this is a summary of skandha formation from Pema Chodron at the Touching the Present workshop at the Omega Institute.
suffering may have its roots in the building up of skandhas or heaps or aggregates.
the best explanation of this is that objects have form. this is the first skandha. these are the elemental qualities such as sound, shape, size, color. they are a description of what is. they are perceived through our senses. they are qualities of objects as they are. the red color (of an apple), the mooing (of a cow), the sharpness (of thorns).
the second skandha is the sensation or feeling that is experienced of the first skandha. it is seeing the red color, it is hearing the mooing, it is feeling the thorn. associated may be an instinctive feeling of pleasant, unpleasant or neutral. the red may be pleasant, the mooing may be neutral, the thorn’s sharpness may be unpleasant. there is no judgment, just a pure experience or feeling of the stimuli.
the third skandha is the perception. it is the level at which we recognize or label. that’s a red “apple,” that’s a “cow mooing,” that’s a thorn. we put a name or a concept to the initial form.
the fourth skandha is mental formation. these are feelings and emotions that are attached to the label. pre-learned ideas or predisposed propensities. such as i like apples, i don’t like thorns, i’m neutral to cows. the concept solidifies and there is an emotion or thought attached to the label. it is an escalation to thoughts such as red apples are disgusting, or it is a bad omen if a cow moos, or thorns are poisonous and what if it will kill me.
the fifth skandha is consciousness. it is the coming together of all the skandhas and is the totality of experience. it is a heavy building up that the skandhas are built on each other. it may be said that it is empty of the concept.
Ani Pema used the example of hearing a thud in her mountain retreat in Colorado. she said she heard the sound, it was unpleasant, she thought it was a bear, she became anxious that it may be dangerous, and the consciousness of all this was full on panic. she said the next day she found out it was just a tree branch hitting the house.
this building up of skandha happens so fast that we don’t realize it is an interactive process. it is a process we are contributing to and impacting. the concept or consciousness we build up may be empty of truth or substance. Ani Pema described meditation as an antidote to this, or a reverse skandha:
At first we have the full on consciousness- OMG I’m panicked
then there is an acknowledgement of- I’m scared there is a bear
then- i think that the sound is a bear
then- that sound is unpleasant to me
and finally- there is a sound
this process of building up story lines and becoming emotionally charged can be deconstructed in meditation, with a gentle attitude of curiosity. it is making a commitment to slow down the process of skandha formation, making a commitment to be curious instead of jumping to conclusions and narrowing down possibilities into familiar and habitual patterns. it is allowing experiences- like sounds, sights, tastes to unfold.
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