponding to a number of terms in English including suffering, pain, unsatisfactoriness, sorrow, affliction, anxiety, dissatisfaction, discomfort, anguish, stress,...
arises when one identifies with or otherwise clingsUpādāna is a word used in both Buddhism and Hinduism.*In Buddhism, upādāna is a critical link in the arising of suffering.*In Hinduism, upādāna is the material manifestation of Brahman.-Buddhism:...
to an aggregate; hence, suffering is extinguished by relinquishing attachments to aggregates. The MahayanaMahayana is one of the two main existing branches of Buddhism and a term for classification of Buddhist philosophies and practice. It was founded in India...
tradition further puts forth that ultimate freedomIn sramanic thought, Nirvana is the state of being free from suffering. It is an important concept in Buddhism and Jainism....
is realized by deeply penetratingPrajñāpāramitā Prajñāpāramitā Prajñāpāramitā (Devanagari: प्रज्ञा पारमिता, ་ཤེས་རབ་ཕ་རོལ་, , Japanese: Korean: banya-paramilda (般若波羅蜜多/반야파라밀다) Vietnamese: Bát Nhã Ba La Mật Đa (般若波羅蜜多), Tibetan: Yumchenmo, and , translated as the "Perfection of Wisdom", is one of the aspects of a bodhisattva's...
the nature of all aggregates as intrinsically emptyŚūnyatā, शून्यता , Suññatā , stong pa nyid , Kòng/Kū, 空 , Gong-seong, 공성 , qoɣusun meaning "Emptiness" or "Voidness", is a characteristic of phenomena arising from the fact that the impermanent...
of independent existenceSvabhāva is a concept frequently encountered in Mahayana Buddhism which literally means "own-being" or "own-becoming"...
.
Outside of Buddhist didactic contexts, "skandha" can mean mass, heap, pile, bundle or tree trunk.
Definition
{{PancaKhandha}}
Buddhist doctrine describes five aggregates:
- "form" or "matter"
In Hinduism and Buddhism, rūpa generally refers to material objects, particularly in regards to their appearance.-Hinduism:According to the Monier-Williams Dictionary , rūpa is defined as:...
(Skt., Pāli rūpaIn Hinduism and Buddhism, rūpa generally refers to material objects, particularly in regards to their appearance.-Hinduism:According to the Monier-Williams Dictionary , rūpa is defined as:...
, Tib. gzugs):
external and internal matter. Externally, rupa is the physical world. Internally, rupa includes the material body and the physical sense organs.
- "sensation"
Vedanā is a word in Sanskrit and Pāli traditionally translated as either "feeling" or "sensation." In general, vedanā refers to the pleasant, unpleasant and neutral sensations that occur when our internal sense organs come into contact with external sense objects and the associated...
or "feeling" (Skt., Pāli vedanāVedanā is a word in Sanskrit and Pāli traditionally translated as either "feeling" or "sensation." In general, vedanā refers to the pleasant, unpleasant and neutral sensations that occur when our internal sense organs come into contact with external sense objects and the associated...
, Tib. tshor-ba):
sensing an object as either pleasant or unpleasant or neutral.
- "perception", "conception", "apperception", "cognition", or "discrimination"
The Sanna is a tributary of the Vistula in Poland. Its source is in the village of Wierzchowiska II in Lublin Voivodeship, Galicia. It flows westward through a rural area. Then, it turns northward for a few kilometers until flowing into the Vistula near the city of Annopol. It is about 50 km...
(Skt. samjñā, Pāli saññāThe Sanna is a tributary of the Vistula in Poland. Its source is in the village of Wierzchowiska II in Lublin Voivodeship, Galicia. It flows westward through a rural area. Then, it turns northward for a few kilometers until flowing into the Vistula near the city of Annopol. It is about 50 km...
, Tib. 'du-shes):
registers whether an object is recognized or not (for instance, the sound of a bell or the shape of a tree).
- "mental formations", "impulses", "[[volition]]", or "compositional factors"
' or ' is a term figuring prominently in the teaching of the Buddha. The word means 'that which has been put together' and 'that which puts together'. In the first sense, refers to conditioned phenomena generally but specifically to all mental "dispositions"...
(Skt. samskāra, Pāli {{IAST' or ' is a term figuring prominently in the teaching of the Buddha. The word means 'that which has been put together' and 'that which puts together'. In the first sense, refers to conditioned phenomena generally but specifically to all mental "dispositions"...
, Tib. 'du-byed) :
all types of mental habits, thoughts, ideas, opinions, prejudices, compulsions, and decisions triggered by an object.
- "consciousness" (Skt. vijñāna, Pāli {{IAST
Vijñāna or viññāa is translated as "consciousness" or "life force" or simply "mind"....
, Tib. rnam-par-shes-pa):
- In the Nikayas: cognizance.
- In the Abhidhamma
Abhidharma or Abhidhamma are ancient Buddhist works which contain detailed scholastic reworkings of doctrinal material appearing in the Buddhist Sutras, according to schematic classifications...
: a series of rapidly changing interconnected discrete acts of cognizance.
- In Mahayana
Mahayana is one of the two main existing branches of Buddhism and a term for classification of Buddhist philosophies and practice. It was founded in India...
sources: the base that supports all experience.
See Table 1 for examples of definitional references to the aggregates in Buddhist primary sourcesBuddhist texts can be categorized in a number of ways. The Western terms "scripture" and "canonical" are applied to Buddhism in inconsistent ways by Western scholars: for example, one authority refers to "scriptures and other canonical texts", while another says that scriptures can be categorized...
.
In the Pāli CanonThe Pāli Canon is the standard collection of scriptures in the Theravada Buddhist tradition, as preserved in the Pali language. It is the only completely surviving early Buddhist canon, and one of the first to be written down...
, the majority of discourses focusing on the five aggregates discusses them as a basis for understanding and achieving liberation from suffering, without describing relationships between the aggregates themselves. Nonetheless, from some canonical discourses, a causal relationship between the five aggregates can be derived. The following (illustrated in the figure to the right) exemplify such relational attributes:
- Form (rupa) arises from experientially irreducible physical/physiological phenomena.
- Form – in terms of an external object (such as a sound) and its associated internal sense organ (such as the ear) – gives rise to consciousness ({{IAST|viññāṇa}}).
- The concurrence of an object, its sense organ and the related consciousness ({{IAST|viññāṇa}}) is called "contact" (phassa).
- From the contact of form and consciousness arise the three mental (nāma) aggregates of feeling (vedanā), perception (saññā) and mental formation ({{IAST|saṅkhāra}}).
- The mental aggregates can then in turn give rise to additional consciousness that leads to the arising of additional mental aggregates.
In this scheme, form, the mental aggregates, and consciousness are mutually dependent.
Other Buddhist literature has described the aggregates as arising in a linear or progressive fashion, from form to feeling to perception to mental formations to consciousness.
Parts of a chariot
In the Samyutta NikayaThe Samyutta Nikaya is a Buddhist scripture, the third of the five nikayas, or collections, in the Sutta Pitaka, which is one of the "three baskets" that compose the Pali Tipitaka of Theravada Buddhism. Because of the abbreviated way parts of the text are written, the total number of suttas is...
, the Buddha is recorded as saying that "just as the word 'chariot' exists on the basis of the aggregation of parts, even so the concept of 'being' exists when the five aggregates are available." Thus just as concept of "chariot" is a reificationReification is a fallacy of ambiguity, when an abstraction is treated as if it were a concrete, real event, or physical entity...
