Skandha

Etymology

Skandha () is a Sanskrit word that means "multitude, quantity, aggregate", generally in the context of body, trunk, stem, empirically observed gross object or anything of bulk verifiable with senses. The term appears in the Vedic literature.

The Pali equivalent word pi appears extensively in the Pali canon where, state Rhys Davids and William Stede, it means "bulk of the body, aggregate, heap, material collected into bulk" in one context, "all that is comprised under, groupings" in some contexts, and particularly as "the elements or substrata of sensory existence, sensorial aggregates which condition the appearance of life in any form". Paul Williams et al. translate sa as "heap, aggregate", stating it refers to the explanation of the psychophysical makeup of any being.

Johannes Bronkhorst renders sa as "aggregates". Damien Keown and Charles Prebish state that sa is ཕུང་པོ། in Tibetan, and the terms mean "collections or aggregates or bundles".

Description

The Buddha teaches in the Pali Canon the five aggregates as follows:

1. "form" or "matter" (Skt., Pāli रूप (rūpa); Tib. གཟུགས། (gzugs); Ch. 色 (sè)): matter, body or "material form" of a being or any existence. Buddhist texts state rūpa of any person, sentient being and object to be composed of four basic elements or forces: earth (solidity), water (cohesion), fire (heat) and wind (motion).
2. "sensation" or "feeling" (Skt., Pāli वेदना (vedanā); Tib. ཚོར་བ། (tshor ba); Ch. 受 (shòu)): sensory or hedonic experience of an object. It is either pleasant, unpleasant or neutral.
3. "perception" (Skt. संज्ञा (saṃjñā), Pāli सञ्ञा (saññā), Tib. འདུ་ཤེས། ('du shes); Ch. 想 (xiǎng)): sensory and mental process that registers, recognizes and labels (for instance, the shape of a tree, color green, emotion of fear).
4. "mental formations" (Skt. संस्कार (saṃskāra), Pāli सङ्खार (**), Tib. འདུ་བྱེད། ('du.byed); Ch. 行 (xíng)): "constructing activities", "conditioned things", "volition", "karmic activities"; all types of mental imprints and conditioning triggered by an object. Includes any process that makes a person initiate action or act.
5. "consciousness" (Skt. विज्ञान (vijñāna), Pāli विञ्ञाण (**), Tib. རྣམ་ཤེས། (sna'i rnam par shes pa); Ch. 識 (shí)): "discrimination" or "discernment". Awareness of an object and discrimination of its components and aspects, and is of six types, states Peter Harvey. The Buddhist literature discusses this skandha as,
6. In the Nikayas/Āgamas: cognizance, that which discerns.
7. In the Abhidhamma: a series of rapidly changing interconnected discrete acts of cognizance.
8. In some Mahayana sources: the base that supports all experience.

Interpretation

Aggregates of personality

The five aggregates are often interpreted in the later tradition as an explanation of the constituents of person and personality, and "the list of aggregates became extremely important for the later development of the teaching". According to this interpretation, in each skandha – body, sensations, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness – there is emptiness and no substance.

According to Damien Keown and Charles Prebish, canonical Buddhism asserts that "the notion of a self is unnecessarily superimposed upon five skandha" of a phenomenon or a living being. The skandha doctrine, states Matthew MacKenzie, is a form of anti-realism about everyday reality including persons, and presents an alternative to "substantialist views of the self". It asserts that everything perceived, each person and personality, is an "aggregate, heap" of composite entities without essence.

