Sayadaw says on PAGE FOUR
that the Buddha taught the First Noble Truth as the aggregates of
- Materiality
- Feeling
- Perception
- Mental Formations
- Consciousness
I know theoretically that these five things are all there is. Most of the universe is made up of materiality, at least it appears to be. Beings are made of materiality and the other four. I do experience all of them, and the last four as having a more ephemeral cast, something less solid. Therefore, the aggregates can also be placed into two groups, materiality and mentality. I see, from time to time, how I place a mental construct like 'mine' upon material things, including my own body. When I am happy with things like my car, my yard, my legs, my wife, I hardly recognize my subtle attachments. When I lose a family member or my own health, the difference between the illusion and reality of my relationship to them is stark and painful.
Sayadaw also quotes the Dhammacakkappavattana sutta which emphasizes impermanence in the suffering of birth, aging, illness, death and 'being united with the unpleasant' and 'being separated from the pleasant'.
Our founding fathers were trying. Thirteen aggregates were supposed to understand at once their separate and unique natures and have insight into the whole. It sounds fair, but who manages the whole thing? Who manages me?
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