What is Suffering?

The Five Aggregates Why Clinging Causes Suffering

Author: Linmu

Question: In life, there are eight sufferings: birth, aging, sickness, death, not getting what we desire, encountering what we dislike, separation from loved ones, and clinging to the five aggregates (form, feelings, perceptions, volitional formations, and consciousness). How can one truly understand the last suffering, clinging to the five aggregates? The previous seven sufferings can be felt, but it is challenging to recognize the final suffering of clinging to the five aggregates, yet it is said to be the root of all suffering. What does that mean?

Answer: The last suffering is often translated as the "clinging of the five aggregates." So, what are these five aggregates? In simple terms, they are the body, feelings, perceptions, volitional formations, and consciousness. These five phenomena constitute the five aggregates. But what are the five aggregates of clinging?

For an individual, the five aggregates of clinging are what one identifies as "me" or "mine." These include everything that people identify as themselves or as belonging to themselves. This encompasses the previous seven sufferings of birth, aging, sickness, death, not getting what we desire, encountering what we dislike, and separation from loved ones.

You might wonder why these five aggregates, the body, feelings, perceptions, volitional formations, and consciousness, are considered suffering. After all, there are moments of happiness and even times when we don't experience unhappiness at all. For example, when you're with someone you love, all aspects of the body, feelings, thoughts, and consciousness are pleasant. Enjoying good food, beautiful scenery, fragrances, massages, music, movies, and more can bring happiness. Furthermore, many times, people find themselves in states of neither happiness nor unhappiness, right?

That's true. The five aggregates of clinging can bring happiness or unhappiness and even suffering, and there are times when they neither bring happiness nor unhappiness. However, if you think about it more deeply, you'll realize that all worldly happiness is impermanent.

There are three aspects to this impermanence:

First, all phenomena or things are not lasting. Nothing can exist forever. Regardless of how much you love something, it will eventually depart from you, or you'll depart from it. There is no eternal togetherness; there is no forever. The stronger the attachment when something exists, the greater the distress when it's lost.

Second, the five aggregates of clinging themselves are impermanent. They can't last forever. The body requires constant nourishment to stay in existence, and even with that, it will eventually disintegrate in a few decades. This is what people fear: death. Feelings, perceptions, volitional formations, and consciousness are even more fleeting; they disappear in an instant. We need continuous contact with objects to maintain feelings and consciousness. It takes abundant energy to keep our imaginations and thoughts active. All of this effort is stress or suffering, and it ultimately amounts to nothing.

Third, and most importantly, even when phenomena or things continue to exist, the five aggregates of clinging still exist, and no one can remain in any form of happiness forever. Not for a lifetime, a year, a day, an hour, or even a minute. This is because, regardless of how happy you are, over time, you'll become accustomed to it and start to crave new sensory stimuli. This cycle of boredom and craving results in stress, and unhappiness.

Why is that? It's because all worldly happiness lacks the nature of true happiness. If a phenomenon or thing had the essence of happiness, it would make you happy at any time, anywhere, and under any circumstances. The moment that phenomenon arises, or you come into contact with it, you will be happy. However, in reality, the happiness derived from the five aggregates of clinging is not truly happiness. It only exists based on satisfying conditional desires. When those desires change, all you experience from these phenomena or things is stress and discomfort.

However, for a realized one who has achieved the cessation of the five aggregates of clinging, it's a different story. The happiness that arises after the cessation of the five aggregates of clinging is absolute, eternal, unchanging, and doesn't depend on any conditions. This is the nature it possesses.

It's like a person who has frostbite in the winter. When the frostbite is unbearably itchy, soaking it in hot water or warming it by the fire can bring immense pleasure. However, the person doesn't wish to keep the frostbite around to experience this pleasure continually because they know that the pleasure is actually the result of the suffering from the frostbite itself. Being free from the ailment, being unafflicted, is true happiness.

Similarly, the five aggregates of clinging also bring some happiness. But for someone who has realized the cessation of the five aggregates of clinging, these aggregates are like the ailment, like frostbite, and the root of unhappiness and suffering. Their nature is suffering. So, to truly understand this eighth suffering, one needs to realize the cessation of this eighth suffering, which is what the enlightened ones refer to as Nibbana.

Suffering What is the meaning of suffering?

From a modern perspective, suffering is often associated with intense physical or mental pain. However, in ancient times, dukkha had a much broader meaning, including unease, distress, discomfort, unhappiness, fear, extreme pain, and a lack of inherent meaning in worldly existence.

It is called a "Noble Truth" because few people truly recognize or acknowledge their suffering, let alone take the time to examine its cause. Instead, they are blinded by their desires, often overlooking the stress these desires create. If they do become aware of their distress, many try to escape it, blame others for it, or deny its existence, hoping for better circumstances in the future or seeking distractions in sensual pleasures in the present.

The Tathagata describes three types of suffering:

• Ordinary Suffering (Dukkha-dukkha), this refers to the physical and emotional pain we experience, such as birth, aging, illness, and death. These natural processes are inherently unsatisfactory due to their inevitable physical and mental discomfort.

• Suffering of Change (Viparinama-dukkha), even pleasurable experiences are unsatisfactory because they are impermanent and bound to change. For example, being apart from loved ones or forced into unpleasant situations causes emotional suffering.

• Suffering of Conditioned Existence (Sankhara-dukkha), is inherent suffering, stress, or dissatisfaction that arises from conditioned phenomena simply because they are impermanent, subject to arising and ceasing.

All conditioned things are impermanent... All conditioned things are unsatisfactory... All things are not-self,

when one sees this with wisdom, one turns away from suffering. This is the path to purification.

dhp277-279

The Five Aggregates What are the Five Aggregates?

The Tathagata expounds that the root of all suffering is clinging to the Five Aggregates. So what are these Five Aggregates?

