The True Nature of Existence

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PowerPoint presentation on Bhikkhu Bodhis

recorded lectures on Buddhas Teaching As It Is.

Materials for the presentation are taken from the

recorded lectures (MP3) posted at the website of

Bodhi Monastery and the notes of the lectures

posted at beyondthenet.net

Originally prepared to accompany the playing ofBhikkhu Bodhis recorded lectures on Buddhas Teaching

As It is in the Dharma Study Class at PUTOSI Temple,

Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia.

This series of weekly study begins in November, 2010.

Buddhas Teaching As It Is

Bhikkhu Bodhi

Lecture3:

TrueNatureofEx

istence


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Bhikkhu Bodhi

Lecture 3

THE TRUE NATURE OFEXISTENCE FIVE

AGGREGATES

Namo Tassa Bhagavato

ArahatoSammasambuddhassa


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Understanding Five Aggregates of Clinging


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Five Aggregates to be Understood

The Buddha indicates what has to be understood or known.What we have to understand is nature of our own existence,our own experience, the five aggregates, the basiccomponents of our being. Our own experience lies closest toourselves. It is through our own experience that we contacteverything else.

Ordinarily we use our experience to know and enjoy the worldof six senses (sights, sounds, smells, tastes, touch sensations,and ideas), but the experiencing itself is not examined. Thus

we learn about everything except the instrument ofknowledge, the experience of understanding that providesthe key to wisdom. The method of the Buddha reverses thisprocedure.


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Understanding Five Aggregates of Clinging


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Aggregates of Clinging


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The Five Aggregates


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Materiality Aggregate Rupa Khandha


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Materiality Aggregate

(a) Earth ElementThis represents the property of extension, the property by which a material body occupies

space; has some degree of hardness and softness; resist pressure and excludes otherbodies from occupying the same space.


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Materiality Aggregate Primary Elements

(d) Air element

This represents the principle of oscillation by reason of which all materialparticles are in a state of vibration; by reason of this material bodies exhibitmotion.


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Secondary Elements of Matter - Derivatives


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Secondary Elements of Matter - Derivatives


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II. Aggregate of Feelings

Feeling is the mental factor that has the function of experiencing the flavor of the object,the affective quality of the object. There are three basic types of feelings pleasant,


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III. Aggregate of Perceptions


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Aggregate of Mental Formations


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The Five Aggregates Whole Experience


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Trilogy: Anicca, Dukkha, Anatta


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Ignorance Mental Darkness & Illusions

These perversions occur at 3 levels, perception, thinking and view.

The mind is caught up in illusions.


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1. Aniccata - Impermanence


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Impermanence - Aniccata


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Impermanence - Aniccata


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Aniccata Three Stages of Becoming


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Aniccata Three Stages of Becoming

The factors themselves are always changing, arising and dissolving. If we pay carefulattention to the mental events, we see the rise and fall of the discrete mental events. Inthis way, we get to discover the subtle mark of aniccata.


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Anicca, Dukkha, Anatta

TRUE NATURE OFEXISTENCE PART II


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Dukkhata - Unsatisfactoriness


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Anatta Selflesness or Non-self


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Anatta Simile of Snake & Rope


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Selfhood & Not-Self


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What is Self

These are the four basic notions that enter into the concept ofa self: permanence, simplicity, unconditionedness, and beingsusceptible to control. Now we examine the personality, thefive aggregates in the light of these ideas.

If there is a self, what is it? If he idea of self has to have any

content, it has to be conceived in relation to what isexperienced, to the five aggregates, the body and mind.When we try to posit the self in relation to the fiveaggregates, a number is possible and these be reduced totwo:

1. Identity identifying the self with some aspect of the body-mind complex, i.e. the five aggregates as the self

2. Difference distinguishing the self as distinct from the bodyand mind.


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Aggregates as Self

The aggregates are not self:1. In terms of lastingness: The five aggregates are all impermanent.

The body is a mass of vibrations, a current of material groupsarising and passing away. The mind is a series of momentaryoccasions of awareness. Feeling, perceptions, formations and

being conscious are arising and falling away. There is no one behindthe mental process watching it, no subject, no observer, justmomentary mental acts. Since the five aggregates areimpermanent, subject to rise and fall, they cannot be identified asself.

2. Simplicity or indivisibility The individual person is a compound offive aggregates, which themselves are a multiplicity of elementswhen examined. Which aggregate is to be identified as self? Eachaggregate is impermanent, none could be identified as self.


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Five Aggregates as Self3. Unconditioned

All five aggregates are conditioned, they

arise and fall due to causes and conditions. The body issupported by air, water , etc. The mental process isconditioned by the body. Consciousness arises with materialsupport, visual consciousness arises dependent on the eyes

and visible form, etc. None of the five aggregates areunconditioned.

4. Control All five aggregates cannot be controlled, theydepend on outer causes and conditions, not subject to ourcontrol. Therefore the five aggregates cannot be identified

as self.The aggregates, being impermanent, compounded,

conditioned and not subject to mastery, cannot beidentified as the self because the self must be lasting,simple, unconditioned and subject to control.


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Self Distinct from the Aggregates

Now we examine the second position that there is a selfdistinct from the five aggregates, contained within or behindthem. If there is a self distinct from the aggregates, weshould be able to find it. However, whatever we come uponturns out to be one or the other or some combinations of the

five aggregates. Even the mind that is doing the searching is agroup of aggregates, a mind consciousness associated withfeeling, perception and volition. We cant find any selfseparate and distinct from the aggregates, its like looking for

a pit inside an onion. The five aggregates have no core, noself.

Some take Nibbana as self. The Buddha says all dhammas arenot self. Nibbana is an unconditioned dhamma, there is no

distinct self.


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Selfless Nature of the Five Aggregates

If there is no self to be found in the body-mind complex, how can rebirth takeplace?In Buddhism, rebirth is understood as occurring through causal continuity orsuccession without a lasting self or ego entity.This will be covered in details later in the topic on Rebirth and Kamma.


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The True Nature of Existence