The Five Aggregates
Filed Under Buddhadharma | Posted on May 5, 2008
The five aggregates (Sk. skandha), in Buddhist thought, are the components that make up the imputed “self”. While we have a tendency to view the self, as well as other selves and external phenomena, as a cohesive and self-existent whole, in reality what we call “I”, “me”, “you”, “it”, etc. are simply impermanent coalescences of separate but interrelated physical and mental factors, called the aggregates. Our failure to realize this in a truly meaningful way leads to a great deal of suffering. As we misconceive the true nature of the self, we misconceive the self’s importance relative to those people and events which disturb our happiness.
Briefly, the Five Aggregates are:
1. Form (rupa skandha)
It is the four Great Elements — earth, water, fire, wind — and their derivatives.
The form aggregate corresponds generally to physical and material factors (the four elements), and more specifically to our sensory capability and the objects of the senses (sight, touch, smell, taste, and sound.) In other words, the form aggregate is what allows to experience and to be experienced within the physical universe.
2. Feeling (vedana skandha)
It is feeling born of contact with eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind.
Feeling is the emotional separation of sensory perceptual experiences (form) into positive, negative, and neutral responses. It is the beginning of the formation of attachment and aversion. When we experience a phenomena as pleasurable, we begin to develop attachment to that experience; when the experience is unpleasant, we develop an aversion to it.
3. Discriminating Awareness (samjna skandha)
It is perception of form, sound, smell, taste, tactile sensation, mental phenomena.
Also called perception or simply discrimination, this aggregate is essentially a process of classification. Based upon the initial feeling, we assign names and labels to our experiences, and begin to file and sort our perceptions into conceptual slots, such as “good” or “bad”, “friend” or “enemy”, “self” and “other”.
4. Karmic Formations (samskara skandha)
It is volition regarding form, sound, smell, taste, tactile sensation, mental phenomena.
This aggregate is also translated as mental formations, volitional formations, or compositional factors. It refers to our predisposition to respond, behave, or think in a given manner. Because it involves thought and behavior, there are karmic (moral) consequences involved. If we respond in a virtuous manner, we accrue positive karma; if we respond non-virtuously, we accrue negative karma.
5. Consciousness (vijnana skandha)
It is eye-, ear-, nose-, tongue-, body-, mind-consciousness.
Consciousness is the cognitive aspect of existence. In addition to the five physical senses, Buddhist thought recognizes a sixth sense, that relating to the non-physical mind. Consciousness produces experience by unifying external objects with cognition. Consciousness might also be viewed as the storehouse of previous perceptions, emotions, conceptions, and moral tendencies that unify and influence the other aggregates.
An Example
The experience of a snake is often used as an example. We’re walking blithely through the woods when we come upon a snake lying in our path. The form of the snake registers in our eye-sense and eye-consciousness. Upon our seeing the snake, a feeling develops. For most of us, that feeling is unpleasant, though there are folks out there who have a special affinity for our reptilian fellow-beings. Immediately thereafter, we begin to classify (discrimination) the object: it’s a snake, it’s frightening, it’s ugly, or maybe it’s cute and cuddly? Now we begin to formulate and implement our response (karmic formation): Do we kill it (bad, bad karma)? Do we avoid it and leave it alone (neutral karma)? Do we say a small prayer wishing the snake to be free from suffering and the causes of suffering (good karma)? Through this entire process, consciousness is active, creating and recalling perceptions, cognitions and conceptions to guide the process.
So What?
Now notice that we described two possible reactions to the snake — one of fear and hatred, and another more compassionate — but the snake had nothing to do with those reactions: the snake is just a snake, intrinsically neither ugly and frightening nor cute and cuddly. Those emotional and cognitive responses exist only in the mind of the perceiver, in the storehouse of consciousness that guides the experi. And so it is with all experience. Our suffering and our happiness derives not from our external experiences, but from our own learned cognitive habits and tendencies. And that is the great teaching of the Buddha: as we have learned habits that cause us to suffer, so we can unlearn those habits and learn new ones that promote our happiness.
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