What, disciples, is form?

The four great elements and the form derived from the four great elements: this, disciples, is called form.

MN28

The Form Aggregate

The form aggregate refers to the physical or material aspect of existence, encompassing both the body and external physical objects. The Tathagata categorizes these into the four elements, which represent the various qualities that constitute all material phenomena.

Suffering arises in part because it is impossible to directly perceive physical reality. Instead, we rely on the senses to gather bits of information from the physical world. These sensory inputs, combined with feelings, perceptions, and volitional formations, give rise to consciousness or cognition.

Contrary to the common belief that matter or physical substance is the essence of all existence, the Tathagata teaches that the mind, or mental energy, is the true source of all existence. For example, the shape, condition, strength, and appearance of our body are shaped by past actions and intentions. This mental energy, related to our body and other forms, is stored in ingrained memories and influences instincts, DNA, and other physical phenomena.

For instance, the deeply rooted memories of having a physical form as a means of survival and interaction with the world are stored in ingrained memory. This includes deep traumas from past experiences, spanning countless past lives, such as deaths, dangers, or any events that significantly impacted survival or the pursuit of happiness. These deeply embedded patterns shape instincts.

Ingrained memory also encompasses desires related to the body that develop throughout this lifetime. For example, the consumption of social media, societal pressures, and other influences can impact self-esteem and body image, giving rise to unwholesome desires that lead to suffering.

And what, disciples, is the aggregate of feeling?

It is these six classes of feeling: feeling born of eye-contact, feeling born of ear-contact, feeling born of nose-contact, feeling born of tongue-contact, feeling born of body-contact, feeling born of mind-contact. This is called the aggregate of feeling.

SN22.48

The Feelings Aggregate

Feelings are shaped by the accumulation of past experiences and stored in ingrained memories, influencing how we interpret and engage with our surroundings in the present.

The Tathagata explains that feelings arise through contact with the six sense bases, namely:

• Depending on the eye (sight), feelings arise from visual forms.
• Depending on the ear (hearing), feelings arise from sounds.
• Depending on the nose (smelling), feelings arise from odors.
• Depending on the tongue (taste), feelings arise from flavors.
• Depending on the body (touch), feelings arise from tactile sensations.
• Depending on the mind (thoughts), feelings arise from mental objects.

When a pleasant feeling arises in an untrained person, they delight in it, welcome it, and remain holding to it. Thus, craving arises.

When an unpleasant feeling arises, they sorrow, grieve, and lament, beating their breast and becoming distraught.

When a neutral feeling arises, they do not discern it as it really is, the arising, subsiding, and gratification of that feeling.

MN10

The habitual response to feelings marks the beginning of the chain of suffering, as it reinforces craving, aversion, and not knowing.

And what, disciples, is the aggregate of perception?

It is these six classes of perception: perception of forms, perception of sounds, perception of odors, perception of tastes, perception of tactile objects, and perception of mental phenomena. This is called the aggregate of perception.

The Perceptions Aggregate

Perception is the mental process that recognizes, interprets, and labels sensory experiences. It creates concepts, memories, and associations, helping us make sense of the raw data received from the senses.

The Perception Aggregate refers to the accumulation of past perceptions stored in ingrained memories, playing a critical role in shaping how we interpret and react to the world in the present.

Perceptions and feelings arise together based on contact with the six sense bases:

• Depending on the eye (sight), perceptions of visual forms arise.
• Depending on the ear (hearing), perceptions of sounds arise.
• Depending on the nose (smell), perceptions of odors arise.
• Depending on the tongue (taste), perceptions of flavors arise.
• Depending on the body (touch), perceptions of tactile sensations arise.
• Depending on the mind (thought), perceptions of mental objects, such as ideas, memories, and concepts, arise.

The main problem, as the Tathagata explains, is that we cling to our perceptions and feelings, mistaking impermanent things for permanent, unsatisfactory things for pleasurable, and non-self for self. This clinging reinforces desire, aversion, and delusion, which in turn creates suffering.

Disciples, there are these four perversions of perception. What four?

To regard what is impermanent as permanent, what is painful as pleasant, what is non-self as self, and what is impure as pure.

AN4.49

The Volitional Formations Aggregate

It is volition that I call kamma. For having willed, one acts by body, speech, and mind.

AN6.63

The Volitional Formations Aggregate refers to the mental energy, both past and present, created by the desire to exist and seek happiness from existence. This mental energy manifests in the present as intentions and the effort to fulfill those desires, propelling and conditioning our actions, speech, and thoughts.

To understand volitional formations, it is important to recognize that they arise based on immediate conditions in the present, such as contact with objects in the environment and the resulting feelings and perceptions. However, they are also shaped by the accumulated influences of past desires and intentions.

In the present moment, volitional formations emerge from the interaction of sense faculties, sense objects, and consciousness, along with the responses to feelings and perceptions. For instance, encountering a pleasant sensation can lead to craving and clinging, while an unpleasant sensation might prompt aversion.

Past volitional formations leave karmic imprints, creating latent tendencies that predispose the mind to specific reactions and behaviors. These tendencies influence how present experiences are perceived and responded to.

For example, someone with a strong habitual tendency toward anger, shaped by past volitional formations, may perceive a frustrating situation as unpleasant. This perception triggers a feeling of irritation, which conditions a new angry volition. This volition not only shapes immediate actions but also reinforces the underlying tendency toward anger.

Over time, repeated volitional actions form habitual mental tendencies. These tendencies influence how we respond to new stimuli, further reinforcing the cycle of suffering.

And what, disciples, are volitional formations?

There are these six classes of volitional formations: volitional formations connected with forms, sounds, smells, tastes, tactile objects, and mental phenomena. These are called volitional formations.

