The Five Khandhas

All that is real can be classified as four ultimate realities, paramattha dhammas: as citta, cetasika, rūpa and nibbāna. Citta, cetasika and rūpa are conditioned realities that arise and fall away and nibbāna is the unconditioned element that does not arise and fall away. All conditioned realities that arise and fall away can be classified as five khandhas, aggregates. The five khandhas are not different from the three paramattha dhammas which are citta, cetasika and rūpa. The five khandhas are:

• Rūpakkhandha, all physical phenomena

• Vedanā kkhandha, feeling (vedanā)

• Saññākkhandha, remembrance or “perception” (saññā)

• Saṅkhārakkhandha, comprising fifty cetasikas (mental factors arising

  with the citta)

• Viññāṇakkhandha, comprising all cittas

As regards the fifty-two kinds of cetasika which may arise with citta, they are classified as three khandhas: the cetasika which is feeling (vedanā) is classified as one khandha; the cetasika which is remembrance or “perception” (saññā) is classified as one khandha; as regards the other fifty cetasikas, they are classified altogether as one khandha, the khandha of formations, saṅkhārā kkhandha. For example, in saṅkhārakkhandha are included cetasikas such as volition or intention (cetanā), attachment (lobha), aversion (dosa), ignorance (moha), loving kindness (mettā), generosity (alobha) and wisdom (paññā ). All defilements and all good qualities are included in saṅkhārā kkhandha, they are impermanent not “self”. Saṅkhārākkhandha is sometimes translated as “ activities” or “mental formations”. As regards citta, all cittas are one khandha: viññāṇakkhandha. Thus, one khandha is rūpakkhandha and the other four khandhas are nāmakkhandhas. Three nāmakkhandhas are cetasika and one nā makkhandha is citta. Anything which is khandha does not last; as soon as it has arisen it falls away again. Although khandhas arise and fall away, they are real; we can experience them when they present themselves. The khandhas arise and fall away all the time. When seeing arises, there is viññāṇakkhandha, and there are the accompanying cetasikas: vedanā kkhandha, saññākhandha, saṅkhā rakkhandha (including cetasikas apart from feeling and saññā), and there is eyesense which is rūpa-kkhandha. Thus, the khandhas are: citta, cetasika and rū pa arising at this moment. We do not have to name them in order to know them, they each have their own characteristic that can be realised without naming. Thinking arises shortly after seeing has fallen away, but we may be confused about different cittas and take seeing and thinking together. Thus, it seems that we see immediately a person or a tree, but these are concepts we think about, they are not seen through the eyesense. Seeing sees only what is visible and it is different from thinking. At the moment of thinking there are five khandhas, but these are different from the khandhas that arose at the moment of seeing. We may think of a person or tree with clinging and wrong view. The citta that thinks is viññāṇakkhandha, and there are the accompanying cetasikas: vedanā kkhandha, saññākhandha and saṅkhārakkhandha in which are now included clinging and wrong view. Moreover there is a rūpa that is the physical base of thinking. Cittas arise and fall away so rapidly that it is difficult to distinguish different cittas from each other. It seems that there is one citta performing different functions at the same time. We take seeing and thinking for my seeing and thinking. We read in the “Kindred Sayings” (III, 140, translated by Ven. Bodhi) that the Buddha, while he was dwelling at Ayojjhā, said to the monks:

“Bhikkhus, suppose that this river Ganges was carrying along a great lump of foam. A man with good sight would inspect it, ponder it, and carefully investigate it, and it would appear to him to be void, hollow, insubstantial. For what substance could there be in a lump of foam? So too, bhikkhus, whatever kind of form there is, whether past, future or present, internal or external, gross or subtle, inferior or superior, far or near: a bhikkhu inspects it, ponders it, and carefully investigates it, and it would appear to him to be void, hollow, insubstantial. For what substance could there be in form?”

The Buddha then goes on to make the same observation by way of similes on the four nāmakkhandhas of feeling, perception, volitional formations and conscious-ness. When we take the khandhas as a “whole” of a person, we have wrong view of self. Thus, when we fail to see the different characteristics of naama and ruupa when they appear one at a time, we take them for a self or a person.