Skandha, Khandhas, Aggregates

In Buddhist phenomenology and soteriology, the Skandhas or Khandhas or Aggregates are any of five types of phenomena that serve as objects of clinging and bases for a sense of self. The Buddha teaches that nothing among them is really "I" or "mine".

In the Theravada tradition, suffering arises when one identifies with or otherwise clings to an aggregate; hence, suffering is extinguished by relinquishing attachments to aggregates. The Mahayana tradition further puts forth that ultimate freedom is realized by deeply penetrating the nature of all aggregates as intrinsically empty of independent existence.

Outside of Buddhist didactic contexts, "skandha" can mean mass, heap, pile, bundle or tree trunk.

Buddhist doctrine describes five aggregates:

1. "form" or "matter":
   external and internal matter. Externally, rupa is the physical world. Internally, rupa includes the material body and the physical sense organs.
2. "sensation" or "feeling":
   sensing an object as either pleasant or unpleasant or neutral.
3. "perception", "conception", "apperception", "cognition", or"discrimination":
   registers whether an object is recognized or not (for instance, the sound of a bell or the shape of a tree).
4. "mental formations", "impulses", "volition", or "compositional factors":
   all types of mental habits, thoughts, ideas, opinions, prejudices, compulsions, and decisions triggered by an object.
5. "consciousness" or "discernment":
   1. In the Nikayas/Āgamas: cognizance, that which discerns
   2. In the Abhidhamma: a series of rapidly changing interconnected discrete acts of cognizance.
   3. In some Mahayana sources: the base that supports all experience.