According to Harvey, the five skandhas give rise to a sense of personality, but are dukkha (unsatisfying), impermanent, and without an enduring self or essence. Each aggregate is an object of grasping (clinging), at the root of self-identification as "I, me, myself". According to Harvey, realizing the real nature of skandhas, both in terms of impermanence and non-self, is necessary for nirvana. This "emptiness from personality" can be found in descriptions of the enlightened, perfected state of Arhat and Tathagata, The perfect state of enlightenment is one without any personality, no "I am" conceit, no physical identification, no intellectual identification, no identification in direct or indirects terms related to any of the five skandhas, because "a tathagata has abandoned the personality factors". No one can find him because he has no "I", self or identity, while his citta expands to infinity; he is beyond the reach of the unenlightened human beings, as well as the army of the Mara (demon of death in Buddhism).}}

This "no essence" view has been a topic of questions, disagreements, and commentaries since ancient times, both in non-Buddhist Indian religions and Buddhist traditions.

• , Quote: We have seen how Buddhist thought criticizes the concept of an unchanging self as incoherent; however, both ancient and modern critics have argued that to do away with the self in the manner of Buddhist thought in fact creates insurmountable philosophical and moral problems.... We have seen how Buddhist thought breaks down an individual into five classes of physical and mental events known as skandhas or aggregates". The use of the skandhas concept to explain the self is unique to Buddhism among major Indian religions, and responds to Sarvastivada teachings that "phenomena" or its constituents are real. It also contrasts with the premise of Hinduism and Jainism that a living being has an eternal soul or metaphysical self.

In some early Buddhist texts, the individual is considered unreal but the skandha are considered real. But the skandha too are considered unreal and nonsubstantial in numerous other Buddhist Nikaya and Āgama texts.

Aggregates of experience and grasping

According to Thanissaro, the Buddha never tried to define what a "person" is, though scholars tend to approach the skandhas as a description of the constituents of the person. He adds that almost any Buddhist meditation teacher explains it that way, as Buddhist commentaries from about the 1st century CE onwards have done. In Thanissaro's view, however, this is incorrect, and he suggests that skandhas should be viewed as activities, which cause suffering, but whose unwholesome workings can be interrupted.

Rupert Gethin also notes that the five skandhas are not merely "the Buddhist analysis of man", but "five aspects of an individual being's experience of the world... encompassing both grasping and all that is grasped".

Mathieu Boisvert states that "many scholars have referred to the five aggregates in their works on Buddhism, [but] none have thoroughly explained their respective functions". According to Boisvert, the five aggregates and dependent origination are closely related, which explains the process that binds us to samsara. Boisvert notes that the pancha-upadanakkhanda(five aggregates of clinging) does not incorporate all human experience. Vedana may transform into either niramisa or nekkhamma-sita vedana (vedana which is not harmful) or into amisa or gehasita vedana (a "type of sensation [which] may act as an agent bringing about the future arising of craving and aversion"). This is determined by sanna. According to Boisvert, "not all sanna belong to the sanna-skandha". The wholesome sanna recognise the three marks of existence (dukkha, anatta, anicca), and do not belong to the sanna-skandha. Unwholesome sanna is not "conducive to insight", and without proper sanna, the "person is likely to generate craving, clinging and becoming". As with sanna, "not all sankhara belong to the sankharaskandha", since not all sankhara produce future effects.

According to Johannes Bronkhorst, the notion that the five aggregates are not self has to be viewed in light of debates about "liberating knowledge", the knowledge of Ātman (eternal soul) which was deemed liberating by the Vedic traditions. Bronkhorst notes that "knowledge of the self plays no useful role on the Buddha's path to liberation". What is important is not to grasp at the forms, sounds, odors, flavors, objects, and mental properties which are perceived with the six sense organs (these include mind as the sixth sense organ). The insight that the aggregates are not self aids in letting go of this grasping.

Miri Albahari also objected to the usual understanding of the skandhas as denoting the absence of any "self". Albahari argued that the khandhas do not necessarily constitute the entirety of the human experience, and that the Hindu concept of Ātman is not explicitly negated by Pāli Canon. According to , "anattā is best understood as a practical strategy rather than as a metaphysical doctrine". To Albahari, Nibbāna is an ever-present part of human nature, which is gradually "uncovered" by the cessation of ignorance.

