It is our clinging to the five grasping aggregates (P., pañcupadanakkhandha) that is the problem with suffering—no other. These aggregates, which are the psychophysical body of our birth, are suffering. Think of it like this, the Five Aggregates = suffering or duhkha. This is exactly the way the Buddha sees it.
"And what , bhikkhus, is the noble truth of suffering? it should be said: the five aggregates subject to clinging (pañcupadanakkhandha); that is, the form aggregate subject to clinging [all the way to] the consciousness aggregate subject to clinging. This is called the noble truth of suffering" (S. v. 425).
By clinging to these aggregates suffering arises for us. But by transcending them comes the cessation of suffering since the aggregates equal suffering.
During the process of transcending the five grasping aggregates consisting of form, sensation, perception, volitional formations, and consciousness, we should not regard any aggregate as our true self. Each aggregate, according to the Buddha, should be treated thusly: This is not mine, this am I not, this is not my self/attâ.
For some modern Buddhists this may come as a shock insofar as Buddhism boils down to being this simple. But then what is suffering if not life experienced through our inadequate temporal body that we've been clinging to since our parents sperm and egg united? Enlightenment, therefore, has to be seeing and yoking with what is adequate; which transcends the aggregates; which is our true self.
"So long, Bhikkhus, as I did not directly know as they really are the gratification, the danger, and the escape in the case of these five aggregates subject to clinging, I did not claim to have awakened to the unsurpassed perfect enlightenment in this world with its devas, Mara, and Brahma, in this generation with its ascetics and brahmins, its devas and humans" (S. iii. 29).
"During the process of transcending the five grasping aggregates consisting of form, sensation, perception, volitional formations, and consciousness, we should not regard any aggregate as our true self. Each aggregate, according to the Buddha, should be treated thusly: This is not mine, this am I not, this is not my self/attâ."
RIGHT ON!!!!!
Posted by: anonymous | October 18, 2010 at 05:30 AM