Five Aggregates (pañcakkhandhā)
Indeterminate qualities / Five Aggregates
Part of key topic Dependent Origination
Subsumes: Five aggregates affected by clinging (pañcupādānakkhandhā, Five clinging-aggregates), Name and form (nāma-rūpa)
Also a subtag of Indeterminate qualities and Mindfulness of dhammas
Subtags: Form, Feeling, Perception, Volitional formations, Consciousness
43 excerpts, 3:18:10 total duration

All excerpts (43) Most relevant (18) Questions about (14) Answers involving (24) Quotes (2)

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“If the list of the five khandas is intended to be linear, why is sense-consciousness the final one?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Aggregates ] [Consciousness] [Feeling] [Perception]

Sutta: MN 43.9: “Conjoined not disjoined”

2015 Thanksgiving Monastic Retreat, Session 4, Excerpt 12


Metta Retreat, Session 4 – Sep. 12, 2008

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5. “If everything about me is impermanent, and even ‘myself’ is illusory, just the rising and falling of kamma, then who or what am I addressing when I wish myself well-being?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Aggregates] [Impermanence] [Not-self] [Kamma] [Goodwill] // [Conventions] [Craving not to become] [Right View] [Conditionality]


Abhayagiri Monastic Retreat 2013, Session 2 – Nov. 24, 2013

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13. “Thank you for your wonderful teaching. Q: How to identify and deal with ‘Panca upadana’ in daily life?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Clinging] [Aggregates]


Abhayagiri Monastic Retreat 2013, Session 8 – Nov. 30, 2013

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21. “Please explain the difference between aggregates and faculties.” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Aggregates] [Faculties]


Abhayagiri 2014 Winter Retreat, Session 19 – Feb. 1, 2014

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8. “Would it be possible to give a working definition of saṅkhāra? It seems that saṅkhāra is used by different people in different ways.” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Volitional formations] [Aggregates] // [Conditionality] [Form]

Reference: Abhayagiri Chanting Book, p. 23: “All conditions are impermanent.”


Abhayagiri 2014 Winter Retreat, Session 40 – Mar. 2, 2014

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4. “What is the distinction Chao Khun Upāli makes between lokuttara discernment and higher discernment?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Chao Khun Upāli] [Discernment] [Impermanence] [Aggregates] [Suffering] [Cause of Suffering] // [Commentaries] [Ajahn Chah] [Study monks]


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5. “What is the difference between abandoning craving and realizing the abandoning of craving?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Jotipālo. [Impermanence] [Aggregates] [Cause of Suffering] [Cessation of Suffering] // [Commentaries] [Doubt] [Relinquishment] [Concentration] [Gladdening the mind] [Desire] [Becoming] [Right View]

Sutta: SN 56.11 Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta. [Four Noble Truths]

Sutta: MN 121 Cūḷa Suññata Sutta: The Shorter Discourse on Emptiness [Emptiness]

Quote: “The characteristic of cessation is not just ending something and annihilating [it], but it’s being willing and able to stop. The nature of the mind is that it doesn’t like to stop. And it’s [through] that not stopping that we keep creating that sense of me.” — Ajahn Pasanno [Cessation] [Nature of mind] [Self-identity view]


Abhayagiri 2014 Winter Retreat, Session 57 – Mar. 27, 2014

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9. “When he [Ajahn Sim] talked about nama rupa, is that looking at the fundamental movement of the mind towards unwholesome dhammas?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Ajahn Sim] [Aggregates] [Unwholesome Roots] [Investigation of states] // [Restlessness and worry] [Self-identity view]


Thai Forest Tradition, Session 1 – Jun. 14, 2014

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10. Reading: “The Ballad of Liberation from the Khandas,” from A Heart Released by Ajahn Mun, p. 37 Read by Ajahn Pasanno. [Thai Forest Tradition] // [Ajahn Mun] [Culture/Thailand]

Quote: “The Dhamma stays as the Dhamma, the khandas stay as khandas. That’s all.” [Dhamma] [Aggregates]