Eighteen dhātus

A related analysis of experience and personality taught in the Buddhist sutras and Abhidharma systems (including Pali Abhidhamma, Vaibhāṣika and Mahayana Abhidharma alongside the five aggregates is the eighteen dhātus (Sanskrit: , the main "elements" of existence). These eighteen aspects of experience: six external bases, six internal bases, and six consciousnesses, function through the five aggregates. They are often grouped together with the aggregates into the following grouping: "skandhas, āyatanas and dhātus," which comprises the basic Buddhist Abhidharma analysis of personal identity and experience.

The eighteen elements are the following:

The six sense objects () are:

• visible forms ()
• sounds ()
• smells ()
• tastes ()
• textures ()
• mental objects ()

The six sense faculties () are:

• eye faculty ()
• ear faculty ()
• nose faculty ()
• tongue faculty ()
• body faculty ()
• mental faculty ()

The six sense consciousnesses () are:

• eye-consciousness ()
• ear-consciousness ()
• nose-consciousness ()
• tongue-consciousness ()
• body-consciousness ()
• mind-consciousness ()

These dhātus can be arranged into six triads, each triad composed of a sense object, a sense organ, and sense consciousness.{{refn|group=note|

• The first five sense organs (eye, ear, nose, tongue, body) are derivates of form.
  • The sixth sense organ (mind) is part of consciousness.
• The first five sense objects (visible forms, sound, smell, taste, touch) are also derivatives of form.
  • The sixth sense object (mental object) includes form, feeling, perception and mental formations.
• The six sense consciousnesses are the basis for consciousness.}}

In Theravada Abhidhamma

The Early Buddhist schools developed detailed analyses and overviews of the teachings found in the sutras, called Abhidharma. Each school developed its own Abhidharma. The best-known is the Theravāda Abhidhamma, but the Sarvāstivāda Abhidharma was historically very influential, and has been preserved partly in the Chinese Āgama.

Six sense bases

Main article: Ayatana, Ṣaḍāyatana

The internal and external sense bases together form the "six sense bases". In this description, found in texts such as Salayatana samyutta, the coming together of an object and a sense-organ results in the arising of the corresponding consciousness.

According to Bhikkhu Bodhi, the Theravada tradition teaches that the six sense bases accommodate "all the factors of existence"; it is "the all", and "apart from which nothing at all exists", and "are empty of a self and of what belongs to the self".{{refn|group=note|According to Bikkhu Bodhi, the Maha-punnama Sutta, also called The Great Full-moon Night Discourse, describes the impermanence of the aggregates to assert that there is no self, and the right discernment is, "this is not mine, this is not my self, this is not what I am". From Maha-punnama Sutta [Buddha:] "It's possible that a senseless person — immersed in ignorance, overcome with craving — might think that he could outsmart the Teacher's message in this way: 'So — form is not-self, feeling is not-self, perception is not-self, fabrications are not-self, consciousness is not-self. Then what self will be touched by the actions done by what is not-self?' Now, monks, haven't I trained you in counter-questioning with regard to this & that topic here & there? What do you think — Is form constant or inconstant?" "Inconstant, lord." "And is that which is inconstant easeful or stressful?" "Stressful, lord." "And is it fitting to regard what is inconstant, stressful, subject to change as: 'This is mine. This is my self. This is what I am'?" [Monks:] "No, lord." "... Is feeling constant or inconstant?" "Inconstant, lord."... "... Is perception constant or inconstant?" "Inconstant, lord."... "... Are fabrications constant or inconstant?" "Inconstant, lord."... "What do you think, monks — Is consciousness constant or inconstant?" "Inconstant, lord." "And is that which is inconstant easeful or stressful?" "Stressful, lord." "And is it fitting to regard what is inconstant, stressful, subject to change as: 'This is mine. This is my self. This is what I am'?" "No, lord." "Thus, monks, any form whatsoever that is past, future, or present; internal or external; blatant or subtle; common or sublime; far or near: every form is to be seen as it actually is with right discernment as: 'This is not mine. This is not my self. This is not what I am.' – Majjhima Nikaya iii 15, Translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu}}

The suttas do not describe this as an alternative of the skandhas. The Abhidhamma, striving to "a single all-inclusive system", explicitly connects the five aggregates and the six sense bases:

• The first five external sense bases (visible form, sound, smell, taste and touch), and the first five internal sense bases (eye, ear, nose, tongue and body) are part of the form aggregate;
• The mental sense-object (i.e. mental objects) overlap the first four aggregates (form, feeling, perception and formation);
• The mental sense organ (mind) is comparable to the aggregate of consciousness.