, so too is the concept of "being." The same analysis is applicable to the parts of the chariot; they too are unsubstantial in that they are causally produced, just like the chariot as a whole. The most explicit denial of the substantiality of the components of the being in the early texts is one that was quoted by later prominent Mahayana thinkers: All form is comparable to foam; all feelings to bubbles; all sensations are mirage-like; dispositions are like the plantain trunk; consciousness is but an illusion: so did the Buddha illustrate [the nature of the aggegates].
NagarjunaAcharya Nāgārjuna was an Indian philosopher and the founder of the Madhyamaka school of Mahāyāna Buddhism....
used ideas of this kind in the agamas to refute the SarvastivadaSarvastivada is an early school of Buddhism that held to 'the existence of all dharmas in the past, present and future, the 'three times'. The Abhidharma , a later text, states:-Origination and history:According to scholar Charles Prebish,...
conception of reality. The simultaneous non-reification of the self and reification of the skandhas has been viewed by some Buddhist thinkers as highly problematic.
In the early texts, the scheme of the five aggregates is not meant to be an exhaustive classification of the human being: rather it describes various aspects of the way an individual manifests. The chariot metaphor is not an exercise in ontologyOntology is the philosophical study of the nature of being, existence or reality in general, as well as of the basic categories of being and their relations...
, but rather a caution against ontological theorizing and conceptual realism. Part of the Buddha's general approach to language was to point towards its conventionalA convention is a set of agreed, stipulated or generally accepted standards, norms, social norms or criteria, often taking the form of a custom....
nature, and to undermine the misleading character of nouns as substance-words.
The skandha analysis of the early texts is not applicable to arahants. A tathāgata has abandoned that clinging to the personality factors that render the mind a bounded, measurable entity, and is instead "freed from being reckoned by" all or any of them, even in life. The skandhas have been seen to be a burdenDukkha is a Pali term roughly corresponding to a number of terms in English including suffering, pain, unsatisfactoriness, sorrow, affliction, anxiety, dissatisfaction, discomfort, anguish, stress,...
, and an enlightened individual is one with "burden dropped".
{{seealso|Tathagata#Inscrutable}}
Theravada perspectives
{{buddhism | terse=1}}
Bhikkhu BodhiBhikkhu Bodhi , born Jeffrey Block, is an American Buddhist monk, ordained in Sri Lanka and currently teaching in the New York/New Jersey area. He was appointed the second president of the Buddhist Publication Society and has edited and authored several publications grounded in the Theravada...
(2000b, p. 840) states that an examination of the aggregates has a "critical role" in the Buddha's teaching for multiple reasons, including:
- Understanding the Four Noble Truths
The Four Noble Truths is one of the most fundamental Buddhist teachings. In broad terms, these truths relate to suffering , its nature, its origin, its cessation and the path leading to its cessation...
: The five aggregates are the "ultimate referent" in the Buddha's elaboration on suffering (dukkhaDukkha is a Pali term roughly corresponding to a number of terms in English including suffering, pain, unsatisfactoriness, sorrow, affliction, anxiety, dissatisfaction, discomfort, anguish, stress,...
) in his First Noble Truth (see excerpted quote below) and "since all four truths revolve around suffering, understanding the aggregates is essential for understanding the Four Noble TruthsThe Four Noble Truths is one of the most fundamental Buddhist teachings. In broad terms, these truths relate to suffering , its nature, its origin, its cessation and the path leading to its cessation...
as a whole."
- Future Suffering's Cause: The five aggregates are the substrata for clinging and thus "contribute to the causal origination of future suffering."
- Release: Clinging to the five aggregates must be removed in order to achieve release.
Below, excerpts from the Pāli
literature will bear out Bhikkhu Bodhi's assessment.
Suffering's ultimate referent
In the BuddhaSiddhārtha Gautama was a spiritual teacher in the north eastern region of the Indian subcontinent who founded Buddhism. He is regarded by Buddhists as the Supreme Buddha of our age. The time of his birth and death are uncertain: most early 20th-century historians dated his lifetime as c...
's first discourse, the Dhammacakkappavattana SuttaThe Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta is the Buddha's first discourse after he reached Enlightenment. In this sutta, the Buddha discusses the Middle Way, the Noble Eightfold Path and the Four Noble Truths....
, he provides a classic elaboration on the first of his Four Noble TruthsThe Four Noble Truths is one of the most fundamental Buddhist teachings. In broad terms, these truths relate to suffering , its nature, its origin, its cessation and the path leading to its cessation...
, "The Truth of Suffering" (Dukkhasacca):
{{quote|The Noble Truth of Suffering [dukkha], monks, is this: BirthIn Buddhism, Jāti refers to the arising of a new living entity in saṃsāra.Synonyms:*生 Cn: shēng; Jp: shō; Vi: sinh*Tibetan: skyed.ba-Truth of suffering:...
is suffering, agingJarāmaraa is Sanskrit and Pāli for "old age" and "death" . In Buddhism, jaramarana refers to the inevitable end-of-life suffering of all beings prior to their rebirth in the cycle of .Synonyms:...
is suffering, sickness is suffering, deathJarāmaraa is Sanskrit and Pāli for "old age" and "death" . In Buddhism, jaramarana refers to the inevitable end-of-life suffering of all beings prior to their rebirth in the cycle of .Synonyms:...
is suffering, association with the unpleasant is suffering, dissociation from the pleasant is suffering, not to receive what one desires is suffering—in brief the five aggregates subject to graspingUpādāna is a word used in both Buddhism and Hinduism.*In Buddhism, upādāna is a critical link in the arising of suffering.*In Hinduism, upādāna is the material manifestation of Brahman.-Buddhism:...
are suffering.}}
According to Thanissaro:
{{quote|Prior to the Buddha, the Pali word khandha had very ordinary meanings: A khandha could be a pile, a bundle, a heap, a mass. It could also be the trunk of a tree. In his first sermon, though, the Buddha gave it a new, psychological meaning, introducing the term clinging-khandhas to summarize his analysis of the truth of stress and suffering. Throughout the remainder of his teaching career, he referred to these psychological khandhas time and again.}}
In what way are the aggregates suffering? For this we can turn to Khandhavagga suttas below.
In the early texts, the skandhas explain what suffering is. According to Noa Ronkin, "What emerges from the texts ... is a wider signification of the khandhas than merely the aggregates constituting the person. Sue Hamilton has provided a detailed study of the khandhas. Her conclusion is that the associating of the five khandhas as a whole with dukkha indicates that experience is a combination of a straightforward cognitive process together with the psychological orientation that colours it in terms of unsatisfactoriness. Experience is thus both cognitive and affective, and cannot be separated from perception. As one's perception changes, so one's experience is different: we each have our own particular cognitions, perceptions and volitional activities in our own particular way and degree, and our own way of responding to and interpreting our experience is our very experience. In harmony with this line of thought, Gethin observes that the khandhas are presented as five aspects of the nature of conditioned existence from the point of view of the experiencing subject; five aspects of one's experience. Hence each khandha represents 'a complex class of phenomena that is continuously arising and falling away in response to processes of consciousness based on the six spheres of sense. They thus become the five upādānakhandhas, encompassing both grasping and all that is grasped.'"
Future suffering's cause
The Samyutta NikayaThe Samyutta Nikaya is a Buddhist scripture, the third of the five nikayas, or collections, in the Sutta Pitaka, which is one of the "three baskets" that compose the Pali Tipitaka of Theravada Buddhism. Because of the abbreviated way parts of the text are written, the total number of suttas is...
contains the Khandhavagga ("The Book of Aggregates"), a book compiling over a hundred suttas related to the five aggregates. Typical of these is the Upadaparitassana Sutta ("Agitation through Clinging Discourse," SN 22:7), which states:
{{quote|...[T]he instructed noble disciple ... does not regard form [or other aggregates] as self, or self as possessing form, or form as in self, or self as in form. That form of his changes and alters. Despite the change and alteration of form, his consciousness does not become preoccupied with the change of form.... [T]hrough non-clinging he does not become agitated." (Trans. by Bodhi, 2000b, pp. 865-866.)}}
Put another way, if we were to self-identify with an aggregate, we would cling (upadanaUpādāna is a word used in both Buddhism and Hinduism.*In Buddhism, upādāna is a critical link in the arising of suffering.*In Hinduism, upādāna is the material manifestation of Brahman.-Buddhism:...