SN22.79

Just as feelings and perceptions are influenced by contact, volitional formations are shaped by past and present feelings and perceptions:

Based on contact with the body or other forms, feelings and perceptions arise, triggering latent tendencies that influence desires and intentions in the present.

Mental volition interacts closely with the other aggregates:

• Form: Volitional intentions influence and are influenced by physical actions.
• Feelings: Feelings condition volitional responses to experiences.
• Perceptions: Perceptions guide the intentions formed by mental volition.
• Consciousness: Volition shapes the continuity of consciousness and is shaped by it in return.

The energy produced by volitional formations is experienced in the body as either heat or coolness. Unwholesome desires or negative intentions generate a hot, unsettling energy, while wholesome desires and positive intentions create a cooling, calming sensation. This provides a way to gauge stress in the present moment, as the body’s energy reflects the state of the mind.

Because volitional formations carry momentum and energy, they drive the cycle of existence forward. Like the spreading of a wildfire, volitional formations fuel the fire of desire, transferring the energy from desire from one consciousness to the next and from one lifetime to another, perpetuating the cycle of rebirth.

With ignorance as condition, volitional formations arise; with volitional formations as condition, consciousness arises

SN12

Whatever one intends, whatever one plans, whatever one has a tendency toward: this becomes a basis for the maintenance of consciousness.

When there is a basis, there is the support for the establishing of consciousness.

When consciousness is established and has come to growth, there is the production of renewed existence in the future.

SN12.38

The Consciousness Aggregate

The Consciousness Aggregate refers to the mental process of awareness or knowing. It plays a central role in shaping the perception of a separate self that experiences and interacts with the external world.

It is important to understand that consciousness is not a continuous, ever-present faculty. Rather, it arises momentarily in response to contact between a sense base and a sense object.

And what, disciples, is consciousness?

These six classes of consciousness: eye-consciousness, ear-consciousness, nose-consciousness, tongue-consciousness, body-consciousness, and mind-consciousness. This is called consciousness.

SN22.79

Consciousness is categorized into six types, each corresponding to the six sense bases:

• Eye-consciousness: the awareness of visible forms.
• Ear-consciousness: the awareness of sounds.
• Nose-consciousness: the awareness of smells.
• Tongue-consciousness: the awareness of tastes.
• Body-consciousness: the awareness of tactile sensations.
• Mind-consciousness: the awareness of mental objects, thoughts, and emotions.

Each type of consciousness arises dependently upon the corresponding sense organ and object—for example, eye and form for visual consciousness, or ear and sound for auditory consciousness.

It is important to note that no two types of consciousness can arise at the same time. For instance, eye-consciousness arises with forms as its object, while ear-consciousness arises with sounds. These are distinct events, arising and ceasing in rapid succession rather than simultaneously.

It is impossible for one to know and see two objects at the same time.

MN43

Consciousness arises and passes away in each moment. The Buddha emphasized this impermanence:

Just as a monkey, faring through the forest, grabs hold of one branch, letting that go, it grabs another; so too, that which is called consciousness arises as one thing and ceases as another.

SN12.61

The Consciousness Aggregate does not function in isolation but arises as part of a process involving the other aggregates when there is contact between a sense base, a sense object, and the mind. For example, eye-consciousness arises when the eye (sense base) meets a visible form (sense object) and attention is directed toward it.

Dependent on the eye and forms, eye-consciousness arises. The meeting of the three is contact.

MN148

The main point to keep in mind about the Five Aggregates is that they consist not only of cognition in the present but also of past kamma, stored as feelings, perceptions, and intentions from this and previous lives.

Let's now look at these Five Aggregates and cover why clinging to them is the cause of suffering.

The Five Aggregates Self and True Reality

Most people take for granted that there is a self that experiences what is happening, and that it is this self that manages experiences by interacting with the outside world.

Clinging to the Five Aggregates is the mistaken view, the taking for granted that the Five Aggregates, the body, feelings, perceptions, intentions, and thoughts, are the product of and belong to a unique self or essence. That it is this self that experiences and interacts with the outside world.

People mistake what is felt and perceived through the Five Aggregates as the body experiencing the outside world. People chase after happiness without realizing that both happiness and unhappiness are a creation of the mind, based on past causes and conditions, and not the result of an underlying self or true reality.

If one contemplates the nature of reality, it becomes evident that what one assumes or takes for granted as being the outside world is, in reality, fabricated from ingrained memories, intentions, and the cognition process, the Five Aggregates, which is mistaken as being true reality itself.

One sees that the sense of self, as a separate person experiencing the outside world, is a fabrication created by clinging to the ingrained memories and volitional formations created by the Five Aggregates.

To understand this, consider that phenomena like time and space, and our sense of self as a separate being apart from the objects of the world, are not inherent in light waves contacting our eyes or sound waves sensed by our ears. This three-dimensional world, in which we perceive ourselves as separate from objects of the world, is created in consciousness and is a reconstruction to facilitate our survival—the interaction with objects of the world to make objects of desire stand out from the environment.

For example, all beings, in order to feed, reproduce, and survive, have over time adapted their likes and dislikes, and behaviors for survival. This requires that the vast majority of information in the environment be ignored by the cognition process, and factors important for survival—for example, feeding and reproduction—be enhanced.

For the enhancement of survival, the mind perceives certain forms as attractive and certain feelings as pleasant, such as sexual pleasure to ensure reproduction, pleasant tastes for foods suitable for consumption, and unpleasant feelings for those things that should be avoided, like danger. These feelings and perceptions highlight and make objects of interest stand out from the environment.

In addition to the ingrained memories and intentions from past lives stored within the Five Aggregates, each individual forms desires, preferences, and dislikes shaped by their unique environmental and societal influences, as well as the specific circumstances of their present life, all of which influence their intentions and actions in the present.

