1. Materiality (rūpa) includes all matter, internal and external—sights, sounds, smells, tastes, touches, and the material support for consciousness. Materiality, an aspect of psychophysical processes, includes the images that the mind constructs when stimulated by objects in the world. Materiality refers not only to a physical tree, bus, pencil, mountain, cat, or sister but also to the impact the physical perception of those things has on the mind. Neuroscientists might define materiality as the mental activity that results when sensory impressions are transmitted to the brain. The four elements meditation introduced in chapter 12 illuminated subtle aspects of the materiality aggregate and defined twenty-eight concrete and nonconcrete material elements.
When we closely examine matter, we discover that it is insubstantial; it is ephemeral. Ancient Buddhist texts compare materiality to balls of foam or lumps of froth on water.210 Just as balls of foam on ocean waves break apart and disappear, bodies perish, solid objects break apart, and sensory impressions change. Experiences of the body, if not recognized as ephemeral, insubstantial expressions of causal factors, can lead to the fundamental error underlying self-grasping—the belief that “I am the body.”
2. Feeling tone (vedanā) refers to the characteristic feeling of an object—the experience of the contact as pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral. Feeling tone points to a basic mental factor, not a complex emotion. Every experience of mind or body has a feeling component that is embedded within it and conditioned by causes. Feelings are fleeting; they continuously change throughout our lives. The untrained mind reacts to feelings by grasping for more pleasant feelings, pushing away unpleasant encounters, and ignoring neutral events. These reactions quickly develop into patterns of attachment and identification. When your shoulder hurts, for example, you may not explicitly have the thought that the tingle, pressure, or tightness is really who you are; however, if the sensation is irritating, you might squirm, react, or massage the tense muscle. The pressure of the massage might be soothing, and you could want that pleasant feeling to linger. Habitual reactions that seek pleasure by trying to make pleasant encounters last, and avoid pain by trying to make unpleasant events end, arise as conditioned responses to feeling. These conditioned reactions ignore the simple fact that feelings change without our interference. Reacting to a feeling does not succeed in altering the duration of a feeling—feelings are by nature fleeting. Reactions serve to construct the illusion of an enduring entity that possesses those experiences.
Feelings are like ephemeral bubbles on water; they arise due to momentary conditions, exist for just an instant, and then pop—they vanish and leave nothing behind.211 “Just as a bubble both arises and ceases in this or that drop of water and has no length of duration, so indeed feeling also arises and ceases and has no length of duration. In the moment of one snapping of the fingers it arises and ceases many times.”212
3. Perception (saññā) has the characteristic of perceiving the qualities of an object; it compares present sensory data with memory to identify the encounter—that a given object is a fork, friend, leaf, or threat. Perception is the mental function that recognizes, conceptualizes, and labels the things that we see, hear, smell, taste, touch, and think. As such, it picks out distinguishing marks of an experience, gives it a name, compares it to previous encounters, and stores it in memory for future reference. It manifests through how we interpret the object. Perception makes sense of the barrage of daily stimuli, filters out superfluous data, and registers the useful information.
Since perception is mediated through our ideas and past experiences, it can be inaccurate. Children may imagine there are ghosts when fear affects their response to the sound of creaking floorboards. After a serious car accident, even a glimpse of the same color, make, and model car can trigger a sense of panic. When expecting a special guest to arrive, anyone approaching from a distance who matches her general height, weight, and complexion might startle you into thinking she has arrived early. Perception is often skewed by the influence of desires, fears, hopes, plans, and memories; it can be affected by stereotypes, habitual patterns, and belief systems. Impressions accrued through past events can distort the perception of current events. Once I introduced two friends at a party; for no apparent reason one distrusted the other. Later, when looking at old photographs, we realized that he bore a striking resemblance to an ex-boyfriend who had deceived her.
Clinging to perceptions of things seen, heard, smelled, tasted, or touched is likened to clinging to mirages, which are unsubstantial, ungraspable, and deceptive.213 The Buddhist commentary explains, “For one cannot grasp [a mirage] and drink it, or wash in it, or bathe in it, or fill a pot with it … And just as a mirage deceives travelers and makes them say that a full lake has been seen, perception also deceives them and makes them say ‘this is blue, beautiful, pleasant, and permanent.’”214
The concept of self arises when we try to organize perceptions. We create the past through memory. We create future through projection. We organize each sensory contact through the filter of concepts of my past and my future. We build a self-referential position in the center of our personalized universe. When we perceive the world from a preconceived vantage point of me, this central organizing structure creates an illusion of the person to whom experience occurs. The world is then recognized by how it impacts me and my personal interests.
4. Mental formations (saṅkhāra) include all the formations of mind—wholesome and unwholesome—such as hindrances, intentions, compassion, tranquility, thoughts, images, hopes, fears, plans, mindfulness, effort, anger, determination, memories, opinions, attitudes, joy, envy. This is a vast category of mental phenomena that includes qualities we endeavor to cultivate, qualities we seek to abandon, and all the thoughts that proceed from the basic perception of an object. This category encompasses the fifty-two mental factors defined in chapter 13, but excludes feeling, perception, and consciousness since they appear as specific aggregates in the context of this model.
