Reply To: Discourse 4 – Sakkaya Ditthi – What is “a Person”?

#14253
Lal
Keymaster

Yes, Johnny. I talked only about a fraction of the fraction of pancakkhadha.

I talked mainly about one’s own body, which is only a part of the rupakkhandha. But it is an important part that give rise to sakkaya ditthi.

One can then think about the external rupa that one is attached to: spouse, children, enemies (attachment via hate), material things that one own, so on.
Then those give rise to the four mental aggregates: vedana, sanna, sankhara, vinnana. They are therefore inherently connected with the rupakkhandha. For example, one forms vedana, sanna, sankhara, vinnana about one’s own body.

When one gets attached to any single material thing, a whole host of mental aggregates get involved around it.

For example, when one sees the beauty of one’s body in the mirror, one may become happy (vedana), get the sanna that one is better looking than so and so, generate thoughts about how to maintain it that way or make it even better by doing various things (sankhara), and an overall sense of satisfaction about the future (vinnana).

When one sees a grey hair for the first time in the mirror, or if the face gets disfigured due an injury, for example, those may reverse.

So, there are million ways to contemplate on this complex issue.
Also, we need to keep in mind that even the rupakkhandha is mental too, in the sense that when we see a rupa, it is instantly added to the memory as a mental impression of that rupa (together with the four mental aggregates about that rupa). See: “Pancupādānakkhandha – It is All Mental“.

For example, when we recall seeing a person (or even oneself) 20 years ago, the picture that comes mind is that of that person at that time. That is part of the rupakkhandha, but it is just a mental impression.

Furthermore, we form attachment to only a fraction of the five aggregates (pancakkhandha), and those are the panca upadanakkhandha. I have discussed the following example: Pancakkhadnha is like a huge wall, and when a fly lands on the wall, it grabs only an insignificant part of the wall surface with it tiny feet.

Everything that we see, hear, smell, taste, touch, and think about is included in the pancakkhadha (including future plans). But we get attached to only a fraction of them. Until one sees the futility (and danger) of those attachments, it is still hard to get rid of those attachments.

It is very important to make the connection to dasa akusala and micca ditthi (and the bad outcomes arising due to that connection), which is hardly talked about these days. But that is where the real connection to future suffering is.