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skandha
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{{Short description|The five aggregates of clinging: form, sensations, perceptions, ideas, and consciousness}}{{About|a term in Buddhist phenomenology|Jain use|Skandha (Jainism)}}{{Distinguish|Skanda (disambiguation){{!}}Skanda}}{{Cleanup lang|date=July 2020}}{{Italic title}}{{Buddhist term| title=skandha| pi= à¤à¤¨à¥à¤§ (khandha)| si= à·à·à¶à¶±à·à¶° (skandha)| sa= सà¥à¤à¤¨à¥à¤§ (skandha)| bn= সà§à¦à¦¨à§à¦§ (skawndhaw)- the content below is remote from Wikipedia
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è)(T) / (:zh:è (ä½æ)|è´)(S)| zh-Latn=yùn | NgÅ© uẩn) | è)| ja-Latn=un | áááá áááááá)| km-Latn=pÄnhchÄkkhÄn | ì¨)| ko-Latn=on | à¸à¸±à¸à¸à¹)| bo=à½à½´à½à¼à½à½¼à¼| bo-Latn=phung po | mn=á ´á £á á ´á á ° | mn-Latn=tsogtsas | en=Aggregate, mass, heap| my=ááá¹áᬠ(áá«á¸áá«á¸)á| my-Latn= kÊ°Ã É°Ìdà | shn=á¶á¼áºáááá| shn-Latn=khan2 thaa2| tl = skandha}}{{buddhism | terse=1}}{{transl|sa|Skandhas|italics=Sì}} (Sanskrit) or {{transl|pi|khandhas|italics=Sì}} (PÄḷi) means “heaps, aggregates, collections, groupings”. In Buddhism, it refers to the five aggregates of clinging ({{transl|pi|PañcupÄdÄnakkhandhÄ}}), the five material and mental factors that take part in the rise of craving and clinging.They are also explained as the five factors that constitute and explain a sentient being’s person and personality,BOOK, Robert E. Buswell Jr., Donald S. Lopez Jr., The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism,books.google.com/books?id=DXN2AAAAQBAJ, 2013, Princeton University Press, 978-1-4008-4805-8, 708, 721â723, 827â828, {{sfn|Harvey|2013|p=55}}BOOK, Steven M. Emmanuel, A Companion to Buddhist Philosophy,books.google.com/books?id=P_lmCgAAQBAJ, 2015, John Wiley & Sons, 978-1-119-14466-3, 193, 232â233, 421â425, but this is a later interpretation in response to SarvÄstivÄdin essentialism. The 14th Dalai Lama subscribes to this interpretation.BOOK, The Tibetan Book of the Dead, Viking Press, Introductory commentary by the 14th Dalai Lama, 2005, 0-670-85886-2, First American, New York, xiii, Dorje, Gyurnme, Coleman, Graham, Jinpa, Thupten, The five aggregates or heaps of clinging are:
Etymology{{transl|sa|Skandha}} () is a Sanskrit word that means “multitude, quantity, aggregate”, generally in the context of body, trunk, stem, empirically observed gross object or anything of bulk verifiable with senses.BOOK, Monier Monier-Williams, A Sanskrit-English Dictionary,books.google.com/books?id=_3NWAAAAcAAJ, 1872, Oxford University Press, 1141, The term appears in the Vedic literature.The Pali equivalent word {{transl|pi|Khandha}} (sometimes spelled {{transl|pi|Kkhanda}}){{sfn|Harvey|2013|p=55}} appears extensively in the Pali canon where, state Rhys Davids and William Stede, it means “bulk of the body, aggregate, heap, material collected into bulk” in one context, “all that is comprised under, groupings” in some contexts, and particularly as “the elements or substrata of sensory existence, sensorial aggregates which condition the appearance of life in any form”.BOOK, Thomas William Rhys Davids, William Stede, Pali-English Dictionary,books.google.com/books?id=0Guw2CnxiucC, 1921, Motilal Banarsidass, 978-81-208-1144-7, 232â234, {{refn|group=note|According to Dalai Lama, {{transl|sa|skandha}} means “heap, group, collection or aggregate”.BOOK, Dalai Lama, The Opening of the Wisdom-Eye: And the History of the Advancement of Buddhadharma in Tibet,books.google.com/books?id=ZnHOkMbp6wYC&pg=PA37, 1966, Theosophical Publishing House, 978-0-8356-0549-6, 37â38, }} Paul Williams et al. translate {{transl|sa|skandha}} as “heap, aggregate”, stating it refers to the explanation of the psychophysical makeup of any being.BOOK, Paul Williams, Anthony Tribe, Buddhist Thought,books.google.com/books?id=BVvFBQAAQBAJ, 2000, Routledge, 978-0-415207003, 42, 48, 58â60, 69â70, Johannes Bronkhorst renders {{transl|sa|skandha}} as “aggregates”.{{sfn|Bronkhorst|2009|p=28â31}} Damien Keown and Charles Prebish state that {{transl|sa|skandha}} is in Tibetan, and the terms mean “collections or aggregates or bundles”.DescriptionThe Buddha teaches in the Pali Canon the five aggregates as follows:
InterpretationAggregates of personalityThe five aggregates are often interpreted in the later tradition as an explanation of the constituents of person and personality,{{sfn|Bronkhorst|2009|p=28}} and “the list of aggregates became extremely important for the later development of the teaching”.{{sfn|Bronkhorst|2009|p=28}} According to this interpretation, in each skandha â body, sensations, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness â there is emptiness and no substance.{{sfn|Harvey|2013|p=55}}{{sfn|Bronkhorst|2009|p=28â31}}According to Damien Keown and Charles Prebish, canonical Buddhism asserts that “the notion of a self is unnecessarily superimposed upon five skandha” of a phenomenon or a living being.BOOK, Damien Keown, Charles S. Prebish, Encyclopedia of Buddhism,books.google.com/books?id=NFpcAgAAQBAJ, 2013, Routledge, 978-1-136-98588-1, 321â322, 382, 844â845, The skandha doctrine, states Matthew MacKenzie, is a form of anti-realism about everyday reality including persons, and presents an alternative to “substantialist views of the self”.{{sfn|MacKenzie|2013|p=242â247}} It asserts that everything perceived, each person and personality, is an “aggregate, heap” of composite entities without essence.{{sfn|MacKenzie|2013|p=242â247}}According to Harvey, the five skandhas give rise to a sense of personality,{{sfn|Harvey|2013|p=56}} but are dukkha (unsatisfying), impermanent, and without an enduring self or essence.{{sfn|Harvey|2013|p=55}}{{refn|group=note|* Dukkha: The first Noble Truth states that “in brief, the five bundles of grasping-fuel (upadana-skandha) are painful [dukkha].“{{sfn|Harvey|2013|p=55}}Bhikkhu Bodhi, 2000b, p. 840 The five aggregates trigger suffering, pain or unsatisfactoriness. Everything that makes a person is a factor of dukkha, and these in Buddhist thought are not a source of pleasure but of sorrow.{{sfn|Harvey|2013|p=56-57}} Nirvana requires transcendence from all five skandhas and the sense objects.{{sfn|Harvey|2013|p=55}}* Impermanent: they come into being and dissolve.{{sfn|Harvey|2013|p=56-57}}Anicca Buddhism, Encyclopædia Britannica (2013)* Anatta: each of the skandhas lacks a self and substantiality.BOOK, David J. Kalupahana, Causality: The Central Philosophy of Buddhism,books.google.com/books?id=GOYGAAAAYAAJ, 1975, University Press of Hawaii, 978-0-8248-0298-1, 84â86, The aggregates are appearances which don’t have an essence either separately or together, all that is perceived as an aggregate or a whole has no real existence.BOOK, Clark Johnson, On Buddha Essence: A Commentary on Rangjung Dorje’s Treatise,books.google.com/books?id=azieVNVB6aYC&pg=PA34, 2006, Shambhala Publications, 978-1-59030-276-7, 34â35, {{sfn|MacKenzie|2013|p=242â247}} This is the “non-self” (anatta) doctrine, and it holds that a belief in self is a source of Dukkha (suffering, pain, unsatisfactoriness).BOOK, Peter Harvey, An Introduction to Buddhism: Teachings, History and Practices,books.google.com/books?id=u0sg9LV_rEgC, 2012, Cambridge University Press, 978-0-521-85942-4, 57â62, BOOK, Peter Harvey, Steven M. Emmanuel, A Companion to Buddhist Philosophy,books.google.com/books?id=P_lmCgAAQBAJ, 2015, John Wiley & Sons, 978-1-119-14466-3, 34â37, The explicit denial of substantiality or essence in any of the five skandha appears in the early Buddhist texts: “All form is comparable to foam; all feelings to bubbles; all sensations are mirage-like; dispositions are like the plantain trunk; consciousness is but an illusion: so did the Buddha illustrate [the nature of the aggregates].“Kalupahana (1975), page 86. The quote is from S 3.142, and also occurs in the Ägamas.}} Each aggregate is an object of grasping (clinging), at the root of self-identification as “I, me, myself”.