The scope of this aggregate is vast. Although experiences are composed of many mental factors that function together to form the interdependent state, they are essentially hollow and without a core—like a banaṇa tree.215 As the traditional commentary explains, “One cannot take anything from a plantain stem and bring it away to make even as much as a rafter … A plantain stem is a combination of many sheaths, so also the formations aggregate is a combination of many states.”216
5. Consciousness (viññāṇa, citta, manas) has the characteristic of cognizing an object. It is a rudimentary quality of knowing. Consciousness refers to the basic functioning of cognition; it is the awareness that something is impacting the senses. Consciousness functions as the forerunner of the many interdependent mental factors that combine to form the experience of the object; it manifests as a continuity of processes that leads and links the elements of the cognitive sequence.
What Moved? What Decides? What Knows?
When you have an intention to shift your posture during meditation, to turn away from a cold draft, scratch an itch, look at your watch, or to adjust your seat, consider what decided to move. You might say “I” decided to move. But which aspect of mind conditioned the desire to move? Was it fear, restlessness, compassion, desire? Are you that aspect of mind? When you make the decision that “I will not move,” which aspect of mind conditioned the decision to remain still? Was it confidence, resolution, determination, embarrassment, pride, commitment, or desire to achieve?
Consciousness can only arise with the impact of an object. The Buddha explained that “consciousness is reckoned by the particular condition dependent upon which it arises. When consciousness arises dependent on eye and materiality, it is reckoned as eye-consciousness; when consciousness arises dependent on ear and sound, it is reckoned as ear-consciousness.”217 There is no preexisting consciousness just waiting for a perception to impinge. Consciousness contains no intrinsic qualities; it simply performs the function of cognizing whatever objects impact the sense
s. Individual disposition and personality are expressed by the patterns of associated mental formations, not by an intrinsic feature of consciousness. This rudimentary function of cognition is like a magical illusion;218 it is not as it appears, and its apparent solidity is not real. “Just as an illusion … deceives the many and makes them grasp anything at all as gold, silver, or pearl, consciousness too deceives the many and makes them take it as though it were coming and going and standing and sitting with the same consciousness. But there is one consciousness at the moment of coming and another at the moment of going.”219 When we cease attributing solidity to mental and material processes, we recognize the ancient web of attachments to be deceptive.
Tracking the Experiences of Mind and Body
Bring mindfulness to your daily events; notice how mind and body interact. As your observing powers increase, attention will rest more frequently in present-moment experiences, without the drama of elaborate stories that remove you from the here and now. Observe how you receive information from the senses. Do you make a story out of it—a reaction of liking or not liking, wanting or aversion? Do you judge it? Do you fabricate a self-reference point—the sense of being someone who is having the experience? Try to identify the function of the five aggregates in daily experiences at home, at work, while exercising, while shopping. Do you see how difficult it is to separate the aggregates from one another? That is because they always function together.
CONSTRUCTING THE SELF
We experience our lives through the functioning of the five aggregates. You may observe these constituents of experience in everyday activities. For example, when eating a bowl of noodles, you might notice the temperature of the broth and the soft texture of the noodles—heat and softness are characteristics of matter. The pleasure you experience in contact with the salty taste reveals the feeling tone. Recognition that it is a bowl of noodles is accomplished through the function of perception. Your mental orientation to the bowl, attention to the meal, and desire for the next bite are elements of the mental formations aggregate. And the conscious impact of the contact with the noodles is accomplished by the consciousness aggregate. Through the refined practices of discerning the five aggregates in meditation, as well as daily activities, you will confirm with your direct knowledge that experience arises with changing mental and material conditions and does not belong to anyone.
The five aggregates affected by clinging—materiality, feeling, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness—provide a structure for contemplative inquiry into how this psychophysical process works in a world of interdependent experience. To what extent is the interaction of materiality, feeling, perception, mental formations, and consciousness simply the manifestation of a deep and clear presence in life and to what extent are they distorted by formations of I-making, mine-making, and self-grasping? The concept of self (I) coupled with the concept of possessiveness (mine) is the primary form of misperception. You might identify with sensory experiences or feelings (my pain, my frustration, my joy). You might identify with views and opinions (I believe). You might identify with the knowing of experience (I am, I know, I realize). Yet, when we carefully analyze mind and body, we find no one who does actions, no entity who is the owner of the body, no guarantee that we can control any conditions: we find only causally related events. When we understand I-ing and my-ing as a process of grasping, we will then fearlessly recognize not-self. Understand that this process itself is not a personal process.
