What follows is a review of the book
The Five Aggregates, Understanding Theravada Psychology and Soteriology which I wrote and posted on amazon.com a few years ago. While this book is not an easy read, what I endeavored to do in the review, in order to encourage others to spend the time reading it, was to reveal for the reader the central insight that the book has to offer: namely, that, as they relate to the Dhamma, the five aggregates, traditionally viewed as conventional truth, and dependent co-arising, traditionally viewed as the highest truth, "represent different expressions of the same process."
One of the reasons some readers have a problem with this book is the insistence by its author that the reader become familiar with the Pali terminology (how it is defined and the processes each term refers to) and be able to identify it within his own experience while also understanding of how these factors relate to a person's experience of reality. You see, without that understanding (or insight) with regard to the middle eight factors of dependent co-arising and how they correlate to the activation of the five aggregates, being able to see those factors being played out within the reader's own direct experience, readers are likely to miss completely the insight being pointed out to them.
In order to help correct that possible deficiency, I have inserted (in the review) the bracketed material into the text to help readers better relate to what is being said. If a reader is unable to see how these concepts relate within their own experience, the insight they carry is likely to go over their heads.
In addition, it helps to be able to go back to any referenced discourses themselves to see how that may add to one's understanding of the material being discussed. In the present case, this would be the Mahavagga of the
Anguttara Nikaya (or "The Great Chapter [or Book]"). While that whole sutta is well worth while reading and examining, I will excerpt a brief portion of it here in order to demonstrate its helpfulness in smoothing out a deeper understanding and appreciation of the insight under discussion. Toward the end of section
i 176 there are the following passages:
"When it was said: '"These are the eighteen mental examinations": this, bhikkhus, is the Dhamma taught by me that is unrefuted, irreproachable, and uncentured by wise ascetics and brahmins,' for what reason was this said? Having seen a form with the eye, one examines a form that is a basis for joy; one examines a form that is a basis for dejection; one examines a form that is a basis for equanimity. Having heard a sound with the ear. . . Having smelled an odor with the nose. . . Having tasted a taste with the tongue. . . Having felt a tactile object with the body. . . Having cognized a mental phenomenon with the mind, one examines a mental phenomenon that is a basis for joy; one examines a mental phenomenon that is a basis for dejection; one examines a mental phenomenon that is a basis for equanimity. When it was said: '"These are the eighteen mental examinations": this, bhikkhus, is the Dhamma taught by me that is unrefuted. . . uncensured by wise ascetics and brahmins,' it is because of this that this was said.
"When it was said: '" These are the four noble truths': this, bhikkhus, is the Dhamma taught by me that is unrefuted, undefiled, irreproachable, and uncentured by wise ascetics and brahmins,' for what reason was this said? In dependence on the six elements the descent of a embryo occurs.[437] When the descent takes place, there is name-and-form [
nama-rupa]; with name-and-form as condition, there are the six sense bases [
ayatanas; the eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind]; with the six sense bases as condition, there is contact [
phassa]; with contact as condition, there is feeling [
vedana]; Now it is for one who feels that I proclaim: 'This is suffering,' and 'This is the origin of suffering,' and 'This is the cessation of suffering,' and 'This is the way leading to the cessation of suffering.' . . .
"And what, bhikkhus, is the noble truth of the origin of suffering? With ignorance as condition, volitional activities [come to be]; with volitional activities as condition, consciousness; with consciousness as condition, name-and-form; with name-and-form as condition, the six sense bases; with the six sense bases as condition, contact; with contact as condition, feeling; with feeling as condition, craving; with craving as condition, clinging; with clinging as condition, existence; with existence as condition, birth; with birth as condition, old age and death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, dejection, and anguish come to be. Such is the origin of this whole mass of suffering. This is called the noble truth of the origin of suffering."