Bodhi states that six-sense-bases is a "vertical" view of human experiences while the aggregates is a "horizontal" (temporal) view. The Theravada Buddhist meditation practice on sense bases is aimed at both removing distorted cognitions such as those influenced by cravings, conceits and opinions, as well as "uprooting all conceivings in all its guises".

The four paramatthas

The Abhidhamma and post-canonical Pali texts create a meta-scheme for the Sutta Pitaka's conceptions of aggregates, sense bases and dhattus (elements). This meta-scheme is known as the four paramatthas or ultimate realities, three conditioned, one unconditioned:

• Material phenomena (rūpa, form)
• Mind or consciousness (citta)
• Mental factors (cetasikas: the nama-factors sensation, perception and formation)
• Nibbāna

Twelve Nidanas

The Twelve Nidanas is a linear list of twelve elements from the Buddhist teachings which arise in dependence on the preceding link. While this list may be interpreted as describing the processes which give rise to rebirth, in essence it describes the arising of dukkha as a psychological process, without the involvement of an atman.

Some scholars regard it to be a later synthesis of several older lists. The first four links may be a mockery of the Vedic-Brahmanic cosmogony, as described in the Hymn of Creation of Veda X, 129 and the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. These were integrated with a branched list that describes the conditioning of mental processes, akin to the five skandhas. Eventually, this branched list developed into the standard twelvefold chain as a linear list.

According to Boisvert, "the function of each of the aggregates, in their respective order, can be directly correlated with the theory of dependent origination—especially with the eight middle links." Four of the five aggregates are explicitly mentioned in the sequence, yet in a different order than the list of aggregates, which concludes with **:

• mental formations (saṅkhāra • saṃskāra) condition consciousness (**)
• which conditions name-and-form (nāma-rūpa)
• which conditions the precursors (**, phassa • sparśa) to sensations (vedanā)
• which in turn condition craving (**) and clinging (upādāna)
• which ultimately lead to the "entire mass of suffering" (kevalassa dukkhakkhandha).

The interplay between the five-aggregate model of immediate causation and the twelve-nidana model of requisite conditioning is evident, for instance both note the seminal role that mental formations have in both the origination and cessation of suffering.

Satipatthana

Mindfulness applies to four upassanā (domains or bases), "constantly watching sensory experience in order to prevent the arising of cravings which would power future experience into rebirths," which also overlap with the skandhas. The four domains are:

• mindfulness of the body (kaya);Salient sections of the Pāli canon on kāya-sati (kāya-gatā-sati): http://www.palikanon.com/english/wtb/g_m/kaaya_gata_sati.htm
• mindfulness of feelings or sensations (vedanā);
• mindfulness of mind or consciousness (citta); and
• mindfulness of dhammās.

According to Grzegorz Polak, the four upassanā have been misunderstood by the developing Buddhist tradition, including Theravada, to refer to four different foundations. According to Polak, the four upassanā do not refer to four different foundations of which one should be aware, but are an alternate description of the jhanas, describing how the samskharas are tranquilized:

• the six sense-bases which one needs to be aware of (kāyānupassanā);
• contemplation on vedanās, which arise with the contact between the senses and their objects (vedanānupassanā);
• the altered states of mind to which this practice leads (cittānupassanā);
• the development from the five hindrances to the seven factors of enlightenment (dhammānupassanā).

