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Why are the aggregates (khandha, aspects of experience) so central in the Buddha’s description of how we get from sensory experience to suffering? I think partly because they describe so elegantly the perceptual and cognitive process.

When we think of the aggregates as an unordered list, we are in this traditional teaching of them as “heaps” (that’s the literal translation) of phenomena—these are five types of things that inspire clinging. This works well enough for practice.

But we can also work with them as an ordered list that describes the process of processing bare sensory information (rūpa) through the successive cognitive steps of affect (vedanā), pattern recognition (sañña), and narrative enfolding (saṅkhāra), culminating in the consolidated conscious experience we take for granted. Understood in this sequential way, we see how we can make errors at any point in the process, clinging to that which is ultimately unstable, and interpreting phenomena as objects in relation to a stable assumed self, which itself is unstable.

We see this sequential process laid out slightly differently but including all of the same elements in the map of experience known as dependent origination. There we have saṅkhāra very early in the process, indicating how deeply past narrative conditions present moment interpretation, and also hinting at how our present life narrative is conditioned by the past (i.e., lives). The heart of dependent origination is the sequence that connects sensory experience, affect, and craving. I’ll explore this sequence and the khandha this evening, continuing from where we left off last week.

SEAN OAKES
Sean Feit Oakes, PhD (he/they, queer, Puerto Rican & English, living on Pomo ancestral land in Northern California), teaches Buddhism and somatic practice focusing on the integration of meditation, trauma resolution, and social justice. He received Insight Meditation teaching authorization from Jack Kornfield, and wrote his dissertation on extraordinary states in Buddhist meditation and experimental dance. Sean holds certifications in Somatic Experiencing (SEP, assistant), and Yoga (E-RYT 500, YACEP), and teaches at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, East Bay Meditation Center, Insight Timer, and elsewhere.

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Blessings on your path.