The Five Aggregates as an Integrated System

Introduction

In Buddhist thought, the Five Aggregates (pañcakkhandha) — form (rūpa), feeling (vedanā), perception (saññā), volitional formations (saṅkhāra), and consciousness (viññāṇa) — are the framework through which experience unfolds. They are not separate compartments of existence but mutually conditioning processes. To see them as an integrated system is crucial to understanding the Buddha’s teaching on anattā (non-self).

Scriptural Foundations

1. The Anatta-lakkhaṇa Sutta (SN 22.59)
In one of Buddha’s discourses, he explains that none of the aggregates can be taken as self, since each is impermanent, subject to suffering, and not under one’s control. The key here is that the Buddha does not treat them in isolation — he shows that all five, together, exhaust the domain of personal experience. The “self” is not found in any one aggregate or in their sum, but only in the mistaken view that these processes form a permanent essence.

2. The Dependent Nature of Consciousness (SN 12.2; SN 12.38–40)
The Saṃyutta Nikāya explains that consciousness arises in dependence on conditions: “Consciousness is reckoned by the particular condition dependent upon which it arises” (SN 22.79). For example, visual consciousness depends on the eye and forms…