A good explanation.
http://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Five_skandhas
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Five skandhas (Skt. pañcaskandha; Tib.
pungpo nga; Wyl. phung
po lnga) — the five psycho-physical aggregates, which
according to Buddhist philosophy are the basis for
self-grasping. They are:
The Sanskrit word skandha means an aggregate, heap or
bundle.
Sogyal
Rinpoche wrote:
And
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche said:
When we look more closely at what it is that we call ‘I’, we can
see that it includes several elements, not just the parts that make
up our physical bodies, but also our various senses and our
minds.
In Buddhism, when we want to examine the
self more precisely, we can make use of the five categories,
which we call the ‘five skandhas’.
In actual fact, all conditioned phenomena may be included within
these five groups, but when we are investigating the self, we limit
ourselves to the form of our bodies, and our own thoughts and so
on.
In its broadest sense, form is spoken of in terms of causal and
resultant forms. Causal forms are the elements of earth, water,
fire and wind, and then the resultant forms – which are made from
these elements – are said to include the five sense faculties and
their objects, as well as a slightly more problematic category
called ‘imperceptible forms’, which we do not need to go into
here.
The
sense faculties are not the ordinary sense organs—our eyes and
ears and so on—but subtle forms within the sense organs. They have
particular shapes which are described very precisely in the Abhidharma
literature.
The first of the sense objects is visual form,
which means the various colours and shapes that appear to our eyes.
Broadly speaking, colours may be divided into the primary
colours—which according to the Abhidharma are white, red, yellow
and blue—and the secondary colours. They may be pleasant,
unpleasant or neutral.
Sounds, the objects of the ears, may occur
naturally or be man-made, or they may be a combination of the two,
such as when a person beats a drum. A lot of sounds are just
meaningless noise, but some impart meaning. In the case of the
latter, they might be a vehicle for ordinary notions, or else the
sublime, liberating message of the Dharma. As with sights, sounds
can be pleasant, unpleasant or neutral.
Smells or odours can be natural or artificial,
and once again, pleasant, unpleasant or neutral.
Tastes are said to be of six kinds, roughly
translated as sweet, sour, bitter, hot, astringent and pungent.
Textures, or tactile sensations, may be felt on
the body’s surface or in its interior. Interior ‘textures’ include
hunger and thirst, and the feelings that come with being ill or
deeply relaxed.
In this investigation, form means our physical bodies. More
generally, it is all that we can see, hear, smell, taste and touch,
and also the subtle faculties that do the seeing, hearing,
smelling, tasting and touching.
Although this is called the skandha of feelings, it does not
mean emotional feelings, but something more like sensations. These
are said to be the painful, pleasant and neutral sensations in the
body and the pleasant or unpleasant sensations in the mind. (It is
said that neutral sensations of the mind are not counted
separately, because they are indistinguishable from the neutral
sensations of the body.)
We are always experiencing sensations, mostly neutral ones, but
also painful and pleasant.
They can also be thought of as the sensations that occur based
on sense impressions. A sense object such as incense would belong
under the skandha of form, but the sensation created when we smell
it belongs in this category. In this case, it would most likely be
a pleasant sensation.
According to the teachings, feelings are important because they
are the basis for attachment and aversion, which lie at the heart
of many of the conflicts between lay people, who have not renounced
mundane concerns.
Perception means the apprehension of a specific object, as
circumscribed and distinct from something else.
On the conceptual level, this means the recognition of
identities or names, and on the sensory level it means the
discernment of the five objects of sense.
Technically, perception is defined as ‘that which grasps or
identifies characteristics’. Perception could be non-conceptual, in
the case of the five physical senses, or conceptual, as in the
perception of thoughts and ideas.
In all these cases, perception can either be ‘discerning’ or
‘non-discerning’. The five non-conceptual sense perceptions are
regarded as discerning when they are operating normally and
perceiving their proper objects: colours/shapes, sounds, smells,
tastes and textures. Mental perception is said to be discerning
when it distinguishes identities or names. This happens when (a)
mind recognizes an object and associates it with its name, and (b)
the mind knows what is referred to when a name is given.
