Review Thus far, we have discussed two of the aggregates that make up our experience: forms of physical phenomena and the feelings of some level of happiness. Each of these aggregates of changing phenomena is made up of many items, and we experience an assortment of them...

The Meaning of Feelings in the Context of the Five Aggregates The second aggregate is the aggregate of feelings. In this context, it means feeling a level of happiness or unhappiness. This aggregate is not referring to emotional feelings; instead, it deals with the single...

The Aggregates Only Include Nonstatic Phenomena As mentioned, the five aggregates are a convenient scheme to help us organize and understand our experience. Each aggregate is a collection of various similar factors that make up each moment of our experience, and they include...

What does the aggregate of forms of physical phenomena include?

Review Clarity or Appearance-Making and Awareness We’ve been discussing mental activity, what the mind actually is, and have noted that its characteristics are clarity and awareness. Clarity is appearance-making, in other words, the giving rise to a mental hologram. This is a...

Brief Review Mind is Mental Activity We started our discussion of the mind and the five aggregates. As mentioned, when we speak about mind in Buddhism, we’re talking about mental activity, the individual mental activity of experiencing something that is going on all the time...

Brief Review Mental activity is the arising of a mental hologram and the cognitive engagement with it changing from moment to moment. It always has content and is multi-part.  The content can be divided into content of mental holograms arising; that’s the form aggregate,...

The Components of the Aggregate of Other Affecting Variables The fourth aggregate, the aggregate of other affecting variables, is the largest collection of items. “Variable” means that it changes, and “affecting” means that it affects our experience. This grouping contains all...

Shabkar presents Nagarjuna and Tsongkhapa’s explanation of how voidness and cause and effect reinforce each other.

Buddhism appeals very much to the modern world because it is based on reason and the scientific method. Buddha said, “Do not believe in anything that I say just out of respect for me, but test it for yourself, analyze it, as if you were buying gold.” Modern-day people are...