FIVE AGGREGATES
- BODY AGGREGATES
- SENSATION OR FEELING AGGREGATE
- PERCEPTION AGGREGATES
- ACTIVITIES AGGREGATES
- 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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