These likes and dislikes, and the resulting desires, are influenced by the imperfections and distortions of the world. For example, the influence of parents, friends, society, culture, institutions, advertising, and social media. The result is that our perceptions and interactions, what we cognize through the Five Aggregates—are tainted by past desires, aversions, and not knowing, which distorts our perception of reality in the present.

Stress and dissatisfaction result because we cling to, take for granted, the fabricated, ingrained images of our body created in memory, the tainted perceptions and feelings created by the mind, and the distorted intentions and thoughts about how to get happiness from life, not knowing that this is not true reality itself—it is a conditioned reality created by the Five Aggregates.

People chase after desires, objects of the world that they perceive to be attractive, tasty, fragrant, etc., without realizing that these characteristics are not intrinsic properties of the objects themselves; they are a result of past desires and intentions stored in the Five Aggregates to enhance cognition but shaped by the influences of the world.

In other words, we take for granted that the good and bad of the outside world are absolute realities, when in fact these judgments have been created by the mind, conditioned by causes and conditions, and subject to the imperfections and distortions of the world: greed, aversion, and not knowing.

For example, anyone can observe that the world is full of conflicting views, opinions, lifestyles, etc. This is not because everyone has an essence that makes them uniquely different; it is because their Five Aggregates are a product of, and have been shaped by, a unique set of causes and conditions.

Because of clinging to, taking for granted, the Five Aggregates as "me" or "myself," this creates the false perception of an underlying essence or "self," not realizing that the Five Aggregates and the perception of "self" are a product of past causes and conditions that have been ingrained in memory.

Additionally, language, which allows humans to communicate and interact with each other using words, is an abstract representation of reality. Although language has made humans successful and efficient at exploiting their environment, it creates an abstraction layer where people can interact in a mind-made world, mostly detached from nature and natural forces.

Language reinforces the subject-object relationship. It creates the illusion in the mind that there are objects to be desired and that there is a self who desires, that there is a doer and things to be done, a thinker and thoughts to be thought. Instead of seeing that everything is the result of natural causes and conditions, people take things personally, fixate on words, and because of this clinging, words have the power to completely affect a person's moods, thoughts, and actions, even though they are not based on any underlying reality.

We live in a mind-created world, a world detached from natural reality without realizing it. People believe what they perceive through the Five Aggregates is true reality, ignorant that any happiness or unhappiness experienced is created by the mind, a product of the Five Aggregates. As a result, people chase after pleasures and avoid displeasures, not realizing that getting lost in the good or bad of the world is the cause of stress and unhappiness.

Desires Their Unsubstantial Nature

Now this is the noble truth of the origin of suffering:

It is this craving which leads to renewed existence, accompanied by delight and lust, seeking delight here and there; that is, craving for sensual pleasures, craving for existence, craving for non-existance.

SN56.11

What the Tathāgata calls craving, delight, and lust or greed arises because people are unaware of the unsatisfying, unsubstantial, always-changing, undependable nature of sense desires.

Instead, people rely on what they experience through the Five Aggregates as something substantial, real, and dependable that can be grasped and clung to for happiness, not realizing that the pleasurable things of the world are created in the mind itself and don't exist in physical reality.

People mistakenly believe that there must be a way to get what one desires, obtain happiness from the world, by bringing things under their control. They have not realized that what they desire, what they consider to be happiness, the things that must be brought under control, and the sense of self itself have been created by the mind, and don't really exist.

When we cling to the body, our feelings, perceptions, intentions, and thoughts, this creates the illusion of continuity and the belief in our self as an enduring entity with a unique essence. As a result, we unquestionably believe our feelings, perceptions, and thoughts are real, that they belong to us, and that they can be depended upon to see the truth and obtain happiness.

Because of this, we become entangled, lost in chasing our desires, falsely believing that things are under our control, ignoring all the stress, unhappiness, and suffering that this causes.

For example, a person who is blinded by the thought that money will bring them happiness may chase and cling to money, not specifically for the purpose of putting it to good use, but solely for amassing as much money as possible. In the process of amassing this money, which they perceive as happiness itself, they become blind to any stress or suffering they create for themselves and blame any stress and problems on outside circumstances or other persons. Never satisfied, they keep on chasing the delusion created by clinging to faulty perceptions, feelings, intentions, and thoughts, in brief, clinging to the Five Aggregates, ignoring all the stress and unhappiness that being blinded by greed creates.

In other words, we no longer chase after food to satisfy hunger and feed our bodies; we chase after tastes themselves. Blinded by greed, we chase after the idea of sex for sex itself. Greed causes us to not see people as they truly are, but instead as what they appear to be: "rich, poor, powerful, successful, famous, beautiful, ugly," etc. We chase after these attributes that have no basis in nature, and as a result, we suffer. This is clinging to the Five Aggregates.

A liberated person, on the other hand, understands that nothing in this world is intrinsically beautiful or ugly, tasty or distasteful, and that all judgments are products of the ingrained memories and volition, desires created by the Five Aggregates and, taken by themselves, are empty of any substance.

A liberated person's mind, while they can still enjoy food, fragrances, etc., sees through these distortions and enhancements in perception and thoughts as fabrications. Their mind does not grasp or react to other people's words or actions, or any part of existence based on these fabrications. Instead, they see the underlying reality: that the Five Aggregates are undependable, fabricated, and not self, rendering perceptions and thoughts harmless.

In the same way that people cling to desirable attributes, we also cling to the unpleasant aspects of existence. For example, instead of seeing the underlying reality of experiences, we cling to their perceived unpleasant features; we may, for example, develop an aversion to eating healthy food simply because it does not have the delicious attribute, ignoring the long-term health problems and suffering that may be created by unhealthy eating.

