Quote:
Originally Posted by Tirisilex
The 5th Skandha is Consciousness. Which is the Word vijñāna. Ive seen this word translated as Knowing. I've read that it is a conglomeration of all the other Skandhas. It has been defined as awareness of things. I've settled on the idea that it is a knowing built from all the other skandhas. I've been reading like every webpage I can find on Skandhas and I understand the first four it's consciousness that I'm having a hard time with. How does consciousness divide from awareness? I've read that awareness is the only thing that is permanent so awareness and consciousness cannot be the same thing because a skandha is impermanent. So what are the differences between Awareness and Consciousness? Besides impermenance.. What is Consciousness and what is awareness?
|
The Buddha teachings in the Pali Canon describe the five aggregates as follows:
"form" or "matter"[a] (Skt., Pāli रूप rūpa; Tib. gzugs): matter, body or "material form" of a being or any existence.[5][21] Buddhist texts state rupa of any person, sentient being and object to be composed of four basic elements or forces, that is earth (solidity), water (cohesion), fire (heat) and wind (motion).[3]
"sensation" or "feeling" (Skt., Pāli वेदना vedanā; Tib. tshor-ba): sensory experience of an object.[21] It is either pleasant, unpleasant or neutral.[b][c]
"perception" (Skt. संज्ञा saṃjñā, Pāli सञ्ञा saññā, Tib. 'du-shes): sensory and mental process that registers, recognizes and labels (for instance, the shape of a tree, color green, emotion of fear).[21]
"mental formations", "constructing activities",[21] "conditioned things", "volition", "karmic activities" (Skt. संस्कार saṃskāra, Pāli सङ्खार saṅkhāra, Tib. 'du-byed): all types of mental imprints and conditioning triggered by an object.[22][23][d] This skandha includes any process that makes a person initiate action or act.[21]
"consciousness", "discrimination" or "discernment"[e] (Skt. विज्ञान vijñāna, Pāli विञ्ञाण viññāṇa, Tib. rnam-par-shes-pa): This includes, states Peter Harvey, awareness of an object and discrimination of its components and aspects, and is of six types.[21] The Buddhist literature discusses this skandha as,
In the Nikayas/Āgamas: cognizance,[24][f] that which discerns[25][g]
In the Abhidhamma: a series of rapidly changing interconnected discrete acts of cognizance.[h]
In some Mahayana sources: the base that supports all experience.[i]
The initial part of the Buddhist practice is purification of each of the above "five aggregates" through meditation and virtues. 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".[20][26] David Kalupahana clarifies that the individual is considered unreal but the skandha are considered real in some early Buddhist texts, but the skandha too are considered unreal and nonsubstantial in numerous other Buddhist Nikaya and Agama texts.[27]
With regard to the 5th one:
Referring to mahamudra teachings, Chogyam Trungpa [61] identifies the form aggregate as the "solidification" of ignorance (Pali, avijja; Skt., avidya), allowing one to have the illusion of "possessing" ever dynamic and spacious wisdom (Pali, vijja; Skt. vidya), and thus being the basis for the creation of a dualistic relationship between "self" and "other."[w]
According to Trungpa Rinpoche,[62] 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." [63]
The Prajnaparamita-teachings developed from the first century BCE onward. It emphasises 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 .[p]
This is famously stated in the Heart Sutra. The Sanskrit version[q] of the classic "Prajnaparamita Hridaya Sutra" ("Heart Sutra") states:
The noble Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva,
while practicing the deep practice of Prajnaparamita
looked upon the Five Skandhas,
seeing they were empty of self-existence,[54][r][s][t][u][v]
said, "Here Shariputra,
form is emptiness, emptiness is form,
emptiness is not separate from form,
form is not separate from emptiness;
whatever is form is emptiness,
whatever is emptiness is form."[54]
The same is true with feelings, perceptions, mental formations and consciousness.[55]
They all lead to the realization/being of emptiness.