Five aggregates
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The five aggregates (Ch. 五陰, Skt. pañca-skandha, P. pañca-khandha), sometimes translated as heaps, groupings, or categories, refers to five constituents of personal identity and experience in early Buddhist thought. The five aggregates include:
- form
- feeling
- perception
- volition
- consciousness
These five aggregates combine to describe the existence of sentient beings in both physical and psychological terms. The Buddha defined them as being impermanent, painful, empty, and not self when observed correctly from the perspective of right view. When this is understood, it leads to disillusionment with the aggregates, which leads to dispassion and the cessation of delight and greed for them. This state of detachment towards the five aggregates is one definition of liberation (SĀ 1.1-4).