Perception is non-discerning when the sense organ in question is
fully functional but there is no object. This occurs in states of
deep meditative
absorption, and also when the mind is unable to identify and
name objects, as, for example, when you encounter something for the
first time and therefore do not recognize it. This is the common
experience of children.
Mental perception is also non-discerning when it does not know
what is referred to when names are given as, for example, when an
unknown language is heard.
(It should however be noted that non-discerning perception does
not refer to the mere privation of sensory stimulus, as, for
example, when you are in a dark place with your eyes open or in a
soundproof room. In these cases, the senses do in fact have objects
– darkness and silence, respectively.)
There are as many types of perception as there are
phenomena.
Perceptions are subjective experiences, and are said to be
important because they are the basis for disagreement and
controversy, leading to conflict amongst philosophers who have
renounced worldly affairs.
The category called formations is a little complicated. But if
we just limit ourselves to mental formations, then it basically
refers to thoughts and emotions, or what are technically referred
to as the ‘mental
states’. Although there are many possible mental states, the
Abhidharma
teachings speak of fifty-one, which are held to be particularly
important.
Sensation and perception are actually included in these
fifty-one, but are treated separately in the list of the five
skandhas because they are especially noticeable.
There is no need to go into all fifty-one here, but we should
know that they include the components necessary for any cognition
to occur, namely sensation, perception, intention (meaning the mind
is directed towards a particular object), attention (the mind is
held on that object) and contact (an object, a functioning sense
organ and consciousness all come together).
There are also five states which assist in the discernment of
objects. These are interest, appreciation, mindfulness,
concentration and discernment. We are talking about these on a
subtle level. For example, we need a certain amount of
concentration to focus on a particular object, and some discernment
to identify it.
These first ten are called ‘general mind states’.
Then there are the virtuous states of mind such as faith, conscientiousness,
absence of attachment, absence of aggression, absence of delusion,
and diligence.
Then there are the principal non-virtuous states of ignorance,
desire, anger, pride, doubt and harmful beliefs; as well as the
secondary negative states such as vindictiveness, spite, envy,
deceit, stinginess, laziness and forgetfulness. Here we also
include the drowsiness and agitation we experience in meditation,
as well as distraction.
Finally, there are several ‘variable’ states which could be
either positive or negative, such as regret.
Consciousness here refers to the consciousness of impressions
from the five senses, and also consciousness of mental objects,
like thoughts, ideas and emotions.
The consciousnesses of the five senses (seeing, hearing,
smelling, tasting, and touching) are non-conceptual. Then the
information is fed to the mental consciousness, where concepts can
enter in.
Visual consciousness registers only colours and shapes. It does
not recognize particular colours, which is the function of the
skandha of perception. Nor does it identify certain colours as
pleasant, which is done by the feeling skandha.
The followers of the Mind
Only school identified eight types of consciousness. In
addition to the consciousnesses of the five senses and the mind,
they spoke of a ‘defiled mental consciousness’ and the famous
‘all-ground consciousness’, or alaya vijñana.
The
defiled mental consciousness is closely connected with the ego,
and is where the notion of ‘I’ and ‘mine’ enters into experience.
It is absent in the meditation of noble beings, but never ceases in
the mind stream of an ordinary being. This seventh consciousness
relates very closely to our ‘self-image’. After we receive data
from the senses, and process them with the sixth consciousness, the
defiled mental consciousness asks whether or not this experience
fits with how we have come to think of ourselves – our ‘image’, in
other words. This means there is a lot of judgment here, paving the
way for attachment and aversion.
The
alaya consciousness is described as ‘mere knowing, an
unspecified apprehension, the object of which is general and
uncircumscribed’. It is often likened to a storehouse, in which we
keep all our habits and instincts, the imprints or ‘seeds’ of our
actions which will ripen into future experiences.