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.

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Suffering: What Does It Really Mean?

From a modern viewpoint, suffering is often equated with intense physical pain or emotional anguish. But in the time of the Buddha, the word "dukkha" carried a much broader meaning. It included unease, distress, discomfort, fear, unhappiness, even a subtle discontent, a sense that something is missing or that life lacks inherent meaning, even when things seem to be going well on the surface.

This is why the Tathagata called it "The Noble Truth of Suffering." Not because suffering is noble, but because recognizing it is the first noble step toward liberation. The truth is, most of us don’t fully see the level of stress and dissatisfaction woven into our ordinary human experience. And even fewer of us take the time to examine it deeply.

We often miss this truth because we're always looking "out there", blaming other people, situations, or the world at large for our dissatisfaction. Or we deny it altogether, thinking, “Once I get this or achieve that, things will finally be okay.” We distract ourselves with work, entertainment, and pleasures of the senses, hoping that if we just stay busy or entertained, we won’t have to look too closely.

But suffering is "in here", in our reactions, in our clinging, in the quiet unrest we feel when the moment doesn’t go the way we wanted. It’s the tension between what is and what we crave. This is why so much suffering goes unnoticed: we chase after the delightful images and ideas created by desire, never questioning whether they’re worth chasing.

At the root of all this is ignorance, not understanding how our minds create suffering through craving and aversion. We’re enchanted by the surface of things, blind to the fact that this endless pursuit is what fuels the stress we long to escape.

This is why the Tathagata taught not just to observe the world, but to observe our experience of it, our intentions, our reactions, our clinging. Only by turning attention inward, through the lens of the Dhamma, can we begin to see the true nature of suffering and walk the path that leads beyond it.

The Tathagata describes three types of suffering:

• Ordinary Suffering (Dukkha-dukkha), this refers to the physical and emotional pain we experience as humans, 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

In other words, the desire to exist and gain satisfaction from the world is inherently bound to result in dissatisfaction. This is because the desires and perceptions created in the mind can never accurately reflect the physical world. By their very nature, the outcomes of our desires are insubstantial, undependable, and beyond our control.

The Five Aggregates: Introduction

The Tathāgata explains that the root of all suffering lies in craving for sense pleasures and in clinging to the Five Aggregates as “me” or “mine.” But what exactly are these Five Aggregates?

Put simply, the Five Aggregates describe how we experience the world, through our body, through feelings, through perceptions, through mental formations, and through consciousness.

But here’s where the Tathāgata’s teaching departs from how we typically see things. We usually assume there is a “self” experiencing all of this, a permanent “I” at the center. The Tathāgata, however, teaches something quite different: that suffering arises because we fail to see that there is no inherent self behind the experience. It is not that an “I” is doing the perceiving, it is that the act of perceiving itself gives rise to the sense of “I.”

And rather than a single, continuous consciousness that observes everything from the background, what the Tathāgata points to is a moment-to-moment process. Each contact, whether it’s with a sight, a sound, a thought, or a memory, gives rise to a fresh moment of feeling, perception, intention, and consciousness. These are not the actions of a self, but rather conditions arising dependent on other conditions.

In this light, experience isn’t being generated by an “I” interacting with the world. Instead, it’s unfolding due to a web of past causes, intentions, desires, habits, and memories. These collected influences form what we call the Five Aggregates. They are not “you.” They are not “yours.” They are not fixed or permanent. They are conditioned processes, mistaken for a solid “me” experiencing the world.

Now, let us look more closely at each of these Five Aggregates in turn.

Depending on the eye and forms, eye-consciousness arises; the meeting of the three is contact; with contact as a condition, there is feeling; what one feels, one perceives; what one perceives, one thinks about; what one thinks about, one proliferates. From that as a source, perceptions and notions born of proliferation beset a man regarding past, future, and present forms cognizable through the eye.

MN18

The Five Aggregates: Form

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 refers to the physical or material aspects of existence. This includes not only the body, but also all external objects, everything we can touch, see, hear, or interact with in the material world.

Each of the six senses perceives its own kind of form:

• The eye perceives light waves.

• The ear perceives sound waves.

• The nose perceives odor molecules.

• The tongue perceives taste molecules.

• The body perceives sensations—touch, temperature, pressure, texture.

• And the mind perceives mental phenomena: thoughts, emotions, memories, concepts, and ideas.

Now, it’s important to pause and reflect: we never experience the Form Aggregate by itself. Light waves and sound waves don’t mean anything unless they’re processed by our senses. We don’t see color without the eye and mind working together. We don’t feel touch without contact, feeling, and consciousness. In other words, form is only experienced through the other aggregates: feeling, perception, volition, and consciousness.

And here is our first clue to why suffering arises.

