Teachings On Aggregates of buddha

                                             FIVE AGGREGATES


  1. BODY AGGREGATES
  2. SENSATION OR FEELING AGGREGATE 
  3. PERCEPTION AGGREGATES 
  4. ACTIVITIES AGGREGATES 
  5. CONSCIOUSNESS AGGREGATES 

  


FIVE AGGREGATES
     
     
     An aggregate is a collection, a series, or a group of things. This is the meaning we assign to the term 'aggregate' when we speak of the five aggregates. When we talk of our body, are we not talking of a series of bodies?. The body we have here and now, the body we had yesterday and the day before and the whole series of bodies we had from the time we were born. Likewise sensations or feelings are a collection. It is not only what we feel now but all that we felt and experienced as far back as we remember. Perceptions are no different. What we see right in front of us now has to be considered for the purpose of defining the perception aggregate in conjunction with all other perceptions of sights, that is, whatever we have seen from birth right up to now and so on with regard to sounds, smells, tastes, touch and ideas. When we define the activities aggregate we have in mind not only what we are doing by way of thought, speech and bodily action, but all our actions from birth, whether we remember them or not. We are conscious now of the present moment but we have been conscious all along unless we have had a temporary lapse of consciousness on account of illness or such other circumstance. All that will constitute the consciousness aggregate.

BODY AGGREGATE
 

      When we talk of the body aggregate there are several bodies, hundreds and thousands of them, depending on the time that we take into consideration. When we were born the body we had is not the body we have now. In our infancy our body was small, feeble and soft. It had to be tended carefully. The skull was soft and pliable, hair thin and scanty. It was fed on liquids and had to be carried about by another. It had to be protected against insects, and could not use its hands and feet. How feeble and helpless it was!. The infant body grew gradually. The skull became hard and more developed. The skeletal structure grew and gained in strength. Muscles became hard and firm. Sense organs became more aware and the body started to move about on its own, taking delight in the world around it. Is that the body we have now?. Consider for a moment the vast strides it had taken little by little over the period we have lived, until it became what we are today. That is not all. We may be 15, 20, 30 or 40 or even older, but during that period what a great transformation it had gone through!. All those bodies appeared only to disappear. The present body we have is no different. What happened to the earlier bodies? Where did they go? The answer to that question is indeed intriguing. Today's body is not what we shall have tomorrow. Reflect on this fact for a moment. If you grant, as you must, that the body you have now is not the one you had when you were a child, what happened to that body? It was succeeded by a series of other bodies. This happened little by little, slowly, gradually, and it was hardly given thought to by you save occasionally. This transformation of the body we call growth, but if we do not like what has happened, we call it ageing or decay. Growth and decay are the same, it is only change. Whether it is one or the other depends on our attitude towards it.
3 It is the buddha's teaching that we do not have one single body. It is a countless series of bodies that we call 'our body'. It is important to note that no two bodies co-exist. One body disappears and another takes its place. When that is gone the third body appears. In fact if you speak truthfully, that statement is also wanting in accuracy. The body that appears is in the processes of disappearing, because body is highly unstable. Impermanence is built into it. And the process of change cannot be arrested even for a moment. What meaning can we give to this circumstance? The Buddha has declared as follows:
      
     "Kacchyanaya, the world is accustomed to a duality, on the 'it is', and 'it is not'. He who perceives in accordance with truth and wisdom how the things of this world arise, he cannot say 'it is not'. He who perceives in accordance with truth and wisdom how the things of this world perish, he cannot say 'it is' ".

     
Let us consider a big tree that you have seen, and can still see. Words have meaning by convention. If we ask you now, "does that big tree exist?," your answer will be, "It does exist". What you intend to convey by that answer is that the tree exists, and yet, if you carefully consider your answer you may not be quite so certain. From moment to moment and day by day the tree keeps on changing, its leaves become longer and broader, its branches bigger and stronger, not to talk of the roots and the trunk of the tree. Old leaves come off their stem. All these momentary changes you ignore when you say that the tree is there. No sooner you say that the tree exists it has already become something different in appearance and also in many other respects. If you say that the tree does not exist some of us will not accept that reply. Why? Because there is a 'tree'. The problem has not found )1(11 ton yet. If the tree is at all times becom i lig ot I ler 111,1 n whit it is, it is not correct to say 'there is a I ree'. II then, i 1 tree even though it is always hewn' dillerent, l ii correct to say 'there is no tree?' Our investigation reveals to us that it is not satisfactory to declare that 'the tree is' or 'the tree is not'. That is why the Buddha has declared as above. If you consider this in depth, your mind will be moving towards an understanding of 'emptiness'. One must hasten to add that you may not understand as soon as you read what the Buddha has declared. But what is important is to investigate and contemplate what he has revealed to us. Have you ever come across any thing that does not change? Every moment all forms, all things undergo change, not only your body. This reality we have to understand and accept. If all forms that we see are undergoing ceaseless change how can we say in relation to anything that we see 'it is' or, 'it is not'. All we experience is 'change'. When we go on to investigate reality in this way, one has to answer the question,' who is it who sees or experiences?' To answer this question our investigation has to be taken beyond this stage.

 

 


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