The aggregate-person

According to the Buddha, the aggregate-person consisting of five constituents, is believed to be our self.  It is the body we presently have that came through our mother’s birth canal.  The Buddha said that it consists of material shape, feeling, perception (also ideation), volitional formations and consciousness.  Some believe the aggregate-person or a few of the aggregates are infinite or eternal, in the example of consciousness.  Others believe the aggregate-person is finite, that when the aggregate-person dies, that’s it—no more existence (we are annihilated).

The aggregate-person that we seem doomed to cling to, according to the Buddha, is unreal.  For example, our physical shape he says is like a clump of foam.  Feeling, he goes on to say, is like a water bubble; perception is like a mirage; volitional formations are like a plantain tree, and consciousness is like a magical illusion.  He taught that this aggregate-person is not who we really are; to identify with it is a grave mistake.  As a matter of fact, we must abandon desire for the aggregate-person which is not our real self.  

The aggregate-person does not reflect the true nature of reality.  Its perceptual system is limited to the species, itself, as is the perceptual system of a common house fly.  In this regard, the aggregate-person as an instrument of discovery can give us no real insight into true reality.  It is only through the transcendence of the aggregate-person: by surpassing it, that we are capable of seeing reality as it is.  One deludes themselves to believe that the aggregate-person is what the Buddha wished to save, or tried to help to see the truth.  He only wished to untangle us from the aggregate-person, this being the state of nirvana or the same, our very self (he even called it the great self).

Comments

[Bao Tran]

This article is wonderfully written!
It is analogous to a compass a person looks at to re-direct oneself back to the destination.

Reading this and using gestalt are the keys :)

Thank for the good work!

Bodhiratna