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In Buddhist phenomenology and soteriology, the skandhas (Sanskrit) or khandhas (Pāḷi), aggregates in English, are the five functions or aspects that constitute the sentient being.[1][2] The Buddha teaches that nothing among them is really "I" or "mine".
In the Theravada tradition, suffering arises when one identifies with or clings to an aggregate. Suffering is extinguished by relinquishing attachments to aggregates.
The Mahayana tradition further puts forth that ultimate freedom is realized by deeply penetrating the nature of all aggregates as intrinsically empty of independent existence.
Outside of Buddhist didactic contexts, "skandha" can mean mass, heap, pile, gathering, bundle or tree trunk.[3][3]
According to Thanissaro, the buddha gave a new meaning to the term "khanda":
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.[4]
The Sutta Pitaka of the Pali Canon contains the teachings of the Buddha, as preserved by the Theravada tradition.
The sutras describe five aggregates:[4]
The Buddhist literature describes the aggregates as arising in a linear or progressive fashion, from form to feeling to perception to mental formations to consciousness.[17] In the early texts, the scheme of the five aggregates is not meant to be an exhaustive classification of the sentient being. Rather it describes various aspects of the way an individual manifests.[7]
Bhikkhu Bodhi (2000b, p. 840) states that an examination of the aggregates has a "critical role" in the Buddha's teaching for several reasons, including:[18]
In the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta the Buddha provides the classic elaboration on the first of his Four Noble Truths, "The Truth of Suffering" (Dukkhasacca):
The Noble Truth of Suffering [dukkha], monks, is this: Birth is suffering, aging is suffering, sickness is suffering, death 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 grasping are suffering.[9]
The Samyutta Nikaya contains the Khandhavagga ("The Book of Aggregates"), a book compiling over a hundred suttas related to the five aggregates. The Upadaparitassana Sutta ("Agitation through Clinging Discourse," SN 22:7) describes how non-clinging to form prevents agitation:
...[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.)
The most explicit denial of substantiality 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 aggregates].[10]
In the Pāli Canon and the Āgamas, the majority of discourses focusing on the five aggregates discusses them as a basis for understanding and achieving liberation from suffering.[11]
Liberation is possible by insight into the workings of the mind. Traditional mindfulness practices can awaken this by understanding, release and wisdom.
In the classic Theravada meditation reference, the "Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta" ("The Foundations of Mindfulness Discourse," MN 10), the Buddha provides four bases for establishing mindfulness: body (kaya), sensations (vedana), mind (citta) and mental objects (dhamma).[19] When discussing mental objects as a basis for meditation, the Buddha identifies five objects, including the aggregates.
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.[20] As clinging disappears, so too notions of a separate "self."
The aggregates don't constitute any 'essence'. In the Samyutta Nikaya, the Buddha explains this by using the simile of a chariot:
A 'chariot' exists on the basis of the aggregation of parts, even so the concept of 'being' exists when the five aggregates are available.[12][21]
Just as the concept of "chariot" is a reification, so too is the concept of "being". The constituents of being too are unsubstantial in that they are causally produced, just like the chariot as a whole.[13]
The chariot metaphor is not an exercise in ontology, but rather a caution against ontological theorizing and conceptual realism.[14] Part of the Buddha's general approach to language was to point towards its conventional nature, and to undermine the misleading character of nouns as substance-words.[15]
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 burden, and an enlightened individual is one with "burden dropped".[16]
While early Buddhism reflects the teachings as found in the Pali Sutta Pitaka and the Chinese Agama, the Early Buddhist schools developed detailed analyses and overviews of the teachings found in those sutras, called Abhidharma. Each school developed its own Abhidharma, the best known is the Theravāda Abhidhamma. The Sarvāstivāda Abhidharma has been preserved partly in the Chinese Agama.