Take the body, for example. We tend to think of it as a single, solid “thing”, as "my body". But in reality, the body is a vast, complex system. It’s made up of about 30 trillion human cells, plus even more bacteria, fungi, and microorganisms. It includes organs, muscles, blood, hair, nails, bones, and countless parts we rarely even consider. And behind all this, genetic inheritance, evolutionary processes, instinctual drives, and countless past intentions spanning lifetimes.

So what is the body, really? It is not a fixed thing. It’s a constantly changing formation, a temporary convergence of causes and conditions. Yet we cling to it. We grasp it as something permanent, as something we own, as something that defines us. This is clinging to the Form Aggregate.

In the same way, we look at external forms: objects, people, environments, and assume they are fixed, solid, and graspable. We take them as real and substantial. But in truth, they too are unstable, impermanent, and dependent on countless conditions.

To help us see through this illusion, the Tathāgata explains that form can be broken down into the Four Great Elements: earth, water, fire, and air. These are not literal elements, but symbolic of the fundamental properties of matter, solidity, cohesion, temperature, and motion.

And perhaps most radically, the Tathāgata overturns the common assumption that physical matter is the foundation of life. He teaches instead that mind precedes form. Mental energy is the driving force behind the body, behind all living beings. It is desire, intention, and volition that move and animate the body. We don’t simply "have" a body, we "drive" it with our craving to exist, to possess, and to find satisfaction in the world.

The Five Aggregates: Feelings

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

Now, let us turn to the second of the Five Aggregates: the Feeling Aggregate.

What do we mean by “feeling” in this context? In the Tathagata’s teaching, "feeling" does not refer to emotions like sadness, anger, or joy, as we often use the word today. Instead, it refers to the immediate tone of every experience: whether it feels pleasant, painful, or neither-pleasant-nor-painful. This happens every moment we make contact with the world through any of the six senses, including the mind.

Every sight we see, every sound we hear, every thought we think, comes tinged with a feeling tone. Sometimes it’s a subtle pleasure, sometimes discomfort, and sometimes just a neutral hum in the background.

But why is this called an "aggregate"?

It’s called the Feeling Aggregate because our present feelings are shaped by past accumulated experiences. Through lifetimes of craving, aversion, and choices rooted in ignorance, we have built up what might be called a "volitional memory", our "karma". This memory influences how we interpret the same sights, sounds, or thoughts differently from others.

For example, someone else may hear a song and feel joy, while you hear the same song and feel sadness. The difference lies not in the sound itself, but in the stored karmic imprints that condition your feeling response.

So, the Feeling Aggregate is not just about what’s happening now, it’s also a reflection of the intentions, habits, and tendencies that have been conditioned over time. Our feelings are not random. They arise because certain conditions, internal and external, meet in a particular moment. And crucially, they condition what comes next: whether we crave more, resist what is, or fall into delusion.

This is why feelings are so central in the arising of suffering.

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

So, when we feel something pleasant, we tend to crave it. When we feel something unpleasant, we tend to resist or push it away. And when we feel something neutral, we often ignore it, falling into dullness or boredom. In each case, the feeling triggers a mental reaction. That reaction becomes the seed for future karma, future stress, future becoming.

Understanding the Feeling Aggregate, then, is not about suppressing feelings, it’s about seeing them clearly as conditioned, impermanent, and not-self. They are not “my” feelings. They are part of a process. And when we see this deeply, we can respond with wisdom rather than craving or aversion.

The Five Aggregates: Perceptions

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.

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 we receive from the senses.

The Perception Aggregate refers to the accumulation of these past perceptions, stored in volitional memories. These stored impressions play 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 what is unreliable as reliable, what is unsatisfactory as pleasurable, and what is not-self for self. This clinging reinforces desire, aversion, and delusion, which in turn creates more 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 Five Aggregates: Mental Formations

And what, disciples, are mental formations? There are these six classes of volition: volition regarding forms, sounds, smells, tastes, tactile objects, and mental phenomena. These are called mental formations.

SN22.79

The Mental Formations Aggregate refers to the mental energy created by the desire to exist, and to seek satisfaction from existence itself. This mental energy shows up in the present moment as intentions, attention, effort, and the impulse to act. It is what propels and conditions our actions, our speech, and our thoughts.

To understand mental formations more clearly, it’s important to recognize that while they arise in response to present conditions, like contact with objects and the resulting feelings and perceptions, they are also deeply shaped by the accumulated momentum of past desires and intentions.

These past volitions leave behind karmic imprints, latent tendencies that predispose the mind toward certain reactions and behaviors. These tendencies don’t just sit passively in the background. They influence how we perceive the present moment, and how we respond to it.

For example, someone with a strong habitual tendency toward anger might encounter a frustrating situation. The perception of that situation feels unpleasant. That feeling then gives rise to irritation. Irritation quickly conditions a new angry intention. And that intention not only leads to immediate words or actions—it also strengthens the underlying habit of anger.

