The unfashioned, the unbent,
the fermentation-free, the true, the beyond,
the subtle, the very-hard-to-see,
the featureless, non-elaboration,
the ageless, permanence, the undecaying,
peace, the deathless,
the wonderful, the marvelous,
the exquisite, bliss, rest,
the ending of craving,
the secure, security,
unbinding,
the island, shelter, harbor, refuge,
the unafflicted, dispassion, purity,
release, attachment-free,
the ultimate.
— SN 43.1-44
Material Form
We possess a material form, i.e., this body. Traditionally it is said to be composed of the four great elements of earth, water, fire and air. Earth denotes the quality of solidity, hardness and softness; water the qualitiy of fluidity and cohesion; fire the quality of temperature, heat and cold; and air the quality of motion, movement, pressure and distension.
Here it would be pertinent to give the definitions of the four elements as stated by the Buddha in his discourses to his disciples: “What, monks, is the earth element? The earth element may be either internal or external. What is the internal earth element? Whatever internally, belonging to oneself, is solid, solidified, and clung-to, that is, head-hairs, body-hairs, nails, teeth, skin, flesh, sinews, bones, bone-marrow, kidneys, heart, liver, diaphragm, spleen, lungs, intestines, mesentery, contents of the stomach, feces, or whatever else internally, belonging to oneself, is solid, solidified, and clung-to: this is called the internal earth element. Now both the internal earth element and the external earth element are simply earth element.
“What, monks, is the water element? The water element may be either internal or external. What is the internal water element? Whatever internally, belonging to oneself, is water, watery, and clung-to, that is, bile, phlegm, pus, blood, sweat, fat, tears, grease, spittle, snot, oil-of-the-joints, urine, or whatever else internally, belonging to oneself, is water, watery, and clung-to: this is called the internal water element. Now both the internal water element and the external water element are simply water element.
“What, monks, is the fire element? The fire element may be either internal or external. What is the internal fire element? Whatever internally, belonging to oneself, is fire, fiery, and clung-to, that is, that by which one is warmed, ages, and is consumed, and that by which what is eaten, drunk, consumed, and tasted gets completely digested, or whatever else internally, belonging to oneself, is fire, fiery, and clung-to: this is called the internal fire element. Now both the internal fire element and the external fire element are simply fire element.
“What, monks, is the air element? The air element may be either internal or external. What is the internal air element? Whatever internally, belonging to oneself, is air, airy, and clung-to, that is, up-going winds, down-going winds, winds in the belly, winds in the bowels, winds that course through the limbs, in-breath and out-breath, or whatever else internally, belonging to oneself, is air, airy, and clung-to: this is called the internal air element. Now both the internal air element and the external air element are simply air element.”
Feeling
Of the five aggregates, one, the body, is material, while the other four – feeling, perception, mental formations and consciousness – are mental.
Feeling is mental because we feel with our mind. It is not the body that feels but the mind. Although we say the body feels hot, it is actually the mind or consciousness that perceives and feels the heat. If a person is dead there will be no feeling at all.
Feeling is always there. It is present in every moment of consciousness. Thus feeling is arising and passing away all the time with the stream of consciousness.
In the Buddha’s teaching, feeling is classified into three types – pleasant, painful, and neither painful-nor-pleasant or neutral.
We can further divide feeling into bodily feeling and mental feeling. Say we feel some pain in the body, this is a bodily feeling. Although we say it is a bodily or body-based feeling, we know that it is the mind that performs the function of feeling.
Say we are sick and are experiencing a lot of body pain, this can cause the mind to become depressed. In this case, the body pain is one thing, and the mental pain of depression is another thing. One is the mind feeling the pain and another is the mind reacting to the pain with depression. We differentiate between two types of pain here, the body pain and the added mental pain of depression. Besides sadness and depression there can arise mental factors like fear, worry, anger and anxiety, all these being additional painful mental feelings.
Perception
We perceive all the time. We perceive sights (colour, shapes, forms), sounds, smells, tastes, bodily sensations and mental objects (thoughts, ideas). Because of repeated perception of an object we can easily recognise it. We don’t have to think twice to know what the object is. Thus, perception has the function of grasping the distinguishing features of an object, making a note of them, so that it can recognise the object when encountering it again. This is the straight-forward and simple function of perception.
However, there are perceptions of a more complex nature such as how we perceive the world (our world view), how we perceive a person, a situation, a problem, etc. It is interesting to notice how our perceptions may change over time. For example, we may initially think well of a person but after some unpleasant experiences we had with them personally or after hearing some negative reports about them, we may change our opinion. This means that our perception of the person has changed. In some ways we are periodically editing and modifying our perception regarding persons and situations. Also, each of us may have a different perception in the way we see a person, a situation, a problem, etc.
Mental formation
This comprises a huge group of mental phenomena. Whatever is not classified as feeling, perception and consciousness comes under the mental formations aggregate.
Under right effort of the noble eightfold path the Buddha has instructed that we should make the effort to (1) prevent the arising of unwholesome thoughts that have not arisen (2) abandon unwholesome thoughts that have arisen, (3) arouse wholesome thoughts that have not arisen (4) maintain, increase and strengthen wholesome thoughts that have arisen.
A very important mental factor which is said to be the leader of the mental formations aggregate is intention. The Buddha pointed out that our thoughts, words, and deeds are influenced, conditioned and directed by our intention. Hence, it is very important to pay close attention to the intention or motivation behind our thoughts, speech and actions. If the intention is unwholesome then the action that follows will also be unwholesome.
Consciousness
Consciousness is the basic awareness of an object. It has the function of knowing the object. However, it is said to be a very basic kind of knowing which cannot really grasp the object without the assistance of perception since it is perception that distinguishes and recognises the details and features of an object and which then gives it a name or label.
Consciousness can be divided into six types, i.e., seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching, and thinking consciousness. It can further be classified as wholesome or unwholesome according to its mental contents, i.e., whether it is with greed or without greed, with anger or without anger, with delusion or without delusion, and so on.
Consciousness never arises singly by itself. It always co-arises with the other three mental aggregates of feeling, perception, and mental formations. Thus, at every moment of consciousness, there is a feeling tone, perception, and the presence of some mental formations which include mental contact with the object and a certain modicum of attention and concentration required for the mind to apprehend or perceive the object.
