The Buddha taught that the five skandhas are the components that make up what we perceive as the individual self. They are:

  1. Form – the physical body and material aspects
  2. Feeling – sensations of pleasure, pain, or neutrality
  3. Perception – recognition and interpretation of experiences
  4. Mental Formations – thoughts, intentions, and emotions
  5. Consciousness – awareness of sensory and mental objects

The Sanskrit word skandha means “heap,” which reflects the idea that the self is not a permanent soul or essence, but rather an aggregate of these parts. According to Buddhist teaching, this “heap” is impermanent and will eventually disintegrate.

The Five Skandhas are central to the collection of early teachings of the Buddha known as Abhidharma, which consists of examinations of the makeup of the mind and experience in a kind of technical detail. The role of this information in the Buddhist path is to identify how there is no solid, singular or permanent self, while not denying experience.

Rinpoche has taught:

“Pure consciousness without the skandhas is enlightened consciousness. Finding self in the skandhas where there is no self causes self-cherishing. To protect the self, we fence off all threats, from morning till nigh . Because of the skandhas, we hope for pleasure and fear pain. The skandhas are continuously scheming and give rise to attachment and aggression. What we think is positive, what we think is negative or neutral, is all about our skandhas protecting a self. Ignorance produces the skandhas and together they produce suffering. To be free of the skandhas we remove ignorance, and then we know the nature of consciousness. The dharmic path gives us a reliable process to do this, and that path begins with the Four Noble Truths.”

A detailed explanation of the Five Skandhas as explained in the Abhidharma can be found  here.