This is how, over time, repeated intentions solidify into habitual mental patterns. These patterns, in turn, influence how we respond to new experiences, continuing and reinforcing the cycle of suffering.

While we do have free will to make choices, those choices are not made in a vacuum. They’re shaped, sometimes heavily, by past causes and conditions. In particular, by our previous desires and intentions, now showing up as craving in the present.

So instead of seeing all possible options, we often only see those filtered through greed, aversion, or delusion. And this keeps the wheel of dissatisfaction turning.

The problem is, we assume our intentions are completely our own. We think our choices are entirely under our control. But we fail to see that many of these choices are already conditioned, driven by deep-seated, habitual mental tendencies formed long ago.

Mental Formations interact closely with the other aggregates:

• Form: Intentions influence and are influenced by physical actions.

• Feelings: Feelings condition responses to experiences.

• Perceptions: Perceptions guide the intentions formed by mental formations.

• Consciousness: Mental formations shape the continuity of consciousness and are shaped by it in return.

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 Five Aggregates: Consciousness

The Consciousness Aggregate refers to the mental process of awareness, of knowing. It plays a central role in generating the illusion of a separate self, one that experiences, interacts with, and stands apart from the external world.

But it’s important to understand: consciousness is not a continuous, ever-present stream. It doesn’t run in the background like a single unbroken light.

Instead, consciousness arises moment by moment, like flashes of lightning, each time there is contact between a sense base and a sense object. When the eye meets a visible form, eye-consciousness arises. When the ear meets a sound, ear-consciousness arises. And so on, through all six sense doors, including the mind.

These flashes happen with incredible speed, so fast that they give the appearance of continuity. But in truth, each moment of consciousness arises, ceases, and gives way to the next, conditioned by what came before.

This is why consciousness cannot be found as a fixed entity or an enduring “self.” It is a process, an event, dependent on causes and conditions.

And yet, because we do not see this clearly, we build a sense of identity around it. We think: “I see.” “I hear.” “I think.” But there is no fixed “I” behind these processes, just fleeting consciousness tied to contact, shaped by karma, and empty of any inherent self.

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’s also important to note that no two types of consciousness can arise at the same time. For example, eye-consciousness arises only when there is contact between the eye and a visible form. Ear-consciousness, on the other hand, arises when the ear contacts sound. These are distinct events. They do not overlap or happen simultaneously.

Rather, they arise and cease in rapid succession, one after another, like individual sparks lighting up and fading out. The mind quickly shifts attention from one sense door to another, creating the illusion of a continuous stream of awareness.

But in reality, each type of consciousness is conditioned, dependent, and momentary, arising only when the right contact occurs, and ceasing just as quickly when that contact ends.

Understanding this reveals something profound: that our sense of a continuous, stable “self” is constructed from these ever-changing flashes of consciousness. There is no observer behind the process, just the process itself, arising and passing away.

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 Tathagata 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

It’s important to keep in mind that the Five Aggregates are not limited to what we’re consciously aware of in the present moment. They also include past karma, stored as feelings, perceptions, and intentions accumulated from both this life and previous lives.

These accumulated influences shape how we experience the present. They form the underlying tendencies that condition our responses, our habits, and our sense of self.

We will now turn our attention to these Five Aggregates and explore why clinging to them—mistaking them as “me” or “mine”—is the very cause of suffering.

The Five Aggregates: Should Not Be Mistaken As "Self"

Most people take it for granted that there is a "self", a core identity, that experiences what is happening. And they believe it is this self that manages those experiences by interacting with the outside world.

But clinging to the Five Aggregates is just that: a mistaken view. It’s the assumption that the body, feelings, perceptions, intentions, and thoughts, these aggregates, make up who we are. That they form a self, or an essence. And that this self is the one interacting with the world.

People mistake what is felt and perceived through the Five Aggregates as themselves interacting with something outside. But in truth, all experiences are created in the mind, and they only exist in the mind.

Because this isn’t seen clearly, people chase after happiness, believing it resides in objects or experiences out there in the world. Not realizing that happiness and unhappiness, along with all judgments, arise within the mind. They’re shaped by causes and conditions, not by an underlying self, or by the objects or experiences themselves.

When we begin to contemplate the nature of self, it becomes clear: what we’ve assumed to be part of the outside world are actually creations of our own minds. They are the results of past volitional memories, desires, intentions, and present cognition. In short, they are the Five Aggregates themselves, which we’ve mistaken for a self experiencing reality.

Through deep contemplation, we can begin to see that this sense of self, as a separate person interacting with the world. is an illusion, caused by clinging to these ingrained mental formations and memories created by the aggregates.

With deeper understanding, it becomes clear that everything created in the mind is the result of mental energy, or karma. And this mental energy, because it can manifest in limitless ways and is not bound by physical laws, is constantly changing. It is insubstantial. It is undependable.

