What is the Buddhist analysis of human life? Introduction
It is well known that according to Buddhism, human-being is a combination of ever‐changing physical and mental forces or energies. To have a deep analysis of the human life, Buddhism divides the human beings into five groups as “five aggregates”. This technical term contains the Aggregate of Matter, the Aggregate of Sensations, the Aggregate of Apperceptions, the Aggregate of Mental Formations, and finally is the Aggregate of Consciousness. The five aggregates are essential for Buddhism to analyze human life, which also show that Buddhist analysis of human life focuses more on mind than the physical things. In addition, the examination of the five aggregates is important in Buddha’s teaching for at least four reasons as mentioned below. Firstly, as we all know, all four noble truths focus on suffering and the five aggregates are the ultimate referent of the first noble truth. Therefore, it is important to understand the five aggregates in advance, in order to further analyze the Four Noble Truth. Also, they are the objective domain of clinging and can help analyze the causal origination of suffering in the future. Thirdly, in order to release from suffering, the removal of clinging is an essential step, which is tightly related to the objects around (King 1989, 158). And its tentacles are named as five aggregates. Finally, in order to obtain the wisdom that can have a clear and accurate insight into the real nature of the aggregates, which is essential for the removal of clinging, we should have a deep understanding of the five aggregates as basis. And in this essay discussing the Buddhist analysis of human life, it will first introduce the five aggregates focusing on its nature, different kinds of components and typical forms. Then it will analyze the internal cooperation and relationship of the five aggregates in four perspectives. In addition, it will analyze the five aggregates in terms of the personality. Finally, it will illustrate how to sustain the sentient life when the four nutriments of life are needed. 1. The Five Aggregates
Dating back to the origination, the five aggregates are named pañcakkhandha in Pali and Pañcaskhandha in Sanskrit. Then in the following part, this essay will discuss the five aggregates separately according to the contains and typical forms.
As the only physical aggregate element, Aggregate of Matter contains and comprises the Four Great Elements including solidity, fluidity, heat and motion or vibration. And the most typical ones of them is the earth, water, fire and wind. In reality, every material object is made up of those Four Great Elements. Moreover, Aggregate of Matter also contains the derivatives of the Four Great Element, which are called the material sense-organs. The material sense-organs has six categories, which are eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and mind. And they also have their own corresponding external objects including visible form, sound, odor, taste and tangible things, with some thoughts and ideas in the sphere of mind‐objects (King 1989, 162). In a word, the Aggregate of Matter contains both the internal organs and the external objects.
As for the Aggregate of Sensation, it includes both physical and mental feelings such as pleasant, unpleasant and neutral. Based on the six sense-organs mentioned before, each organs and external object can have those three kinds of feelings. Apart from this, contact is the status illustrating the combination of the organs of sense, its external objects as well as the sense consciousness. And feelings as well as sensation will arise when those elements appear together.
In addition, the Aggregate of Apperception is the recognition of both physical and mental perspectives of the objects. Like feeling, the Aggregate of Apperception also has six forms, including visible forms, sounds, odor, taste, tangible objects and mind-objects or thoughts. In addition, a certain affinity will exist between awareness and recognition. And through the conduct of consciousness, the apperception can bring human about the memory on a particular object.
The Aggregate of Mental (Volitional) Formations contains all volitional activities considering both bad and good perspectives. Volition works as a mental construction and mental activity. And it aims to direct the mind in the sphere of good, bad and neutral activities as a stage for decision making. Last but not least, volition has six forms that can connect with the other six organs and corresponding external objects. In fact, there are 52 mental activities constituting the Aggregate of Mental formations and they produce karmic effects on human both mentally and physically. For instance, attention (manasikāra), will (chanda), determination (adhimokkha), wisdom (paññā), energy(viriya), desire (rāga), repugnance (paṭigha), ignorance (avijjā), conceit (māna) and idea of self (sakkāya-diṭṭhi) are the most typical ones among them.