Also, when experiencing unpleasant sensations, we grasp and cling to the unpleasantness of the experience instead of seeing and understanding the underlying reality, which causes more stress, discomfort, or suffering.

The desire for things to be one way or another causes stress and unhappiness. For example, whenever people have unpleasant experiences, they try to escape these unpleasant experiences by seeking out pleasant ones, such as consuming food, entertainment, alcohol, drugs, having sex, daydreaming, etc.

Because of not knowing, people falsely believe that those pleasant experiences have an inherent desirable attribute, when in fact the desirable attribute is a product of the mind. These pleasant experiences only feel pleasant because they relieve the underlying stress created by trying to satisfy desires.

This creates an endless cycle, where one is constantly chasing after their desires, constantly grasping at something to derive pleasure from life, yet ending up unsatisfied. This is clinging to the Five Aggregates.

Delusion occurs because, despite constantly being reminded that our likes or dislikes, views, thoughts, and actions are not satisfied and are not in line with the truth of the physical world, we ignore the truth and instead strengthen the sense of self, blindly focused on getting satisfaction and ignoring any stress, unhappiness, or suffering being created

Karma and Samsara

It's important to understand that stress and dissatisfaction, although bearing fruit in the present, are the result of past causes, conditions, and intentions. In very simple terms, the past circumstances of this life and past lives have shaped our current likes and dislikes, our views, our thoughts, and our intentions, which exert influence on our present circumstances.

These past conditions and circumstances shape our present being because they have volition and momentum created by previous intentions. This is what is called samsara, a flowing river of volition rooted in past ignorant and delusional intentions, which makes humans feel helpless. Sometimes submerged and drowning, at other times feeling happy and peaceful, but mostly trying to control the constantly changing flow of life, grasping, trying to hold on to anything solid, afraid of being pulled under or swept away to suffering.

Think of karma and samsara as seeds or intentions that have been planted and will sprout based on the right conditions, ripening to stress and suffering when craving and clinging are present. For instance, if we have developed a liking for certain foods or a dislike for certain behaviors, encountering them through our senses or memories triggers habitual reactions. These reactions might manifest as very unwholesome thoughts, words, and actions, or as subtle forms of clinging, aversion, or delusion for more advanced practitioners.

Although past karma may trigger an unwholesome habitual reaction, it is our response in the present that determines if this karma propagates into further unwholesome thoughts, words, and actions. In other words, when we first start practicing, we can't stop past karma from bearing fruit and causing some suffering in the present when there is contact with the six senses; however, we can stop creating new karma by how we react to that past karma in the present.

For example, instead of clinging to the Five Aggregates, one can let any feelings, perceptions, intentions, and thoughts due to habitual reactions pass away without attaching to them, without reacting to them, not adding more fuel, and not creating any new karma.

Karma can also be understood at a simple level as the conditions that shape our identity, including unfulfilled past likes, dislikes, intentions, habits, dreams, memories, etc. This creates restlessness or agitation of the mind, generating volition or intentions to find satisfaction and happiness. The consequence is that we are continually seeking something to alleviate this agitation, and the mind struggles to remain calm.

Karma should be understood, the source and origin of karma should be understood, the diversity of karma should be understood, the result of karma should be understood, the cessation of karma should be understood, the way of practice leading to the cessation of karma should be understood.

To truly understand stress and suffering and fully embrace the Eightfold Path, it is essential to grasp how desires give rise to intentions, which are karma or volitional energy. These intentions shape our views, thoughts, and habits, ultimately leading to present stress and dissatisfaction. By understanding this process, we can recognize why the Eightfold Path provides the only way to cultivate new causes and conditions that bring about the cessation of stress and dissatisfaction.

Desire The Cause of Stress and Dissatisfaction

To better comprehend volition, stress and suffering, study the following diagram:

Due to restlessness, the mind is always seeking something to grasp, something to relieve this agitation. This is desire or craving. Based on past karma, which involves volition, something in our environment or memories will trigger a desire.

1. This desire causes tension in the person experiencing it.

2. Since the tension is felt as unpleasant, the person is compelled to alleviate it by satisfying the desire.

3. Obtaining the desired object and gratifying the desire relaxes the tension in the mind.

4. The relaxation of tension leads to a sense of satisfaction and fulfillment, accompanied by some degree of comfort. This creates the false belief that the desired object is the cause of happiness itself.

5. As long as a person is not liberated, desires and cravings of various kinds will continually arise, agitating the mind at almost every moment.

6. This means that the relaxation of tension and resulting pleasure can never be anything more than temporary and incomplete.

For example, most people spend their whole life chasing after things like money, material goods, beauty, status, delicious foods, winning competitions, and travel experiences. The expectations created, and the effort involved in trying to obtain these, cause tension and stress.

If we look carefully at the whole process, every time someone earns money, obtains a new material object, is seen as beautiful, gets recognition for their effort, eats delicious food, wins a competition, or goes on vacation, the stress from desires, craving, expectations, and effort is temporarily relieved, which is wrongly perceived as obtaining happiness from that experience.

Because people incorrectly believe that happiness comes from making money itself, chasing beauty and status, winning competitions, or going on vacation, they repeat the cycle over and over again, never achieving real satisfaction or happiness.

In other words, rather than recognizing that the letting go of desire and expectations and the relaxation of pressure from desires brought them satisfaction, people mistakenly believe that the objects of desire themselves brought them that happiness, when in reality, desire is the cause of stress and dissatisfaction.

Since happiness doesn't come from craving or desire itself, which, in fact, causes pain, but from its ceasing, one should understand that the renunciation of craving and sense desires, instead of causing misery, opens up the only path to true and lasting happiness.

The Five Aggregates Unsatisfying, Not-self and Suffering

By & large, Kaccāna, this world is in bondage to attachments, clingings, & biases. But one such as this does not get involved with or cling to these attachments, clingings, fixations of awareness, biases, or obsessions; nor is he resolved on 'my self'.

