Five Aggregates
In Buddhist tradition, it is said that one’s sense of self is merely an illusion that binds us into the cycle of death and rebirth. This illusion of self is imposed upon what’s called the Five Aggregates, five inter-locking and interdependent objects that form the accident of cosmic dust, electricity and that is referred to by one’s own name.
- Body or Form
- This refers to both the physical and mental sense-organs and the stimuli that activate them.
- this is the eye and object seen, the hand and what it grasps, etc
- Perceptions
- these are the impulses we get from the physical and mental sense-organs that have yet to be discerned.
- This is the raw signal from sense-organs.
- The process by which signals are determined to be good, neutral or bad.
- The sum of the many discrete mental acts that judges sense-signals.
- Known is western literature as qualia or subjectivity, this is the end-result of the process of discernment
- these are the signals given meaning, eg. the color of a tree,
- these are the thoughts and emotions that are stirred by sensations, that which drive a person to act
- this is the internal reaction of a being to stimulus
- Consciousness or Discernment
- Sensations
- Mental Formations or Volition