The Five Aggregates
There’s one more topic that is relevant to our discussion of “me” and the role of “me” in all of this. “Me,” like age and speed and these sorts of things, is a nonstatic imputation phenomenon that is neither a form of physical phenomenon nor a way of being aware of something. The self is an ever-changing imputation phenomenon on the basis of an ever-changing individual continuum of five aggregate factors.
The five aggregates are a classification scheme of all the nonstatic phenomena that make up each moment of our experience. They do not include static phenomena such as categories. The scheme is helpful for deconstructing each moment of our experience, which is made up of many changing parts. Some of these aggregates have only one component, some have many items in them, but in each moment of our experience there is going to be at least one item from each of these five groups. Don’t think of these in a solid way as if they are five boxes somewhere in our heads or off in the sky somewhere and that things sit in them and sometimes pop out. It’s not like that. The five aggregates are just an analytical scheme.
Forms of Physical Phenomena
The first aggregate, the aggregate of forms of physical phenomena, includes the sights, sounds, smells, tastes, physical sensations, and objects that have a sort of form that can only be known by mental consciousness, such as dream objects and nonrevealing forms. The sights, sounds and so on may be connected with our own mental continuum, like the sight of our hand; they may be connected with someone else’s mental continuum, like the sight of someone else’s hand; or they may not be connected with anyone’s mental continuum, like the sight of an apple. When any of these three types of sights are objects of our cognition, they are part of our aggregate of forms of physical phenomena. These sensory factors are the sensory factors of material objects, like a hand or an apple, and when these are objects of our cognition, they are also included in this aggregate, as are the elements that they are composed of.
Also included are the material cognitive sensors – the photosensitive cells of the eyes, sound-sensitive cells of the ears, and so on. These are all forms of physical phenomena. These are the parts of the body, and they are like the hardware. What a fly has and what we have in terms of eyes are quite different.
Types of Consciousness
The aggregates also include the various types of consciousness – visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, tactile and mental. There is always one of these in operation, and often there are more than one operating at the same time. Actually, they are all operating at the same time, but we just don’t pay attention to them all simultaneously.
For example, we are sitting here, and you are seeing and hearing me. This is eye and ear consciousness; however, if we paid attention to it, we could also have the consciousness of the physical sensation of the temperature of the room or of the seat that we are sitting on. We could also have smell consciousness of the air, or taste of the saliva in our mouth. Thinking is also going on and it doesn’t have to be verbal. All of this is going on at the same time, isn’t it?
Distinguishing
The aggregate of distinguishing is sometimes translated as “recognition,” but that is misleading. Within a sensory field, we are not just seeing pixels of light. We are distinguishing one object from another object. Otherwise, we couldn’t make sense of what we perceive. Distinguishing, however, does not include knowing what something is.
Feeling
The aggregate of feeling is only referring to feeling somewhere on the spectrum of happiness or unhappiness. It’s not dealing with emotions, but only the feelings of happiness or unhappiness. According to its definition, it’s how we experience the various results of our karma.
Other Affecting Variables
This includes all other nonstatic factors – both those that are ways of being aware of something, like all the positive and negative emotions and the mechanical types of mental factors like concentration and attention, interest, and these sorts of things, as well as the imputation phenomena that are neither forms of physical phenomena nor ways of being aware of something, like age and the conventional “me.”
“Me” As an Imputation Phenomenon on the Basis of the Aggregates
Therefore, if we deconstruct each moment of our experience, we see that it is made up of many parts, and they are all changing from moment to moment and are being affected by different types of causes and conditions. Again, we don’t have to have all the details in order to focus on, appreciate and benefit from knowing the complexity of what comprises each moment of our experience. It’s not solid.
And the conventional “me” is part of it all as an imputation phenomenon on each moment as its basis. Because what we experience isn’t solid, the “me” that is an imputation on that isn’t solid.
Karma and “Me” in the Context of the Five Aggregates
If we want to go further with this analysis, we need to see where karmic impulses, karmic aftermath and karmic results fit into the scheme of five aggregates. Since the self, “me,” is the agent of karmic actions and the one that experiences karmic results, we can understand the relation of the conventional “me” and karma by seeing that the “me” is an imputation phenomenon on the basis of the five aggregates in which these karmic impulses, aftermath and results are components. This is how we can see the relationship of the “me” with karma.
