Sukhi.com

THE FIVE AGGREGATES

1. Form/Body
2. Feelings
3. Perception
4. Impulses
5. Consciousness

Pali - Khandas

1. Rupa
2. Vedanas
3. Sanna
4. Sankharas
5. Vinnana

 Is self-explanatory, may be thought of also as the mental picture one has of one's own body, not just the actual physical body itself.

Feelings

Represent pure sensation, physical or mental, pleasant, painful or neutral.

Perception

Is the recording of these sense data not only for perception but to retain perception as a basis for memory; the faculty of 'distinguishing a thing by its marks' as in seeing an object and identifying it as a table.

Impulses

Is the popular translation but this is literally 'confecting' or making up by which the conditioned part of the mind distorts neutral sense data into 'I see', 'I hear', etc. Thus they are volitional, 'I' biased and so are karma (kamma) producing agents. 'Mental configurations' is another possible translation.

Consciousness

Arises and dies away from moment to moment, depending upon conditions. It is important to note that, while at times it can be an all-over awareness, most of the time it is discriminative, because once the sense data have been received and have become conscious, they have already been tainted in the Sankharas by the 'I' thought.
Consciousness arises upon the basis of sense data, and because of the erroneous idea that 'I' am, there is a grasping after those sense impressions thought desirable to 'me' and a rejection of those thought undesirable. This results in Dukkha. If the sense data are seen as what they are, impermanent, correct responses can be made if required, but without grasping.

These five aspects of ourselves can be seen to be operating in all our functioning from moment to moment, and to be impermanent, thus unsatisfactory, and without any essence of self. It is a useful exercise to investigate this in our own lives. It is impossible to say of any of the Khandas: 'This I am, this is mine, this is my self'. The ending of this process of grasping after any or all of the Five Aggregates or Khandas is one definition of Nirvana (Nibbana)

.Home