What is the self? Buddha and Ramana Maharshi are in complete agreement: what we call the ego is a bodily construct that has no independent reality. Limited (ego) consciousness is a hindrance to cosmic consciousness and a major source of misery. Not only does it cause harm to the individual afflicted by an unbalanced sense of self; egotism's unholy trinity of greed, hate and delusion also enables such individuals to harm others, thus propagating and increasing suffering. The Five Skandhas, an ancient and core teaching of Buddhism, can help overcome this misery. This article will discuss the five skandhas, then interpret them in regard to evolution, and will finish with an interpretation of the fifth skandha that is in agreement with the teachings of Ramana Maharshi, (1889-1950), a great avatar of Advaita Hinduism--the teaching of non-duality.
A, THE FIVE SKANDHAS--Traditional Interpretation
The Sanskrit word "skandha" literally means "aggregate" or "heap." They denote five aspects of being human. Buddha placed great emphasis on the teaching of the five skandhas; they were mentioned in his first sermon and many times thereafter. They are a core teaching of all schools of Buddhism, prominent in both Theravada and Mahayana traditions. Buddhism asserts that we are made of these skandhas much in the same way that a puzzle image arises when the pieces are all attached. The image is not a separate entity, it is merely a composite. Thus, what we call the self is merely heaps of elements; the self as such is insubstantial. Clinging to any one of the skandhas causes dissatisfaction; truly recognizing the skandhas for what they are results in liberation.
First let us discuss the skandhas as they are traditionally depicted. (The Sanskrit names of the skandhas have their equivalents in all major languages of lands where Buddhism has flourished. I will use the Sanskrit term for each skandha, along with an English translation.)
1. Rupa, Form. This refers to the material world, which not only includes all external objects--moon, stars, carrots, money, etc. etc., but also includes all internal objects, such as the heart and the brain.
2. Vedana, Sensation or Feeling. An example would be feeling a pinprick without pinpointing its source. It is sensation without any kind of interpretation. The sensation can either be pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral.
3. Samjña, Perception. An example is feeling a pinprick and being aware that it has been caused by a pin. Perception can result from any of the five senses, visual perception, olfactory perception, tactile perception, etc. (A pattern is becoming obvious: we begin with no awareness in skandha one; awareness begins with skandha two and increases in subsequent skandhas.)
4. Samskara, Mental Formations. Buddhism generally considers the action of the mind to be a sixth sense. Its purview, thought, begins by processing the sense data the rest of the body relays to it. Concepts become incredibly complex as data pass through the many billions of neurons which connect with each other in a truly astounding number of ways. Storage of impressions, memories, combined with new sense data and new thoughts gives rise to the thought that there is an abiding self in charge or at least experiencing the workings of the entire machine. The separate existence of this self is what both Buddhism and Advaita Hinduism deny.
Mental formations include opinions, ideas, prejudices, desires, etc. The substratum of mental formations is the ego; mental formations are usually, to one degree or another, personalized. "I wish I were a rich man," is an example of a mental formation.
5. Vijñana or Consciousness This is defined as "that which cognizes," that is, the awareness of being aware. The fifth skandha is a bit redundant--beginning with skandha three, consciousness must be present. Mental formations would be impossible without a highly developed consciousness. The important thing to remember here is that the ability to say, "I am aware I am hungry," instead of "I am hungry," does not indicate that there is a thinking self separate from nature. Although common sense tells us that each of us is a unitary individual, it is not true; personhood can be deconstructed into aggregates, just like anything else in the phenomenal world.
B, THE FIVE SKANDHAS--An Evolutionary Interpretation
Although Buddha utilizes the skandhas to deconstruct sentient beings--especially humans--the light of modern science illuminates something that remained hidden in Buddha's time, namely the course of cosmic evolution from "nothing" to the highest form of life we know. This aspect in no way replaces the original interpretation; it, in fact, strengthens it. The evolutionary interpretation came to me in a eureka moment; I don't think it's ever been written about before. In the evolutionary interpretation, we find not only a path from the simple to the complex; we will discover that it is a two-way path, or loop. The simple gives rise to the complex, and the complex gives rise to all the skandhas of the universe, including "simple" photons, complex stars, and the most intricate things we know of, you and me. It is a mysterium tremendum et fascinans, without a doubt. The thought of the sage, Ramana Maharshi, and of the great scientist, Stephen Hawking--along with many other scientists-- converge in this interpretation, providing its insight with additional validity. Let us proceed to discuss the skandhas in this new light.
1. Skandha one: Rupa, Form.
Modern science allows us to extend the definition of "form" to include the entire universe of matter, dark matter, and the energy of the vacuum. Most of the universe is composed of elements radically different from the matter we are used to, such as suns, ping pong balls and bacteria. The sum total of all luminous matter in the universe--the vast galaxies and even vaster clusters of galaxies--comes to only 4% of the density of the total! An astonishing 23% of the universe is made up of so-called dark matter--and we don't even know what dark matter is. Its effects, however, can be measured. Without dark matter, galaxies would fly apart; dark matter is definitely present everywhere. Even more astonishing: 73% of the universe is made up of so-called dark energy, the energy of the vacuum, which is causing the universe to expand more and more rapidly.
