Indian Arts and Culture Buddhism Definition of the Buddhist Term: "Skandha" Share Flipboard Email Print Buddhism Origins and Developments Figures and Texts Becoming A Buddhist Tibetan and Vajrayana Buddhism By Barbara O'Brien Barbara O'Brien Zen Buddhism Expert B.J., Journalism, University of Missouri Barbara O'Brien is a Zen Buddhist practitioner who studied at Zen Mountain Monastery. She is the author of "Rethinking Religion" and has covered religion for The Guardian, Tricycle.org, and other outlets. Learn about our Editorial Process Updated on March 22, 2017 hThe Sanskrit word skandha means "heap" or "aggregate" in its literal translation. (In the Pali language, the comparable term is khandha.) In Buddhist theory, a human being is a combination of five aggregates of existence, called the Five Skandhas. These are: Form (sometimes known as "the aggregate of matter."Sensation and feelingPerceptionMental formationsConsciousness Various schools of Buddhism have slightly different interpretations of the skandhas, but the following list summarizes the basics. The First Skandha Generally, the first skandha is our physical form, the actual matter that makes up of literal bodies, which in the Buddhist system includes the four elements of solidity, fluidity, heat and motion. In essence, this is the aggregate that makes up what we think of as the physical body. The Second Skandha The second is made up of our emotional and physical feelings, emotion feelings that arise out of contact our sense organs have with the world. Those feelings/sensations are of three kinds: they can be pleasant and enjoyable, they can be unpleasant and abhorrent, or they can be neutral. The Third Skandha The third skandha, perception, takes in most of what we call thinking--conceptualization, cognition, reasoning. It includes the mental recognition or categorization that happens immediately after a sense organ comes in contact with an object. Perception can be thought of as "that which identifies." The object perceived may be a physical object or a mental one, such as an idea. The Fourth Skandha The fourth skandha, mental formations, includes habits, prejudices and predispositions. Our volition, or willfulness, also is part of the fourth skandha, as are attention, faith, conscientiousness, pride, desire, vindictiveness, and many other mental states, both virtuous and not virtuous. The laws of cause and effect, known as karma, are the domain of the fourth skandha. The Fifth Skandha The fifth skandha, consciousness, is awareness of or sensitivity to an object, but without conceptualization or judgment. However, it is a mistake to believe that the fifth skandha somehow exists independently or is somehow superior to the other skandhas. It is a "heap" or "aggregate" just as the others are, and is simply a fact, not a goal. What is the Meaning? When all the aggregates come together, the sensation of a self or "I" is created. What this means, exactly, varies somewhat depending on the different schools of Buddhism. In the Theravedan tradition, for example, it is thought that clinging to one or more skandhas is what leads to suffering. For example, living a life devoted to the willfulness of the fourth skandha would be seen as a recipe for suffering, as would a life devoted only to detached awareness. An end to suffering becomes a matter of relinquishing attachment to the skandhas. In the Mahayan tradition, practitioners are led to the understanding that all the skandhas are inherently empty and devoid of concrete reality, thereby liberating an individual from bondage to them. Cite this Article Format mla apa chicago Your Citation O'Brien, Barbara. "Definition of the Buddhist Term: "Skandha"." Learn Religions, Jan. 29, 2020, learnreligions.com/skandha-definition-449692. O'Brien, Barbara. (2020, January 29). Definition of the Buddhist Term: "Skandha". Retrieved from https://www.learnreligions.com/skandha-definition-449692 O'Brien, Barbara. "Definition of the Buddhist Term: "Skandha"." Learn Religions. https://www.learnreligions.com/skandha-definition-449692 (accessed June 10, 2023). copy citation