The final part among the five aggregates is the Aggregate of Consciousness. As the most important element among the five aggregates, it is a reaction or response that let six organs (eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and mind) as its basis and let the corresponding external phenomena (visible form, sound, odor, taste, tangible things and mind‐objects) make up its object. To further illustrate it, the ear consciousness has the ear of human as its basis and the sounds as its external object. To conclude, the consciousness has a tight connection with other six faculties and objects. However, a vital point need to be emphasized here is that there is no permanent, unchanging spirit that can be consider self or soul in Buddhist philosophy (Guruge 1997, 110). In addition, the aggregate of consciousness can also be placed at the first one from other perspectives. Because it can engender mind as well as matter and point out the cyclical aspect of the five aggregates. As a conclusion, due to their characters of internal dependence, the five aggregates should not be viewed in a sequential way. 2. The Cooperation of Five Aggregates
As mentioned before, the five categories of the aggregates have a tight relationship and will work according to the dependent origination. First, the matter or physical form including eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and the mind in the Aggregates of Matter will act as the basis of other four aggregates for further analyze the human life. Then the sensation part can provide pleasure, pain and neutral feeling. Following is the apperception that label and identify the external objects (Tong 2000, 119). Finally, the consciousness will cognize the six organs as well as the corresponding external objects.
However, among all five aggregates, the Aggregate of Mental Formation is the most complex and the most fundamental khanhda. It involves plenty of activities such as evaluation, will and attention with all the active progress of the mind. For example, when one hears some thing, the ear organ and the outside physic form will begin to contact and emerge ear consciousness. Then feeling and sensation such as good, bad or neutral will arise with the appreciation labeling and identifying the objects afterwards. And then based on the appreciation, the mental formation will evaluate and make decisions. Though mind acts a little bit different from others, all other spheres can be applied through this way 3. The Analysis of Five Aggregates
After studying the contains and typical forms of the five aggregates, it is necessary to have a deep analysis of them to comprehend the human life. And this essay will illustrate it according to their six characters. First, according to the Khajjaniya Sutta (S 22:79), the five aggregates are divided according to their their dynamic functions instead of substantial entities, which can be treated as a permanent nature and considered as the ultimate of being.
Secondly, the five aggregates can help to understand the human experience, reveal the suffering and teach how to solve those problem in daily life.
The third character focuses on their tight connection with each other. According to the law of causation, the five aggregates are interdependent and tightly connected to each other and work as a whole. Although there could exists a body without consciousness, there will be no sentient feature which will show on it. Another point need to be paid attention here is that the concept of body here is different from soul.
What’s more, one important character of the the five aggregates is that they are impermanent and changing constantly. Not only is the simple element such as matter and consciousness changing over time period, but also the combination of the elements together in the five aggregates, because the combination will not keep the same for two consecutive moments either. Just as Buddha told Raṭṭapāla: “The world is in continuous flux and is impermanent.” And another famous quote by the Greek philosopher Heraclitus of Ephesus (535BE ‐ 475BE) illustrating this impermanent feature is that “No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man.” According to both quotes, we can find their impermanent nature.
Just because of this impermanent nature, the fifth character of the five aggregates is that there exists no permanent happiness. According to the teaching of Buddhist, “Whatever is impermanent is suffering dukkha”. It can be seen that as every substance is impermanent, it cannot make up the basis of a permanent happiness (Guruge 1997, 120). According to the words by Buddha’s that in brief the five Aggregates of attachment are dukka, it can be concluded all that five aggregates are impermanent as well as the happiness in life.
Sixthly, like there is no permanent substance in the process of human life mentioned before, there is nothing can be called a permanent self. Just as Buddhaghosa said, “Mere suffering exists, but no sufferer is found; The deeds are, but no doer is found.”. In conclusion, life itself is not a being or an identity, but a becoming and it is not a product, but a process in Buddhist’s opinion. 4. The Personality View of Five Aggregates
After having a deep insight of the five aggregates, further analysis of the five aggregates regarding to personality and suffering is also important. Then comes to the question, what contributes to the arise of the five aggregates? There is one sutta stating that “These five aggregates affected by clinging are rooted in desire”. It can be seen that desire is the cause for the emergence of the five aggregates. However, there is some deviation between the five aggregates and the desire because desire is neither the same as nor different from the five aggregates. On the other hand, there is another phrase describing the causes and conditions. It claims that the four great elements, bhikkhu, are the cause and condition for the manifestation of the material form aggregate. Also, contact is the cause and condition for the manifestation of the feeling, perception and formations aggregate (Thera 1981, 76). Moreover, mentality‐materiality is the cause and condition for the manifestation of the consciousness aggregate.
However, as for people who is well trained, they understand that all of the five aggregates cannot be considered as self and the personality view will not arise from those perspectives. When viewing their life and things connected in this light, they have obtained a deep insight into the reality of life and can see things as they really are. One good method is to meditate. By an insight meditation, people will see things implies behind it such as its impermanent and no-self nature. There is a famous saying claiming that “This is not mine, this I am not, this is not myself.” It is also a good example for us to understand the nature of five aggregates and the human life.