This is a very nice exercise. This type of exercise – fitting one complex system into another complex system – is what we do when we study abhidharma. Abhidharma is topics of knowledge, and we study it to develop discriminating awareness and intelligence by working with complex systems and seeing how they fit with each other in terms of logical pervasions and set theory. Therefore, this is a very nice analytical task to do to see how these two systems fit – karma and the five aggregates. This is because we want to understand the “me,” the self, in terms of all of this.
Since I experience figuring out such things with happiness as a result of my karma, this is something that I like to do. There may be some people for whom doing this type of analysis produces unhappiness; they might not like to do it because they consider it to be too intellectual. They might have a negative attitude toward that; however, in any case, we want to develop our intelligence and discriminating awareness, and these types of exercises are very helpful. They aren’t just theoretical; they help us to deconstruct the self in relation to karma.
Details of the Analysis in Terms of Physical or Verbal Actions
Don’t be overly concerned with the complexity of the details of this analysis. Just be aware of how the two systems can be mixed together. It’s like shuffling two decks of cards together.
The Aggregate of Forms of Physical Phenomena
At the time of a karmic action of the body or speech, in the aggregate of forms of physical phenomenon are, for example, the sight of the body and the body of the person who is the basis at which the action is directed or the sound of their voice and their voice. In addition, there is the revealing form of the motion of our body as well as our body, or the revealing form of the sound of our voice as well as our voice, together with the nonrevealing form associated with each. The revealing and nonrevealing forms are the karmic impulses in these actions.
There are also the sight-sensitive cells of our eyes and our eyes if we see the person at whom the action is directed or the sound-sensitive cells of our ears and our ears if we see the person, plus the physical sensation-sensitive cells of our body involved in moving our body or in uttering sounds with our voice.
The Aggregate of Types of Consciousness
If we see the person at whom our action is directed, then our visual consciousness is in this aggregate. If we hear them, then it is our audio consciousness. Simultaneously, our body consciousness is involved in causing our body to move or our voice to utter the sounds of words as the method implemented to cause the action to occur.
The Aggregate of Distinguishing
In the aggregate of distinguishing is just the mental factor of distinguishing. It distinguishes the sight, body and person who is the basis at which the action is directed or their voice and its sound. It distinguishes them from those of anyone else.
The Aggregate of Feeling
In the aggregate of feeling is just the mental factor of feeling – feeling something in the spectrum between happy and unhappy while committing the action.
The Aggregate of Other Affecting Variables
All the other nonstatic variables involved in the action are included in the last aggregate, the aggregate of other affecting variables. These include the intention, the accompanying constructive or destructive emotion, attention and so on. Although the urge that drives the body consciousness in committing the action is not part of the karmic pathway and is not the karmic impulse here, it is also found in this aggregate. In addition, there is the person at whom the action is directed – they are an imputation phenomenon on the basis of the sight of their body and their body or the sound of their voice and their voice. There is also us, ourselves as a person, “me,” as an imputation phenomenon on the basis of our body or voice, eye or ear and body consciousness, distinguishing, feeling, intention, emotion, and so on.
Sometimes the finale or outcome of the action is experienced on our own mental continuum. For example, experiencing what we have stolen as being ours. However, sometimes the outcome is not part of our continuum, and we might not even know about it. For instance, if we shoot somebody and we don’t witness their death, they might die later in the hospital, and we don’t even know that they died. Therefore, sometimes the outcome is part of our continuum and sometimes it’s not; sometimes we know that it occurred later and sometimes we don’t.
Details of the Analysis in Terms of the Karmic Aftermath
While the karmic aftermath is present, how do all its pieces fit into the five aggregates?
The Aggregate of Forms of Physical Phenomena
The nonrevealing form is part of the aggregate of forms of physical phenomena.
The Aggregate of Other Affecting Variables
In the aggregate of other affecting variables are the karmic potentials, the network of karmic potential, the karmic tendencies, and the constant karmic habits. They are all imputation phenomena on the basis of the conventional “me,” which is also in this aggregate and which is an imputation on the continuum of the five aggregates.
We are not aware of all these types of karmic aftermath with sensory consciousness, although we could infer their presence and then we would know them conceptually with mental consciousness and distinguish them. We might feel happy or unhappy when knowing that we have them.
