Five Aggregates (Pañcakkhandhā)

The human personality is made up of one physical phenomenon (rūpadhamma) and four mental phenomena (nāmadhammas). The human personality is constituted from five conglomerated phenomena or aggregates called Pañcakkhandhā . The physical phenomenon is composed of four great or primary elements , namely Earth element or solid phenomenon , Water element or liquid phenomenon, Fire element or Heat phenomenon and Wind element or Air phenomenon . The Rūpa is dependently co-arisen from the four Primary or Great Elements. The mental phenomena comprise the phenomena of Feelings (Vedanā) , Perceptions (Saññā) , Volitions (Saṅkhārā)  and Consciousness (Viññāṇa) .

The Rūpa aggregate can be categorized into five sense faculties or organs  and the corresponding objects of perception . The five sense faculties are eyes , ears , nose , tongue , and body . The corresponding five objects of perceptions are form , sound , smell , taste and touch . The five faculties cognize and identify the different natures of the objects of perception.

The Feelings consist of three kinds of sensations , namely , pleasant sensation , unpleasant sensation and neither pleasant nor unpleasant sensation or neutral sensation . Perception is imagination  arisen from feelings or sensations experienced due to the impact of sensual stimuli both internally and externally . The imagination of an ordinary worldling  is due to false mental constructs or conceptualization (papañca) after reification of phenomena or objects as independent self-contained entities diversified and differentiated into various signs , marks or characteristics which are illusive and unreal in the ultimate analysis. The perceptions result in attachment to the agreeables or the pleasant  and aversion towards the disagreeables or the unpleasant. Volitions are kammic formations . Pleasant and unpleasant perceptions lead to  the formation of either wholesome or unwholesome kammas  as  a result of the grasping or clinging (upādāna) upon the five aggregates as This is I ; This is Mine ; This belongs to Me . Consciousness is cognition , differentiation and  recognition of the sensory stimuli or sense objects . After the death of a person , the consciousness called bhavaṅga becomes the life continuum carrying the kammic force to the destination of the next rebirth . The bhavaṅga consciousness ensures the kammic efficacy so that an individual is morally accountable for all his or her kammas committed in the countless previous lives in the incessant cycle of death and birth . In other words , every individual is rewarded by his or her wholesome kammas and is retributed for his unwholesome kammas . When the Noble Eight Fold Path is fruitfully undertaken to purify the consciousness ,  the bhavaṅga consciousness or the life continuum  ceases . The purification of consciousness is arisen from the development of  wisdom (paññā) of  insight (vipassanā) of the ultimate truth of Three Universal  Characteristics (tilakkhaṇas) of the five aggregates  and the multiplicity of the empirical world or cosmos. The mentally purified  person or the self-enlightened one emerges as the maximally excellent person called the Arahant .  The mental purification is resulted from the non-grasping (anupādāna) upon the five aggregates or non-clinging upon anything in the world  due to the acquisition of the perfect skill of the four foundations of mindfulness (satipațțhāna) of the body , feelings , mind and phenomena .