The Five Aggregates of Clinging are a practical method for understanding the nature of self.
The Buddhist doctrine of “not self” is a notoriously difficult thing to grasp. It really does feel like there’s somebody in here (pointing to my head) or in here (pointing to my heart) running the show. We spend a lot of energy and time building up this seemingly solid somebody, making it into something, defending it, or, alternatively, tearing it down and defeating it. All of that “selfing” results in a lot of stress — or dukkha, as we say in Buddhism.
Selfing happens to me a lot. Here’s one example: I have a friend who has a much bigger social life than I have. I’ve noticed lately that when she talks about her vast constellation of friends I get envious. Even though I am a classic introvert, I think, ‘I should have more friends, a bigger social life.’ Then I convince myself there is something wrong with me. ‘I’m such a loser!’
As this unhappy train of thought gets rolling, I tense up. The feeling of tension is a big clue, a sign that selfing — aka clinging or dukkha — is present. One of the benefits of mindfulness training is that the presence of dukkha — often experienced as a sense of contraction in the body/mind — will often trigger enough awareness to bring the unhappy thought train to a screeching halt. Stopping allows time for the voice of wisdom to clamber aboard: ’Ah, this envy, this clinging, is creating a lot of suffering.’
From a Buddhist point of view, clinging signals that we’ve touched into the tap root of unhappiness — self-delusion.
Much of the Buddha’s teaching about what makes us unhappy concerns the way we interfere with the natural flow of life and make everything about us. Was my first reaction to be happy for my friend’s social life? No. My first reaction was to turn the attention to myself, to compare myself to her and to find myself lacking.
It’s not immediately obvious that self-delusion is a big problem for us. In his time, the Buddha spent a lot of time explaining it and even back then it was hard for ordinary people to get their heads around.
Five Aggregates of Clinging
He taught a practical method for unpacking the self. It’s called the Five Aggregates of Clinging. The aggregates refer to form, feeling, perception, mental formations, and consciousness. These all arise in every mind moment and stick together — that is, aggregate — to create what we identify with as self.
The problem is not the aggregates themselves. Or even the self that arises. It’s that we cling to them.
We can see the ordinary self more clearly when we deconstruct the elements of our experience by viewing them as aggregates.
Consider the aggregate of form: Form refers to materials like rocks, trees, and bodies. The Buddha said all forms are comparable to foam; they have not more substance than that.
Consider your own body. It seems pretty solid and stable most of the time. We don’t ordinarily perceive that even at rest, the body is in constant motion. There are chemical processes happening we are not aware of; cells are dying and being born in every moment. And if you were to look into the tiniest particles of the body through a powerful electron microscope you would see space and energy waves and not much else. Nothing solid. And nothing standing still.
As the annica chant states: “All things are impermanent. They arise and they pass away. To be in harmony with this truth brings great happiness.”
We don’t harmonize with this truth very easily. When our bodies grow old, we find it upsetting. When in possession of a car, there is anxiety at the first sign of rust. We hang on to the way things were rather than accepting them as they are now.
Feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness are even more ephemeral than bodily forms.
The teachings describe feeling tone as being comparable to bubbles. Feelings of like, dislike, and neutrality come and go very quickly. If unseen, feelings evolve into the three unwholesome roots of greed, aversion, or delusion. For instance, a feeling of pleasant sunshine can become greed for nice weather and aversion when the rain begins to fall.
Perception is described as being mirage-like. Each of us sees a different mirage. I belong to a book club and it is fascinating to observe how differently everyone perceives the same book. Sometimes the differences are so stark it’s as if we all read a different novel.
The Buddha described mental formations as being like the trunk of a banana tree: Hollow. (A banana tree trunk appears solid but is actually a hollow, spongy sheath of leaves.) Mental formations are what happen when present moment experience meets the crowd of memories, beliefs, anxieties, unresolved traumas, habits, hopes, and fears already gathered in the mind from past experience. Thoughts generate, proliferate, and revolve around the story of “me” and “mine.”
For instance, we confuse our mental formations, our self talk, with reality. We think the voice inside that is talking to us all day is “me.” But It’s actually monkey mind — we are identifying with the thinking process.
The aggregate of consciousness is comparable to an illusion, a conjuror’s trick. Consciousness in the context of the aggregates generally means awareness through the sense spheres — ear consciousness, eye consciousness, and so on.
Liberation
The aggregates are in constant movement. Buddhism asks: Why cling to anything that is impermanent when it cannot give us lasting satisfaction. And why take things personally if they are so insubstantial, unsatisfactory, and outside of our control?
The core of the Buddha’s teaching was about seeing into the reality of existence — impermanent, imperfect, impersonal. This sounds like bad news but in reality it’s freedom. When we stop clinging to what is impermanent, imperfect, and impersonal, it feels like we’ve cast off a heavy weight. We experience lightness of being.
In this sense, enlightenment can be seen as a process in which the burden of self is lightened. We lighten up.
While full enlightenment as the Buddha experienced it is exceedingly rare, everyone has access to temporary liberation — a state of non-clinging where disturbing mind states are not present. With practice, we can extend the time spent in freedom and reduce the time spent in bondage.
In any moment we can, as Ajahn Chah, the great Thai forest master, said: “Just let go, and become the awareness, be the one who knows.”
—Nelle Oosterom