{{sfn|Harvey|2013|p=55}} According to Harvey, realizing the real nature of skandhas, both in terms of impermanence and non-self, is necessary for nirvana.BOOK, Peter Harvey, An Introduction to Buddhism: Teachings, History and Practices,books.google.com/books?id=u0sg9LV_rEgC, 2012, Cambridge University Press, 978-0-521-85942-4, 59â62, {{refn|group=note|The initial part of the Buddhist practice is purification of each of the above “five aggregates” through meditation, study, ritual and living by virtues, particularly abstaining from mental intoxicants. Ultimately, the practice shifts to considering these as naive, then transcending them to reach the state of realization that there is neither person nor self within, or in any other being, states Harvey, where everyone and everything is without self or substantiality and is a “cluster of changing physical and mental processes”.{{sfn|Bronkhorst|2009|p=28â31}}{{sfn|Harvey|2013|p=57}}}} This “emptiness from personality” can be found in descriptions of the enlightened, perfected state of Arhat and Tathagata, in which there is no longer any identification with the five skandhas.{{refn|group=note|The physical, the personality factors (skandhas), and any sense of Self or I are a burden which the enlightened individual has dropped, thus becoming a “man of nothing”, not clinging to anything internal or external.Peter Harvey (1995), The Selfless Mind, Curzon Press, pages 228-230. The perfect state of enlightenment is one without any personality, no “I am” conceit, no physical identification, no intellectual identification, no identification in direct or indirects terms related to any of the five skandhas, because “a tathagata has abandoned the personality factors”. No one can find him because he has no “I”, self or identity, while his citta expands to infinity; he is beyond the reach of the unenlightened human beings, as well as the army of the Mara (demon of death in Buddhism).}}This “no essence” view has been a topic of questions, disagreements, and commentaries since ancient times, both in non-Buddhist Indian religions and Buddhist traditions.{{sfn|MacKenzie|2013|p=242â247}}BOOK, William Edelglass, Jay Garfield, Buddhist Philosophy: Essential Readings,books.google.com/books?id=tEb63CGvShsC, 2009, Oxford University Press, 978-0-19-971655-5, 261â264, 288â295, 297â308, 358â363, 226â227, 317â329,
Aggregates of experience and graspingAccording to Thanissaro, the Buddha never tried to define what a “person” is, though scholars tend to approach the skandhas as a description of the constituents of the person.BOOK, Adrian Snodgrass, The Symbolism of the Stupa,books.google.com/books?id=nzqK8dDCM0UC, 1992, Motilal Banarsidass, 978-81-208-0781-5, 137 with note 165, . (Snodgrass asserts that the term literally means “heap”, and the concept refers to the teaching accepted by all Buddhist schools that “the personality is an aggregate of five constituent parts,” referring back to publications from the 1930s to the 1950s.) He adds that almost any Buddhist meditation teacher explains it that way, as Buddhist commentaries from about the 1st century CE onwards have done. In Thanissaro’s view, however, this is incorrect, and he suggests that skandha should be viewed as activities, which cause suffering, but whose unwholesome workings can be interrupted.Thanissaro Bhikkhu (2010), The Five Aggregates. A Study GuideRupert Gethin also notes that the five skandhas are not merely “the Buddhist analysis of man”, but “five aspects of an individual being’s experience of the world... encompassing both grasping and all that is grasped”.{{sfn|Gethin|1986}}{{refn|group=note|Gethin: “To explain the khandhas as the Buddhist analysis of man, as has been the tendency of contemporary scholars, may not be incorrect as far as it goes, yet it is to fix upon one facet of the treatment of the khandhas at the expense of others. Thus A. B. Keith could write, “By a division which... has certainly no merit, logical or psychological, the individual is divided into five aggregates or groups.” However, the five khandhas, as treated in the nikÄyas and early abhidhamma, do not exactly take on the character of a formal theory of the nature of man. The concern is not so much the presentation of an analysis of man as object, but rather the understanding of the nature of conditioned existence from the point of view of the experiencing subject. Thus at the most general level rÅ«pa, vedanÄ, sañña, and are presented as five aspects of an individual being’s experience of the world; each khandha is seen as representing a complex class of phenomena that is continuously arising and falling away in response to processes of consciousness based on the six spheres of sense. They thus become the five upÄdÄnakkhandhas, encompassing both grasping and all that is grasped.