The teaching of the six sense bases provides an alternative to the five aggregates as a description of the workings of the mind.[17] In this teaching, the coming together of an object and a sense-organ results in the arising of the corresponding consciousness. The suttas themselves don't describe this alternative. It is in the Abhidhamma, striving to "a single all-inclusive system"[18] that the five aggregates and the six sense bases are explicitly connected.[18]
This might be described as follows (illustrated in the figure to the right):[19]
In this scheme, form, the mental aggregates,[30] and consciousness are mutually dependent.[31]
There are Twelve Sense Bases:
While the benefit of meditating on the aggregates is overcoming wrong views of the self (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 (through restraint and insight into sense objects that lead to contact, feeling and subsequent craving).[20][21][22][32]
The eighteen dhātus[33] – the Six External Bases, the Six Internal Bases, and the Six Consciousnesses – function through the five aggregates. The eighteen dhātus can be arranged into six triads, where each triad is composed of a sense object, a sense organ, and sense consciousness. In regards to the aggregates:[23]
The Abhidhamma and post-canonical Pali texts create a meta-scheme for the Sutta Pitaka's conceptions of aggregates, sense bases and dhattus (elements).[24] This meta-scheme is known as the four paramatthas or four ultimate realities.
There are four paramatthas; three conditioned, one unconditioned:
The mapping between the aggregates, the twelve sense bases, and the ultimate realities is represented in this chart:[34]
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:
The interplay between the five-aggregates model of immediate causation and the twelve-nidana model of requisite conditioning is evident, for instance underlining the seminal role that mental formations have in both the origination and cessation of suffering.[36][37]
According to Schumann, the nidānas are a later synthesis of Buddhist teachings meant to make them more comprehensible. Comparison with the five skandhas shows that the chain contains logical inconsistencies, which can be explained when the chain is considered to be a later elaboration.[25] This way it is explainable that nāma-rūpa in consciousness in the nine-fold are the beginning or start, while in the twelve-fold chain they are preceded by ignorance and formations. Those can only exist when nāma-rūpa in consciousness are present. Schumann also proposes that the twelve-fold is extended over three existences, and illustrates the succession of rebirths. While Buddhaghosa in Vasubandhu maintains a 2-8-2 schema, Schumann maintains a 3-6-3 scheme, putting the five skandhas alongside the twelve nidānas.[25]
The Mahayana developed out of the traditional schools, introducing new texts and putting other emphasises in the teachings, especially sunyata and the Bodhisattva-ideal.
The Prajnaparamita-teachings developed from the first century BCE onward. It emphasises the "emptiness" of everything that exists. This means that there are no eternally existing "essences", since everything is dependently originated. The skandhas too are dependently originated, and lack any substantial existence .[38]
This is famously stated in the Heart Sutra. The Sanskrit version[39] of the classic "Prajnaparamita Hridaya Sutra" ("Heart Sutra") states:
The noble Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva, while practicing the deep practice of Prajnaparamita looked upon the Five Skandhas, seeing they were empty of self-existence,[26][40][41][42][43][44]
said, "Here Shariputra, form is emptiness, emptiness is form, emptiness is not separate from form, form is not separate from emptiness; whatever is form is emptiness, whatever is emptiness is form."[26] The same is true with feelings, perceptions, mental formations and consciousness.[27]
The Madhyaka-school elaborates on the notion of the middle way. Its basic text is the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā, written by Nagarjuna. Nagarjuna refuted the Sarvastivada conception of reality, which reifies dhammas.[13] The simultaneous non-reification of the self and reification of the skandhas has been viewed by some Buddhist thinkers as highly problematic.[28]
The Yogacara-school further analysed the workings of the mind, and developed the notion of the Eight Consciousnesses. These are an elaboration of the concept of nama-rupa and the five skandhas, adding detailed analyses of the workings of the mind.
When Buddhism was introduced in China it was understood in terms of its own culture. Various sects struggled to attain an understanding of the Indian texts. The Tathāgatagarbha Sutras and the idea of the Buddha-nature were endorsed, because of the perceived similarities with the Tao, which was understood as a transcendental reality underlying the world of appearances. Sunyata at first was understood as pointing to the Taoist "wu", nothingness.[29][30]
In China, the relation between absolute and relative was a central topic in understanding the Buddhist teachings. The aggregates convey the relative (or conventional) experience of the world by an individual, although Absolute truth is realized through them.
