The person ( puggala ), when analyzed is found to consist of five aggregates. These five aggregates neither singly nor collectively constitute any permanent self, nor is there to be found a self apart from them. The five aggregates are those of material group called corporeality [ rupa ], and nonmaterial group that consists of feeling consciousness [ vinnana]. The following is a brief description of these five aggregates ;
1. The aggregate of corporeality comprises the material constitute of the body, which is included the traditional four primary elements [ mahabbhuta - rupa ], namely, solidly, fluidity, heat and motion and also the derivatives of the four primary elements [ upadaya - rupa ], These elements are the parts of our five material sense organs, eye, ear, nose, tongue and body, and their corresponding objects in the external world i.e.; visible form, sound, odor, taste and tangible things and also some physical component of the body. Thus the whole realm of master, both internal and external, is included in the aggregate of corporeality.
2. The aggregate of feeling is one of the four nonmaterial groups as the effective aspect of mental activities. It has the characteristic of enjoying the " taste " of the object. There are three kinds of feeling ; pleasant, painful and neutral.
3. The aggregate of perception is the cognitive dimension of experience. Its function is to recognize objects, physical and mental. It is explained as a relatively simple form of cognition, which consists in the discernment, recognition and assimilation of perception ; perception of visible forms, sounds, odors, tastes, tangible things and of mental objects.
4. The aggregate of mental formation is a collective term for numerous conative aspects of mental activity, which, in addition to feeling and perception, are presented in a single moment of consciousness. In Abhidhamma, fifty mental formations are mentioned.
5. The aggregate of consciousness is defined by Buddhaghosa as " every things taken together that has the characteristic of cognizing. " Consciousness is a simple awareness of the presence of an object. It does not recognize the objects that is a function of perception.
Some scholars render vinnana as cognition and sanna as recognition. There are six kinds of consciousness, in relation to six internal faculties and six corresponding external objects. These aggregates are a fivefold classification, in which the Buddha summed up all physical and mental phenomena of existence, and in particular those, which appear to the ignorant man as his self or ego. Of the five aggregates, only the first group refers to material constituents, the remaining aggregates are grouping of mental phenomena. It is worth nothing that the Buddhist analysis of mind [ citta ] into feeling. perception, mental formation and consciousness is similar to the tripartite division of mind into affection [ perception - sanna and consciousness ] so common in western psychology.
It should be emphasized here that the five aggregates merely form an abstract classification, none of them has real existence. For example, the aggregate of mental formations, which comprises fifty mental factors, becomes an empty abstraction, if it is considered apart from its constituent parts. Each aggregate can not exist in complete isolation from the others. There are mutual dependent and therefore inseparable. In the Abhidhamma, the aggregates of feeling, perception and mental formations are called " cetasika " meaning form different aspects and properties of consciousness. It will be discussed in detail in the following chapter on " The theory of consciousness. "
By THE BUDDHA ' Core Teachings
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