In the Mahayana tradition

The Mahayana developed out of the traditional schools, introducing new texts and putting other emphases in the teachings, especially shunyata and the Bodhisattva-ideal.

India

The Prajnaparamita-teachings developed from the first century BCE onward. They emphasise 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. According to Red Pine, the Prajnaparamita texts are a historical reaction to some early Buddhist Abhidhammas. Specifically, it is a response to Sarvastivada teachings that "phenomena" or their constituents are real. The prajnaparamita notion of "emptiness" is also consistent with the Theravada Abhidhamma.

This is formulated in the Heart Sutra. The Sanskrit version of the "Prajnaparamita Hridaya Sutra" ("Heart Sutra"), which may have been composed in China from Sanskrit texts, and later back-translated into Sanskrit, states that the five skandhas are empty of self-existence, and famously states "form is emptiness, emptiness is form. The same is true with feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness."

The Madhyamaka school elaborates on the notion of the Middle Way. Its basic text is the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā, written by Nagarjuna, who refuted the Sarvastivada conception of reality, which reifies dhammas. The simultaneous non-reification of the self and reification of the skandhas has been viewed by some Buddhist thinkers as highly problematic.

The Yogacara school further analysed the workings of the mind, elaborated on the concept of nama-rupa and the five skandhas, and developed the notion of the Eight Consciousnesses.

China

Shunyata, in Chinese texts, is "Wu" (), nothingness. In these texts, the relation between absolute and relative was 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:

The Tathāgatagarbha Sutras, which concern the Buddha-nature, developed in India but played a prominent role in China. They 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.

Tibet

The Vajrayana tradition further develops the aggregates in terms of mahamudra epistemology and tantric reifications.

Referring to mahamudra teachings, Chogyam Trungpa identifies the form aggregate as the "solidification" of ignorance (Pali, avijjā; Skt., avidyā), allowing one to have the illusion of "possessing" ever dynamic and spacious wisdom (Pali, vijjā; Skt. vidyā), and thus being the basis for the creation of a dualistic relationship between "self" and "other."

According to Trungpa Rinpoche, 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."

Trungpa Rinpoche writes (2001, p. 38):

Notes

References

Sources

Primary literature

;Sutta Pitaka

• Ñāṇamoli, Bhikkhu (trans.) & Bodhi, Bhikkhu (ed.) (2001). The Middle-Length Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Majjhima Nikāya. Boston: Wisdom Publications. .

;Anthologies of suttas

• Bodhi, Bhikkhu (ed.) (2005a). In the Buddha's Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pāli Canon. Boston: Wisdom Pubs. .

;Single sutras

• Thanissaro Bhikkhu (trans.) (1998). Culavedalla Sutta: The Shorter Set of Questions-and-Answers [MN 44].
• Thanissaro Bhikkhu (trans.) (2001a). Khajjaniya Sutta: Chewed Up [SN 22.79].
• Thanissaro Bhikkhu (trans.) (2001b). Maha-punnama Sutta: The Great Full-moon Night Discourse [MN 109].

;Abhidhamma, Pali commentaries, modern Theravada

• Bodhi, Bhikkhu (18 Jan 2005b). MN 10: Satipatthana Sutta (continued) Ninth dharma talk on the Satipatthana Sutta (MP3 audio file).
• Buddhaghosa, Bhadantācariya (trans. from Pāli by Bhikkhu Ñāṇamoli) (1999). The Path of Purification: Visuddhimagga. Seattle, WA: BPS Pariyatti Editions. .
• Ñāṇamoli, Bhikkhu (trans.) (1998). Mindfulness of Breathing (Ānāpānasati): Buddhist texts from the Pāli Canon and Extracts from the Pāli Commentaries. Kandy, Sri Lanka: Buddhist Publication Society. .
• Soma Thera (trans.) (2003). The Way of Mindfulness. Kandy, Sri Lanka: Buddhist Publication Society. .
• Thanissaro Bhikkhu (2002). Five Piles of Bricks: The Khandhas as Burden & Path.

