# BUDDHISM – THE FIVE AGGREGATES

The Five Aggregates were among Buddha's central ideas.

The Five Aggregates describe our sensory apparatus. They are manifest form, sensation, perception or feeling, concepts (mental formations), and consciousness.

The words for such phenomenon didn't exist in Buddha's time. The science behind the psychology of perception didn't exist. Llight and sound waves, and neurological signals were unheard of.

Buddha first had to describe how sensory perception functioned before he could explain how the system was not running smoothly, and how we could correct it.

The idea behind the Aggregates is for example: 1. a visual object, 2. the light waves, 3. the contact with the eye, 4. the neurological signal, and 5. the recognition by the mind.

Manifest form, sensation, perception or feeling, concepts (mental formations), and consciousness, does not fit exactly with our present day psychology of perception. But this was 2,000 years before Freud, in a language which was itself without any appropriate psychological terminology.

The modern and conventional translations and commentaries on Buddha's Aggregates stretch our understanding beyond common sense... into the realms of philosophy.

Even the word aggregates is not easy to understand, maybe the modern word would be "components". However, these days i think perception would be considered as a process,

A further confusion is that the aggregates are nearly always presented in the context of "the aggregates of clinging".

Pali Tipitaka, First Noble Truth
"And how, monks, in short, is clinging to the five aggregates suffering? It is as follows – clinging to the aggregate of matter is suffering, clinging to the aggregate of sensation is suffering, clinging to the aggregate of perception is suffering, clinging to the aggregate of reaction is suffering, clinging to the aggregate of consciousness is suffering. This, monks, in short, is called suffering because of clinging to these five aggregates."

'Clinging' severely limits their interpretation and their potential as a universal theory.

Clinging is an extremely advanced form of attachment. But even the smallest first sign, is a sign of Karma.

The Aggregates apply to all of our senses. These are, seeing, hearing, smell, taste, touch or body, and thought or mind (which is considered as a sixth sense). They describe how we experience the world.

The comnection between the aggregates and each of the six senses is absolutely central to Buddhism.

The Second and Third Noble Truths demonstrate this, they expand the Five Aggregates to a list of ten aggregates and relate these to each of the Six Sense Bases, forming a list of sixty steps.

For example this, from the Pali Tipitaka, The Second Noble Truth. Bold print is mine to enable speed reading. (All the translations in the references are almost identical.)

"The sensation arising from the eye-contact in the world [of mind and matter] is enticing and pleasurable; there this craving arises and gets established. The sensation arising from the ear-contact … is enticing and pleasurable; there this craving arises and gets established. The sensation arising from the nose-contact … is enticing and pleasurable; there this craving arises and gets established. The sensation arising from the tongue-contact … is enticing and pleasurable; there this craving arises and gets established. The sensation arising from the body-contact … is enticing and pleasurable; there this craving arises and gets established. The sensation arising from the mind-contact in the world [of mind and matter] is enticing and pleasurable; there this craving arises and gets established."

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