He has no uncertainty or doubt that mere stress, when arising, is arising; stress, when passing away, is passing away. In this, his knowledge is independent of others. It’s to this extent, Kaccāna, that there is right view.

SN 12:15

The root of stress and dissatisfaction lies in the assumption that what we perceive through the Five Aggregates represents the true reality of the physical world. We mistake the Five Aggregates and our sense of self as reality itself. Instead of seeing the unsubstantial, always changing, not-self nature of the world, we fail to grasp that all perceptions that arise in the mind, that all dualities of the world such as good or bad, beautiful or ugly, fast or slow, and so forth, are judgments based on clinging to biases or obsessions, clinging to the Five Aggregates. This reinforces the fabricated sense of self that attempts to control these constantly changing dualities, which, instead of being perceived as a product of the mind, are perceived as happening in the outside world.

For example, once one attaches and takes personally the perception of something being "good," it's inevitable that, based on causes and conditions, this "good" attribute attached to it will eventually transition to "bad," often oscillating back and forth depending on circumstances.

The truth lies not in believing or disbelieving the good or bad, but not being attached or clinging to either.

‘Everything exists’: That is one extreme. ‘Everything doesn’t exist’: That is a second extreme. Avoiding these two extremes, the Tathāgata teaches the Dhamma via the middle.

SN 12:15

For example, although most perceptions, feelings, and thoughts continually arise and pass away and cease naturally without inducing stress or discomfort, the mind clings to them, existing or not existing. Taking them personally, a sense of self is fabricated.

Stress results from being aware of the arising of sensations and thoughts, clinging to them, while disregarding or ignoring their passing away and cessation, their emptiness. In other words, we cling to thoughts and perceptions, which results in the propagation of unwholesome, delusional states of mind, instead of seeing them pass away and cease on their own naturally.

In very simple terms, if one learns not to attach to or take for granted judgments and details created by the Five Aggregates, allowing these formations of the mind to pass away and cease on their own without clinging, this is the end of stress and unhappiness.

The Fires of Nibbana

For him, infatuated, attached, confused, not remaining focused on their drawbacks, the five clinging-aggregates head toward future accumulation.

The craving that makes for further becoming, accompanied by passion & delight, relishing now here & now there, grows within him.

His bodily disturbances & mental disturbances grow. His bodily torments & mental torments grow. His bodily distresses & mental distresses grow. He is sensitive both to bodily stress & mental stress.

MN149

Another aspect of clinging, attachment to the ingrained memories and volition created by the Five Aggregates, is their cumulative nature. The Five Aggregates are like burning fires; the more grasping and clinging that is fed into the fire, the stronger it burns. As the Tathagata describes above:

"His bodily disturbances & mental disturbances grow. His bodily torments & mental torments grow. His bodily distresses & mental distresses grow. He is sensitive both to bodily stress & mental stress."

Essentially, every time we cling to the Five Aggregates, it's like adding fuel to a fire, and over time, these accumulated fires lead to increased stress and various bodily and mental symptoms. This results in bodily tensions, ailments, and other issues that don't have an obvious origin.

In other words, every time there is desire, greed, aversion, and clinging, this increases our overall level of stress. When the fires of Nibbana or stress get too hot or too much to handle, we blow up, releasing this stress either in anger, depression, consuming unwholesome foods or actions, or storing it as tension in the body. Usually, it's a combination of all of these.

As a result, people develop unwholesome behaviors, bad habits, as a mechanism to cope with stress, to release their underlying stress and discomfort.

It's widely recognized that stress is the cause of a range of mental and physical health problems. Clinging to the body, feelings, perceptions, intentions, and thoughts, the Five Aggregates, has deep and wide significance for our long-term mental and physical health.

Suffering In Future Lifetimes

So far, we have only covered stress and suffering within this present lifetime. However, the cycle of rebirth is inherently unpredictable, often leading to rebirths in unfavorable realms. If one could witness the suffering endured by others, in this and previous lifetimes, it would become evident that even being reborn as a human is susceptible to profound suffering. Thus, to fully comprehend suffering, we must consider the suffering to come in countless future lives. Only then can we understand the full meaning of the Tathagata's teachings.

What do you think, disciples? Which is greater, the tears you have shed while transmigrating & wandering this long, long time, crying & weeping from being joined with what is displeasing, being separated from what is pleasing, or the water in the four great oceans?

As we understand the Dhamma taught to us by the Blessed One, this is the greater: the tears we have shed while transmigrating & wandering this long, long time, crying & weeping from being joined with what is displeasing, being separated from what is pleasing, not the water in the four great oceans.

Tears, Assu Sutta (SN 15:3)

Disciples, this cycle of rebirths is without discoverable beginning. A first point is not discerned of beings roaming and wandering on, hindered by not knowing and fettered by craving.

Disciples, whatever is seen of a destitute, miserable state, it should be understood: We too have experienced such a state in this long journey.

SN15.11

The Four Noble Truths

A noble disciple understands clinging, its origin, its cessation, and the practice that leads to its cessation.

But what is clinging? What is its origin, its cessation, and the practice that leads to its cessation?

There are these four kinds of clinging. Clinging at sensual pleasures, views, precepts and observances, and theories of a self.

Clinging originates from craving. Clinging ceases when craving ceases. The practice that leads to the cessation of clinging is simply this noble eightfold path.

MN9

Having read the above, one should begin to have a basic understanding of the Four Noble Truths:

First Noble Truth: And what is the noble truth of suffering? Birth is suffering, aging is suffering, death is suffering; sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair are suffering; association with the disliked is suffering, separation from the loved is suffering; not getting what one wants is suffering; in brief, the five aggregates subject to clinging are suffering.