) to it; and, given that all aggregates are impermanent (anicca), it would then be likely that at some level we would experience agitation (paritassati), loss, grief, stress, or suffering (see dukkhaDukkha is a Pali term roughly corresponding to a number of terms in English including suffering, pain, unsatisfactoriness, sorrow, affliction, anxiety, dissatisfaction, discomfort, anguish, stress,...
). Therefore, if we want to be free of suffering, it is wise to experience the aggregates clearly, without clinging or craving (tanha' or ' literally means "thirst," figuratively denotes "desire" or "craving," and is traditionally juxtaposed with "peace of mind" .Synonyms:*愛 Cn: ài; Jp: ai; Vi: ái...
), apart from any notion of self (anattaIn Buddhism, anattā or anātman refers to the notion of "not-self". One scholar describes it as "meaning non-selfhood, the absence of limiting self-identity in people and things."...
).
Many of the suttas in the Khandhavagga express the aggregates in the context of the following sequence:
- An uninstructed worldling (assutavā puthujjana)
- regards: form as self; self as possessing form; form as in self; self as in form.
- lives obsessed by the notions: I am form; form is mine
- this form changes
- with the changes of form, there arises dukkha
- An instructed noble disciple (sutavā ariyasāvaka) does not regard form as self and so on, and thus when form changes, dukkha does not arise. (Note: in each of the suttas where the above formula is used, subsequent verses replace "form" with each of the other aggregates: sensation, perception, mental formations and consciousness.)
|
{{Buddhist term
| pi= khandha
| sa= स्कन्ध (skandha)
| zh=五蘊(T) / 五蕴(S)
| zh-Latn=wǔyùn
| vi=Ngũ uẩn
| ja=五蘊
| bo=ཕུང་པོ་ལྔ་
| bo-Latn=phung po lnga
| en=aggregate, mass, heap
| my=ခန္ဒာငါးပါး
| my-Latn= khan da nga: ba:, {{IPA-all|kʰã̀ dà ŋá bá}}
|}}
In BuddhistBuddhism, as traditionally conceived, is a path of salvation attained through insight into the ultimate nature of reality. It encompasses a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha...
phenomenology and soteriologyChristian Soteriology is the branch of Christian theology that deals with salvation. It is derived from the Greek sōtērion + English -logy...
, the five skandhas (SanskritSanskrit is a historical Indo-Aryan language, one of the liturgical languages of Hinduism and Buddhism, and one of the 22 official languages of India. It is also declared as a classical language by the government of India....
) or khandhas (Pāli
) are five "aggregates" which categorize all individual experience, among which there is no "SelfThe Ātman is a philosophical term used within Hinduism and Vedanta to identify the soul. It is one's true self beyond identification with the phenomenal reality of worldly existence.-Etymology:The word ātman is connected with the Indo-European root *ēt-men and is cognate with Old English "æþm",...
" to be found.
In the TheravadaTheravada Theravada Theravada (Pāli: थेरवाद theravāda (cf Sanskrit: स्थविरवाद sthaviravāda); literally, "the Teaching of the Elders" or "the Ancient Teaching", is the oldest surviving Buddhist school. It was founded in India...
tradition, sufferingDukkha is a Pali term roughly corresponding to a number of terms in English including suffering, pain, unsatisfactoriness, sorrow, affliction, anxiety, dissatisfaction, discomfort, anguish, stress,...
arises when one identifies with or otherwise clingsUpādāna is a word used in both Buddhism and Hinduism.*In Buddhism, upādāna is a critical link in the arising of suffering.*In Hinduism, upādāna is the material manifestation of Brahman.-Buddhism:...
to an aggregate; hence, suffering is extinguished by relinquishing attachments to aggregates. The MahayanaMahayana is one of the two main existing branches of Buddhism and a term for classification of Buddhist philosophies and practice. It was founded in India...
tradition further puts forth that ultimate freedomIn sramanic thought, Nirvana is the state of being free from suffering. It is an important concept in Buddhism and Jainism....
is realized by deeply penetratingPrajñāpāramitā Prajñāpāramitā Prajñāpāramitā (Devanagari: प्रज्ञा पारमिता, ་ཤེས་རབ་ཕ་རོལ་, , Japanese: Korean: banya-paramilda (般若波羅蜜多/반야파라밀다) Vietnamese: Bát Nhã Ba La Mật Đa (般若波羅蜜多), Tibetan: Yumchenmo, and , translated as the "Perfection of Wisdom", is one of the aspects of a bodhisattva's...
the nature of all aggregates as intrinsically emptyŚūnyatā, शून्यता , Suññatā , stong pa nyid , Kòng/Kū, 空 , Gong-seong, 공성 , qoɣusun meaning "Emptiness" or "Voidness", is a characteristic of phenomena arising from the fact that the impermanent...
of independent existenceSvabhāva is a concept frequently encountered in Mahayana Buddhism which literally means "own-being" or "own-becoming"...
.
Outside of Buddhist didactic contexts, "skandha" can mean mass, heap, pile, bundle or tree trunk.
Definition
{{PancaKhandha}}
Buddhist doctrine describes five aggregates:
- "form" or "matter"
In Hinduism and Buddhism, rūpa generally refers to material objects, particularly in regards to their appearance.-Hinduism:According to the Monier-Williams Dictionary , rūpa is defined as:...
(Skt., Pāli rūpaIn Hinduism and Buddhism, rūpa generally refers to material objects, particularly in regards to their appearance.-Hinduism:According to the Monier-Williams Dictionary , rūpa is defined as:...
, Tib. gzugs):
external and internal matter. Externally, rupa is the physical world. Internally, rupa includes the material body and the physical sense organs.
- "sensation"
Vedanā is a word in Sanskrit and Pāli traditionally translated as either "feeling" or "sensation." In general, vedanā refers to the pleasant, unpleasant and neutral sensations that occur when our internal sense organs come into contact with external sense objects and the associated...
or "feeling" (Skt., Pāli vedanāVedanā is a word in Sanskrit and Pāli traditionally translated as either "feeling" or "sensation." In general, vedanā refers to the pleasant, unpleasant and neutral sensations that occur when our internal sense organs come into contact with external sense objects and the associated...
, Tib. tshor-ba):
sensing an object as either pleasant or unpleasant or neutral.
- "perception", "conception", "apperception", "cognition", or "discrimination"
The Sanna is a tributary of the Vistula in Poland. Its source is in the village of Wierzchowiska II in Lublin Voivodeship, Galicia. It flows westward through a rural area. Then, it turns northward for a few kilometers until flowing into the Vistula near the city of Annopol. It is about 50 km...
(Skt. samjñā, Pāli saññāThe Sanna is a tributary of the Vistula in Poland. Its source is in the village of Wierzchowiska II in Lublin Voivodeship, Galicia. It flows westward through a rural area. Then, it turns northward for a few kilometers until flowing into the Vistula near the city of Annopol. It is about 50 km...
, Tib. 'du-shes):
registers whether an object is recognized or not (for instance, the sound of a bell or the shape of a tree).
- "mental formations", "impulses", "[[volition]]", or "compositional factors"
' or ' is a term figuring prominently in the teaching of the Buddha. The word means 'that which has been put together' and 'that which puts together'. In the first sense, refers to conditioned phenomena generally but specifically to all mental "dispositions"...