Details of the Analysis in Terms of the Karmic Results
The Aggregate of Forms of Physical Phenomena
In terms of our experience of the various types of karmic result, included in the aggregate of forms of physical phenomena are our body and their material cognitive sensors, such as the body, brain and eyes of a human or of a fly. As objects of sensory cognition, there are the sights, sounds, smells, tastes and physical sensations of the environment in which we are born and of our possessions. These can be the ugly sights of where we are born, the terrible smell of pollution, etc. We are talking about our experience of these objects of cognition like, for example, the taste of the food. If we were born in England, the taste that we experience is bland because most food is just boiled with no spice added. If we were born in India, the taste is that of hot chili.
There are also, as objects of sensory cognition, the sights, sounds, physical sensations, and so on of someone doing something to us similar to what we have done in the past, or something happening to us similar to what we have done to others in the past.
The Aggregate of Types of Consciousness
In the aggregate of consciousness there are the types of consciousness of our rebirth body with their individual capacities. For example, the visual consciousness of a fly can see four times more flashes of sights per second than that of a human. The visual consciousness of an eagle can see greater distances than that of a human. Also included in this aggregate are the moments of consciousness that cognize the sights, sounds, and physical sensations of someone doing something to us similar to what we have done in the past.
The Aggregate of Feeling
In the aggregate of feeling there is the level of happiness or unhappiness that accompanies each moment.
The Aggregate of Other Affecting Variables
In the aggregate of other affecting variables is the mental factor of liking to commit certain actions similar to what we have done before and the mental factor of attraction to situations in which something similar to what we have done before to others happens back to us. Also included here are the unspecified types of mental factors of our rebirth state and their capacities – for example, human concentration or fly concentration, human intelligence or fly intelligence. The conventional “me” as an imputation phenomenon on the basis of all the five aggregates is also in this aggregate.
Of course, in each moment, whether we are talking about during the karmic action or during the time of the karmic result, all the factors of the karmic aftermath are still present as well. Even when the karmic potentials and tendencies have been exhausted and have finished giving rise to their results – and even when we have purified ourselves of them so that they no longer ripen – they undergo another phase transition and now become so-called “burnt seeds.” They are an obstruction to our attainment of enlightenment.
The Main Point: Experiencing All the Components of Karma and the “Me” as Parts of the Five Aggregates
Although it’s undoubtedly not possible to remember all of this unless we write it down and make a chart, that’s okay. What we want to gain from this is that we experience all these components of karma as part of our five aggregates. They fit in. That’s the point. The details can be filled in later. Just be aware that it all fits and that’s why I have given you the list.
The “me” or the self is an imputation phenomenon on the basis of an individual continuum made up of these five aggregates in which all the components of karma, its aftermath and its results fit. How do we experience karmic cause and effect? We experience it in terms of the five aggregates.
Conclusion
That’s enough for this session. In the next session, you are welcome to ask questions, and then we will conclude with a discussion of the self and the nature of the self in relation to these aggregates in which all these aspects of karma fit. Doing this analysis with you is an illustration of how we deal with personal issues by applying the Dharma to our lives. We do this through analysis. His Holiness the Dalai Lama emphasizes that all the time.
Therefore, if we have a problem of guilt and are always blaming ourselves and feel we aren’t good enough and everything is our fault and so on, this is how we would go about analyzing that. Blaming ourselves causes suffering and, because it causes suffering, it’s definitely based on ignorance and unawareness of how we exist and of how karmic cause and effect work. That’s why we try to figure it out. What is the problem? Once we identify the problem, then we find the cause of the problem and the understanding that will bring about the stopping of that problem. We want to delete all this junk that is causing problems from our minds and mental continuum. That’s what we are trying to do.
A nice analogy, one that is sort of amusing, is that what we are trying to do in Buddhism is to acquire a computer that doesn’t have any limitations and run an operating system and programs on it that don’t have any bugs. That’s enlightenment. But what we are stuck with now is a very limited computer, and the operating system and programs that we run on it are filled with bugs. That’s samsara. In each lifetime we buy another horrible computer that breaks and has all these limitations, and it can’t do what we want it to do. Then the computer crashes when we die and, when we are reborn, we get another computer, but it too is limited, and its operating system and software are still filled with bugs. How boring!