Outside but still trapped inside

By a careful study of what are called the five aggregates (pañca-kkhandhā) or the five clinging aggregates (pañca-upādāna-kkhandhā), that by clinging to these aggregates they become for us sustenance or a fuel that sustains our passions, etc., we come to realize that the aggregates are not who we really are.  Clinging to them is the origin of our suffering, in fact.  Unbeknownst to us, we are outside of their domain—yet, we seem to be completely trapped in these aggregates, unable to escape from them.

What is hard for some Buddhists to understand is that we are greater than the sum total of the five.  This is what it means to be outside of their domain.  Ultimately, we are not affected by them.  But then we are not at any ultimate level.  We are deeply entangled with these aggregates.  They are our sustenance (upādāna).  Our physical body, the first aggregate, is very important to us.  If you are a young woman you want to be attractive.  Your biological window of opportunity will be open only for a short period of time.  If you are a guy, you want to be strong and attractive.  The body is very important. In this vessel, beneath the first aggregate’s skin we have the aggregates of feelings, perceptions, volition and perhaps most important of all. our consciousness.

When we die, our consciousness will resonate and couple with another form.  We may become a human again or a super-being (deva).  But most likely we will become a human having no choice but to repeat many of our mistakes again having learned very little from the last life.  If this all seems like a trap, it is.  We are actually victims of our own blind discriminations and actions.  We have the ability to transcend the trap but the nature of the trap is its power to deceive us and keep us trapped.  And deceive us, it does.  This is why the aggregates are said to belong to Mara the Evil One, the Buddhist devil.

The teaching of these aggregates and what they really mean is important.  They also help to incapsulate the teachings of the Buddha in a very concise way. Sadly, for many Buddhists they believe the teaching about the five aggregates is meant to deny the self or atman in this example:

Bhikkhus, form is nonself [an-atman].  What is nonself should be seen as it really is with correct wisdom thus:  ‘This is not mine, this I am not, this is not my self.’ Feeling is nonself... Perception is nonself...Volitional formations are nonself...Consciousness is nonself.  What is nonself should be seen as it really is with correct wisdom:  ‘This is not mine, this I am not, this is not my  self’ (S. iii. 22–23).

This is saying, very simply, that my intrinsic self is not an aggregate.  It is free of Mara’s trap.

Comments

[smith]

http://studybuddhism.com/en/advanced-studies/lam-rim/samsara-nirvana/demonic-forces-the-four-maras

[David Brainerd]

"Our physical body, the first aggregate, is very important to us."

This is precisely where people get confused on the aggregates. ALL the agggregates are our physical body. Our physical body is the sum total of thr aggrrgates. Or, the aggregates are the body and everything arising from the body.

"In this vessel, beneath the first aggregate’s skin we have the aggregates of feelings, perceptions, volition and perhaps most important of all. our consciousness."

I don't think this is accurate.
"Volition" is not an aggregate; the aggregate is properly "mental-formatons," i.e. the opinions on which the will acts, not the will/volition itself. And the "consciousness" that is an aggregates is not the "consciousness" that is reborn; the "consciousness" that is an aggregate is only the 5 senses and their interpretation by the brain (i.e. losing/regaining consciousness type, the medical type), not consciousness in the sense of personality or volition or self, i.e. the scifi type that's a sit in for the soul, or the soul. This is why people get confused into thinking there is no self. They don't get that the aggregate being called "consciousness" is only sense-perception, i.e. the body's ability to sense and interpret its physical surroundings. There also, I think, is a distinction between nama and citta; I would say the nama is the physical mind, part of the aggregatsou a the one responsible for "mental-formations" (opinions relating to carnal phenomena) and the aggregate "consciousness" (5 senses and their aggregation into a coherent picture), whereas the citta is the spiritual mind which is not an aggregate and transcends them, but receives information from the nama about what is perceived by the aggrrgates.

[thezennist]

Thanks for the comment. Great stuff.

[NinaB]

Your post reminds me of my visit this week to the Kencho-ji Temple in Kamakura (1 hour from Tokyo). Kencho-ji is the first ranked of the 5 great Zen temples of Kamakura and is the oldest Zen training monastery in Japan. It was constructed around 1253.

The founder of Kencho-ji was Rankei Doryu (Lan Hsi Tao-lung, 1213-78), a Chinese Zen master of the Sung Dynasty. He left China in 1246 to teach Zen in Japan.

Here’s the core teaching from his “Recorded Sayings” (as printed in the visitor's brochure):

If you have lost your true self, all phenomena bring you nothing but annoyance. If you discover your essence of mind, you can follow nothing but true path.