The teachings of Ajahn Suchart.
13 June 2023
Question: One of my teachers talks about staying with the 5 khandhas, how do we practice it?
Than Ajahn: You’re already with the 5 khandhas. The mind comes and attaches itself to the 5 khandhas which are the body, feeling, memory/perception, thought/volition and awareness/consciousness. These 5 khandhas are already there. What your teacher means is probably to study the 5 khandhas and to know them for what they are. Right now, you take them to be yourselves. The mind takes the body (the khandha) to be itself but in fact, the khandhas are not the mind: the body is made up of the 4 elements; the feeling, perception, thought and awareness arise within the mind itself—they rise and cease; they come and go.
So, you have to know that they are not under your control. If you want to control them, it will cause you unhappiness or sadness because you cannot do it.
Like the body, you can only control it to a certain extent like give it food and look after it, but you can’t stop it from getting old, getting sick or dying. If you know this truth, you will then stop trying to control it. You accept it. If you accept the truth of the body, you will not be hurt when the adversity happens. It hurts you because you don’t want it to happen and this desire is the cause of your stress or your sadness. If you see the truth, you can suppress or eliminate your desire to control the body.
It’s the same way with feelings. Feelings come and go. There are 3 kinds of feelings: good feeling, bad feeling and neutral feeling. They come from the body. They have the body as the basis of their arising—sometimes the body feels good, sometimes the body feels bad. It depends on the condition that the body is being exposed to; sometimes you can manage it; sometimes you cannot manage it. When you cannot manage it, the best way the mind can do is to accept it, just leave it alone—don’t try to manage it or try to get rid of it because when you try it, it will cause stress in your mind. So, this is basically what you’re supposed to know or contemplate on: to know that the 5 khandhas are not you; they are aniccaṁ, dukkhaṁ, anattā. They are aniccaṁ—they keep changing; they rise and cease; they come and go.
They are anattā—they are not under your control; if you want to control them, you’ll get dukkha because sometimes you cannot control them.
So, this is how you should deal with the 5 khandhas.
“Dhamma in English, Nov 26, 2018.”
By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
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