Samyutta Nikaya: Khandhavagga Introduction

 

I.             Five Aggregates

A.    Primary scheme of categories the Buddha draws upon to analyze sentient existence.

B.     Thus aggregates teaching concentrates on birth-death continuum rather than the larger cycle of life -> life.

C.     Four reasons for their critical role

1.      Khandhas are ultimate referent of the First Noble Truth, and all four truths revolve around suffering—so understanding the aggregates is essential to understanding the truths.

2.      Khandhas are the objective domain of clinging and contribute to the causes of future suffering.

3.      Removal of clinging is necessary—and clinging must be removed from its objects.

4.      Removal of clinging is achieved through wisdom—clear insight into the real nature of the aggregates.

D.    Analysis of the khandhas is not psychological; comparisons between buddhist analysis and that of modern science can easily lead to spurious conclusions.

E.     For the Buddha, investigation into the nature of personal existence always remains subordinate to the liberative thrust of the Dhamma.

II.          About the Khandhas

A.    Called ‘heap’ or ‘aggregate’ because each unites under one label a multiplicity of phenomena that share the same defining characteristic.

B.     Suttas of this vagga spell out the constituents of each khandha.

C.     The explanations are generally phrased in terms of functions rather than fixed essences.

III.       The Khandhas are Dukkha

A.    22:59 they tend to affliction and cannot be made to conform with our desires

B.     22:1 attachment to khandhas leads to sorrow and despair

C.     22:7 their change induces fear, distress, anxiety

D.    22:15 they are already suffering simply because they are impermanent

E.     22:26 while they give pleasure and joy—that’s the gratification in them—eventually they must change and pass away, and this instability is the danger perpetually concealed within them.

F.      22:79 we assume that we control them, while in reality they are consuming us.

IV.       The Khandhas are Objective Domain of Defilements

A.    Asavas (taintas) and upadana (clinging) in particular

B.     One clings to only the khandhas

C.     Clinging as a link in the ‘suffering’ chain of paticcasamuppada

1.      22:5 splices aggregates into the chain

2.      22:54 consciousness grows and thrives from life to life due to lust

D.    Two modes of clinging to the khandhas

1.      Appropriation: one grasps with desire and assumes possion of them

2.      Identification: one identifies with them, taking them as basis for views on self

E.     “This is mine, this I am, this is my self.”

1.      ‘This is mine’: appropriation

2.      ‘This I am’: identification expressive of conceit

3.      ‘This is my self’: identification expressive of views

V.          Identity View (Sakkayaditthi)

A.    Basis of all affirmation of selfhood

B.     All views of self are in reference to khandhas, individually or collectively

C.     Twenty types of identity view—four for each of the five khandhas

1.      Identical with it

2.      Possessing it

3.      Containing it

4.      Contained within it

D.    The aggregates are selfless nature, not bound up with self

VI.       Ignorance and the Khandhas

A.    Ignorance tends to sustain clinging to the khandhas

B.     Three delusions that nurture this clinging

1.      The khandhas are permanent

2.      The khandhas are a true source of happiness

3.      The khandhas are a self, or the accessories of a self

C.     Wisdom reveals that

1.      They are impermanent

2.      They are suffering

3.      They are non-self

D.    These are of course the Dharma Seals

E.     “This is not mind, this I am not, this is not my self”: no point in appropriating or identifying with anything, because the subject of this appropriation and identification “self”, is merely a fabrication of conceptual thought woven in the darkness of ignorance.