Commenting on the Heart Sutra, D.T. Suzuki notes:
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.[31]
The Tathāgatagarbha Sutras, which developed in India, played a prominent role in China. The tathagatagarbha-sutras, on occasion, speak of the ineffable skandhas of the Buddha (beyond the nature of worldly skandhas and beyond worldly understanding). In the Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra 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.
The Vajrayana tradition further develops the aggregates in terms of mahamudra epistemology and tantric reifications.
Referring to mahamudra teachings, Chogyam Trungpa [32] 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 wisdom (Pali, vijja; Skt. vidya), and thus being the basis for the creation of a dualistic relationship between "self" and "other."[45]
According to Trungpa Rinpoche,[33] 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." [34]
Trungpa Rinpoche writes (2001, p. 38):
[S]ome of the details of tantric 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.
The Tibetan Book of the Dead (Fremantle & Trungpa, 2003) makes the following associations between the aggregates and tantric deities during the bardo after death:
The blue light of the skandha of consciousness in its basic purity, the wisdom of the dharmadhātu, luminous, clear, sharp and brilliant, will come towards you from the heart of Vairocana and his consort, and pierce you so that your eyes cannot bear it. [p. 63]
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 Vajrasattva and his consort and pierce you so that your eyes cannot bear to look at it. [p. 66]
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 Ratnasambhava and his consort and pierce your heart so that your eyes cannot bear to look at it. [p. 68]
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 Amitābha 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]
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 Amoghasiddhi 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]
In the sutra, Buddha proved that none of the Five Aggregate,[42] the Six Entrances,[43] the Twelve Places,[44] Eighteen Realms,[45] the Seven Elements[46] has a cause or is natural. They all come from Buddha-nature[46]. Buddha-nature is and isn't everything in the illusion [47][47].
The reason why a spirit is clinging to the illusion is because of the discrimination of "existence" and "disappearance".[48] The discrimination makes the spirit to believe that clinging to the illusion is "existence" and detaching is "disappearance"[48]. When all five aggregates disappear, the concept of "disappear" itself is without context and base. Then the spirit will transcend out of the Maya Illusion and become enlightened[40][49].
Śūraṅgama Sūtra doesn't mention why and by who the illusion was created. However, it does explain how the four elements[50] mix and unit to trap spirits inside.[51]
(Unverified) According to other religions, demon maya's primary effort is to continuously strengthen the five aggregates as the only hope to lock spirits inside the illusion. Demon maya assigns destinies, wars, disasters, diseases to spirits in order to maximize the interactions between the spirits and the illusion. Demon maya assigns a soul[52] (subconscious) to each spirit (consciousness). The soul has knowledge of the past, the future, the surrounding space[50] and is responsible to make the
This tradition avoids the five pungent plants (onions, garlic, shallots, leeks and chives) as well as eggs, and of course, alcohol and tobacco in any form.
“It is like purifying muddy water by placing it in a quiet vessel which is kept completely still and unmoving. The sand and silt settle, and the pure water appears. This is called the initial subduing of the guest-dust affliction. 4:160 “The complete removal of the mud from the water is called the eternal severance of fundamental ignorance. 4:159 “When clarity is pure to its essence, then no matter what happens there is no affliction. Everything is in accord with the pure and wonderful virtues of Nirvana. 4:160.[87]
After all five aggregates disappear, Buddha indicates that "no matter what happens there is no affliction"[87]
“Ananda, when that good person, in cultivating samadhi, has put an end to the formations skandha, the subtle, fleeting fluctuations - the deep, imperceptible, pivotal source and the common foundation from which all life in the world springs - are suddenly obliterated. In the submerged network of the retributive karma of the pudgala, the karmic resonances are interrupted. 8:238 “There is about to be a great illumination in the sky of Nirvana. It is like gazing east at the cock's final crow to see the light of dawn. The six sense faculties are empty and still; there is no further racing about. Inside and outside there is a profound brightness. He enters without entering. Fathoming the source of life of the twelve categories of beings throughout the ten directions, he can contemplate that source without being drawn into any of the categories. He has become identical with the realms of the ten directions. The light does not fade, and what was hidden before is now revealed. This is the region of the consciousness skandha. 8:239 “If he has become identical with the beckoning masses, he may obliterate the individuality of the six gates and succeed in uniting and opening them. Seeing and hearing become linked so that they function interchangeably and purely. The worlds of the ten directions and his own body and mind are as bright and transparent as Vaidurya. This is the end of the consciousness skandha. This person can then transcend the turbidity of life spans. Contemplating the cause of the consciousness skandha, one sees that the negation of existence and the negation of nonexistence are both unreal, and that upside-down false thoughts are its source. 8:241[86]
After the Consciousness Skandha disappears, one can transcend the turbidity of life spans.