Second Noble Truth: And what is the noble truth of the origin of suffering? It is this craving which leads to rebirth, accompanied by delight and lust, finding delight here and there; namely, craving for sensual pleasures, craving for existence, craving for non-existence.

Third Noble Truth: And what is the noble truth of the cessation of suffering? It is the remainderless fading and cessation of that same craving, the giving up and relinquishing of it, freedom from it, non-reliance on it.

Fourth Noble Truth: And what is the noble truth of the path leading to the cessation of suffering? It is this noble eightfold path, namely: right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration.

Remember that the Four Truths held by the Noble Ones are not static truths; they are truths that guide one's practice of the Eightfold Path. In other words, one is constantly discerning more and more subtle forms of stress and suffering, the cause of this stress, and its cessation through the application of the Noble Eightfold Path.

Contemplation

The Tathagata teaches that there are four ways that people cling to the Five Aggregates, believing that they are the self:

• There is clinging to the feelings and perceptions about objects of the world; one creates an identity around what they like and dislike.

• As a result, views are developed about the good and bad of the world; this reinforces the belief in a self as these views become entrenched around how the world should and should not be, and how one ought to live their life.

• Based on these views, habitual thoughts and routines are created, leading to clinging and the reinforcement of a self that is intent on seeking happiness and avoiding unhappiness in this world.

• The more likes and dislikes become ingrained as views, and the more views are reinforced through habitual thoughts and actions, the more there is clinging to the Five Aggregates themselves. Ignorantly believing that the body, feelings, perceptions, thoughts, and views are entirely real, substantial, are the self, and can be relied upon to avoid distress and obtain happiness.

In other words, one identifies and takes personally, clings to what is experienced at the Five Aggregates and suffers because they ignore the reality that what is experienced at the Five Aggregates is not absolute reality, and is subject to past causes and conditions and the imperfections and distortions of the world.

Contemplation Clinging to Sensual Pleasures

All individuals develop preferences in how they find pleasure and happiness in the world. They believe this makes them individuals, separate from others. When enjoying a favorite pleasure, contemplate the following:

• Is enjoyment derived from the object or action that brings sensual pleasure, or is it derived from thoughts, feelings, and perceptions surrounding that object?

• For example, when eating a delicious meal, is the deliciousness coming from perceptions, feelings, expectations, or the taste buds?

• Consider whether the qualities that we perceive as beautiful, ugly, pleasurable, etc., are an inherent quality of an object or action. Does everyone agree on what is beautiful or pleasurable?

• Throughout the day, practice recollecting your feelings and perceptions, noticing likes and dislikes and enhancements to perceptions. Are feelings and perceptions substantial, reliable, and non-changing? Do feelings and perceptions change?

• Examine your feelings, perceptions, and thoughts to see if they are tainted by greed or aversion. Why is it called clinging?

• Are we clinging to the objects of the world themselves, or are we clinging to the images and perceptions we have created about them in our mind?

• Notice that when you crave sensual pleasures, you create in your imagination a little world with yourself enjoying the pleasure and feeling happy or satisfied.

• Notice that, having made this craving personal, you developed expectations around the pleasure. "I like and want this." This is craving.

• Can you see how craving has the potential to cause stress or dissatisfaction, for example, from either not being able to consistently get sensual pleasures, sensual pleasures not being as imagined (unsubstantial), or no longer being available (unpredictable)?

• Also, notice how when we are infatuated with desire, we exclude anything that's irrelevant to our desires until those desires are met. The Tathagata calls this "birth," taking on an identity in an imagined world.

• Contemplate what it feels like to be in that imagined world, trying to satisfy desires. Is the mind clear, or is it filled with passion and desire? This is delusion.

• Consider how one develops greed or aversion to sensual objects. Why does one like or dislike something? Is there really something inherently bad about something, or is this perception the result of clinging and the creation of an identity with expectations?

Contemplation Clinging to the Views we Hold About the World

As one develops likes and dislikes for things in the world, these attributes are further linked together in the views that one holds about the world and further strengthen clinging to the perception of a self.

For example, it's common for people to have strong views about how to live life, politics, and almost every other subject regarding existence. We believe that these views define us; we believe our views make us different and special and account for our success in life. Consider the following:

• Is it possible for someone to have "their own views," or were these views formed based on conditions and circumstances, such as the influence of family, society, religion, language, peer pressure, institutions, social media, advertising, and life circumstances?

• Ask yourself: What are some strong views that I hold about myself? How did these views come about? Are these views really "me"? Did I automatically accept these views without deeply analyzing all possibilities and alternative views?

• Most of us have views that we have automatically accepted without giving them much thought. Do I have any views that are so deeply entrenched that I no longer consider them views and automatically accept them as "the truth"? These can be the most challenging views.

• Consider the idea of views themselves: what are views, and how do they come about? How does clinging to views cause stress or suffering?

• When encountering problems in life, consider how you might have built a self-identity and views around these problems, and how this causes stress or suffering when reality doesn't fall in line with your views and expectations.

• Contemplate how a wrong view formed in your youth has the potential to create continual unhappiness, stress, or suffering.

• When contemplating your views, you should consider which views will result in long-term well-being and which views will result in long-term stress and unhappiness.

• Are you blaming others when something goes wrong instead of examining your own perspective? By attributing blame to others or the world, are you actually causing harm to yourself? For example, by getting angry.

• Ask yourself: do I actually need to hold a certain view, and if I do, what benefit is there in doing so, or will holding this view limit my freedom and cause unhappiness?

• Consider that by forming views on whole categories of persons, politics, foods, behaviors, etc., you are no longer seeing reality itself but only looking at fabricated traits.