Footnote
437. Mp. [Anguttara Nikaya-atthakatha, or commentary]: "Why does he begin in this way? For ease of understanding. For the Tathagata wants to explain the revolving of the twelve conditions, so he shows the rounds by the term 'descent of a embryo'. For when the round has been shown by the descent of a embryo, what follows will be easy to understand. Whose six elements serve as the condition, the mother's or the father's? It is neither, but descent of a embryo occurs conditioned by the six elements of the being taking rebirth." Mp cites MN 38.26, I 265-66 (see too MN 93.18, II 156-57).
Take special note of the reference made to
vedana (feeling; where it references joy, dejection, and equanimity in the sutta passages) and contemplate the role that this factor plays in the whole process of how personal identity becomes established within the mind. When you can see and identify not only the arising of feeling but its quality within any mental activity, you have a clue as to how you create your own identity within the mind, which is without a substantial self nature. The self you create (in reference to oneself and others) and find so difficult to stop clinging to is a mental formation based on pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral feeling! Feeling, which is the nearest thing to nothing there is. If that isn't insight enough for you to realize the significance of
anatta, I don't know what is!
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The Five Aggregates. . . and then someThe Five Aggregates: Understanding Theravada Psychology and Soteriologyby Mathieu Boisvert, Sri Satguru Publications, A Division of Indian Books Centre Indological and Oriental Publishers, Delhi, India. Canadian Corporation for Studies in Religion, 1995; First Indian Edition: Delhi, 1997.
The question posed on the back dust jacket of this book sums up it contents quite nicely, if somewhat deceptively in terms of the profound nature of the actual answer which is submitted to the question itself. It asks, "If Buddhism denies a permanent self, how does it perceive identity?" From this simple question, Mathieu Boisvert, a Professor of South-Asian Traditions at the University of Quebec at Montreal, endeavors to show how the Theravadin Buddhist tradition supports its answers to this question in light of the Pali Canon and the tradition's rich exegetical literature. Yet, the actual scope of the book (within its slight 178 pages of text) is much broader than this introduction might convey, for Boisvert endeavors to demonstrate how the five aggregates of personality view compliment and interact within the Buddha's great discovery of the
paticcasamuppada or Dependent Co-Arising. He does this by showing the connections between the aggregates and the middle eight factors of the twelve factored dependent arising process.
Boisvert points out up front that because of the great gap in time between the Buddha's death and the first written repository of his teachings, not to mention the reliance on human memory which itself might be faulty, scholars and Buddhologists alike are unable to definitively ascertain the nature of "original" Buddhism, what the Buddha actually taught, from the extant manuscripts and historical evidence which extend from that time period, and therefore he does not intend to claim that his work will uncover what the Buddha actually said about the five aggregates or anything else. What he does postulate is that "since the commentarial tradition was incorporated within the Theravada tradition itself, the latter must have insured that the former was consistent with every aspect of its own theory. . . . Consequently, I have assumed that the Theravada tradition itself must have assured the integrity of a text before accepting it." Taking this as his starting point, Boisvert then states: "This book will therefore analyze the five aggregates within the Theravada tradition as a whole [based upon the scriptures of the Pali canon and its exegetical texts]."
He begins this process by stating the core theory according to the Theravada tradition: ". . . the human personality is composed solely of the five aggregates, and to perceive any of these as the self leads to a particular kind of wrong view known as 'the view that the body is existing ' (
sakkayaditthi). If the entire personality is confined within these five aggregates, the Buddhist theory of perception — and of 'misperception' as well — should become clear through an understanding of their interrelation."
From here, he proceeds to the heart of his thesis, stating: "Although the theory of dependent origination is traditionally approached as the highest truth, and the five aggregates as conventional truth, I present evidence that these levels of truth are not merely juxtaposable, but represent different expressions of the same process." And to show this he begins by breaking down the five aggregates in terms of their interaction with dependent co-arising, demonstrating how both the five aggregates and dependent co-arising actually work together in what can become viewed ultimately as a dual process responsible for the arising of suffering. In actuality, it is not a dual process, but rather only appears to be, depending upon which of the two aspects one is focusing on. He states: "According to the Pali canon, both the chain of dependent origination and the five aggregates are responsible for suffering (
dukkha). The Buddha stated repeatedly that the root of all suffering lies in the five clinging aggregates which represent the psycho-physical constituents of the individual."