Stress and dissatisfaction arise when we cling to our feelings, perceptions, desires, intentions, and thoughts, believing them to be substantial and dependable. In other words, we suffer when we mistake what arises in the mind for external reality or physical truth.

This marks the beginning of the chain of suffering.

Because of ignorance, ignorance of suffering and its causes, the mind continues to cling to volitional mental formations. And through consciousness, it recreates the physical aspects of existence: nāma-rūpa, name and form, along with the six sense bases, and the feelings and perceptions that follow. These, in turn, give rise to the constant craving for existence.

The Five Aggregates: Fabrication Of Reality

To understand that experience is fabricated, 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 entering our eyes or sound waves reaching our ears. This three-dimensional world, where we perceive ourselves as distinct from everything else, is constructed in consciousness.

It is a reconstruction, shaped to serve survival: to help us interact with the environment and to make potential objects of desire stand out from everything else around us.

Over time, all beings have adapted to fulfill the desire to survive, shaping how they feed, how they reproduce, what they like, what they dislike, and how they behave. This survival-driven adaptation requires the mind to ignore most of the vast sensory information available in the environment, and to enhance only what is most important, especially for feeding and reproduction.

For this purpose, the mind makes certain forms appear attractive and certain feelings pleasant, such as sexual pleasure to ensure reproduction, pleasant tastes for safe and nourishing foods, and aversion toward things that signal danger. These feelings and perceptions highlight what is important for survival, making such objects stand out against the background of the world.

The crucial point to understand is this: feelings and perceptions are not fixed. They change according to causes and conditions. When desires change, feelings and perceptions change along with them.

At first glance, our likes and dislikes, our intentions and behaviors, may seem normal, even necessary, for survival. But for one seeking liberation, these same desires, preferences, and ingrained patterns are precisely what bind us to the cycle of stress and suffering.

The problem is that these likes and dislikes, and the desires that follow, are shaped by greed and aversion, the natural competition for resources among beings. This includes competition for food, territory, control over others, and sexual partners.

In the human realm, the pressure from parents, friends, society, culture, institutions, advertising, and social media has magnified greed to levels unimaginable in earlier times. We have come to hold an unquestioned belief that happiness lies in indulging in food, sex, wealth, power, popularity, beauty, or any number of endless pursuits that feed sensual and mental cravings. Yet all these mind-created indulgences only add to our stress and place more obstacles in the way of happiness and liberation.

We can also observe that the world is filled with conflicting views, opinions, and lifestyles. This is not because each person possesses some unique, inherent essence. Rather, it is because the Five Aggregates in each of us have been shaped by a unique combination of causes and conditions.

But because we cling to the Five Aggregates, because we take them for granted as “me” or “myself”, we create the false perception of an underlying essence or self. We fail to see that both the Five Aggregates and the perception of self are nothing more than the accumulated result of past causes and conditions, stored as karmic energy.

The Five Aggregates: Language And The Mind Created World

Language, the tool that allows humans to communicate and interact using words, is an abstract representation of a mind-created reality. While language has made humans highly successful and efficient at exploiting their environment, it has also created a layer of abstraction in which people interact within a mind-made world, often detached from nature and natural forces.

Language reinforces the subject–object relationship. It strengthens the illusion that there are objects to be desired and a self who desires them—that there is a doer and things to be done, a thinker and thoughts to be thought.

Instead of seeing that all things are the result of natural causes and conditions, ever-changing and without permanence, people take things personally. They cling to words, static representations of what is fluid, and because of this clinging, words have the power to completely shape a person’s moods, thoughts, and actions, even though they are not based on any underlying reality.

We live in a mind-created world, driven by desire, detached from natural reality without realizing it. We believe that what we perceive through the Five Aggregates is true reality, unaware that any happiness or unhappiness we experience is created by the mind, a product of the Five Aggregates.

As a result, we continue to chase after desires to obtain pleasure and avoid displeasure, not realizing that becoming lost in the good or bad of the world is itself 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 have not seen the true nature of sense desires. They fail to recognize that such desires are ultimately unsatisfying, unsubstantial, ever-changing, unreliable, and can only result in stress and dissatisfaction.

Instead, people place their trust in what they experience through the Five Aggregates, believing these experiences to be substantial, real, and dependable, something they can grasp and cling to for happiness. They do not see that the pleasurable things of the world are created in the mind itself and have no independent existence in physical reality.

They mistakenly believe there must be a way to get what one desires, to obtain happiness from the world by securing and controlling things. They have not realized that what they desire, what they consider happiness, the very things they try to bring under control, and even the sense of self itself, are all creations of the mind. They do not exist outside the mind.

