Analysis of Skandhas

response to themodernmystic

Five skandhas:

1) form/matter: arises out of emptiness due to the most primordial kind of craving, that urge to be a "self" in opposition to "other".

2) feeling/sensation: aversion or attraction to particular encounters with "other".

3) perception: we begin to objectify the other by relating it to what we've experienced in the past, we then form an impulse to respond (usually habitual or instinctual).

4) conception: we intellectually name and categorize so as to step beyond the automatic reactions by speculating about what else is possible.

5) fully formed thoughts and emotions arise and we become lost in the dream-world of egoic existence.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skandha

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Tags:

• thinking
• Buddhism
• skandhas
• experience
• consciousness
• emptiness
• form

[2bsirius]

"Buddhist analysis" seems like an oxymoron...

What you've done here seems like a very Western take on Buddhism...

Owen Flannagan often points out how we in the West insist on doing this...It's not a criticism btw...just an observation.

[0ThouArtThat0]

I would readily admit to this.

[granvilleguy]

Matt... I enjoyed your video. Perhaps a more apt title could have been "Buddhist Analysis of Attachment and Suffering" rather than "experience". As you moved down the typology at the beginning of the video, you decided to "park" the 5th skanda (consciousness)... I am wondering if at some point you might try your hand at explaining this skanda vis-a-vis consciousness as you understand it i.e, informed by integrative theories, panexperientialism, etc

[0ThouArtThat0]

Yeah, glad you caught that. It's complex and was a bit tangental to what Nick was trying to get across, which is part of the reason I parked it. The other reason is that I want to get a better understanding of Yogacara before I try to compare it to anything else.

[TWITfromURANUS]

You're talking to someone (TMM) who thinks 'spiritual' is meaningless. (Is his online-moniker ironic then?)

This is because he has not realised something fundamental about language.

He has reached a door, & on that door it says 'THE ANSWER'.

He opens the door now & again, but quickly closes it because what he sees scares him.

So he settles for the words ON the door & twiddles his beard.

¿

Umpa, umpa...

[empty0grace]

hmmm...old conversation, but still may I add? Your understanding of the skhandas is very Mahayana, and more intellectually elaborate that what the Pali tradition will give us. I have found that these added layers of reflection do not bring any more immediacy to their transparency in the clear silent light of being. So why not go with the economy model? Sorry, my comment maybe completely inappropriate since I have not viewed the video to which this is a response. Thanks you for your work here!

[AlaskanSky]

Excellent video, by the way. Well articulated.

[AlaskanSky]

The remote control is empty of inherent existence. It's a collection of interdependent parts and nothing more. If the remote control was smashed into pieces, there would be no "remote control spirit" residing in the buttons or the battery or the infrared LED.

[vshov]

the skandha of perception is in control of thoughts, sights, sounds. it gives names to these. The 4th is called mental formations/volition. This skandha is our collected intentions over our various lives aswell as the ability to willfully make intentions. Since karma is basiclly our intentions it is this skandha that we use to change our karma by creating positive intentions.

[vshov]

you've got the 3rd and the 4th confused

[dropspin5678]

Then I ask you: what school of Buddhism? Zen? Hardly Buddhism, but a Japanized version that relies on less of the sutras and the oral lineage and more on a comatose, zoned out mindfulness on nothing at all. And another question: could you please describe the "western tradition" of analysis as you claim and how it differs from Buddhism...if your position is to have any credibility.

[2bsirius]

I don't come away from my study of Buddhism with the same conclusions. No, I don't think there is as much overlap with Western traditions of analytic thought as you insist on, but beyond that I have nothing more to add.

[dropspin5678]

Your understanding of "introspection" is simply taking a VERSION of meditation (Shar sGom, meaning "review meditation" and 'Juk sGom meaning "fixed meditation") as the object you are denying. dByed sGom, meaning analytic meditation is the version that contends your assertion. This type of analysis is nothing different than what you posit as "classical....in the West." Where is the difference then?

[MaBu888]

Whoa that was cool! . . . I wouldn't have said like this myself...

[dropspin5678]

BRAVO! AGREED!