The Five Skandhas

The Five Skandhas are foundational to the Teaching and the Practice. They can be confusing. Simply, they are what makes you and everyone else.

Together the Five Skandhas compose all universes, all beings that inhabit them, and all phenomena.

The Five Skandhas are the essence of our being, and whether we intellectually grasp the concept or not, we must free ourselves from our attachment to them in order to experience liberation.

The first Skandha is Form:

Form is the physical; everything that makes up the human body and the bodies of all living beings and all living things and the environment in which everything exists.

The second Skandha is Sensation:

Sensation is what occurs when we come into contact through any of our senses with the environment. The sensation can be pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral.

The third Skandha is Perception:

Perception is the awareness of that with which we have interacted. This awareness includes recognition, discrimination, and judgment.

The fourth Skandha is Volition:

Volition is the decision or intention to respond to the interaction, whether by thought, speech, or action.

The fifth Skandha is Consciousness:

Consciousness is our thought process, the combination of sensation, perception, and volition. Consciousness results when form, sensation, perception, and volition interact. We can say the Fifth Skandha is the recipient and creator of karma (action) and it is karma that continues from life to life. It is karma that is reborn, not personality. This rebirth is not the result of a moral judgment. The desire to “hold onto” or “push away” is reborn—just the desire, not the “holding” or the “pushing.”