When we cling to the body, our feelings, perceptions, intentions, and thoughts, this creates the illusion of continuity and the belief in a “self” as an enduring entity with a unique essence. As a result, we unquestioningly believe our feelings, perceptions, and thoughts are real, that they belong to us, and that they can be relied upon to see the truth and bring happiness. Because of this, we become entangled, lost in the pursuit of desires, believing we can control the world, all the while ignoring the stress, unhappiness, and dissatisfaction this very clinging creates.

For example, a person blinded by the thought that money will bring happiness may chase after wealth, not to put it to practical use, but simply to amass as much as possible. In their mind, money becomes synonymous with happiness. In the process, they become blind to the stress and suffering they create for themselves, blaming problems on external circumstances or other people. Never satisfied, they continue chasing the delusion created by clinging to mind-made perceptions, feelings, intentions, and thoughts, in short, clinging to the Five Aggregates, while ignoring the unhappiness that desire inevitably brings.

In the same way, we no longer seek food simply to nourish the body; we chase after tastes themselves. Blinded by greed, we seek the idea of sex for its own sake. Greed clouds our vision so that we do not see people as they truly are, but only as they appear: “rich,” “poor,” “powerful,” “successful,” “beautiful,” “ugly.” We chase these mind-made attributes, none of which exist in nature, and as a result, we suffer. This too is clinging to the Five Aggregates.

A liberated person, by contrast, understands that nothing in this world is intrinsically beautiful or ugly, tasty or distasteful, and that all such judgments are products of ingrained memories, volitional formations, and desires created by the Five Aggregates. Taken by themselves, they are empty of substance.

Such a person may still enjoy food, fragrances, and other experiences, but sees through the distortions and enhancements of perception and thought as fabrications. Their mind does not grasp at or react to other people’s words, actions, or any part of existence based on these illusions. Instead, they see the underlying reality: the Five Aggregates are unreliable, fabricated, and not-self, and perceptions and thoughts are harmless when understood in this light.

Just as we cling to what we find desirable, we also cling to what we find unpleasant. Instead of seeing the underlying reality of experiences, we fixate on their perceived unpleasant features. We might, for example, reject healthy food simply because it lacks the taste we desire, ignoring the long-term harm caused by unhealthy eating.

When unpleasant sensations arise, we cling to their unpleasantness rather than seeing the truth of impermanence and not-self. This clinging only increases our stress, discomfort, and suffering.

The desire for things to be one way or another fuels unhappiness. Whenever people encounter unpleasant experiences, they try to escape by seeking out pleasant ones: food, entertainment, alcohol, drugs, sex, daydreams, and more.

But due to ignorance, they believe these pleasant experiences contain some inherent desirable quality. In truth, that desirability is a product of the mind. Such pleasures feel pleasant only because they temporarily relieve the underlying stress created by trying to satisfy desire.

And so the cycle continues: endlessly chasing desires, grasping for moments of pleasure, yet ending in dissatisfaction. This is clinging to the Five Aggregates.

Delusion persists because, even though life constantly shows us that our likes and dislikes, our views, thoughts, and actions cannot fully satisfy us or align with the truth of the physical world, we ignore this truth. Instead, we strengthen the sense of self, blindly pursuing satisfaction while overlooking the stress, unhappiness, and suffering created by that very pursuit.

Craving: Attachment To Desires

It is important to understand that the objects of the world are not the problem. Pleasure does not inherently exist in what we see, hear, or touch, it lies in how the mind reacts to these experiences.

The real challenge is the intention behind our desires: the craving to have more, to repeat a good experience, or the urge to claim something as “mine.”

When we become attached to experiences, they begin to control us. Enjoyment shifts from something we experience freely to something we cling to. This is why the desire for sensory pleasure is not about the objects themselves, but about the way we latch onto them.

The Tathāgata did not reject pleasure but cautioned against becoming entangled in it. If we misunderstand this, we might assume self-denial is the solution, but that is not the answer. The true challenge is the mind’s tendency to become obsessed, attached, and lost in craving.

We can still enjoy life wisely, appreciating good moments as long as they remain free from intoxication, identification, and craving. Of course, this is easier said than done, which is why we must examine our experiences closely to see whether craving is present.

Craving for sensual pleasure is not about sensory contact itself; it is about our mental reaction: lust, craving, attachment, delight, and obsession, toward experiences that please the senses. It manifests as:

• The desire to repeat or prolong an experience
• Identification with pleasure (“this is my enjoyment”)
• Mental delight
• Addiction-like attachment

Contemplating Sensual Pleasures

Sensual pleasures have been described by me as having little delight, much suffering, much despair, and the danger in them is even greater.

Sensual pleasures have been compared by me to a skeleton... Sensual pleasures have been compared by me to a piece of meat... Sensual pleasures have been compared by me to a torch of grass... Sensual pleasures have been compared by me to a pit of burning coals... Sensual pleasures have been compared by me to a dream...