(Skt. samskāra, Pāli {{IAST' or ' is a term figuring prominently in the teaching of the Buddha. The word means 'that which has been put together' and 'that which puts together'. In the first sense, refers to conditioned phenomena generally but specifically to all mental "dispositions"...
, Tib. 'du-byed) :
all types of mental habits, thoughts, ideas, opinions, prejudices, compulsions, and decisions triggered by an object.
- "consciousness" (Skt. vijñāna, Pāli {{IAST
Vijñāna or viññāa is translated as "consciousness" or "life force" or simply "mind"....
, Tib. rnam-par-shes-pa):
- In the Nikayas: cognizance.
- In the Abhidhamma
Abhidharma or Abhidhamma are ancient Buddhist works which contain detailed scholastic reworkings of doctrinal material appearing in the Buddhist Sutras, according to schematic classifications...
: a series of rapidly changing interconnected discrete acts of cognizance.
- In Mahayana
Mahayana is one of the two main existing branches of Buddhism and a term for classification of Buddhist philosophies and practice. It was founded in India...
sources: the base that supports all experience.
See Table 1 for examples of definitional references to the aggregates in Buddhist primary sourcesBuddhist texts can be categorized in a number of ways. The Western terms "scripture" and "canonical" are applied to Buddhism in inconsistent ways by Western scholars: for example, one authority refers to "scriptures and other canonical texts", while another says that scriptures can be categorized...
.
In the Pāli CanonThe Pāli Canon is the standard collection of scriptures in the Theravada Buddhist tradition, as preserved in the Pali language. It is the only completely surviving early Buddhist canon, and one of the first to be written down...
, the majority of discourses focusing on the five aggregates discusses them as a basis for understanding and achieving liberation from suffering, without describing relationships between the aggregates themselves. Nonetheless, from some canonical discourses, a causal relationship between the five aggregates can be derived. The following (illustrated in the figure to the right) exemplify such relational attributes:
- Form (rupa) arises from experientially irreducible physical/physiological phenomena.
- Form – in terms of an external object (such as a sound) and its associated internal sense organ (such as the ear) – gives rise to consciousness ({{IAST|viññāṇa}}).
- The concurrence of an object, its sense organ and the related consciousness ({{IAST|viññāṇa}}) is called "contact" (phassa).
- From the contact of form and consciousness arise the three mental (nāma) aggregates of feeling (vedanā), perception (saññā) and mental formation ({{IAST|saṅkhāra}}).
- The mental aggregates can then in turn give rise to additional consciousness that leads to the arising of additional mental aggregates.
In this scheme, form, the mental aggregates, and consciousness are mutually dependent.
Other Buddhist literature has described the aggregates as arising in a linear or progressive fashion, from form to feeling to perception to mental formations to consciousness.
Parts of a chariot
In the Samyutta NikayaThe Samyutta Nikaya is a Buddhist scripture, the third of the five nikayas, or collections, in the Sutta Pitaka, which is one of the "three baskets" that compose the Pali Tipitaka of Theravada Buddhism. Because of the abbreviated way parts of the text are written, the total number of suttas is...
, the Buddha is recorded as saying that "just as the word 'chariot' exists on the basis of the aggregation of parts, even so the concept of 'being' exists when the five aggregates are available." Thus just as concept of "chariot" is a reificationReification is a fallacy of ambiguity, when an abstraction is treated as if it were a concrete, real event, or physical entity...
, so too is the concept of "being." The same analysis is applicable to the parts of the chariot; they too are unsubstantial in that they are causally produced, just like the chariot as a whole. The most explicit denial of the substantiality of the components of the being in the early texts is one that was quoted by later prominent Mahayana thinkers: All form is comparable to foam; all feelings to bubbles; all sensations are mirage-like; dispositions are like the plantain trunk; consciousness is but an illusion: so did the Buddha illustrate [the nature of the aggegates].
NagarjunaAcharya Nāgārjuna was an Indian philosopher and the founder of the Madhyamaka school of Mahāyāna Buddhism....
used ideas of this kind in the agamas to refute the SarvastivadaSarvastivada is an early school of Buddhism that held to 'the existence of all dharmas in the past, present and future, the 'three times'. The Abhidharma , a later text, states:-Origination and history:According to scholar Charles Prebish,...
conception of reality. The simultaneous non-reification of the self and reification of the skandhas has been viewed by some Buddhist thinkers as highly problematic.
In the early texts, the scheme of the five aggregates is not meant to be an exhaustive classification of the human being: rather it describes various aspects of the way an individual manifests. The chariot metaphor is not an exercise in ontologyOntology is the philosophical study of the nature of being, existence or reality in general, as well as of the basic categories of being and their relations...
, but rather a caution against ontological theorizing and conceptual realism. Part of the Buddha's general approach to language was to point towards its conventionalA convention is a set of agreed, stipulated or generally accepted standards, norms, social norms or criteria, often taking the form of a custom....
nature, and to undermine the misleading character of nouns as substance-words.
The skandha analysis of the early texts is not applicable to arahants. A tathāgata has abandoned that clinging to the personality factors that render the mind a bounded, measurable entity, and is instead "freed from being reckoned by" all or any of them, even in life. The skandhas have been seen to be a burdenDukkha is a Pali term roughly corresponding to a number of terms in English including suffering, pain, unsatisfactoriness, sorrow, affliction, anxiety, dissatisfaction, discomfort, anguish, stress,...
, and an enlightened individual is one with "burden dropped".
{{seealso|Tathagata#Inscrutable}}
Theravada perspectives
{{buddhism | terse=1}}
Bhikkhu BodhiBhikkhu Bodhi , born Jeffrey Block, is an American Buddhist monk, ordained in Sri Lanka and currently teaching in the New York/New Jersey area. He was appointed the second president of the Buddhist Publication Society and has edited and authored several publications grounded in the Theravada...
(2000b, p. 840) states that an examination of the aggregates has a "critical role" in the Buddha's teaching for multiple reasons, including:
- Understanding the Four Noble Truths
The Four Noble Truths is one of the most fundamental Buddhist teachings. In broad terms, these truths relate to suffering , its nature, its origin, its cessation and the path leading to its cessation...
: The five aggregates are the "ultimate referent" in the Buddha's elaboration on suffering (dukkhaDukkha is a Pali term roughly corresponding to a number of terms in English including suffering, pain, unsatisfactoriness, sorrow, affliction, anxiety, dissatisfaction, discomfort, anguish, stress,...
) in his First Noble Truth (see excerpted quote below) and "since all four truths revolve around suffering, understanding the aggregates is essential for understanding the Four Noble TruthsThe Four Noble Truths is one of the most fundamental Buddhist teachings. In broad terms, these truths relate to suffering , its nature, its origin, its cessation and the path leading to its cessation...
as a whole."
- Future Suffering's Cause: The five aggregates are the substrata for clinging and thus "contribute to the causal origination of future suffering."
- Release: Clinging to the five aggregates must be removed in order to achieve release.
Below, excerpts from the Pāli
literature will bear out Bhikkhu Bodhi's assessment.
Suffering's ultimate referent
In the BuddhaSiddhārtha Gautama was a spiritual teacher in the north eastern region of the Indian subcontinent who founded Buddhism. He is regarded by Buddhists as the Supreme Buddha of our age. The time of his birth and death are uncertain: most early 20th-century historians dated his lifetime as c...
's first discourse, the Dhammacakkappavattana SuttaThe Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta is the Buddha's first discourse after he reached Enlightenment. In this sutta, the Buddha discusses the Middle Way, the Noble Eightfold Path and the Four Noble Truths....