“Ananda, when the good person who is cultivating samadhi has put an end to the thinking skandha, he is ordinarily free of dreaming and idle thinking, so he stays the same whether in wakefulness or in sleep. His mind is aware, clear, empty, and still, like a cloudless sky, devoid of any coarse sense-impressions. He contemplates everything in the world - the mountains, the rivers, and the earth - as reflections in a mirror, appearing without attachment and vanishing without any trace; they are simply received and reflected. He does away with all his old habits, and only the essential truth remains. 8:174 “From this point on, as the origin of production and destruction is exposed, he will completely see all the twelve categories of living beings in the ten directions. Although he has not fathomed the source of their individual lives, he will see that they share a common basis of life, which appears as a mirage - shimmering and fluctuating - and is the ultimate, pivotal point of the illusory faculties and sense objects. This is the region of the formations skandha. 8:179 “Once the basic nature of this shimmering fluctuation returns to its original clarity, his habits will cease, like waves subsiding to become clear, calm water. This is the end of the formations skandha. This person will then be able to transcend the turbidity of living beings. Contemplating the cause of the formations skandha, one sees that subtle and hidden false thoughts are its source. 8:180[85]
After the Formation Skandha disappears, one can transcend the turbidity of living beings.
“Ananda, when the good person who is cultivating samadhi has put an end to the feeling skandha, although he has not achieved freedom from outflows, his mind can leave his body the way a bird escapes from a cage. From within his ordinary body, he already has the potential for ascending through the Bodhisattvas' sixty levels of sagehood. He attains the `body produced by intent' and can roam freely without obstruction. 8:82 “This is like someone talking in his sleep. Although he does not know he is doing it, his words are clear, and his voice and inflection are all in order, so those who are awake can understand what he is saying. This is the region of the thinking skandha. 8:83 “If he puts an end to his stirring thoughts and rids himself of superfluous thinking, it is as if he has purged defilement from the enlightened, understanding mind. Then he is perfectly clear about the births and deaths of all categories of beings from beginning to end. This is the end of the thinking skandha. He can then transcend the turbidity of afflictions. Contemplating the cause of the thinking skandha, one sees that interconnected false thoughts are its source. 8:84[84]
After the Thinking Skandha disappears, one is perfectly clear about the births and deaths of all categories of beings from beginning to end.
Ananda, when the good person who is cultivating samadhi and shamatha has put an end to the form skandha, he can see the mind of all Buddhas as if seeing an image reflected in a clear mirror. 8:50 “He seems to have obtained something, but he cannot use it. In this he resembles a paralyzed person. His hands and feet are intact, his seeing and hearing are not distorted, and yet his mind has come under a deviant influence, so that he is unable to move. This is the region of the feeling skandha. 8:51 “Once the problem of paralysis subsides, his mind can then leave his body and look back upon his face. It can go or stay as it pleases without further hindrance. This is the end of the feeling skandha. This person can then transcend the turbidity of views. Contemplating the cause of the feeling skandha, one sees that false thoughts of illusory clarity are its source. 8:51[83]
When the Feeling Skandha disappears, one can leave his body.