“{{sfn|Gethin|1986}}}}Mathieu Boisvert states that “many scholars have referred to the five aggregates in their works on Buddhism, [but] none have thoroughly explained their respective functions”.{{sfn|Boisvert|2005|p=147}} According to Boisvert, the five aggregates and dependent origination are closely related, which explains the process that binds us to samsara.{{sfn|Bosivert|2005|p=150}} Boisvert notes that the pancha-upadanakkhanda{{definition needed|date=April 2023}} does not incorporate all human experience.{{sfn|Boisvert|2005|p=147-148}} Vedana may transform into either niramisa or nekkhamma-sita vedana (vedana which is not harmful) or into amisa or gehasita vedana (a “type of sensation [which] may act as an agent bringing about the future arising of craving and aversion“).{{sfn|Boisvert|2005|p=147}} This is determined by ’.{{sfn|Boisvert|2005|p=147}} According to Boisvert, “not all ’ belong to the sanna-skandha”. The wholesome ’ recognise the three marks of existence (dukkha, anatta{{definition needed|date=April 2023}}, anicca{{definition needed|date=April 2023}}), and do not belong to the sanna-skandha. Unwholesome ’ is not “conducive to insight”, and without proper ’, the “person is likely to generate craving, clinging and becoming”.{{sfn|Boisvert|2005|p=148}} As with ’, “not all sankhara belong to the sankharaskandha”, since not all sankhara produce future effects.{{sfn|Boisvert|2005|p=148}}According to Johannes Bronkhorst, the notion that the five aggregates are not self has to be viewed in light of debates about “liberating knowledge”, the knowledge of Ätman (eternal soul) which was deemed liberating by the Vedic traditions.{{sfn|Bronkhorst|2009|p=26-32}} Bronkhorst notes that “knowledge of the self plays no useful role on the Buddha’s path to liberation”.{{sfn|Bronkhorst|2009|p=27}}{{refn|group=note|Bronkhorst: “The aim of the teaching of the Buddha is evidently not to discover the real self. On the contrary, the preoccupation with the true nature of the self has to be given up. Only then one is ready to follow the path shown by the Buddha. Seen from this practical point of view, the question as to the existence of the self is of minor importance. The main thing is that knowledge of the self plays no useful role on the Buddha’s path to liberation. As certain non-Buddhist currents asserted a permanent self not subject to change because only knowledge of such a self could be useful to the attainment of liberation, it is probably justified to assume that the Buddha did not accept the existence of such a self.“{{sfn|Bronkhorst|2009|p=27}}}} What is important is not to grasp at the forms, sounds, odors, flavors, objects, and mental properties which are perceived with the six sense organs (these include mind as the sixth sense organ).{{sfn|Bronkhorst|2009|p=28-29}} The insight that the aggregates are not self aids in letting go of this grasping.{{sfn|Bronkhorst|2009|p=27}}{{refn|group=note|Bronkhorst: “Acquiring the insight that the various components of the person are not the self causes a wise and noble listener to turn away from material form, and so on; as a result he becomes free from desire and attains liberation.“{{sfn|Bronkhorst|2009|p=27}}}}Miri Albahari also objected to the usual understanding of the skandhas as denoting the absence of any “self”. Albahari argued that the khandhas do not necessarily constitute the entirety of the human experience, and that the Hindu concept of Ätman is not explicitly negated by PÄli Canon.JOURNAL, Albahari, Miri, March 2002, Against No-Ätman Theories of AnattÄ, Asian Philosophy, 12, 1, 5â20, 10.1080/09552360220142225, 142533789, 0955-2367, According to {{clarify|text=Albani|date=April 2023}}, “anattÄ is best understood as a practical strategy rather than as a metaphysical doctrine”. To Albahari, NibbÄna is an ever-present part of human nature, which is gradually “uncovered” by the cessation of ignorance.In Theravada Abhidhamma{{PancaKhandha}}The Early Buddhist schools developed detailed analyses and overviews of the teachings found in the sutras, called Abhidharma. Each school developed its own Abhidharma. The best-known is the TheravÄda Abhidhamma, but the SarvÄstivÄda Abhidharma was historically very influential, and has been preserved partly in the Chinese Ägama.Six sense basesThe internal and external sense bases together form the “six sense bases”. In this description, found in texts such as Salayatana samyutta, the coming together of an object and a sense-organ results in the arising of the corresponding consciousness.According to Bhikkhu Bodhi, the Theravada tradition teaches that the six sense bases accommodate “all the factors of existence”; it is “the all”, and “apart from which nothing at all exists”,{{sfn|Bodhi|2000b|p=1122}} and “are empty of a self and of what belongs to the self”.{{sfn|Bodhi|2000b|pp=1125-127}}{{refn|group=note|According to Bikkhu Bodhi, the Maha-punnama Sutta, also called The Great Full-moon Night Discourse, describes the impermanence of the aggregates to assert that there is no self, and the right discernment is, “this is not mine, this is not my self, this is not what I am”. From Maha-punnama Sutta[Buddha:] “It’s possible that a senseless person â immersed in ignorance, overcome with craving â might think that he could outsmart the Teacher’s message in this way: ‘So â form is not-self, feeling is not-self, perception is not-self, fabrications are not-self, consciousness is not-self. Then what self will be touched by the actions done by what is not-self?’ Now, monks, haven’t I trained you in counter-questioning with regard to this & that topic here & there? What do you think â Is form constant or inconstant?” “Inconstant, lord.” “And is that which is inconstant easeful or stressful?” “Stressful, lord.” “And is it fitting to regard what is inconstant, stressful, subject to change as: ‘This is mine. This is my self. This is what I am’?“[Monks:] “No, lord.““... Is feeling constant or inconstant?” “Inconstant, lord.“...“... Is perception constant or inconstant?” “Inconstant, lord.“...“... Are fabrications constant or inconstant?” “Inconstant, lord.“...“What do you think, monks â Is consciousness constant or inconstant?” “Inconstant, lord.” “And is that which is inconstant easeful or stressful?” “Stressful, lord.” “And is it fitting to regard what is inconstant, stressful, subject to change as: ‘This is mine. This is my self. This is what I am’?“”No, lord.“”Thus, monks, any form whatsoever that is past, future, or present; internal or external; blatant or subtle; common or sublime; far or near: every form is to be seen as it actually is with right discernment as: ‘This is not mine. This is not my self. This is not what I am.’â Majjhima Nikaya iii 15, Translated by Thanissaro BhikkhuMaha-punnama Sutta: The Great Full-moon Night Discourse, Thanissaro Bhikkhu (2001)}}The suttas do not describe this{{ambiguous|date=April 2023}} as an alternative of the skandhas. The Abhidhamma, striving to “a single all-inclusive system”,{{sfn|Bodhi|2000b|p=1123}} explicitly connects the five aggregates and the six sense bases:{{sfn|Bodhi|2000b|p=1123}}
Eighteen dhÄtus and four paramatthasThe eighteen s{{refn|group=note|The PÄli word dhÄtu is used in multiple contexts in the PÄli canon: For instance, Bodhi (2000b), pp. 527â28, identifies four different ways that dhÄtu is used including in terms of the “eighteen elements” and in terms of “the four primary elements” (catudhÄtu).}} â six external bases, six internal bases, and six consciousnesses â function through the five aggregates. These s can be arranged into six triads, each triad composed of a sense object, a sense organ, and sense consciousness.{{refn|group=note|
