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Five skandhas

Gethin

Perhaps the most important analysis of individual experience found in the early texts and carried over into the Abhidharma is an account in terms of the five ‘aggregates’ or ‘groups’ (skandha/khandha) of physical and mental events. The list and description of the five skandhas represent a response to such questions as: what is a being? what is going on? what is there? In the first place I can say that I seem to have a body with five senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. There is then the physical world, what the Buddhist texts call ‘form’ (rūpa). In the second place there is variety of mental activity going on, much of it in direct response to the various physical stimuli. Thus my experiences continuously produce in me pleasant, unpleasant, or indifferent feelings (vedanā). I am also continuously classifying and sorting my experiences such that, confronted by various sense stimuli, there can be recognition (saṃjñā/saññā) of something as an ‘apple’ or a ‘cup of tea’.6 Furthermore, my experiences seem to provoke various desires, wishes, and tendencies—volitional ‘forces’ or ‘formations’ (saṃskāra/saṃkhāra); thus, if I perceive an apple when I am hungry...

In this way my individual experience can be analysed as consisting of various phenomena that can be conveniently classified as forming five collections or aggregates: bodily phenomena, feelings, labelling or recognizing, volitional activities, and conscious awareness. Buddhist thought presents these five aggregates as an exhaustive analysis of the individual. They are the world for any given being—there is nothing else besides. The question now arises whether any given instance of these five groups of phenomena can qualify as a ‘self’—an unchanging, constant underlying experience. Steven Collins effectively identifies three arguments for the denial of the self in early Buddhist texts.7

Gethin, Rupert (1998-07-16). The Foundations of Buddhism (p. 136). Oxford University Press. Kindle Edition.

Gethin, Rupert (1998-07-16). The Foundations of Buddhism (pp. 135-136). Oxford University Press. Kindle Edition.

Gethin, Rupert (1998-07-16). The Foundations of Buddhism (p. 135). Oxford University Press. Kindle Edition.

Paul Williams

In the Pali Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta the Buddha states:

Birth is dukkha, decay is dukkha, disease is dukkha, death is dukkha, to be united with the unpleasant is dukkha, to be separated from the pleasant is dukkha, not to get what one desires is dukkha. In brief the five aggregates [khandha; Sanskrit: skandha] of attachment are dukkha.(1)

What this amounts to is that absolutely everything pertaining to an unenlightened individual comes under duhkha. A certain amount has been written against the translation of this term by 'suffering'. This is perhaps animated by a feeling that to claim all of our unenlightened life is suffering sounds rather pessimistic, even though it is sometimes added that Buddhism is actually realistic - because it tells it how it is - and optimistic, because it teaches a way to overcome duhkha. It is true that the Buddhist tradition has come to speak of three types of duhkha. The first is literally pain (i.e. in Sanskrit duhkhaduhkha), the sort of feeling you have when you step in bare feet on a drawing pin. The second type of duhkha is the duhkha of change, a duhkha which things have simply because they are impermanent (Sanskrit: anitya; Pali: anicca). They are liable to change, to become otherwise. Thus even happiness is duhkha in this sense, because even happiness is liable to change. This sort of duhkha is considered by Buddhists to be omnipresent in samsara. Perfectly illustrated in the Buddha-to-be's discovery of old age, sickness, and death, radical unremitting impermanence is discovered to be the essential ontological dimension of our unenlightened state. And finally there is the duhkha of conditions. This is the duhkha that is part of our very being as conditioned individuals living in a conditioned world. It is the duhkha which is intrinsic to our state of imperfection, unenlightenment. As Rupert Gethin puts it:

we are part of a world compounded of unstable and unreliable conditions, a world in which pain and pleasure, happiness and suffering are in all sorts of ways bound up together. It is the reality of this state of affairs that the teachings of the Buddha suggest we each must understand if we are ever to be free of suffering. (Gethin 1998: 62) It follows from this therefore that as a technical expression of Buddhism duhkha is much wider in meaning than 'suffering'. The Buddhist does not deny that we laugh and are happy, although laughter and happiness still come under duhkha. They come under duhkha not in the sense that they are really miserable but rather in the sense that they are impermanent and anyway they are the laughter and happiness of beings that are not enlightened (as they could be).