I have described desires as like a borrowed well... I have described desires as like tree fruits... I have described desires as like a sword's edge... I have described desires as like a spear's point... I have described desires as like a snake's head, full of suffering and trouble, with more danger therein. - MN22

Sensual Pleasures

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Karma: Is Past Craving And Intentions

Ānanda, karma is the field, consciousness the seed, and craving the moisture

AN3.76

It’s important to understand that stress and dissatisfaction, though felt in the present, are actually the results of past causes, past conditions, desires, and intentions. In simple terms, the circumstances of this life, and even past lives, have shaped the likes and dislikes we now have, our views, our thoughts, and our intentions. All of these, in turn, shape our present experience.

These past conditions continue to influence us because they carry volition and momentum. That momentum is born of lifetimes of unfulfilled desires and intentions. This is what we call saṃsāra, a river of will and striving, a burning energy that flows on, seeking to fulfill what was left undone.

Because of our ignorance, we mistake mind-made objects of desire for something real and substantial. But when we pursue them, the results are always unpredictable, unsubstantial, and ultimately unsatisfying.

This gives rise to a feeling of helplessness, a struggle to find lasting satisfaction, to control our experience. This is saṃsāra: at times we feel submerged and overwhelmed, at times content and peaceful, but most often, we’re struggling to grasp onto something solid, trying to resist the constant change. We cling, we grasp, and we live in fear of being pulled under or swept away into suffering.

Karma and saṃsāra can be understood like seeds or intentions rooted in desire. When the right conditions appear, those seeds sprout. They ripen into stress and suffering, if craving and clinging are present. For example, if we've formed a liking for certain foods, or a dislike for particular behaviors, encountering them, through the senses or even through memory, triggers habitual reactions.

These reactions may show up as clearly unwholesome thoughts, speech, or actions. For more experienced practitioners, they may appear as more subtle forms of clinging, aversion, or delusion.

Even though past karma might spark an unwholesome habitual reaction, our response in the present is what determines whether that karma continues, whether it creates further unwholesome thoughts, words, or actions.

In other words, when we first begin to practice, we can't prevent past karma from ripening. It will bring some suffering when there’s contact through the six senses. But what we can do is stop creating new karma, by changing how we respond to that contact.

For example, instead of clinging to the Five Aggregates, we can allow any feelings, perceptions, intentions, or thoughts that arise from habitual patterns to simply pass away. We do this by not attaching to them, not reacting to them, not feeding them with new fuel. In this way, we stop creating new karma.

Beings are owners of their actions, heirs of their actions, they originate from their actions, are bound to their actions, have their actions as their refuge. Actions distinguish beings as inferior and superior.

MN135

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, a burning energy, 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.

AN6.63

To truly understand stress and suffering, and to fully embrace the Eightfold Path, it’s essential to see how desire gives rise to intention. These intentions are karma; they are the volitional energies that drive us.

Intentions shape our views, our thoughts, and our habits. And over time, they lead directly to the stress and dissatisfaction we experience in the present.

By understanding this process clearly, we begin to see why the Eightfold Path is the only way forward. It offers the means to cultivate new causes and conditions, ones that lead not to further stress, but to its cessation.

Desire: Why It Causes Stress And Dissatisfaction

To better understand volition, stress, and suffering, consider the following diagram:

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Due to restlessness from unfulfilled past desires, the mind is always seeking something to grasp, something to relieve this agitation. Based on karma, which is volition or mental energy rooted in past desires, something in our environment or memories will trigger an existing or new desire.

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

2. Since the tension is felt as unpleasant, the person is compelled to alleviate it by trying to satisfy the craving.

3. Obtaining the desired object and gratifying the craving 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 source of happiness.

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

6. Therefore, the relaxation of tension and resulting pleasure from chasing desires can never be anything more than temporary and incomplete.

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

If we look carefully at this process, every time someone earns money, obtains a new possession, is seen as beautiful, gains recognition, eats delicious food, wins a competition, or goes on vacation, the stress from desires, cravings, expectations, and effort is temporarily relieved. This temporary relief is then mistaken as happiness obtained from that experience.

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

In reality, rather than recognizing that the letting go of desire and expectation, and the relaxation of pressure from craving, brought them satisfaction, people mistakenly believe the objects of desire themselves brought them happiness. In truth, desire is the cause of stress and dissatisfaction.

Since happiness does not come from craving or desire, which in fact causes pain, but from its ceasing, one should understand that the renunciation of craving and sense desires, far from causing misery, opens the only path to true and lasting happiness.

The Five Aggregates: Undependable, 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 fundamental assumption that what we perceive through the Five Aggregates is reliable, substantial, controllable, and represents true reality or the physical world. We mistakenly equate the Five Aggregates and our sense of self with reality itself.

