The five aggregates of grasping are one of the most powerful and profound topics for contemplation in the Buddha’s teachings. This theme features prominently throughout the early discourses as one of the most effective methods leading to deep insight and the stages of awakening. Through exploring them, we come to understand how we relate to the different aspects of our experience, how we construct a self from them, and how we then grasp them tightly, resulting in stress and suffering now and in the future. By seeing clearly how we tie ourselves to suffering in this way, we learn to gradually release the grasping and experience greater and greater ease and freedom.
In this course, we’ll survey different conceptions of self described in the suttas and discuss how we personally define a self. We’ll explore what the aggregates as a whole represent, why they matter, and how practicing with them can lead to awakening. We’ll then examine the five aggregates individually, so that participants will understand their unique functions and be able to recognize each of them in their own experience. In the last part of the course, we’ll discuss different variations of contemplating the aggregates, both in meditation and daily life, and consider how this practice evolves through later stages of the path.
Program Format: Presentation periods interspersed with small-group discussions and Q&R periods; home practice and exploration in formal meditation and daily life.
Participation Expectations: Read and contemplate selected suttas, light memorization, participate in small group discussions, meditate according to instructions given.