Form
(Rupa)
The aggregate of form corresponds to what we would call material or
physical factors. It includes our own bodies, and material objects
as well. Specifically, the aggregate of form includes the five
physical organs (eye, ear, nose, tongue, body), and the
corresponding physical objects of the sense organs (sight, sound,
smell, taste and tangible objects).
Sensation
(Vedana)
The aggregate of sensation or feeling is of three kinds - pleasant,
unpleasant and indifferent. When an object is experienced, that
experience takes on one of these emotional tones, the tone of
pleasure, the tone of displeasure, or the tone of
indifference.
Perception
The function of perception is to turn an indefinite experience into
a definite, recognised and identified experience. It is the
formulation of a conception of an idea about a particular object of
experience.
Mental
Formation
The aggregate of mental formation may be described as a conditioned
response to the object of experience. It is not just the impression
created by previous actions (the habitual energy stored up from
countless former lives), but also the responses here and now
motivated and directed in a particular way.
In short, mental formation or volition has a moral dimension;
perception has a conceptual dimension; feeling has an emotional
dimension.
Consciousness
Both the eye and the visible object are the physical elements,
therefore they are not enough to produce experience by themselves.
Only the co-presence of consciousness together with the eye and the
visible object produces experience. Similarly, ear, nose, tongue
and body are the same. Consciousness is therefore an indispensable
element in the product of experience. Consciousness is mere
awareness, or sensitivity to an object. When the physical factors
of experience, e.g. the eyes and visible objects come in contact,
and when consciousness also becomes associated with the physical
factors of experience, visual consciousness arises. It is not just
the personal experience. The way that our personal experience is
produced is through the functioning of the three major mental
factors of experience, i.e. the aggregate of perception and mental
formation. There are:
eye consciousness
ear consciousness
nose consciousness
tongue consciousness
body consciousness
mind consciousness
Note that there is the sixth sense, the mind. For the mind,
the corresponding object is not a physical one, but are ideas -
Dharma. The mind consciousness plays an important role in
all mental activities.
