Glossary by Glen Wallis in "Basic Teachings of the Buddha":
9.8. "five existential functions subject to grasping". "The five components of grasping" is the Buddha's hsorthand for what we commonly refer to as "person, self, identity, soul." The Buddha says that he looked everywhere in vain for the kind of stable, integral entity that is implied by such terms. You, too, can look. But where will you look? In your nose? ears? chest cavity? stomach? Perhaps yourself can be found in your memories, thoughts, sense of identity. The more we look, the more absurd appears the commonly held notion of my being (having?) a self. For the Buddha, this persistent sense that I have of being a "person" is the result of erroneously imputing an object where there is really only process. This process, more over, is perceptual in nature, having to do, as it does, with human existence (see "Evidence of Selflessness," sutta 7).
Although this process, like any other, is a seamless flow devoid of stops, it can, on analysis, be said to have innumerable aspects. The Buddha calls these aspects khandhas, meaning "clusters," "clumps," or "aggregates," and found it beneficial to identify five of them as posessing particular importance. These five are materiality, feeling, perception, conceptual fabrication, and cognizance. To get a view on this fivefold process of being, it might be useful to try an experiment. First of all, read the following explanation of the five components (A). This will give you some theoretical grounding in the process to which they point. Then analyze a perceptual act in terms of the components (B). This exercise should give you some practical insight into the process. Finally, consider the Buddha's pithy remarks concerning the fundamental nature of this process (C).
A. 1. Materiality (rupa) is the "givenness" of matter, which consists of the four elements: earth (solidity), water (coherence), fire (energy), and wind (distension). In terms of the "person," rupa is the body. Note that the Buddha is not concerned with the origin or end of the material world. The world just is -- when you open your eyes, there it is. You must deal with it just as it is, regardless of how it came to be and how it might cease to be. Hence, the first instance that the Buddha marks out as a khanda is this primary givenness of the world that stands before our own material givenness. (In order to counter the idea that there is a pure, undefiled world out there that is corrupted by the khanda process, it is important to note that both the world and our experience of it are marked by conditionality from the outset of the khandha process. That is, my eyes are conditioned by numerous factors [genes, diet, experience, or karma], as is the painting with which they come into contact [constructed from parts, creative choices of the artist, intensity of light].)
2. Feeling (vedana) is the qualitative continuum from the raw, unprocessed sensation that arises when a sense faculty comes into contact with a sense object to the emotional response conditioned by that sensation. For example, when the nose meets a scent, the scent may be experienced in varying registers of pleasantness, unpleasantness, or neutrality; and this experience triggers memories and emotion. It is important to note here that sensation concerns the quality of visceral friction and the feelings conditioned by that friction, and is not a matter of discriminating judgment or opinion.
3. Perception (sanna) is the processing of the object of sense as such and such: the sensation on the ear is "a dog's bark," on the skin is "a raindrop," on the tongue is "a chocolate cookie." Uniformed materiality (vibrating waves hitting the ear and so on settles into a specific form. Perception, sanna, thus connotes a degree of sharpened focus, of something's coming into view as a particular kind of object.
4. Conceptual Fabrication (sankhara) arises as the closer discernment concerning the (perceived) qualities of the object. The important point here is that with this discernment is, to a great extent, based on personal proclivities, which in turn are products of conditioning (via family, culture, genes, experience). This term is often translated as "volition" since it is understood as an exercise of the will to fashion the perceived object in a particular way. But really the Sanskrit verbal formation from which the Pali is derived simply denotes "putting together, forming, embellishing." In the Buddhist view, these terms describe precisely what we do whenever we see, hear, smell, taste, feel, or cognize and object. Namely, we coconstruct the object by coloring our perceptions with qualities, judgments, and narratives deriving largely from our side and not from the side of the objects itself. Because we react to the world as it is fashioned by us rather than to some world "in itself," sankhara is an acutely important Buddhist technical term.
5. Cognizance (vinnana) can be understood as being simultaneously the mirror and the appearance reflected in the mirror. It is both our objectless awareness, which is standing always already present, and the awareness of the fully formed object (formed, of course, via the previous four khandhas). I think that vinnana functions in both of these senses within the khandha process. The English term "cognizance" nicely captures this double meaning given in that awareness. So to give a specific example in terms of the khanda process: As a sentient being, I am aware. Sound waves hit my ears (rupa). These waves are experienced as pleasant (vedana). The perception forms that the waves are birdsong (sanna). As if automatically, particular memories, notions, and interpretations regarding the birdsong proliferate (sankhara). I discursively think about those memories, respond to those memories, then think about those responses, and on and on (vinnana). Because of these intentional acts of thinking, vinnana is sometimes referred to as "karmic consciousness." That is, such thinking is itself a conditioned action that gives rise to further mental, verbal, and bodily activity. Finally, it is important to note that cognizance is understood by the Buddha as being manifest through a particular mode of perception -- eye cognizance, ear cognizance -- and not as some kind of pervasive, ghostlike "consciousness." (It is for this reason that I chose not to render vinnana in its usual manner as "consciousness").
B. Now, having gained some theoretical understanding of the khandhas, identify each element in an actual act of each of the six modes of apprehension (seeing, hearing, tasting, bodily feeling, smelling, thinking). Here's an example. Observe the arising of a sound.
1. Note, first of all, the very presence of your ear and of the physical world. What you are noticing is, of course, the givenness of materiality (rupa).
2. Simply and directly notice the next sound that arises. Note the bare sensation (vedana) engendered by the friction form the interaction of that sound and your ear. Does this contact produce a sensation that is pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral? How does this sensation condition how you feel mentally, physically, emotionally?
3. Notice that seemingly simultaneous with contact comes a particular perception (sanna) concerning the nature of the sound object. It is a passing car; it is the chirping of a bird; it is your daughter's voice; it is someone coughing; and so forth.
4. Carefully observe what you did (sankhara) with that perception. Did you start to weave some sort of story concerning the sound? Did you color it with names, views, opinions, value judgments? In short, did you engage, to any degree, in manipulation and contrivance of the sound? Can you, in this manner, discern to what extent you played a role in cocreating the sound?
5. Notice the reflective, mirrorlike quality of simply being aware of sound. (Glass, perhaps, is a more suitable metaphor than a mirror, since glass is both transparent and reflective.) Notice that "within" this spacious awareness a particular object of sound awareness stands fully formed. Can you just be aware of this entire unfolding? This "just," you may notice, requires simply leaving "it" alone. ("It" is the raw sound together with your fashioning of the sound. How could you possibly separate each of these out from the other? How can you discern where "you" end and "it" begins?)
C. Finally, what do you make of the Buddha's characterization of this entire process? Was (is) what he says here clarified in your own experience?
Form is like a lump of foam;
feeling like a water bubble;
perception is like a mirage;
conceptual fabrication like a plantain tree;*
and cognizance like an illusion.
However one may ponder the self
and carefully investigate it;
it appears hollow and void
when one views it carefully.
(Majjhimanikaya 3.22.95)
An abundance of questions might arise out of this exercise. Many of these questions are of a potentially revolutionary and transformative nature because of the real-life consequences they engender. For example, is it necessary to posit a stable, integral self, soul, or identity in order to account for your moment-to-moment experience? What might be the source, role, and function of the persistent feeling of "I, me, mine" that runs throughout our experience? Doesn't this exercise in the khandhas strongly suggest that all we can honestly claim for moment-to-moment existence is that there is a continual unfolding of a process, physical and psychological in nature? If so, what challenges does this view (insight?) have for the theistic framework for living held dear, I imagine, by so many readers?