Contemplation Clinging to Habits and Routines

As one develops strong views, these take shape into thoughts, habits, and routines, things we do automatically or without much attention; we believe they make us unique, defining how we think and act to find happiness in life. For example, eating, working, social life, exercise, hobbies, etc. These habits and routines further strengthen clinging to the perception of a self.

• Consider your thoughts, habits, and routines, and try to become aware of the motivations behind them.

• What am I expecting from repeatedly thinking about something or repeating the same routine over and over again? Is my thinking and routines just mindless actions, causing me stress with no tangible long-term satisfaction?

• Consider your sense of self, the one who needs to get "what I want," who needs to "overcome obstacles," and how this creates an identity and clinging.

• Throughout the day, try to catch yourself in blind thought or action. Why are you thinking or doing what you are doing?

• Consider if any of your thoughts, habits, or routines are just a way to escape unpleasant circumstances or feelings.

• Do you blame others when things go wrong instead of looking at your own thoughts and actions to see if there is delusion?

Contemplation Clinging to the Aggregates Themselves

An uninstructed, run-of-the-mill person , assumes form to be the self, or the self as possessing form, or form as in the self, or the self as in form.. He assumes feeling to be the self. He assumes perception to be the self. He assumes formations to be the self.. He assumes consciousness to be the self, or the self as possessing consciousness, or consciousness as in the self, or the self as in consciousness.

SN 22.85

The Tathagata teaches that the true source of clinging is the Five Aggregates themselves. That is, we are so attached to our bodies, our feelings and perceptions, our thoughts, views, and consciousness that we think they are part of us, who we are, what we see as our self. Discerning clinging to the Five Aggregates will be covered later in the gradual training.

Sutta Study

Please contemplate the following Suttas to understand how the Tathagata explains the five aggregates as insubstantial:

The Details of Pain

Upāsikā Kee Nanayon

The following is a condensed version of the original article

Our dreams and delusions make us forget that we live in the midst of a mass of pain and stress, the stress of defilements, the pain of birth. Birth, aging, illness, and death: All of these are painful and stressful, in the midst of instability and change. They’re things we have no control over, for they must circle around in line with the laws of kamma and the defilements we’ve been amassing all along. Life that floats along in the round of rebirth is thus nothing but stress and pain.

If we can find a way to develop our mindfulness and discernment, they’ll be able to cut the round of rebirth so that we won’t have to keep wandering on. They’ll help us know that birth is painful, aging is painful, illness is painful, death is painful, and that these are all things that defilement, attachment, and craving keep driving through the cycles of change.

So as long as we have the opportunity, we should study the truths appearing throughout our body and mind, and we’ll come to know that the elimination of stress and pain, the elimination of defilement, is a function of our practice of the Dhamma. If we don’t practice the Dhamma, we’ll keep floating along in the round of rebirth that is so drearily repetitious, repetitious in its birth, aging, illness, and death, driven on by defilement, attachment, and craving, causing us repeated stress, repeated pain. Living beings for the most part don’t know where these stresses and pains come from or what they come from, because they’ve never studied them, never contemplated them, so they stay stupid and deluded, wandering on and on without end.…

If we can stop and be still, the mind will have a chance to be free, to contemplate its sufferings and to let them go. This will give it a measure of peace, because it will no longer want anything out of the round of rebirth, for it sees that there’s nothing lasting to it, that it’s simply stress over and over again. Whatever you grab hold of is stress. This is why you need mindfulness and discernment to know and see things for yourself, so that you can supervise the mind and keep it calm, without letting it fall victim to temptation.

This practice is something of the highest importance. People who don’t study or practice the Dhamma have wasted their birth as human beings, because they’re born deluded and simply stay deluded. But if we study the Dhamma, we’ll become wise to suffering and know the path of practice for freeing ourselves from it.…

Once we follow the right path, the defilements won’t be able to drag us around, won’t be able to burn us, because we’re the ones burning them away. We’ll come to realize that the more we can burn them away, the more strength of mind we’ll gain. If we let the defilements burn us, the mind will be sapped of its strength, which is why this is something you have to be very careful about. Keep trying to burn away the defilements in your every activity, and you’ll be storing up strength for your mindfulness and discernment so that they’ll be brave in dealing with all sorts of suffering and pain.

You must come to see the world as nothing but stress. There’s no real ease to it at all. The awareness we gain from mindfulness and discernment will make us disenchanted with life in the world because it will see things for what they are in every way, both within us and without.

The entire world is nothing but an affair of delusion, an affair of suffering. People who don’t know the Dhamma, don’t practice the Dhamma, no matter what their status or position in life, lead deluded, oblivious lives. When they fall ill or are about to die, they’re bound to suffer enormously because they haven’t taken the time to understand the defilements that burn their hearts and minds in everyday life. Yet if we make a constant practice of studying and contemplating ourselves as our everyday activity, it will help free us from all sorts of suffering and distress. And when this is the case, how can we not want to practice?

Only intelligent people, though, will be able to stick with the practice. Foolish people won’t want to bother. They’d much rather follow the defilements than burn them away. To practice the Dhamma you need a certain basic level of intelligence, enough to have seen at least something of the stresses and sufferings that come from defilement. Only then can your practice progress. And no matter how difficult it gets, you’ll have to keep practicing on to the end.

This practice isn’t something you do from time to time, you know. You have to keep at it continuously throughout life. Even if it involves so much physical pain or mental anguish that tears are bathing your cheeks, you have to keep with the chaste life because you’re playing for real. If you don’t follow the chaste life, you’ll get mired in heaps of suffering and flame. So you have to learn your lessons from pain. Try to contemplate it until you can understand it and let it go, and you’ll gain one of life’s greatest rewards.

Don’t think that you were born to gain this or that level of comfort. You were born to study pain and the causes of pain, and to follow the practice that frees you from pain. This is the most important thing there is. Everything else is trivial and unimportant. What’s important all lies with the practice.