Instead of recognizing the unsubstantial, constantly changing, and not-self nature of experience, we fail to see that all perceptions arising in the mind, including the dualities of the world such as good or bad, beautiful or ugly, fast or slow, are judgments based on clinging to biases, obsessions, and the Five Aggregates. This clinging reinforces a fabricated sense of self that attempts to control these ever-changing dualities, which are then perceived as external events in the "outside world" rather than as products of the mind.

For example, once one attaches to and personally identifies with the perception of something as "good," it is inevitable that, given changing causes and conditions, this "good" attribute will eventually shift to "bad," often oscillating back and forth depending on circumstances.

The truth, therefore, lies not in believing or disbelieving these labels of good or bad, but in 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, pass away, and cease naturally without inducing stress or discomfort, the mind clings to them, whether they exist or not. As a result, a sense of self is fabricated.

Stress arises from being aware of the arising of sensations and thoughts while clinging to them, and at the same time disregarding or ignoring their passing away, cessation, and emptiness. In other words, clinging to thoughts and perceptions leads to the continuation of unwholesome, delusional states of mind, instead of seeing them as naturally passing away and ceasing on their own.

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

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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 critical aspect of clinging is the cumulative nature of our attachment to ingrained memories and the volitional formations generated by the Five Aggregates. These Five Aggregates of clinging are like burning fires: the more desire and craving we feed into them, the stronger they blaze. As the Tathagata describes:

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

Each instance of desire and clinging is like adding fuel to a fire. Over time, these accumulated fires lead to heightened stress and various bodily and mental symptoms, which can manifest as physical tension, ailments, or other issues with no apparent cause.

In simple terms, every time desire, greed, aversion, and clinging arise, our overall stress level increases. When these “fires” become too intense or overwhelming, we “blow up,” releasing stress through anger, depression, indulgence in unwholesome foods or actions, or by storing it as tension in the body, often in some combination of these.

As a result, people develop unwholesome behaviors and bad habits as coping mechanisms to manage and release underlying stress and discomfort.

It is well recognized that stress is a primary cause of a wide range of mental and physical health problems. Therefore, clinging to the body, feelings, perceptions, intentions, and thoughts, the Five Aggregates, has profound and far-reaching consequences for long-term mental and physical well-being.

Close your eyes and experience the burning

Disciples, everything is burning. And what is everything that is burning? The eye is burning, forms are burning, eye-consciousness is burning, eye-contact is burning, and whatever feeling arises with eye-contact as condition: whether pleasant, painful, or neither-painful-nor-pleasant: that too is burning.

Burning with what? Burning with the fire of lust, with the fire of hatred, with the fire of delusion. Burning with birth, aging, and death, with sorrows, with lamentations, with pains, with distresses, with despairs, I say. - SN35.28

Suffering: In Future Lifetimes

So far, we have only addressed stress and suffering within this present lifetime. However, the cycle of rebirth is inherently unpredictable and often leads to existences in unfavorable realms. If one could truly witness the suffering endured by beings in this and countless past lifetimes, it would become clear that even human rebirth is not exempt from profound suffering.

To fully understand the nature of suffering, we must also take into account the suffering that lies ahead in countless future lives. Only by broadening our perspective in this way can we begin to grasp the full scope 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 now 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, and craving for non-existence.

Third Noble Truth: And what is the noble truth of the cessation of suffering? It is the remainderless fading away and cessation of that same craving—the giving up and relinquishing of it, freedom from it, and 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, and right concentration.

The Four Noble Truths held by the Noble Ones are not static doctrines; they are practical truths that guide the ongoing cultivation of the Eightfold Path. In practice, this means continually discerning more and more subtle forms of stress and suffering, identifying their causes, and realizing their cessation through the path’s application.

Contemplation: Clinging To The Five Aggregates

The Tathagata teaches that there are four ways people cling to the Five Aggregates, believing them to be the self.

First, there is clinging to the feelings and perceptions about the objects of the world, creating an identity around what is liked and what is disliked.

Second, as a result of this clinging, views arise about what is good and what is bad in the world. These views become entrenched, reinforcing the belief in a self, shaping ideas about how the world should and should not be, and how one ought to live.

Third, based on these views, habitual thoughts and routines take shape. They lead to further clinging, strengthening the sense of a self that is constantly seeking happiness and avoiding unhappiness in this world.

Fourth, the more likes and dislikes become ingrained as views, and the more these views are reinforced through habitual thoughts and actions, the deeper the clinging to the Five Aggregates becomes. One ignorantly believes that the body, feelings, perceptions, thoughts, and views are entirely real, substantial, the self, and that they can be relied upon to avoid distress and secure happiness.

In other words, we identify with, take personally, and cling to what is experienced through the Five Aggregates, suffering because we ignore the truth: that what is experienced here is not absolute reality, but is conditioned by past causes, present conditions, and the distortions and imperfections of the world.