, he provides a classic elaboration on the first of his Four Noble TruthsThe Four Noble Truths is one of the most fundamental Buddhist teachings. In broad terms, these truths relate to suffering , its nature, its origin, its cessation and the path leading to its cessation...
, "The Truth of Suffering" (Dukkhasacca):
{{quote|The Noble Truth of Suffering [dukkha], monks, is this: BirthIn Buddhism, Jāti refers to the arising of a new living entity in saṃsāra.Synonyms:*生 Cn: shēng; Jp: shō; Vi: sinh*Tibetan: skyed.ba-Truth of suffering:...
is suffering, agingJarāmaraa is Sanskrit and Pāli for "old age" and "death" . In Buddhism, jaramarana refers to the inevitable end-of-life suffering of all beings prior to their rebirth in the cycle of .Synonyms:...
is suffering, sickness is suffering, deathJarāmaraa is Sanskrit and Pāli for "old age" and "death" . In Buddhism, jaramarana refers to the inevitable end-of-life suffering of all beings prior to their rebirth in the cycle of .Synonyms:...
is suffering, association with the unpleasant is suffering, dissociation from the pleasant is suffering, not to receive what one desires is suffering—in brief the five aggregates subject to graspingUpādāna is a word used in both Buddhism and Hinduism.*In Buddhism, upādāna is a critical link in the arising of suffering.*In Hinduism, upādāna is the material manifestation of Brahman.-Buddhism:...
are suffering.}}
According to Thanissaro:
{{quote|Prior to the Buddha, the Pali word khandha had very ordinary meanings: A khandha could be a pile, a bundle, a heap, a mass. It could also be the trunk of a tree. In his first sermon, though, the Buddha gave it a new, psychological meaning, introducing the term clinging-khandhas to summarize his analysis of the truth of stress and suffering. Throughout the remainder of his teaching career, he referred to these psychological khandhas time and again.}}
In what way are the aggregates suffering? For this we can turn to Khandhavagga suttas below.
In the early texts, the skandhas explain what suffering is. According to Noa Ronkin, "What emerges from the texts ... is a wider signification of the khandhas than merely the aggregates constituting the person. Sue Hamilton has provided a detailed study of the khandhas. Her conclusion is that the associating of the five khandhas as a whole with dukkha indicates that experience is a combination of a straightforward cognitive process together with the psychological orientation that colours it in terms of unsatisfactoriness. Experience is thus both cognitive and affective, and cannot be separated from perception. As one's perception changes, so one's experience is different: we each have our own particular cognitions, perceptions and volitional activities in our own particular way and degree, and our own way of responding to and interpreting our experience is our very experience. In harmony with this line of thought, Gethin observes that the khandhas are presented as five aspects of the nature of conditioned existence from the point of view of the experiencing subject; five aspects of one's experience. Hence each khandha represents 'a complex class of phenomena that is continuously arising and falling away in response to processes of consciousness based on the six spheres of sense. They thus become the five upādānakhandhas, encompassing both grasping and all that is grasped.'"
Future suffering's cause
The Samyutta NikayaThe Samyutta Nikaya is a Buddhist scripture, the third of the five nikayas, or collections, in the Sutta Pitaka, which is one of the "three baskets" that compose the Pali Tipitaka of Theravada Buddhism. Because of the abbreviated way parts of the text are written, the total number of suttas is...
contains the Khandhavagga ("The Book of Aggregates"), a book compiling over a hundred suttas related to the five aggregates. Typical of these is the Upadaparitassana Sutta ("Agitation through Clinging Discourse," SN 22:7), which states:
{{quote|...[T]he instructed noble disciple ... does not regard form [or other aggregates] as self, or self as possessing form, or form as in self, or self as in form. That form of his changes and alters. Despite the change and alteration of form, his consciousness does not become preoccupied with the change of form.... [T]hrough non-clinging he does not become agitated." (Trans. by Bodhi, 2000b, pp. 865-866.)}}
Put another way, if we were to self-identify with an aggregate, we would cling (upadanaUpādāna is a word used in both Buddhism and Hinduism.*In Buddhism, upādāna is a critical link in the arising of suffering.*In Hinduism, upādāna is the material manifestation of Brahman.-Buddhism:...
) to it; and, given that all aggregates are impermanent (anicca), it would then be likely that at some level we would experience agitation (paritassati), loss, grief, stress, or suffering (see dukkhaDukkha is a Pali term roughly corresponding to a number of terms in English including suffering, pain, unsatisfactoriness, sorrow, affliction, anxiety, dissatisfaction, discomfort, anguish, stress,...
). Therefore, if we want to be free of suffering, it is wise to experience the aggregates clearly, without clinging or craving (tanha' or ' literally means "thirst," figuratively denotes "desire" or "craving," and is traditionally juxtaposed with "peace of mind" .Synonyms:*愛 Cn: ài; Jp: ai; Vi: ái...
), apart from any notion of self (anattaIn Buddhism, anattā or anātman refers to the notion of "not-self". One scholar describes it as "meaning non-selfhood, the absence of limiting self-identity in people and things."...
).
Many of the suttas in the Khandhavagga express the aggregates in the context of the following sequence:
- An uninstructed worldling (assutavā puthujjana)
- regards: form as self; self as possessing form; form as in self; self as in form.
- lives obsessed by the notions: I am form; form is mine
- this form changes
- with the changes of form, there arises dukkha
- An instructed noble disciple (sutavā ariyasāvaka) does not regard form as self and so on, and thus when form changes, dukkha does not arise. (Note: in each of the suttas where the above formula is used, subsequent verses replace "form" with each of the other aggregates: sensation, perception, mental formations and consciousness.)
|
Example of Aggregate-Clinging
To give a simplistic example, if one believes "this body is mine" or "I exist within this body," then as one's body ages, becomes ill, and approaches death, one will likely experience longing for youth or health or eternal life, will likely dread aging and sickness and death, and will likely spend much time and energy lost in fears, fantasies and ultimately futile activities.
In the Nikayas, such is likened to shooting oneself with a second arrow, where the first arrow is a physical phenomenon (such as, in this case, a bodily manifestation associated with aging or illness or dying) and the second is the mental anguish of the undisciplined mind associated with the physical phenomenon (see the Sallatha Sutta).
On the other hand, one with a disciplined mind who is able to see this body as a set of aggregates will be free of such fear, frustration and time-consuming escapism.
|
But how does one become aware of and then let go of one's identification with or clinging to the aggregates? Below is an excerpt from the classic Satipatthana SuttaThe Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta and the Mahāsatipaṭṭhāna Sutta are two of the most popular discourses in the Pali Canon, embraced by both Theravada and Mahayana practitioners...
that shows how traditional mindfulnessVipassanā or vipaśyanā in the Buddhist tradition means insight into the nature of reality. A regular practitioner of Vipassana is known as a Vipassi ....
practices can awaken understanding, release and wisdom.
Release through aggregate-contemplation
In the classic Theravada meditation reference, the "{{IASTThe Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta and the Mahāsatipaṭṭhāna Sutta are two of the most popular discourses in the Pali Canon, embraced by both Theravada and Mahayana practitioners...
" ("The Foundations of Mindfulness Discourse," MNThe Majjhima Nikaya is a Buddhist scripture, the second of the five nikayas, or collections, in the Sutta Pitaka, which is one of the "three baskets" that compose the Pali Tipitaka of Theravada Buddhism...
10), the Buddha provides four bases for establishing mindfulness: body (kaya), sensations (vedana), mind (citta) and mental objects (dhamma). When discussing mental objects as a basis for meditation, the Buddha identifies five objects, including the aggregates. Regarding meditation on the aggregates, the Buddha states:
{{quote|How, monks, does a monk live contemplating mental objects in the mental objects of the five aggregates of clinging?
