In the Pali Nikayas it is said that the first noble truth of suffering is the Five Aggregates subject to clinging (S. v. 425) consisting of material shape, feeling, perception, volitional formations and consciousness. This raises some interesting questions. What if we did not cling to any of the aggregates being, instead, completely free of them? Would there be suffering for us? The answer would be, no. Next, is there one who mistakenly clings to the Five Aggregates, but who is intrinsically free of these aggregates? The answer would have to be, yes. Perhaps the most important question, if the Five Aggregates are conditioned, is the one who is free of them unconditioned? I think the answer would have to be, yes.
All these questions and answers resonate with the teaching of the Buddha when we take into account how we are to regard each of these aggregates. This is not mine, this I am not, this is not my attā/ātman. This should be interpreted this way: the unconditioned nature, which I am intrinsically, is not any of these conditioned Five Aggregates subject to clinging.
Turning now to the Dhammapada, when we read verse 160 that the, “attā (ātman) is protector (nātho) of the attā,” isn’t the unconditioned attā protector of the attā which clings to the conditioned Five Aggregates? It is certainly implied. It is noteworthy to point out that the Buddha is called loka-nātha, savior or protector of the world. It would not be unwarranted to say that the Buddha is also the attā that is nātha.
When the ātman clings to the conditioned Five Aggregates I think this is the evil that is done by the ātman, mentioned in the Dhammapada, which injures the fool. Moreover, purity and impurity belong to the innermost-ātman (paccattaṁ/pratyātman)—not to the ātman under the dominion of the Five Aggregates. It must follow that purification is on the side of the unconditioned innermost-ātman which is not under the dominion of the Five Aggregates.
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