Twelve Nidanas{{See also|Dependent Origination}}The Twelve Nidanas is a linear list of twelve elements from the Buddhist teachings which arise in dependence on the preceding link. While this list may be interpreted as describing the processes which give rise to rebirth, in essence it describes the arising of dukkha as a psychological process, without the involvement of an atman.{{sfn|Shulman|2007}}{{sfn|Jurewicz|2000}}Some scholars regard it to be a later synthesis of several older lists.{{sfn|Frauwallner|1973|p=167-168}}{{sfn|Schumann|1997}}{{sfn|Bucknell|1999}}{{sfn|Gombrich|2009}}{{sfn|Shulman|2007}}{{sfn|Jones|2009}} The first four links may be a mockery of the Vedic-Brahmanic cosmogony, as described in the Hymn of Creation of Veda X, 129 and the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad.{{sfn|Jurewicz|2000}}{{sfn|Gombrich|2009}}{{sfn|Jones|2009}}{{sfn|Wayman|1984|p=173 with note 16}}{{sfn|Wayman|1990|p=256}}{{sfn|Wayman|1971}} These were integrated with a branched list that describes the conditioning of mental processes,{{sfn|Bucknell|1999}}{{sfn|Shulman|2007}}{{sfn|Jones|2009}} akin to the five skandhas.{{sfn|Boisvert|1995}} Eventually, this branched list developed into the standard twelvefold chain as a linear list.{{sfn|Bucknell|1999}}{{sfn|Gombrich|2009|p=138}}According to Boisvert, “the function of each of the aggregates, in their respective order, can be directly correlated with the theory of dependent originationâespecially with the eight middle links.“{{sfn|Boisvert|1995|p=127}} Four of the five aggregates are explicitly mentioned in the sequence, yet in a different order than the list of aggregates, which concludes with {{IAST|viññÄá¹a ⢠vijñÄna}}:{{sfn|Boisvert|1995|p=127â28}}
SatipatthanaMindfulness applies to four upassanÄ (domains or bases), “constantly watching sensory experience in order to prevent the arising of cravings which would power future experience into rebirths,“{{sfn|Williams|2000|p=46}} which{{ambiguous|date=April 2023}} also overlap with the skandhas. The four domains are:{{sfn|Kuan|2008|p=i, 9, 81}}
In the Mahayana traditionThe Mahayana developed out of the traditional schools, introducing new texts and putting other emphases in the teachings, especially shunyata and the Bodhisattva-ideal.IndiaThe Prajnaparamita-teachings developed from the first century BCE onward. They emphasise the “emptiness” of everything that exists. This means that there are no eternally existing “essences”, since everything is dependently originated. The skandhas too are dependently originated, and lack any substantial existence. According to Red Pine, the Prajnaparamita texts are a historical reaction to some early Buddhist Abhidhammas. Specifically, it is a response to Sarvastivada teachings that “phenomena” or their constituents are real.{{sfn|Red Pine|2004|p=9}} The prajnaparamita notion of “emptiness” is also consistent with the Theravada Abhidhamma.{{explain|date=January 2019}}{{citation needed|date=January 2019}}This{{ambiguous|date=April 2023}} is formulated in the Heart Sutra. The Sanskrit version of the “Prajnaparamita Hridaya Sutra” (“Heart Sutra“), which may have been composed in China from Sanskrit texts, and later back-translated into Sanskrit,{{refn|group=note|According to Nattier (1992), the Heart Sutra was originally composed in Chinese and later back-translated into Sanskrit. Thereafter, it became popular in India and later Tibet. Elements in this translation are not present in Chinese versions of this sutra.}} states that the five skandhas are empty of self-existence,{{sfn|Red Pine|2004|p=2}}{{refn|group=note|See also Nhat Hanh (1988), p. 1, and Suzuki (1960), p. 26. Nhat Hanh (1988) adds to this first verse the sentence: “After this penetration, he overcame all pain.” Suzuki (1960), p. 29, notes that this additional sentence is unique to Hsuan-chuang’s translation and is omitted in other versions of the Heart Sutra.}}{{refn|group=note|In the Theravada canon, the English word “self-existence” is a translation of the Sanskrit word svabhava. “Svabhava” has also been translated as “self-nature” (Suzuki, 1960, p. 26), “separate self” (Nhat Hanh, 1988, p. 16) and “self-existence” {{harv|Red Pine|2004|p=67}}. Note that Chinese versions of the Heart Sutra do not contain the notion of svabhava. When “emptiness of self” is mentioned, the English word “self” is a translation of the Pali word “atta” (Sanskrit, “atman”).