Herein, monks, a monk thinks, "Thus is material form; thus is the arising of material form; and thus is the disappearance of material form. Thus is feeling; thus is the arising of feeling; and thus is the disappearance of feeling. Thus is perception; thus is the arising of perception; and thus is the disappearance of perception. Thus are formations; thus is the arising of formations; and thus is the disappearance of formations. Thus is consciousness; thus is the arising of consciousness; and thus is the disappearance of consciousness."
...Or his mindfulness is established with the thought, "Mental objects exist," to the extent necessary just for knowledge and mindfulness, and he lives detached, and clings to nothing in the world. Thus also, monks, a monk lives contemplating mental objects in the mental objects of the five aggregates of clinging. (Nyanasatta, trans., 1994.)}}
Thus, through mindfulness contemplation, one sees an "aggregate as an aggregate"—sees it arising and dissipating. Such clear seeing creates a space between the aggregate and clinging, a space that will prevent or enervate the arising and propagation of clinging, thereby diminishing future suffering.
As clinging disappears, so too notions of a separate "self." In the Mahasunnata Sutta ("The Greater Discourse on Emptiness," MNThe Majjhima Nikaya is a Buddhist scripture, the second of the five nikayas, or collections, in the Sutta Pitaka, which is one of the "three baskets" that compose the Pali Tipitaka of Theravada Buddhism...
122), after reiterating the aforementioned aggregate-contemplation instructions (for instance, "Thus is form; thus is the arising of form; and, thus is the disappearance of form"), the Buddha states:
{{quote|When he [a monk] abides contemplating rise and fall in these five aggregates affected by clinging, the conceit "I am" based on these five aggregates affected by clinging is abandoned in him.... (Nanamoli & Bodhi, 2001, p. 975.)}}
In a complementary fashion, in the Buddha's second discourse, the Anattalakkhana SuttaThe Sutta , also known as the Pañcavaggiya Sutta , is the second discourse delivered by the Buddha...
("The Characteristic of Nonself," SN 22:59), the Buddha instructs:
{{quote|Monks, form is nonself. For if, monks, form were self, this form would not lead to affliction, and it would be possible to [manipulate] form [in the following manner]: "Let my form be thus; let my form not be thus...." [Identical statements are made regarding feeling, perception, volitional formations and consciousness.]
...Seeing thus [for instance, through contemplation], monks, the instructed noble disciple becomes disenchanted with form [and the other aggregates].... Being disenchanted, he becomes dispassionate. Through dispassion [his mind] is liberated. (Bodhi, 2005a, pp. 341-2.)}}
As seen below, the Mahayana tradition continues this use of the aggregates to achieve self-liberation.
Mahayanist perspectives
In one of Mahayana Buddhism's most famous declarations, the aggregates are referenced:
{{quote|Form is emptiness, emptiness is form.}}
What does this mean? To what degree is it a departure from the aforementioned Theravada perspective? Moreover, more generally, how are the aggregates used in the Mahayana literature? These questions are addressed below.
The intrinsic emptiness of all things
The Sanskrit version of the classic "Prajnaparamita Hridaya Sutra" ("Heart SutraThe Heart of Perfect Wisdom Sutra or Heart Sutra or Essence of Wisdom Sutra is a well-known Mahāyāna Buddhist sutra that is very popular among Mahayana Buddhists both for its brevity and depth of meaning...
") begins:
The noble Avalokiteshvara BodhisattvaIn Buddhism, a bodhisattva means either "enlightened existence " or "enlightenment-being" or, given the variant Sanskrit spelling satva rather than sattva, "heroic-minded one for enlightenment ." Another translation is...
,
| Arya avalokiteshvaro bodhisattvo
|
while practicing the deep practice of Prajnaparamita Prajñāpāramitā Prajñāpāramitā Prajñāpāramitā (Devanagari: प्रज्ञा पारमिता, ་ཤེས་རབ་ཕ་རོལ་, , Japanese: Korean: banya-paramilda (般若波羅蜜多/반야파라밀다) Vietnamese: Bát Nhã Ba La Mật Đa (般若波羅蜜多), Tibetan: Yumchenmo, and , translated as the "Perfection of Wisdom", is one of the aspects of a bodhisattva's...
| gambhiran prajna-paramita caryan caramano
|
looked upon the Five Skandhas,
| vyaavalokayati sma panca skandhas
|
...seeing they were empty of self-existence Svabhāva is a concept frequently encountered in Mahayana Buddhism which literally means "own-being" or "own-becoming"...
....
| tansh ... svabhava shunyan pashyati sma....
|
Svabhava: In the Theravada canon, when "emptiness of self" is mentioned, the English word "self" is a translation of the Pali
word "atta" (Sanskrit, "atman"); in the Sanskrit-version of the Heart Sutra, the English word "self" is a translation of the Sanskrit word "sva-bhavaBhava is the Sanskrit and Pāli word for "becoming" in the sense of 'ongoing worldly existence', from the root bhū "to become".Synonyms:*有 Cn: yǒu; Jp: u; Vi: hữu*Tibetan: srid.pa...
".
In other words, whereas the Sutta PitakaThe Sutta Pitaka is the second of the three divisions of the Tipitaka or Pali Canon, the great Pali collection of Buddhist writings, the scriptures of Theravada Buddhism...
typically instructs one to apprehend the aggregates without clingingUpādāna is a word used in both Buddhism and Hinduism.*In Buddhism, upādāna is a critical link in the arising of suffering.*In Hinduism, upādāna is the material manifestation of Brahman.-Buddhism:...
or self-identificationIn Buddhism, anattā or anātman refers to the notion of "not-self". One scholar describes it as "meaning non-selfhood, the absence of limiting self-identity in people and things."...
, PrajnaparamitaPrajñāpāramitā Prajñāpāramitā Prajñāpāramitā (Devanagari: प्रज्ञा पारमिता, ་ཤེས་རབ་ཕ་རོལ་, , Japanese: Korean: banya-paramilda (般若波羅蜜多/반야파라밀다) Vietnamese: Bát Nhã Ba La Mật Đa (般若波羅蜜多), Tibetan: Yumchenmo, and , translated as the "Perfection of Wisdom", is one of the aspects of a bodhisattva's...
leads one to apprehend the aggregates as having no intrinsic reality.
In the Heart Sutra's second verse, after rising from his aggregate meditation, Avalokiteshvara declares:
{{quote|Form is emptinessŚūnyatā, शून्यता , Suññatā , stong pa nyid , Kòng/Kū, 空 , Gong-seong, 공성 , qoɣusun meaning "Emptiness" or "Voidness", is a characteristic of phenomena arising from the fact that the impermanent...
, emptiness is form,
form does not differ from emptiness, emptiness does not differ from form.
The same is true with feelings, perceptions, mental formations and consciousness.}}
Thich Nhat Hanh interprets this statement as:
{{quote|Form is the wave and emptiness is the water.... [W]ave is water, water is wave.... [T]hese five [aggregates] contain each other. Because one exists, everything exists.}}
Red PineBill Porter is an acclaimed translator and interpreter of Chinese and Sanskrit texts, primarily Buddhist, including poetry and Sutras.-Early life:...
comments:
{{quote|That form is empty was one of the Buddha's earliest and most frequent pronouncements. But in the light of Prajnaparamita, form is not simply empty, it is so completely empty, it is emptiness itself, which turns out to be the same as form itself.... All separations are delusions. But if each of the skandhas is one with emptiness, and emptiness is one with each of the skandhas, then everything occupies the same indivisible space, which is emptiness.... Everything is empty, and empty is everything.}}
Tangibility and transcendence
Commenting on the Heart SutraThe Heart of Perfect Wisdom Sutra or Heart Sutra or Essence of Wisdom Sutra is a well-known Mahāyāna Buddhist sutra that is very popular among Mahayana Buddhists both for its brevity and depth of meaning...
