Chapter 23 - The Five Aggregates

Question 1

What can we say about the Five Aggregates?

5

Answer 1

• contain everything, in and outside of us
• inter-are
• when painful feeling arises, explore all five and determine which is involved
  ex: headache? 1st aggregate
• if they return to their sources, self no longer exists
• the root of our suffering is not the aggregates but the grasping

Question 2

Five Aggregates

Answer 2

1. Form
2. Feelings
3. Perceptions
4. Mental Formations
5. Consciousness

Question 3

explain:

form / 1st aggregate

10

Answer 3

• body including 5 senses and nervous system
• deep relaxations and body scans bring it mindfulness
• 32 parts according to the Buddha
• form elements: earth, water, air and heat
• contains living presence of ancestors and future generations
• contains presence of all other beings including minerals
• awareness of movements and positions of the body
• has impermanence and non-self
• like an ocean with hidden waves and sea monsters and storms, we should learn to calm the waves and master the monsters
• with deep looking, body ceases to be an. aggregate of grasping, thus bringing freedom and non-fear

Question 4

explain:

feelings / 2nd aggregate

11

Answer 4

• pleasant, unpleasant or neutral
• river of feelings within, each drop of water a feeling, we should observe our feelings from the riverbank as it flows by
• meditation = awareness of each feeling
• we are more than our feelings, embrace and care for each
• roots identified in body, perceptions or consciousness
• understanding them = beginning of transformation
• look at nutriments that brought them about
• wholesome nutriments transform feelings
• impermanent, without substance
• not to be identified as self, as refuge, as something to die for
• non-fear frees us from clinging, even clinging to suffering

Question 5

explain:

perceptions / 3rd aggregate

8

Answer 5

• all suffering is born from wrong perceptions
• river of perceptions, they arise, stay a bit, cease
• noticing, naming, conceptualising
• perceiver and perceived co-exist
• distorted perceptions often cause suffering
• conditioned by afflictions: ignorance, craving, hatred, anger, jealousy, fear, habit energies
• we perceive phenomena on the basis of our lack of insight into the nature of impermanence and interbeing
• we must be alert and never seek refuge in our perceptions

Question 6

explain:

mental formations / 4th aggregate

4

Answer 6

• feelings and perceptions (3rd and 4th aggregates) are mental formations yet M.F. so important they are their own skandha
• see PV list of M.F.
• all start as seeds in our store consciousness
  once touched, it enters mind consciousness as a M.F.
  practice: awareness and deep looking to see their true nature
• all M.F. impermanent with no real substance so we don’t identify ourselves with them or seek refuge in them

Question 7

explain:

consciousness / 5th aggregate

5

Answer 7

• means store consciousness, the ground of all M.F.
• 51 seeds and 51 M.F.
• needs selective watering
• 5th aggregate contains the other 4 and is the basis for their existence
• consciousness is simultaneously collective and individual (each are made of the other)

Question 8

Where else, apart from within ourselves, do the Five Aggregates have their roots?

3

Answer 8

• society
• nature
• people we live with
  NB: meditate until oneness with the universe and self are seen

Question 9

What happens if the Five Aggregates return to their sources?

Answer 9

• self no longer exists

Question 10

What can be found in the body?

5

Answer 10

• Four Elements: earth, water, air, heat (fire)
• Impermanence and Interbeing
• living presence of all other beings, animal vegetable and minetral
• positions of the body: standing, sitting, lying down
• movements of the body: bending, stretching, taking a shower, getting dressed, eating, working etc

Question 11

define:

Transformation at the Base

5

Answer 11

• requires deep looking, mindful consumption and mindful guarding of the senses
• afflictions are transformed, shining light near and far
• aim: transform both individual and collective consciousnesses
• helped by sangha
• when store consciousness becomes Great Mirror Wisdom

Question 12

What does the story of the dog hit by a clod of stone, barking at it instead of looking around to see who threw it, illustrate?

4

Answer 12

• wrong view: impermanence makes us suffer
• rather it’s when we want things to be permanent when they simply are not that we suffer
• an ordinary person caught in dualistic conceptions may think the Five Aggregates are the cause of his suffering
• rather the root of his suffering is lack of understanding about the impermanent, non-self and interdependent nature of the Five Aggregates

Question 13

What are the Five Aggregates when grasped at, according to the Buddha?

Answer 13

• Suffering
  NB: He did not say the Five Aggregates themselves are suffering

Question 14

What should we swap for our perceptions using the power of mindfulness?

Answer 14

• Prajña - wisdom, true vision, true knowledge

“Where there is perception, there is deception”