ME26

Buddhist Psychotherapy

ME26   24-02-2011      (5:00 to 6:00)

(Class Notes Only)

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The Buddhist conception of the individual, the person, is a quite definite theory, expressed in different ways but all of them essentially the same. The individual consists of náma and rúpa, ‘name’ and ‘form,’ mind and matter, or mind and body. More usually, he is said to consist of five skhandhas (masses, aggregates). There are more famous stanzas about impermanent, the nature of these five aggregates are well described in a stanzas of Khandha Samyutta of Samyutta Nikaya, sutta pitaka with beautiful similes, i.e. “Phenapidupamam rūpam- Vedanā bubbulūpam Marlci kūpamā saññā – Saṅkārā kadalūpamā Māyupamañca viññānam- Desitā dicca-bandhunā” Like a lump of from is matter; like a bubble is sensation; like a mirage is perception; like a plantain tree are the mental factors (preparations to a banana trunk). Like an illusion is consciousness-thus the scion of the sun (Adiccas), has taught.

The five aggregates or the skandhas, by which the Buddha has summed up all the physical and mental phenomena of existence, appears to the ordinary worldly being, i.e. puthujjana, to be his Ego or personality. Those five aggregates are:
     1. Rūpa (physical phenomenon or form) ‘Ruppatīti rūpan’
     2. Vedanā (feeling,sensations) ‘Vediyatīti vedanā’
     3. Sañña (perception) ‘Sañjānātīti saññā’
     4. Saṅkhāra (mental states) ‘Sañkhāroutīti sañkhārā’
     5. Viññāna (consciousness) ‘Vijānatīti veññanā’
These five aggregates is a being. There wouldn’t be a being without these five “when all constituent parts are there”. The designation ‘cart’ is used. Just so, where the five aggregates
exist of “living being” we do speak. The five aggregates are divided into two, as mind and corporeality (nāma-rūpa). Of these the first one, the corporeality belongs to physical phenomena while the other four belong to mental phenomena. As these aggregates cling to samsara firmly, the word ‘upadana’ is added, and used thus:
     1. Rūpupadanakkhandha
     2. Vedanupadanakkhandha
     3. Sannu padanakkhandha
     4. Samkharupadanakkhandha
     5. Vinnanupadanankkhandha
Skhandha means mass and by which term is understood the mass of five aggregates which arose in the past and those which will arise in the future. Thus they are called Rūpakkhandhā, mass of corporeality, Vedanakkhandhā mass of sensations and so on. May all
beings be well and happy.

The Brahminical idea of ‘self’ or ‘soul’ was rejected by the Buddha. This aspect of his teachings is too pronounced to be lasted. But even at a very early stage of Buddhism, there arose within the tradition much controversy over the idea of a ‘person’(pudgala).The Kathāvatthu supplies ample evidence of this fact. The ‘Bhāra’ dialogue of the Samyutta Nikāya, this sūtra is alternatively referred to as Bhārahāra sutta or Bhāra sutta. “Bhārā have pañcacakkandhā bhārahāro ca puggalo bhārādānam dukkaṃ loke bharanikkepanaṃ sukhaṃ. {p.26}” Where the burden (bhāra) is represented as the Buddha’s concession for some  persisting entity through the cycles of transmigration.

Of the early Buddhist school, the Vātsīputrīyas and the Sāmmitīyas maintained the notion of a persisting entity called ‘pudgala’. This pudgala comes very close to the doctrine of ‘soul’, which would naturally be regarded as a heresy in Buddhism. The Buddha accepted a highly complex notion of transmigration without a transmigrating soul, the Buddhist notion of transmigration.

The pudgala (person) of the Sāmmītiyas was no doubt posited as such a link. The Yogācāra’s concept of ālayavijñāna was another, and perhaps a more sophisticated, approach to explain away this link problem. There was also an important trend in Buddhism which recognized an absolute spiritual principle. This trend must have created an internal conflict in Buddhism because the no-soul doctrine, the pre-dominant trend in Buddhism, could not easily be reconciled to it.

In Mahayana, this principle is usually called the Tathagata-garbha. In Yogācāra system, this principle was attributed to ālayavijñāna. (Vijñāna in the five personality aggregates ‘pañca skandhāḥ’). The five personality aggregates ‘pañca skandhāḥ’ is usually substituted for ‘self’ or ‘person’ in Buddhist literature.

The ‘aggregate of matter’ refers to the visible forms of the material world, The‘aggregate of feeling’ stand for the experiences of pleasure, pain and neutral feelings. The ‘aggregate of knowing’ is to be explained as the awareness of the ‘specific’ characters of objects. The ‘aggregate of saṁkara’ includes all other mental acts (citta-dharma) as well as other acts and ‘force’ which are not attendant upon an act of consciousness (citta viprayuktadhama). These explanation is related to the Ᾱbhidharma.

by Ashin Indaka(Kyone Pyaw)