2014 Thanksgiving Monastic Retreat, Session 6 – Nov. 27, 2014

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15. “Can you please explain whether there is a difference between ‘mind’ and ‘consciousness,’ because everything seems to be experienced in the mind; the body is experienced in the mind; feelings also seem to be experienced by the mind, as well as perceptions, sensations, etc. Thank you for your teaching and explanation.” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Heart/mind ] [Consciousness ] [Aggregates] [Nature of mind] // [Sutta] [Sense bases]


Abhayagiri 2015 Winter Retreat, Session 33 – Feb. 22, 2015

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2. Commentary on AN 9.36, “Jhāna.” Teaching by Ajahn Pasanno. [Jhāna] [Formless attainments] [Characteristics of existence] [Aggregates] [Liberation] [Deathless] [Progress of insight] [Relinquishment] [Nibbāna]


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5. “Related to the need to emerge from neither-perception-nor-non-perception and cessation of perception to contemplate the five khandhas [in AN 9.36], don’t some of the commentaries imply that that’s what you do with first jhāna; that insight is not possible even in first jhāna?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Formless attainments] [Aggregates] [Insight meditation] [Commentaries] [Jhāna] // [Views]

Recollection: Ajahn Chah emphasized that every step of the way there has to be awareness. Awareness has to form the basis of the whole practice. [Ajahn Chah] [Mindfulness] [Clear comprehension] [Right Concentration] [Right View]


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8. “Do you have to emerge from jhāna to contemplate the characteristics of the aggregates?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Karuṇadhammo. [Jhāna] [Insight meditation] [Aggregates] // [Mindfulness] [Thai Forest Tradition] [Knowing itself]

Sutta: AN 9.36: “Jhāna.”

Quote: “Contemplation gets really good when you stop thinking.” — Ajahn Chah [Ajahn Chah] [Directed thought and evaluation]


The Middle Way of Not-Self, Session 1 – May. 27, 2015

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2. “What are mental formations and consciousness?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Aggregates] [Volitional formations] [Consciousness] [Not-self] // [Sense bases] [Contact]

Sutta: MN 44: Cūḷavedalla Sutta


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8. Comments regarding the intellectual framework of the aggregates versus bringing it back to experience. [Aggregates] [Learning] [Direct experience] [Not-self]


2015 Thanksgiving Monastic Retreat, Session 3 – Nov. 23, 2015

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7. “Could you offer a bit of advice on how to deal with the apparent dichotomy between seeing people (including myself) as real & solid (for example when sending them metta), and the doctrine of no-self whereby there is no such imagined solidity at all – just an ever-changing combination of the khandas?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Not-self ] [Aggregates] // [Middle Path ] [Pāli] [Impermanence] [Proliferation] [Relinquishment] [Liberation]


2015 Thanksgiving Monastic Retreat, Session 4 – Nov. 24, 2015

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12. “If the list of the five khandas is intended to be linear, why is sense-consciousness the final one?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Aggregates ] [Consciousness] [Feeling] [Perception]

Sutta: MN 43.9: “Conjoined not disjoined”


Developing Skill in Reflective Meditation, Session 2 – Dec. 1, 2019

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6. Quote: “We have to get out of the habit of being theives.” — Ajahn Buddhadāsa. Quoted by Ajahn Pasanno. [Ajahn Buddhadāsa] [Relinquishment] [Stealing] [Recollection] // [Aggregates] [Clinging] [Naturalness]

Quote: “The peace of Nibbāna is note something that you gain, that you get, that you claim ownership over; it’s by relinquishing and releasing these bases of identity.” [Nibbāna] [Recollection/Peace] [Release] [Aggregates] [Self-identity view]


Madison Insight Retreat 2023, Session 1 – Oct. 13, 2023

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6. “Could you give a Dhamma talk about the Five Aggregates?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Aggregates] // [Cause of Suffering] [Form] [Feeling] [Perception] [Volitional formations] [Consciousness]

Simile: A dog tied to a post (SN 22.100). [Similes] [Aggregates] [Self-identity view]