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Practice Exercises for the Five Aggregates of Clinging

There is a difference between the way we practice mindfulness of the body, feelings, and consciousness, and the way in which we practice the contemplation of the five aggregates of clinging. This is true even though the same objects of attention are being used.

When contemplating the body we used a material object as the primary basis for observation. When contemplating feelings we wanted to develop a focused awareness of the feelings on different occasions of experience. The contemplation on consciousness had the purpose of developing an awareness of the different states of consciousness. Although these contemplations can lead to the deepest stages of insight, they generally have a more preparatory role.

After the yogi has developed a strong foundation of mindfulness and concentration, the attention can now be turned to systematically investigating the personality or individuality. He or she will investigate each of these aggregates to see that all material form belongs to the materiality aggregate, all feelings belong to the feeling aggregate, all perceptions belong to the perception aggregate, all volitions belong to the mental formations group, and all states of mind to the consciousness group. In this way the yogi will see that the whole world is nothing more than these five aggregates coming into existence and disappearing based upon certain causes and conditions.

Practice #1 Distinguish the different aggregates that comprise the personality:

When material form arises (e.g., the breath, a visual object, etc.) the yogi knows that it is material form and does not identify the specific kind of material form that has arisen. The yogi just recognizes that the material form belongs to the materiality aggregate.

When feelings arise, the yogi does not identify what kind of feeling has arisen. The yogi just recognizes that the feeling that has arisen belongs to the feeling aggregate.

The same applies to the rest of the aggregates.

Practice #2 Penetrate into the conditioned nature of the personality. Directly experience how each aggregate that arises does so based upon causes and conditions, and does not arise without those causes and conditions. Further, observe that when the causes and conditions are no longer present, the aggregate vanishes.

Practice #3 We cannot "see" the aggregates of others except for material form, but sometimes when one is contemplating one's own aggregates, the thought spontaneously arises that others also have (and are composed of) these same aggregates. We can also observe others clinging to their aggregates. This observation must be completed without judging those individuals that are being observed (i.e., pay "bare" attention).

Practice #4 We can further reflect on the fact that each of us lives in his or her own self-projected universe and that no one can share another person's world. There is no objective world which exists outside of the projection of our minds.

Our experience of every situation and person is unique to us. The world of our experience is just the rising and falling of consciousness along with its corresponding objects. Because of delusion we believe that there is a self behind, as part of, or in control of the process.

The author of the foregoing exercises is Matthew Flickstein of the Forest Way Insight Meditation Center, Inc. in Ruckersville, Virginia.