Skandha

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A Skandha (Sanskrit: Pāli: Khandha; literally: "heap") is one of the five constituents or "aggregates" into which an individual is analyzed according to Buddhist phenomenology. The five skandhas are:

• rūpa, "form": the material body.
• vedanā, "sensation" or "feeling": the experience of receiving raw information, including pleasure and pain, through the sense organs and the brain.
• saṃjñā, "perception" or "cognition": the forming of sensations into elemental patterns and concepts.
• saṃskāra, "mental formations" or "volition": all types of mental habits, complex ideas, opinions, compulsions, and decisions. Saṃskāras is the source of karma.
• vijñāna, "consciousness" or "knowledge": dualistic awareness, which separates the world into self and other.

It should be noted that Buddhism describes only one physical skandha and four mental skandhas, which emphasises the importance of the mind.

All personal experience are subject to these five aggregates, according to the buddhist concept. Therefore, there can be experiences where not all five skandhas are present; for instance, some stimulum from an object (form) in a sense organ (sensation) does not imply that this will generate a conscious experience.

The order of the skandhas is important, because it is considered that the latters are dependent from the formers. So, to the 5th skandha (consciousness) be present, all the four will also need to be present for a given experience. And to the 4th skandha (volition) to be present, all the 3 first (form, sensation and perception) are needed. and so on to the other skandhas.

See also

• Samsara

External links

• Digital Dictionary of Buddhism (log in with userID "guest")
• An article about the five skandhas, by Charles Patton.
• Table showing the five skandhas, prepared by Alan Fox of the University of Delaware.
• A View on Buddhism - the Mind.