In this inaugural episode of Season 03, Lama John discusses the first topic, “The Five Aggregates,” from the classic text “A Manual of Key Buddhist Terms: Categorization of Buddhist Terminologies With Commentary” by Kawa Paltsek. (Click here for an overview of the text.)

The first of the five aggregates (a.k.a., the five skandhas, the five conditions, the five heaps, or the five collections) is the 15 form aggregates, which consists of the four elements and the eleven physical manifestations stemming from those elements. (Buddhism loves its lists and taxonomies, to be sure.) Lama John explains how the four elements can, to a varying degree, be found in everything, and that the interaction between the elements and the physical manifestations creates our reality and our sense of self. The result is our own personal magical display of the elements in space, which is wholly based on our karma.

A deep understanding of these interactions will eventually lead us to break down the conceptual barrier of “outside me” and “inside me,” to see that this ignorance of our true nature is, at the end of the day, just an idea in our mind.

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