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January 1, 2016; revised November 2, 2017, June 28, 2019

Rūpa and Rūpakkhandha are two different things. There are rūpa made up of “physical matter ” (suddhaṭṭhaka) in the rūpa loka. Rūpakkhandha consists of each person’s memories, hopes, and desires for some of the rūpa in the rūpa loka. Since the other four khandha (vedanā, saññā, saṅkhāra, viññāṇa) are all mental anyway, all five are MENTAL.

1. In the previous post, “Pañcakkhandha or Five Aggregates – A Misinterpreted Concept,” we discussed a deeper meaning of the pañca khandha or the five heaps or the five aggregates that define a given living being. Each person’s pañca khandha or the “world” is different from another’s.

▪Of course, in the 31 realms of existence there are rūpa, or material (and energy). But our experiences are all mental (which also has energy). Please read the previous post again if you think rūpakkhandha is material. Rūpakkhandha consists of our thoughts, memories, perceptions, desires, etc. on rūpa that we have experienced, are experiencing now, and hope to experience in the future. We have those “imprints of rūpa” in our minds even if we cannot recall all of them.

▪We experience the “material world” only at the “present time” (in a citta vīthi), then it is gone. We actually experience not a single citta — or even a single citta vīthi — but the overall effect of many citta vīthi that run in the blink of an eye.

2. This “overall experience of seeing” within a short time is what we actually call seeing (ditta). Same for hearing (suta). For the other three physical senses (muta), it can be there as long as we are actually experiencing them.

▪For example, when we are eating a meal, the sense contact is there until we finish eating. When we have a headache (an actual dukha vedanā) or while getting a massage (an actual sukha vedanā), the sense experience is there for a while.

▪But thinking about them (vinnāta) — via the sixth sense, the mind — can be experienced at any time; we can recall a past experience or conjure up an enticing future experience.

▪Ditta, suta, muta, vinnata include everything that we experience. They are re-categorized as rūpa, vedanā, saññā, saṅkhāra, and viññāṇa or the five heaps.

▪It is not necessary to memorize terms like ditta, suta, muta, vinnata. I am merely naming them to avoid any confusion, since those terms are in the suttā. With time, one will remember.

3. Upādāna (“upa” + “ādāna” where “upa” means “close” and “ādāna” means “pull”) means “pull and keep close.” One tries to pull and keep close only things that one really desires: pañca upādāna khandha or pañcaupādānakkhandha. We can translate the term, pañcaupādānakkhandha, as “five clinging aggregates.”

▪Thus out of an infinite variety of “things (material and mental)” one has experienced (not only in this life, but in all of existence countless rebirths) — pañcakkhandha –, those that one really have bonding with, and have the desire to “keep close” are pañca upādāna khandha or pañcaupādānakkhandha. It is important to realize that “rūpakkhandha” is mental too; see, “Difference Between Physical Rūpa and Rūpakkhandha.” Same for the other four khandhas.

▪Thus pañcaupādānakkhandha is what we desire, and is ALL MENTAL too. It is a small fraction of pañcakkhandha.

4. First, let us dig a bit deeper into the concept of pañca khandha (five heaps) or pañcakkhandha. Then one can see connections to other concepts at a deeper level.

▪As we recall, the five heaps include everything that one has experienced (rūpa, vedanā, saññā, saṅkhāra, viññāṇa) in the past, one is experiencing right now, and one hopes to experience in the future and in each of these three categories, they can be subdivided into other categories like paneeta (likes) and appaneeta (dislikes); see the previous post.

▪Since each person’s experience is unique, one’s pañcakkhandha is unique, and is different from that of another living being. That is because even if the external rūpa are the same, the mental impressions are different.

5. A new born baby, does not have much of an experience in this life (other than some while in the womb). But he/she still have an infinite things from the past in those five heaps or aggregates.

▪As the baby grows, its pañcakkhandha grows each day, adding to the five heaps not only with what is experienced, but also expectations and desires about the future.

▪We, of course, remember only a fraction of what is in our pañcakkhandha even from our present life. Each day, we experience many things and forget most of it by the next day.

6. However, some of deeper desires and habits and character remain, sometimes even unknown to us, beneath the surface as our gathi and āsavas (by the way, those will be reflected in the cetasika that automatically arise with our citta). As that baby grows, depending on its parents, friends, and other environmental factors, some of those (good and bad) gathi resurface and even grow.

▪This is why each person is good at some things. If one has musical talent from the past lives, that child can flourish in an environment that provides suitable conditions. If that baby grows in a family that does not provide “a musical environment”, then that gathi is kept hidden.

▪Similarly, one who had the tendency to like alcohol, may be kept out of that habit in a family environment that looks down upon drinking. We can think about zillion other character features that can be suppressed or brought to surface to flourish depending on the environment.

▪This is why some people, who have not shown any talent for anything for many years, suddenly “take off and thrive” in a new venture. Stated in another way, one may not realize that “one has upādāna” for certain things, unless exposed to it.

▪We all have good and bad things that we have “upādāna” for. We should stay away from bad ones (forcibly if needed to) and find and cultivate good ones. This is why parent and teachers can play a big role in a child’s future.

