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Buddhism


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In Buddhism the five skandhas (Sanskrit) or khandhas (Pali) are names for five groups of things that exist that the Buddha asked questions about when teaching people, especially monks. The five groups are:

  1. form (physical things),
  2. feelings (pleasant, painful or neither),
  3. perceptions (the labels we put on things),
  4. “sankharas” (no English word for it but for example mental thoughts and decisions) and
  5. consciousness

In the Anuradha Sutta the Buddha taught a monk called Anuradha who wanted to know if the Buddha was going to have an afterlife after he died. The Buddha asked him about the Buddha's five groups: The Buddha: "What do you think, Anuradha: Is form constant or inconstant?" Ven Anuradha: "Inconstant, lord." "And is that which is inconstant happiness or stress?" "Stress, lord." "And is it proper to regard what is inconstant, stressful, subject to change as: 'This is mine. This is my self. This is what I am'?" "No, lord." He asked the same about the other four groups, to show that none of them were the Buddha either. He then asked if the Buddha would be the Buddha if there weren’t these five groups. Anuradha had to say no again. The Buddha then asked if it made sense to ask whether the Buddha would or wouldn't exist after death. Anuradha had to say no again. The Buddha said “Very good” and that he only taught about stress and how to stop it.