5. The Four Nutriments of Life
To sustain the sentient life, four nutriments of life are needed. The four nutriments include the editable food, contact of our sense-organs including mind with the external world, mental volition or will and consciousness.
As the most important item among the four nutriments, the editable food can subsist variety of life in different forms from physical objects to human beings. And according to Buddhism, both the moderation in eating and a wise reflection on nutriment instead of the attachment to the taste are needed. However, in reality due to unhealthy life styles such as overeating, illnesses such as a high blood pressure and obesity sharply increase in our daily life. Hence, it is important to arise a wise reflection and a moderation on the nutriment.
The second nutriment of life is the contact of our sense-organs including the mind with the external world. As a basic nutriment to sustain the condition of life, it nourishes the feeling and sensations. As a result, it generates sense-impressions and assimilates them as pleasant, unpleasant or neutral. According to Buddha, as long as there is a requirement for sense-impressions arising from unguarded feelings, there will be unlimited supply for feelings (Thanissaro 2010, 116). In our daily life, things like visual forms, sounds, smells, flavors, bodily impacts and the collision of ideas constantly influence us. In addition, under some specific situations there are some people eager for painful sensation as well. To analyze the root of this phenomenon, it is the human’s hunger for the new and challenging experiences.
As for spiritual influence, mental volition or will standing chiefly for kamma is needed. To further illustrate it, the nutriment volitional thought can appeal in human’s constant urge to plan, and to aspire, to struggle and conquer, to build and to destroy, to do and to undo, to invent and to discover, to form and to transform, to organize and to create. And it is this character that let human become creative and obtain the desire to reach the top place. Human learn to explore and enjoy the challenges. However, this kind of volition has two sides that can be relatively good or bad. Good karma can general god impact on human, on the other side the bad one can produce bad influence.
The final part is the nutriment consciousness, which will feed, condition and conjoin with the other three mental groups at the moment of rebirth. In addition, it will feed and condition the thirty corporeal progresses that arise in a triple continuity. And the nutriment consciousness will act the same way when it feed and condition mind‐and‐body at rebirth. However, rebirth consciousness can contain more meaning than what is mentioned before. As an occurrence of the single moment, it will then feed or condition the mind-body process of the present existence (Ananda 1997, 110). Also, just because such moments of rebirth consciousness will arise at the beginning of each successive life, the interminable chain of future births, deaths and suffering can continue. In addition, growth or proliferation is a typical character of all consciousness. Hence, it can be concluded that life continues constantly according to Buddhism. Conclusion
In conclusion, from the perspective of Buddhism, as a combination of ever-changing physical and mental forces or energies, human beings can be divided into five groups, that is the Aggregate of Matter, the Aggregate of Sensations, the Aggregate of Apperceptions, the Aggregate of Mental Formations and the Aggregate of Consciousness. As the only physical element, the Aggregate of Matter including six organs works as the basis of other four aggregates for further analysis of human life. In a word, the five aggregates have a tight relationship and will cooperate according to the dependent origination. They work together to consist a human being and its examination plays a critical role in the Buddha’s teaching. To analyze deeply, as a whole, it works as an essential part to understand the Four Noble Truth as the ultimate referent and the objective domain of clinging. Not only is it tightly connected with the removal of clinging, but also is essential to the wisdom associated with the removal of clinging. As for components, they contain six organs, external objects, the corresponding sensation, apperception, metal formation and the consciousness. Based on those characters such as dynamic functions, it aims to understand human experience. The most important point is its impermanent feature of five aggregates, which illustrates that everything on the world is changing constantly. As a result, happiness is also impermanent according to this nature. As for the personality associated to it, the five aggregates affected by clinging are rooted in desire. Finally, to sustain the sentient life, the four nutriments of life including the ordinary material food, contact of our sense‐organs with the external world, mental volition or will and consciousness are needed in the daily life of human. In summary, it is necessary to learn the five aggregates and their influences, in order to have a deep Buddhist analysis of human life in the future study.
References:
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King, Sallie B. “Buddha nature and the concept of person.” The University of Hawaii Press. Philosophy East and West (1989): 151-170.
Thanissaro, Bhikkhu. “The Five Aggregates A Study Guide.” 2002-2010.
Thera, Nyanaponika. “The Four Nutriments of Life.” An Anthology of Buddhist Texts Translated from the Pali, with an Introductory Essay, The Wheel Publication No. 105. Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society (1981).
Tong, Sumano. “The Real Facts of Life.” Practical Reflections on the three Marks of Existence, The Wheel Publication No. 435. Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society (2000).