▪Eventually, we need to lose “upādāna” for everything, but that comes much later in the Path when one has attained the Anāgāmī stage, or at least the Sakadāgāmī stage of Nibbāna. First we need to lose “upādāna” for the highly immoral activities. At the Sotāpanna stage, one realizes the perils of “upādāna” for only the worst habits that makes one eligible to be born in the apāyā. It is a gradual process.

7. The tendency to recreate past experiences and future desires need to be clearly distinguished from the ABILITY TO RECALL past experiences. The Buddha was able to recall things that happened trillions of years ago, but did not either enjoy them or had a revulsion to them.

▪As we discussed in the section, “Assāda, Ādīnava, Nissarana,” kāma (or more precisely kāma rāga) is the tendency to enjoy such mind-made pleasures from the past or future.

▪Each person’s set of pañca upādāna khandha has embedded in them the certain types of things and events they give priority to, i.e., one’s gathi and anusaya. They automatically come out as particular set of cetasika (hate and fearlessness of doing immoral things, for example) in our citta or thoughts.

▪Those kāma rāga that correspond to gathi in the apāyā can lead to rebirth in the apāyā.

▪Rūpa rāga and arūpa rāga are the tendencies to enjoy jhānic pleasures corresponding to rūpa and arūpa realms.

8. Thus now we can see Nibbāna in terms of pañcaupādānakkhandha. As one sheds “upādāna” for gathi corresponding to the apāyā, higher kāma loka, and rūpa or arūpa loka successively, one attains the Sotāpanna, Anāgāmī (via Sakadāgāmī stage), and the Arahant stage respectively.

▪As one keeps shedding layers of pañcaupādānakkhandha, one proceeds to higher stages of Nibbāna, and upon attaining the Arahant stage loses all “upādāna” and thus pañcaupādānakkhandha. However, the pañcakkhandha remains, and upon the death all of it will stay in the nāma loka as nāma gotta.

▪Thus anyone with sufficient abhiññā powers can examine those nāma gotta. That is how the Buddha Gotama described the lives of many previous Buddhas, and we learn about them today.

9. Unless one has attained the Sotāpanna stage, it is possible for “apāya gathi” to come to the surface (as cetasika like greed, shamelessness in doing immoral things, etc in our citta or thoughts), especially under extreme conditions. We all have been in the apāyā uncountable times, so it is not something to be speculated; we have had those gathi, and it is possible that they can resurface. This is the danger that we need to realize.

▪Even if we manage to avoid such “extreme conditions” in this life because we have been fortunate to be born under good conditions, we have no idea where we will be born in the future. This is why the Buddha said, “..appamadena sampadeta” or “make haste and sort out ‘saŋ’ or what to do and what not to do.”

10. As we mentioned in the beginning, each one’s pañcakkhandha is unique. Each has his/her own feelings, perceptions, mental attributes (good and bad), and viññāṇa regarding any sense event. We make our decisions accordingly. Our character (gathi) is in pañcakkhandha (the way we see and comprehend the world) and even more so in our pañcaupādānakkhandha (our desires for the worldly things).

▪And diṭṭhi (our world views) is a critical part of both pañcakkhandha and pañcaupādānakkhandha. Our decisions depend critically on our diṭṭhi. There are many posts at the site on the importance of diṭṭhi. The first step to Nibbāna (the Sotāpanna stage) is sammā diṭṭhi.

▪Unless one comprehends the true nature of this world of 31 realms (anicca, dukkha, anatta), one cannot attain sammā diṭṭhi at least to some extent.

11. When one acts with avijjā (due to not comprehending the true nature of the world), one does (abhi) saṅkhāra, and keeps adding to the pañcaupādānakkhandha.

▪When we start with the “avijjā paccayā saṅkhāra” step, it leads to “upādāna paccayā bhava.” Thus according the types of (abhi) saṅkhāra one does, one makes “bonding” or “attaches to” certain types of “bhava” or existence.

▪Paṭicca samuppāda explains how we make bhava according to the level of avijjā (as indicated by our gathi, anusaya, etc) that is embedded in our pañcaupādānakkhandha.

▪Thus, one’s pañcaupādānakkhandha has embedded in it the “cravings and desires” of oneself, and where one is destined to have rebirths.

12. Therefore, we can see that no matter how we analyze things, they all converge to the same fundamentals. Before we embark on the journey to safety (Nibbāna, or at least the Sotāpanna stage), we need to figure out the “lay of the land.” That is anicca, dukkha, anatta, the nature of this world.

▪Only then that our minds will willingly give up the diṭṭhis or wrong views.

▪Only then that our minds will see the dangers of sense pleasures, starting at the excess levels of kāma chanda and vyāpāda, which could lead to rebirth in the apāyā.

▪If you could not grasp everything, that is fine. Come back and read the post again later, especially after reading other relevant posts. Each time you read, you may be able to grasp something that was not unclear. It happens to me all the time. When the minds starts grasping at least partly, it will become much easier.

13. It is very important to see the difference between the “physical world” which is made of “satara mahā bhūta” and the pañcakkhandha which is all mental.

▪The physical world out there is the same for all of us. But our mental impressions of it (pañcakkhandha) are different for each of us. It is easy to see that our feelings, perceptions, and saṅkhāra that we create upon seeing the same person are different.

▪Our pañcaupādānakkhandha, or the fraction of the pañcakkhandha that we have attachment for, is even more personal, unique for each person.