Williams, Paul (2002-12-07). Buddhist Thought (p. 43). Taylor & Francis. Kindle Edition.

Williams, Paul (2002-12-07). Buddhist Thought (pp. 42-43). Taylor & Francis. Kindle Edition.

Williams, Paul (2002-12-07). Buddhist Thought (p. 42). Taylor & Francis. Kindle Edition.

Geshe Tashi Tsering

Dukkha means suffering at all levels. Of course everyday suffering is present—pain, difficulties, illness, and discomfort—but dukkha has more to do with psychological suffering, the sense of dissatisfaction that is very deeply rooted in our psyche. The Buddha’s summary—that the five aggregates subject to clinging are suffering—really takes it to the deepest level. He means that everything about us, all of our mental and physical constituents, are suffering because we cling to them in some form.

Tsering, Geshe Tashi (2005-06-10). The Four Noble Truths: The Foundation of Buddhist Thought, Volume 1 (Kindle Locations 588-591). Perseus Books Group. Kindle Edition.

Dukkha

The concept of suffering is a very subtle one, so much so that many books, instead of translating it, use the original word, dukkha in Pali or duhkha in Sanskrit. Suffering in English conveys only a gross level of meaning, and I can see why scholars are tempted to keep to the original or try other terms such as dissatisfaction. Dukkha means suffering at all levels. Of course everyday suffering is present—pain, difficulties, illness, and discomfort—but dukkha has more to do with psychological suffering, the sense of dissatisfaction that is very deeply rooted in our psyche. The Buddha’s summary—that the five aggregates subject to clinging are suffering—really takes it to the deepest level. He means that everything about us, all of our mental and physical constituents, are suffering because we cling to them in some form.

Tsering, Geshe Tashi (2005-06-10). The Four Noble Truths: The Foundation of Buddhist Thought, Volume 1 (Kindle Locations 586-591). Perseus Books Group. Kindle Edition.

Tsering, Geshe Tashi (2005-06-10). The Four Noble Truths: The Foundation of Buddhist Thought, Volume 1 (Kindle Location 586). Perseus Books Group. Kindle Edition.

Goldstein

The five aggregates are the raw material from which we form a sense of self. The first aggregate is composed of all the material elements of the physical universe. Everything we sense as being the body is part of this aggregate. Usually we stay on the surface level of perception and think of the body as composed of arms, legs, chest, head, or perhaps, if we have some knowledge of anatomy, as different systems of bones, organs, muscles, nerves, and so on. Another way of understanding the body would be to directly feel the physical sensations: hardness, coolness, pressure, stiffness, vibration, heat, and so on. Notice there is no sensation called arm, leg, or lung. In meditation this becomes very clear. In both sitting and walking practice, the perception of form, the shape or image, of the body often disappears. At that time, only the experience of rapidly changing sensations remains. We begin to feel the body as an energy field. And sometimes even that disappears, and there is simply the experience of space. At first, people may be afraid of settling into this formlessness: “If there’s no arm, how can I eat?” There’s no cause for concern, however, since the level of form is always available to do what is appropriate. We don’t give that up; we simply see the underlying reality as well. For example, we may know through microscopic observation that a chair is mostly empty space, yet we still use it functionally to sit on.

Goldstein, Joseph (2011-03-15). One Dharma: The Emerging Western Buddhism (pp. 159-160). Harper Collins, Inc.. Kindle Edition. Goldstein, Joseph (2011-03-15). One Dharma: The Emerging Western Buddhism (p. 159). Harper Collins, Inc.. Kindle Edition.