, D.T. SuzukiDaisetsu Teitaro Suzuki was a famous Japanese author of books and essays on Buddhism, Zen and Shin that were instrumental in spreading interest in both Zen and Shin to the West. Suzuki was also a prolific translator of Chinese, Japanese, and Sanskrit literature...
notes:
{{quote|When the sutra says that the five Skandhas have the character of emptiness ..., the sense is: no limiting qualities are to be attributed to the Absolute; while it is immanent in all concrete and particular objects, it is not in itself definable.}}
That is, from the Mahayana perspective, the aggregates convey the relativeIn Buddhist context, samvriti refers to the conventional, as opposed to absolute, truth or reality. Knowledge is considered as split into three levels: The first being the illusory , considered false compared to the empirical ,...
(or conventional) experience of the world by an individual, although AbsoluteIn Buddhist context, paramartha refers to the absolute, as opposed to merely conventional, truth or reality. Knowledge is considered as split into three levels: The first being the illusory , considered false compared to the empirical In Buddhist context, paramartha refers to the absolute, as...
truth is realized through them.
The tathagatagarbha sutras, on occasion, speak of the ineffable skandhas of the Buddha (beyond the nature of worldly skandhas and beyond worldly understanding), and in the Mahayana Mahaparinirvana SutraThe Nirvana Sutra, or ' .) is a major Mahayana sutra, which its English-translator, Kosho Yamamoto, has described as 'one of the three great masterpieces of Mahayana Buddhism'. It is one of several Buddhist texts having approximately the same title, another well-known text being , part of the Pali...
the Buddha tells of how the Buddha's skandhas are in fact eternal and unchanging. The Buddha's skandhas are said to be incomprehensible to unawakened vision.
Vajrayana perspectives
The Vajrayana tradition further develops the aggregates in terms of mahamudraMahamudra literally means 'great seal' or 'great symbol'. Thubten Yeshe explains the use of the term: "Mahamudra means absolute seal, totality, unchangeability. Sealing something implies that you cannot destroy it...
epistemology and tantricVajrayāna Buddhism is also known as Tantric Buddhism, Tantrayāna, Mantrayāna, Secret Mantra, Esoteric Buddhism and the Diamond Vehicle. The period of Vajrayana Buddhism has been classified as the fifth or final period of Indian Buddhism...
reifications.
The truth of our insubstantiality
Referring to mahamudra teachings, Chogyam TrungpaChögyam Trungpa Rinpoche was a Buddhist meditation master and holder of both the Kagyu and Nyingma lineages, the eleventh Trungpa tülku, a tertön, supreme abbot of the Surmang monasteries, scholar, teacher, poet, artist, and originator of a radical re-presentation of Shambhala vision.Recognized...
(Trungpa, 2001, pp. 10-12; and, Trungpa, 2002, pp. 124, 133-4) identifies the form aggregate as the "solidification" of ignorance (Pali, avijja; Skt., avidya), allowing one to have the illusion of "possessing" ever dynamic and spacious wisdomVidya, Vidhya is a Sanskrit name for knowledge. It is frequently used in Hinduism as honorific stemming from the Puranic conception of knowledge and learning. Vidya is an epithet of the Hindu goddess Sarasvati, consort of Brahma according to Hindu beliefs...
(Pali, vijja; Skt. vidya), and thus being the basis for the creation of a dualistic relationship between "self" and "other."
According to Trungpa Rinpoche (1976, pp. 20-22), the five skandhas are "a set of Buddhist concepts which describe experience as a five-step process" and that "the whole development of the five skandhas...is an attempt on our part to shield ourselves from the truth of our insubstantiality," while "the practice of meditation is to see the transparency of this shield." (ibid, p. 23)
Bardo deity manifestations
Trungpa Rinpoche writes (2001, p. 38):
{{quote|[S]ome of the details of tantricVajrayāna Buddhism is also known as Tantric Buddhism, Tantrayāna, Mantrayāna, Secret Mantra, Esoteric Buddhism and the Diamond Vehicle. The period of Vajrayana Buddhism has been classified as the fifth or final period of Indian Buddhism...
iconography are developed from abhidharma [that is, in this context, detailed analysis of the aggregates]. Different colors and feelings of this particular consciousness, that particular emotion, are manifested in a particular deity wearing such-and-such a costume, of certain particular colors, holding certain particular sceptres in his hand. Those details are very closely connected with the individualities of particular psychological processes.}}
Perhaps it is in this sense that the Tibetan Book of the Dead (Fremantle & Trungpa, 2003) makes the following associations between the aggregates and tantric deities during the bardoThe Tibetan word Bardo means literally "intermediate state" - also translated as "transitional state" or "in-between state" or "liminal state". In Sanskrit the concept has the name antarabhāva....
after death:
{{quote|The blue light of the skandha of consciousness in its basic purity, the wisdom of the dharmadhātuDharmadhatu may be defined as the 'dimension', 'realm' or 'sphere' of Dharma and denotes the collective 'one-taste' dimension of Dharmata.-Nomenclature, orthography and etymology:...
, luminous, clear, sharp and brilliant, will come towards you from the heart of VairocanaVairocana Vairocana Vairocana (also Vairochana or Mahāvairocana; Sanskrit: वैरोचन, Bengali: বৈরোচন, Indonesian: Dhyani Buddha Wairocana, Chinese: 大日如來 Dàrì Rúlái or 毘盧遮那佛 Pílúzhēnàfó , Korean: 비로자나불 Birojanabul or 대일여래 Daeil Yeorae, Japanese: Dainichi Nyorai, 大日如来; Tibetan: རྣམ་པར་སྣང་མཛད།...
and his consort, and pierce you so that your eyes cannot bear it. [p. 63]}}
{{quote|The white light of the skandha of form in its basic purity, the mirror-like wisdom, dazzling white, luminous and clear, will come towards you from the heart of VajrasattvaVajrasattva is a bodhisattva in the Mahayana, Mantrayana and Vajrayana buddhist traditions. In the Japanese Vajrayana school of Buddhism, Shingon, Vajrasattva is the esoteric aspect of the bodhisattva Samantabhadra and is commonly associated with the student practitioner who through the master's...
and his consort and pierce you so that your eyes cannot bear to look at it. [p. 66]}}
{{quote|The yellow light of the skandha of feeling in its basic purity, the wisdom of equality, brilliant yellow, adorned with discs of light, luminous and clear, unbearable to the eyes, will come towards you from the heart of RatnasambhavaRatnasambhava is one of the Five Dhyani Buddhas of Vajrayana or Tantric Buddhism. Ratnasambhava's mandalas and mantras focus on developing equanimity and equality and, in Vajrayana buddhist thought is associated with the attempt to destroy greed and pride. His consort is Lochana and his mount is a...
and his consort and pierce your heart so that your eyes cannot bear to look at it. [p. 68]}}
{{quote|The red light of the skandha of perception in its basic purity, the wisdom of discrimination, brilliant red, adorned with discs of light, luminous and clear, sharp and bright, will come from the heart of AmitābhaAmitābha is a celestial buddha described in the scriptures of the Mahāyāna school of Buddhism. Amitabha is the principal buddha in the Pure Land sect, a branch of Buddhism practiced mainly in East Asia...
and his consort and pierce your heart so that your eyes cannot bear to look at it. Do not be afraid of it. [p. 70]}}
{{quote|The green light of the skandha of concept [samskara] in its basic purity, the action-accomplishing wisdom, brilliant green, luminous and clear, sharp and terrifying, adorned with discs of light, will come from the heart of AmoghasiddhiIn Vajrayana Buddhism, the Five Dhyani Buddhas , also known as the , the Five Great Buddhas and the Five Jinas , are representations of the five qualities of the Buddha...
and his consort and pierce your heart so that your eyes cannot bear to look at it. Do not be afraid of it. It is the spontaneous play of your own mind, so rest in the supreme state free from activity and care, in which there is no near or far, love or hate. [p. 73]}}
Relation to other Buddhist concepts
Other fundamental Buddhist concepts associated with the five skandhas include:
SamsaraSamsara is the endless cycle of suffering caused by birth, death and rebirth within Buddhism, Bön, Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism and other related religions....