;Mahayana

• Fremantle, Francesca & Trungpa, Chõgyam (2003). The Tibetan Book of the Dead: The Great Liberation Through Hearing in the Bardo. Boston: Shambhala Publications. .
• Nhât Hanh, Thich (1988). The Heart of Understanding: Commentaries on the Prajnaparamita Heart Sutra. Berkeley, CA: Parallax Press. .
• Nhât Hanh, Thich (1999). The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching. NY: Broadway Books. .
• Suzuki, Daisetz Teitaro (1960). Manual of Zen Buddhism. NY: Grove Press. .
• Trungpa, Chögyam (1976). The Myth of Freedom and the Way of Meditation. Boulder: Shambhala. .
• Trungpa, Chögyam (1999). The Essential Chögyam Trungpa. Boston: Shambhala. .
• Trungpa, Chögyam (2001). Glimpses of Abhidharma. Boston: Shambhala. .
• Trungpa, Chögyam (2002). Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism. Boston: Shambhala. .

Secondary literature

• Gal, Noa (July 2003). The Rise of the Concept of ‘Own-Nature’: (Sabhāva) in the Paisambhidāmagga [excerpt from Ph.D. thesis]. Oxford: Wolfson College. Retrieved 2008-01-22 from "Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies" at Internet Archive.
• Sue Hamilton. "From the Buddha to Buddhaghosa: Changing Attitudes Toward the Human Body in Theravāda Buddhism." In Religious Reflections on the Human Body, edited by Jane Marie Law. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1995, pp. 46–63.
• Sue Hamilton. Identity and Experience: the Constitution of the Human Being According to Early Buddhism. London: Luzac Oriental,
• Jinpa, Thupten (2002). Self, Reality and Reason in Tibetan Philosophy: Tsongkhapa's Quest for the Middle Way. Routledge.
• Kalupahana, David (1975). Causality: The Central Philosophy of Buddhism. The University Press of Hawaii.
• Nattier, Jan (1992). "The Heart Sutra: A Chinese Apocryphal Text?" Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 153–223.
• Rawson, Philip (1991). Sacred Tibet. NY: Thames and Hudson. .

Web-sources

References

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12. See, for instance, [[Samyutta Nikaya. SN]] 22.79, "Being Devoured" (Bodhi, 2000b, p. 915).
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21. Kalupahana (1975), page 86. The quote is from S 3.142, and also occurs in the Āgamas.
22. Peter Harvey. (2012). "An Introduction to Buddhism: Teachings, History and Practices". Cambridge University Press.
23. in which there is no longer any identification with the five skandhas.{{refn
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25. Adrian Snodgrass. (1992). "The Symbolism of the Stupa". Motilal Banarsidass.
26. Thanissaro Bhikkhu (2010), [https://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/study/khandha.html ''The Five Aggregates. A Study Guide'']
27. Albahari, Miri. (March 2002). "Against No-Ātman Theories of Anattā". Asian Philosophy.
28. [http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.109.than.html Maha-punnama Sutta: The Great Full-moon Night Discourse], Thanissaro Bhikkhu (2001)
29. (Pāli: ''kāya-sati'', ''kāyagatā-sati''; Skt. ''kāya-smṛti'')
30. (Pāli ''[[vedanā]]-sati''; Skt. ''vedanā-smṛti'')
31. (Pāli ''[[citta]]-sati''; Skt. ''citta-smṛti'')
32. (Pāli ''[[dhammā]]-sati''; Skt. ''dharma-smṛti'')
33. Nhat Hanh (1988), p. 1. Again, also see {{harvnb. Red Pine. 2004
34. Kalupahana (1975) p. 78
35. Jinpa (2002), p. 112.
36. Suzuki (1960), p. 29, ''n''. 4.
37. Trungpa (2001) pp. 10–12; and, Trungpa (2002) pp. 124, 133–134
38. Trungpa Rinpoche (1976), pp. 20–22
39. Trungpa Rinpoche (1976), p. 23