When with meditative awareness we look below the surface of the conditioned patterns to discern the five aggregates, we discover something more profound than preconceived concepts. We search internally and externally, near and far, throughout the infinite universe and, yet, only conditioned elements of materiality and mentality are found. There is nothing in this world of change that will not collapse, decay, and disappear. Knowing the suffering that ensues from trying to hold on to unstable experiences, the Buddha advised, “Whatever is not yours, abandon it; when you have abandoned it, that will lead to your welfare and happiness for a long time. What is it that is not yours? Materiality [feelings, perceptions, formations, and consciousness] is not yours. Abandon it. When you have abandoned it, that will lead to your welfare and happiness for a long time.”220 Our job is to unravel the clinging, and the most intimate arena for clinging is the process that fuels identification and possessiveness. Although people commonly attribute personal significance to their life story and experiences of the five aggregates, fundamentally these are not ours.
Notice the Constructions of I and Mine
Notice in your daily activities when the activities of I-making and mine-making form. Watch for the construction of a possessive relationship to experiences. Learn how identification and possessiveness operate. You will find they occur when a sensory contact is met without wise attention. When you enter a room and take your seat, consider if there is a possessive relationship to that place. Do you think of it as “my seat”? Who do you choose to sit next to and why? If there is any attachment to that position, you could be constructing a sense of being the one who has a place or exists in relation to another. It can be interesting to observe these formations of I, me, and mine arising in community dining rooms where no one owns anything; sometimes people form an entrenched routine and feel threatened if that routine is interrupted.
When you spot your favorite tea mug on the shelf, is it an experience of simply seeing, or is the seeing infested with mine-making? When you feel a stinging sensation on the arm, is it a simple sensation or are you outraged, complaining that “a mosquito is biting me!” When a feeling of grief sweeps over the heart, notice if there is an unadulterated wave of grief or if the mind constructs elaborate stories of beautiful moments shared and lost? How strong is the formation of I or mine in daily experience? Is your self-image threatened when illness affects the body? Did conceit swell up hoping to be recognized when you first achieved jhāna? Noticing the fabrication of I and mine can enhance the intimate experience of seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching, or thinking. It strengthens mindfulness of the encounter, free from the distorting intrusion of self concepts.
As you recognize habitual grasping for what it really is, you will not be deceived, seduced, or confused by it. You will learn to stop grasping after transient experiences. This nongrasping will not bring even the slightest sense of deprivation or disquiet. On the contrary, you will enjoy the deep ease and freedom that comes with letting go.
MEDITATIVE INVESTIGATION
Buddhist teachings may or may not have convinced you that you are not a fixed entity. But you don’t need to grasp intellectual concepts of emptiness or accept not-self on faith. This training invites you to closely examine the processes of mind and body that habitually inject a sense of self into experience. The quality of the meditative inquiry is gentle, peaceful, and nonmanipulative. You will not see into the nature of mind if you hunt out the ego with the attitude of a predator. It would also be arrogant to adopt the stance of a creator who constructs an improved enlightened self. The process is simpler: see clearly how you encounter experience and notice if experiences are embellished with constructs of I, me, and mine. It is the process of grasping that produces the illusion of self—it matters little what is grasped. You will experience just what you are naturally experiencing, but you will remain informed by clear seeing, and mental and material processes will be known to be void of the distortions of self-grasping. The futility of self-grasping is illustrated by the proverb, “It can seem difficult to catch a black cat in a dark room, especially if it is not there.” The insight into not-self may appear challenging, but you will discover through a careful examination of your own experience that there is nothing to get rid of and there is nothing at the core of experience to claim as self.
Question Identity
Ask yourself, in the midst of a thought, in the middle of an experience, during the course of a conversation, while working out at the gym: Am I this thought? Am I this
feeling? Is this emotion me? Is this sensation what I am?
My favorite inquiry questions emphasize one word: really. Really, am I that? Really, is this tension mine? Am I really this thought? Is this sensation really me? Whenever you notice that you have identified with something, are attached to something desirable, or withdraw from something painful, ask yourself, “really?” Dislodge the tight shell of grasping that welds a sense of being onto a momentary occurrence. Experience your daily events free from deceptive self-reference.
Self is a fabricated concept that occurs whenever experience is met with clinging. When we are not grasping self-concepts, sensory experience continues, unimpeded and without a self to whom it is happening. As your vipassanā practice progresses, you will further analyze the aggregates, their causes, and how they function and contemplate their arising and perishing. Through direct observation you will investigate if, and when, experience is affected by clinging.
Emptiness is not a state of blankness; it is just empty of self-grasping. Practice to know your experience, unaffected by clinging. Rest in the present configuration of changing conditions—life being known through the functioning of the five aggregates. Wake up in the morning, get dressed, eat, and work, but live unburdened by the notion that I am doing it. Then you will recognize processes as they are occurring, free from the distorting lens of I-making or mine-making, and unrestricted by the role of agent of the action. This extraordinary clarity regarding mind-body processes can dislodge deeply rooted concepts of I, me, and mine.
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