: It is through the five skandhas that the world (samsara) is experienced, and nothing is experienced apart from the five skandhas.
Three CharacteristicsAccording to the Buddhist tradition, all phenomena other than Nirvana are marked by three characteristics, sometimes referred to as the Dharma seals: impermanence, suffering, and not-self ---.According to tradition, after much...
: It is through the five skandhas that impermanence (anicca) is experienced, that suffering (duhkha) arises, and that "non-self" (anatta or anatman) can be realized.
| aggregate | external
sense base | internal
sense base | ultimate
reality |
| form | visible form,
sound, smell,
taste, touch | eye,
ear, nose,
tongue, body | 28
material
phenomena |
mental
objects
(dhamma) |
| sensation | | 52
mental
factors |
| perception |
| formation |
| | Nibbāna |
conscious-
ness
(vinnana) | | mind
(mana) | conscious-
ness
(citta) |
Four Paramatthas: The AbhidhammaAbhidharma or Abhidhamma are ancient Buddhist works which contain detailed scholastic reworkings of doctrinal material appearing in the Buddhist Sutras, according to schematic classifications...
and post-canonical Pali textsPali literature is concerned mainly with Theravada Buddhism, of which Pali is the traditional language.- India :Main article: Pali CanonThe earliest and most important Pali literature constitutes the Pali Canon, the scriptures of Theravada...
create a meta-scheme for the Sutta PitakaThe Sutta Pitaka is the second of the three divisions of the Tipitaka or Pali Canon, the great Pali collection of Buddhist writings, the scriptures of Theravada Buddhism...
's conceptions of aggregates, sense bases and elements. This meta-scheme is known as the four paramatthas or four ultimate realities:
- consciousness
- mental factors
- material phenomena
- Nibbāna
- The mapping between the aggregates, the sense bases (see below) and the ultimate realities is represented in the chart to the right.
Twelve Sense Bases:
- The first five external sense bases (that is, the sense objects of visible form, sound, smell, taste and touch) are part of the form aggregate and the mental sense object (that is, mental objects) overlap the first four aggregates (form, feeling, perception and formation).
- The first five internal sense bases (that is, the sense organs of eye, ear, nose, tongue and body) are also part of the form aggregate and the mental sense organ (mind) is comparable to the aggregate of consciousness. While the benefit of meditating on the aggregates is overcoming wrong views of the self
In Buddhism, anattā or anātman refers to the notion of "not-self". One scholar describes it as "meaning non-selfhood, the absence of limiting self-identity in people and things."...
(since the self is typically identified with one or more of the aggregates), the benefit of meditation on the six sense bases is to overcome craving' or ' literally means "thirst," figuratively denotes "desire" or "craving," and is traditionally juxtaposed with "peace of mind" .Synonyms:*愛 Cn: ài; Jp: ai; Vi: ái...
(through restraint and insight into sense objects that lead to contact, feeling and subsequent craving).
Twelve NidanasThe Twelve Nidānas are the best-known application of the Buddhist concept of pratītyasamutpāda , identifying the origins of suffering to be in craving and ignorance. The Twelve Nidānas are employed in the analysis of phenomena according to the principle of Pratītyasamutpāda...
/ Dependent OriginationThe doctrine of pratītyasamutpāda , often translated as "dependent arising," is a cardinal doctrine within Buddhist Philosophy. Common to all schools of Buddhism, it states that phenomena arise together in a mutually interdependent web of cause and effect...
: The Twelve Nidanas describe twelve phenomenal links by which suffering is perpetuated between and within lives. Embedded within this model, four of the five aggregates are explicitly mentioned in the following sequence: mental formations (saṅkhāra) condition consciousness ({{IAST|viññāṇa}}) which conditions name-and-form (nāma-rūpa) which conditions the precursors ({{IAST|saḷāyatana}}, phassa) to sensations (vedanā) which in turn condition craving ({{IAST|taṇhā}}) and clinging (upādānaUpādāna is a word used in both Buddhism and Hinduism.*In Buddhism, upādāna is a critical link in the arising of suffering.*In Hinduism, upādāna is the material manifestation of Brahman.-Buddhism:...
) which ultimately lead to the "entire mass of suffering" (kevalassa dukkhakkhandha). Overlaying this chain of conditioning on top of "The Five Aggregates" diagram at the top of this article, the interplay between the five-aggregates model of immediate causation and the twelve-nidana model of requisite conditioning becomes evident, for instance, underlining the seminal role that mental formations have in both the origination and cessation of suffering.
Eighteen Dhatus: The eighteen dhatus function through the five aggregates. The eighteen dhatus can be arranged into six triads, where each triad is composed of a sense organ, a sense object and sense consciousness. In regards to the aggregates:
- The first five sense organs (eye, ear, nose, tongue, body) are derivates of form. The sixth sense organ (mind) is part of consciousness.
- The first five sense objects (visible forms, sound, smell, taste, touch) are also derivatives of form. The sixth sense object (mental object) includes form, sensation, perception and mental formations.
- The six sense consciousness are the basis for consciousness.
See also
- Anatta
In Buddhism, anattā or anātman refers to the notion of "not-self". One scholar describes it as "meaning non-selfhood, the absence of limiting self-identity in people and things."...
- Atman (Buddhism)
Ātman or Atta literally means "self", but is sometimes translated as "soul" or "ego". The word derives from the Indo-European root *ēt-men and is cognate with the Old English æthm and German Atem....
- Pratitya-samutpada
The doctrine of pratītyasamutpāda , often translated as "dependent arising," is a cardinal doctrine within Buddhist Philosophy. Common to all schools of Buddhism, it states that phenomena arise together in a mutually interdependent web of cause and effect...
- Samsara
Samsara is the endless cycle of suffering caused by birth, death and rebirth within Buddhism, Bön, Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism and other related religions....
- Saṅkhāra
' or ' is a term figuring prominently in the teaching of the Buddha. The word means 'that which has been put together' and 'that which puts together'. In the first sense, refers to conditioned phenomena generally but specifically to all mental "dispositions"...
- Schools of Buddhism
Schools of Buddhism are classified in various ways. Normal English-language usage divides Buddhism into Theravada and Mahayana...
- Shunyata
Śūnyatā, शून्यता , Suññatā , stong pa nyid , Kòng/Kū, 空 , Gong-seong, 공성 , qoɣusun meaning "Emptiness" or "Voidness", is a characteristic of phenomena arising from the fact that the impermanent...
- Tathagatagarbha doctrine
In Mahayana and Tantric Buddhism, the doctrine teaches that each sentient being contains the intrinsic, effulgent Buddhic element or indwelling potency for becoming a Buddha. There are conflicting interpretations of the idea in Mahayana thought...
- Ti-lakkhana
Theravada
Mahayana
- The Five Skandhas, table showing the five skandhas, prepared by Alan Fox (Dept. of Philosophy, U. of Delaware).
Vajrayana
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