Contemplation: Clinging To Sensual Pleasures

All of us develop desires and preferences, our own ways of finding pleasure and happiness in the world. We believe this makes us individuals, separate from others. But when enjoying a favorite pleasure, pause and contemplate:

• Is the enjoyment truly coming from the object or action itself? Or is it arising from the thoughts, feelings, and perceptions we hold about it?

• When eating a delicious meal, is the deliciousness in the food itself, or in our perceptions, feelings, expectations, and the stimulation of the taste buds?

• Are the qualities we call beautiful, ugly, pleasurable, or distasteful really inherent in the object or action? Does everyone agree on what is beautiful or pleasurable?

• Throughout the day, try recollecting your feelings and perceptions. Notice your likes and dislikes. Notice how perceptions are enhanced, diminished, or altered. Are they substantial? Reliable? Unchanging? Or do they shift and transform?

• Look closely: are your feelings, perceptions, and thoughts touched by greed or aversion? This is why it is called clinging.

• Ask yourself: are you clinging to the object itself, or to the image and perception you have created about it in your own mind?

• When you crave sensual pleasures, notice how you create in your imagination a little world: one where you are enjoying the pleasure, feeling happy or satisfied. Once this craving is made personal, expectations appear: “I like this. I want this.” This is craving.

• See how craving carries the seeds of stress and dissatisfaction—whether from not being able to obtain the pleasure, from it not matching what was imagined, or from it disappearing altogether.

• Also, notice how when desire captures the mind, anything irrelevant to it fades from awareness until the desire is fulfilled. The Tathagata calls this “birth”, taking on an identity in an imagined world.

• Contemplate what it feels like to live in that imagined world, chasing desires. Is the mind clear, or is it clouded with passion and longing? This is delusion.

• Reflect on how greed or aversion toward sensual objects develops. Why do you like or dislike something? Is there truly something inherently bad or good in it? Or is that perception the result of clinging—and of building an identity filled with expectations?

Contemplation: Clinging To The Views We Hold About The World

As we develop likes and dislikes toward things in the world, these preferences often link together to form views about life. Over time, these views strengthen our attachment to the perception of a self.

It is common to hold strong opinions, about how to live, about politics, about almost every subject related to existence. We often believe these views define us, make us unique, and even determine our success in life. But consider this:

• Is it truly possible to have “our own views”? Or were these views shaped by conditions and circumstances: by family, society, religion, language, peer influence, institutions, social media, advertising, and the events of our life?

• What strong views do you hold about yourself? How did they come about? Are they really “you”? Did you accept them automatically, without deeply examining all possibilities and alternatives?

• Many of us accept certain views without much thought. Some become so entrenched that we no longer see them as views at all, we take them as “truth.” These may be the hardest to question.

• Reflect: what are views? How do they arise? And how does clinging to them create stress or suffering?

• When faced with a problem in life, notice whether you have built a self-identity and a set of views around it. How does this cause stress or suffering when reality refuses to match your expectations?

• Think about how a wrong view formed in youth can give rise to repeated unhappiness, stress, or suffering over the years.

• When examining your views, ask yourself which will lead to long-term well-being, and which will lead to long-term stress and unhappiness.

• Are you blaming others when something goes wrong, instead of turning the lens inward to examine your own perspective? If you attribute blame to others or the world, are you actually causing harm to yourself—perhaps through anger or resentment?

• Do you really need to hold on to a certain view? If you do, what is the benefit? Or will it limit your freedom and cause unhappiness?

• Finally, consider that when you form views about entire categories—about people, politics, foods, behaviors—you are no longer seeing reality directly. You are only seeing the fabricated traits your mind has assigned.

Contemplation: Clinging To Habits And Routines

As strong views develop, they often take shape in our thoughts, habits, and routines, things we do automatically, often without much attention. We believe these patterns make us unique, defining how we think and act in our search for happiness. Eating, working, socializing, exercising, and pursuing hobbies all become part of this identity. Yet these habits and routines can further strengthen our clinging to the perception of a self.

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

• What am I expecting from repeatedly thinking about something or performing the same routine over and over? Are my thoughts and actions simply mindless repetitions, causing stress without bringing any lasting satisfaction?

• Reflect on your sense of self, the “me” who needs to get what I want, who must overcome obstacles. Notice how this sense of self shapes your actions and strengthens clinging.

• Throughout the day, try to catch yourself in blind thought or automatic action. Ask: why am I thinking this, or why am I doing this?

• Consider whether some of your thoughts, habits, or routines are merely ways of avoiding unpleasant circumstances or feelings.

• Finally, ask yourself: when things go wrong, do I blame others instead of examining my own thoughts and actions? Could this be a sign of 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. We are deeply attached to our bodies, our feelings and perceptions, our thoughts, views, and consciousness. We take them to be part of us, who we are, what we see as our self.

Discerning clinging to the Five Aggregates will be explored later in the gradual training.

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.

Sutta Study