}}{{refn|group=note|Regarding the term sabhÄva (Pali; Skt: svabhÄva) in the Pali Canon, Gal (2003), p. 7, writes: “To judge from the suttas, the term sabhÄva was never employed by the Buddha and it is rare in the Pali Canon in general. Only in the post-canonical period does it become a standard concept, when it is extensively used in the commentarial descriptions of the dhammas [conditioned mental and physical processes] and in the sub-commentarial exegesis.The term sabhÄva, though, does occur on various occasions in five canonical or para-canonical texts: the Paá¹isambhidÄmagga, the Peá¹akopadesa, the Nettippakaraá¹a, the Milindapañha and the Buddhavaá¹sa.“Gal (p. 10) speculates that the use of the term sabhÄva in the Paá¹isambhidÄmagga might be the earliest occurrence in Pali literature and quotes (p. 7, esply. n. 28) from this text (Paá¹is. II 178) the application of the phrase sabhÄvena suññaá¹ (Pali for “empty of sabhÄva“) to each of the aggregatesâat least superficially similar to an application of svabhÄva in the Prajnaparamita Hridaya Sutra (“Heart Sutra“) cited in this article.}} and famously states “form is emptiness, emptiness is form.{{sfn|Red Pine|2004|p=2}} The same is true with feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness.“Nhat Hanh (1988), p. 1. Again, also see {{harvnb|Red Pine|2004|p=2}}, and Suzuki (1960), p. 26.The Madhyamaka school elaborates on the notion of the Middle Way. Its basic text is the MÅ«lamadhyamakakÄrikÄ, written by Nagarjuna, who refuted the Sarvastivada conception of reality, which reifies dhammas.Kalupahana (1975) p. 78 The simultaneous non-reification of the self and reification of the skandhas has been viewed by some Buddhist thinkers as highly problematic.Jinpa (2002), p. 112.The Yogacara school further analysed the workings of the mind, elaborated on the concept of nama-rupa and the five skandhas, and developed the notion of the Eight Consciousnesses.ChinaShunyata, in Chinese texts, is “wu”, nothingness.{{sfn|Lai|2003}}{{sfn|Swanson|1993|p=373}} In these texts, the relation between absolute and relative was {{clarify|text=a central topic in understanding|date=April 2023}} the Buddhist teachings. The aggregates convey the relative (or conventional) experience of the world by an individual, although Absolute truth is realized through them. Commenting on the Heart Sutra, D.T. Suzuki notes:The TathÄgatagarbha Sutras, which concern the Buddha-nature, developed in India but played a prominent role in China. They on occasion speak of the ineffable skandhas of the Buddha (beyond the nature of worldly skandhas and beyond worldly understanding). In the Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra the Buddha tells of how the Buddha’s skandhas are in fact eternal and unchanging. The Buddha’s skandhas are said to be incomprehensible to unawakened vision.TibetThe Vajrayana tradition further develops the aggregates in terms of mahamudra epistemology and tantric reifications.Referring to mahamudra teachings, Chogyam TrungpaTrungpa (2001) pp. 10â12; and, Trungpa (2002) pp. 124, 133â134 identifies the form aggregate as the “solidification” of ignorance (Pali, ’; Skt., avidyÄ), allowing one to have the illusion of “possessing” ever dynamic and spacious wisdom (Pali, ’; Skt. vidyÄ), and thus being the basis for the creation of a dualistic relationship between “self” and “other.“{{refn|group=note|This type of analysis of the aggregates (where ignorance conditions the five aggregates) might be akin to that described by the Twelve Nidanas.}}According to Trungpa Rinpoche,Trungpa Rinpoche (1976), pp. 20â22 the five skandhas are “a set of Buddhist concepts which describe experience as a five-step process” and that “the whole development of the five skandhas... is an attempt on our part to shield ourselves from the truth of our insubstantiality,” while “the practice of meditation is to see the transparency of this shield.“Trungpa Rinpoche (1976), p. 23Trungpa Rinpoche writes (2001, p. 38):See also{{colbegin|colwidth=20em}}
Notes{{Reflist|group=note|2}}References{{Reflist|2}}SourcesPrimary literature
Secondary literature
Web-sources{{Reflist|group=web}}External linksTheravada
Mahayana
Vajrayana
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