Skandha - Five Aggregates

In the Buddhist view, by contemplating on the characteristics of the skandhas, we can overcome self-grasping. Self-grasping is attachment to a concept of self that is unique, independent, and permanent. 

 In the Buddhist view, it is this attachment to this distorted view of the self that is the root cause of suffering. Therefore, by letting go of this attachment, we can liberate ourselves from suffering.

 Five skandhas (S. pañca skandha; P. pañca khandha; T. phung po lnga), or five heaps or five aggregates, are five psycho-physical aggregates, which according to Buddhist philosophy are the basis for self-grasping.

 The five aggregates or heaps are: 
  1. rupa-skandha - aggregate of form (material image, impression, our body & our physical surroundings)
  2. vedana-skandha - aggregate of sensations (feelings, received from form)
  3. saṃjñā-skandha - aggregate of recognition, labels or ideas (perceptions, cognitions)
  4. saṃskāra-skandha - aggregate of volitional formations (desires, wishes and tendencies, thoughts, idea, mental habits, prejudice, compulsion triggered by an object)
  5. vijñāna-skandha - aggregate of consciousness
            There are six types of vijnana (consciousness) within vijnana-skandha:
    • eye-consciousness (Skt. cakṣur-vijñana)
    • ear-consciousness (Skt. śrotra-vijñana)
    • nose-consciousness (Skt. ghrāṇa-vijñana)
    • tongue-consciousness (Skt. jihva-vijñana)
    • body-consciousness (Skt. kāya-vijñana)
    • mind-consciousness (Skt. mano-vijñana)

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