On the other side of the coin, he shows how the relation between the five aggregates and the doctrine of dependent co-arising is established through a reference in the Mahavagga of the
Anguttara Nikaya*. In this discourse, the four noble truths are shown in terms of the
paticcasamuppada. "The noble truth concerned with the arising of suffering is simply explained by the
paticcasamuppada in normal order, while the noble truth of cessation of suffering is defined by the
paticcasamuppada in reverse order. It is clear, then, that the
paticcasamuppada, traditionally seen as an explanation for the arising and the eradication of suffering, is intimately related to the theory of the five aggregates."
The doctrine of the
paticcasamuppada (dependent co-arising) simply explains the process that the five aggregates go through in their journey toward suffering and the creation of the vicious circle leading to birth, existence, illness, old age, and ultimately to death and the eventual rebirth of the aggregates in a new lifeform. In showing us this pattern within the five aggregates, Boisvert states that: "The physical and psychological elements at work in the individual remain the same whether in the past, present or future. Stated differently, the theory of dependent origination could run thus: within one lifespan (links 11-12: birth [
jati or birth; rebirth] and old age and death [
jaramarana or old age and death]), one keeps generating karmic activities (link 2 [
sankhara or karmic activities]) because of ignorance (link 1 [
avijja or ignorance]), and this generation of karmic activities due to ignorance is more easily understandable by examining the process described by the eight middle links [3.
vinnana or consciousness; 4.
namarupa or name and form; 5.
salayatana or the six sense doors; 6.
phassa or contact; 7.
vedana or feeling; 8.
tanha or craving; 9.
upadana or clinging; and 10.
bhava or becoming]."
He continues, saying: "Through this study, I am able to clearly establish the correlation between Buddhist soteriology and psychology, depicted respectively by the
paticcasamuppada and the five aggregates. By correlating some of the links of the chain of dependent origination with the five aggregates, it becomes clear that these links share the same order as the traditional nomenclature of the five aggregates, and that the latter fulfill the same function as the links of the
paticcasamuppada. No attempt has ever been made before to explicitly connect both doctrines, and to state which links of the theory of dependent origination refer to which particular aggregate." It is from this point that the heart of the book and his hypothesis begins to take shape as Boisvert proceeds to examine each of the five aggregates one by one while bringing to light, in a very convincing manner, their connection with the doctrine of dependent co-arising.
What this work does is to look at the five aggregates as though with a fine microscope in order to discern and discover the synergistic connections between these two important Buddhist doctrines in an effort to more clearly delineate the liberation process at work within the individual who is, by Buddhist definition, nothing more than an amalgam of the five aggregates. In undergoing this process of discovery of uncovering the minute details of the five aggregates, the reader is led step by step through the process of the workings of his own mind while being shown what needs to be done in order to bring this process leading to the Round of Births to an end — in other words, to awakening and liberation.
Any reader who wishes to learn more about this process which keeps beings bound to the Round of Births, as proposed by Buddhist teaching, could do no worse than to look into and discover the connections involved which keep him attached to the Wheel of Becoming. Here, in this book
The Five Aggregates: Understanding Theravada Psychology and Soteriology, Boisvert presents a convincing amount of detailed information, painstakingly dissected, which demonstrates this process which binds beings to
samsara. If one reads no other book than this on the subject of the five aggregates, one would be hard pressed to find a better explanation of a more concrete psychological framework for the discovery of the Buddhist soteriological answer to the aspects of existence.
* AN i, 176-177 [pgs. 268-270]. Mahavagga [The Great Chapter] of the Anguttara Nikaya