“Ananda, you should know that as a cultivator sits in the Bodhimanda, he is doing away with all thoughts. When his thoughts come to an end, there will be nothing on his mind. This state of pure clarity will stay the same whether in movement or stillness, in remembrance or forgetfulness. 8:25 “When he dwells in this place and enters samadhi, he is like a person with clear vision who finds himself in total darkness. Although his nature is wonderfully pure, his mind is not yet illuminated. This is the region of the form skandha. 8:26 “If his eyes become clear, he will then experience the ten directions as an open expanse, and the darkness will be gone. This is the end of the form skandha. He will then be able to transcend the turbidity of kalpas. Contemplating the cause of the form skandha, one sees that false thoughts of solidity are its source. 8:26[82]
When the Form Skandha disappears, the darkness will be gone.
Śūraṅgama Sūtra[73] is dedicated to explain the correct and fastest method to eliminate all five aggregates. Reading through the sutra text[73] several times is highly recommended. All five aggregates can be eliminated if one can cut off outflow and contemplate the hearing from inside. Outflow can only be cut off if one can cease all thoughts. To cut off outflow, one must not have sex,[74] or kill (eat meat),[75] or steal,[76] or lie[77]，or eat onion and garlic.[78][79] If these principles can be strictly hold,[80] then it's easy to cut off the outflow.[81]
This method is said to be the only method to achieve self enlightenment without the need of external help.[71] The reason is given in a previous chapter[72] which can be interpreted as follows, the soul (subconscious) need to access all time and space to calculate the sound, while other senses only have partial access to the data, thus "hearing is complete".[72]
“It is like a puppeteer who plays with shadows and works the dolls to seem as real as people. Although one sees them move about freely, they are really governed by a set of strings. Cease operating the controls and they return to stillness. The entire illusion is without a nature. 5:222[70]
The first sentence "初于闻中，入流亡所" is the method and the rest sentences described how the five aggregates disappear one after another. There are several translations of the first sentence.[40][64] According to Shurangama Sutra, suffering and clinging is caused by outflow. Ceasing all physical and mental activity can stop the outflow. Therefore, the first sentence can be interpreted as, "Initially, (by contemplating) the sound. The solid form[65] boils away,[66] flows back and becomes light again." Sounds help to locate the "space" in the mind.[67] "Space" which contains all worlds is like a wisp of cloud that dots the vast sky in the mind.[68] Sound makes the "space" to alter into solid forms and to vibrate. Anything moves is dust.[69] By contemplating this vibration, the solid forms boils, flows back and becomes light again. "Space" and form are essentially the same. Boiling the form aggregate also undermines the "space".
初于闻中，入流亡所。所入既寂。动静二相了然不生。如是渐增。闻所闻尽。尽闻不住。觉所觉空。空觉极圆。空所空灭。生灭既灭。寂灭现前。 忽然超越世出世间。十方圆明。获二殊胜。[63]
Śūraṅgama Sūtra was predicted by Buddha as the first Sūtra to be destroyed.[62] The original Sanskrit version is not known to be extant. The next extant version is in ancient Chinese. Further translations may not be able to contain the correct meaning. In the Chinese Sūtra text, the quickest method was introduced by Guanyin Bodhisattva and was described as
Each spirit has infinite light.[60] If a person concentrates his thoughts on objects inside the illusion, because those objects are merely illusions, the light goes to nowhere. This is called "outflow". If a person has the ability to cease all thoughts, then "outflow" stops. Further, if a person can contemplate a sense inside his mind, because that sense does exist, all light will focus on that sense and melt it away.[61] This is called "inflow". The fastest method to eliminate aggregates is to flow all lights into the center of the hearing by contemplating the hearing during Samadhi.
To weaken and eliminate all five aggregates, the best method described in Śūraṅgama Sūtra is to contemplate the hearing.[58] The person needs to cease all thoughts and continuously contemplating the center of hearing.[59]
According to Shurangama Sutra, the knowledge stored inside the soul will become inaccessible after reincarnation[55][54]. If the knowledge is stored inside the spirit, then this knowledge should always be accessible[56] even inside dreams, and this knowledge shouldn't base on anything inside the illusion.[57]
[48], and interacts more with the illusion.[53]. The stronger the five aggregates is, the more a spirit will recognize the illusion as true and natural[52]
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