THE 5 AGGREGATES OF CLINGING

THE 5 AGGREGATES OF CLINGING

The Buddha described the 5 aggregates as components or subdivisions of our physical-mental being. The mind has a tendency to consider these elements as self or belonging to the self. Clinging to them results in our suffering. Our task in working with the aggregates is to recognize them as aggregates and to investigate them through the discerning lens of the 3 characteristics: That is, to understand them as impermanent, a source of suffering, and not belonging to self (see page 85). Form, the first aggregate, is all of the physical matter in the world – the body and the objects that are experienced by the body. The remaining four aggregates are mental factors. The feeling tone is the affective tone of experience (i.e., pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral. See page 46). Perception is the way we characterize our experience with concepts and labels. For example we see a dog and our mind recognizes it as a dog and not a cat or a tree due to the faculty of perceiving. With the label of “dog” comes a variety of conditioned associations (i.e., animal, non-human, alive, cute, potentially dangerous, etc.). Mental formations are intentions and their results that are fabricated by the mind. Due to our conditioning, we have mental habits that shape the way each experience is processed and acted upon. Behaviors (thoughts, speech, and actions) resulting from our habits (mental formations) create further habits. This is how we shape and in turn are shaped by our experience (see “kamma” page 83). Consciousness is the awareness that arises in the mind when the 6 sense organs contact their respective sense object. For example, in seeing a dog, the eyes contact the visual image of the dog resulting in the arising of consciousness of the dog in the mind.

To begin working with the aggregates, start to notice that your experience can be deconstructed into these 5 elements. Also, notice how the mind clings to these 5 categories and tries to make them lasting, pleasing, and part of or belonging to the self. When you are aware of this process, see if you can let go of the clinging and just be with the raw experience of the aggregates. You can use mental noting such as “This is not me. This is not who I am. This is not mine.” You can deconstruct the experience using the 4 foundations of mindfulness (How is it experienced in the breath, body, feeling tone, mind, and dhammas?)