The vacuum is often referred to as nothing, but it is actually a dynamic entity, a thing. This is a very important point. The old question, "How can a universe arise from nothing?" is actually meaningless. There is as much evidence for absolutely nothing as there is for angels on the head of a pin. What we commonly refer to as nothing is space devoid of ordinary matter. (The average material density of the universe is one hydrogen atom per cubic meter of space--thus, most of the universe is made up of this nothing which in fact isn't nothing.) As Einstein proved, space is converted into time as the speed of light is approached, much as water turns into ice when the ambient temperature falls, except space turns into time gradually, in proportion to velocity, and not all of a sudden. Thus, space, like water, is a thing. It is indeed a very strange thing; it is not discrete. Over an incredibly short distance of less than a billionth of a billionth of a billionth of a centimeter, at the so-called Planck length, space breaks down into a very stormy "foamy sea." This is the area in which countless tiny "virtual" particles come in and out of existence. (The conservation of energy law is not violated because positive particles are matched by negative ones and cancel each other out in a very small fraction of a second.) Here's something even more amazing than the existence of this virtual world: it is postulated that, due to quantum variation, an occasional particle will rise from"nothing" with such a large amount of energy that it becomes real. This, in fact, may be the source of the big bang! If this is actually what happened, the universe is the ultimate "free lunch" with no need of supernatural intervention. The Catholic dogma that God created the world out of nothing now becomes: "Nothing, which isn't really nothing, created the world all by itself." We might never know why the vacuum has the properties it does, but we do know this: the vacuum represents the universe in its most simple--and creative--form. Out of this simplicity complexity arises--namely the big bang, followed by the evolution of the universe to the present day.
In summary:
1. Absolutely nothing is a concept which can exist in the mind, but does not exist in nature.
2. What is commonly called nothing, "empty space" or the vacuum, an area devoid of ordinary matter, is, in fact, a thing that has very specific properties.
3. The vacuum is the most simple thing in the universe. It is likely the source of the big bang, thus resulting in the universe we, very complex beings, inhabit.
4. The first skandha, form, in the light of modern physics, reveals the beginning of cosmic evolution --something arising out of "nothing." Both "something" and "nothing" constitute the first skandha.
5. No supernatural intervention is necessary for evolution, whether cosmic or terrestrial. The vacuum may well be eternal, thus predating the big bang. Although there is no evidence for an eternal being, eternal creation is a real possibility.
2. The Second Skandha, Vedana, Sensation
We are now at a critical point of cosmic evolution. "Nothing" has created something, the material, inert world. Now we proceed to the origin of life. We don't know exactly how life first formed, but matter somehow "learned" to replicate, and life began as organisms composed entirely of matter. We do know that life on Earth began shortly after Earth began--life has been present on the blue planet for at least 3 1/2 billion years, which is about a quarter of the time that has elapsed since the big bang. For about three billion years, life consisted of unicellular organisms--deadly cosmic rays prevented the formation of more complex creatures. Then with the so-called Cambrian explosion--a very slow explosion over the course of millions of years--multicellular organisms formed. One of the earliest groups of multicellular organisms belong to the phylum Echinocderm, examples of which are still ubiquitous among marine life. Starfish belong to the class, Asteroidea, of the phylum Echinoderm. I think they are among the weirdest forms of life on the planet. They have been with us for over 450 million years, long before the age of the dinosaurs. Looking at a starfish on the beach is like looking at a star in the sky--We, when observing very distant stars, are looking far back in time; when we look at starfish we are looking far back in time to a much earlier period of evolution. Starfish are truly "living fossils."
This stage of evolution is on the level of the second skandha. I will now explain why this is so. Starfish have hearts but no blood; they pump sea water through their body. Starfish musculature controls the expulsion of water which results in locomotion--at less than a snail's pace. They have no brain, although they do have three neural rings. They do, however, respond to touch, temperature, light and other stimuli. This, of course, represents a major step forward from inorganic matter. I will now explain their ability to react to light in more detail. At the end of each of the (usually) five arms of the starfish, eyespots are located. Remember that old argument against evolution--What good is half an eye? Well, the starfish has much less than a half an eye, which suits it perfectly and represents the very beginning of the evolution of vision. The starfish also has photoreceptor cells in other bodily locations. (Whether the starfish moves toward the light or away from it depends on the species; some are comfortable in tidal areas, other prefer living in darkness at tremendous depths.)
When light falls on a starfish arm, the animal is able to react and to change position. Since it lacks a brain, it has no idea whatsoever about the source of the stimulus There is, of course, no starfish ego telling it, "I feel light; I will approach it." At this stage of evolution, there is just enough neural tissue to react to a stimulus; there is not enough to interpret it. Thus, a starfish has an inchoate eye, but not an inchoate I. Sensation without interpretation; this is the realm of the second skandha.
3. The Third Skandha, Samjña, Perception
With the passage of time, evolution produced more complex life forms. Vertebrates represent a sea-change among sea creatures. They branched off from invertebrates early, during the time of the Cambrian explosion, 500 million years ago. Bones afforded protection for brains, which progressed over hundreds of millions of years, resulting in the extraordinary organ between our ears. But that's the fourth skandha; the third skandha lies in the realm of creatures far less complicated than us, cats, dogs, crows, etc.
A good example of the third skandha is illustrated by my cat, Chai. When my son visits us, he turns from a busy street into our street; our house is located toward the end of the block. Although our street is basically quiet, the cars of neighbors, returning from work or leisure, are by no means rare. Chai is an outdoors cat for most of the day. When my son's car turns into the block, Chai recognizes the sound instantly--certainly before my wife or I do. As my son parks his car, Chai walks over to greet him--even when my son must park a few houses away from ours. Chai hears the sound (the second skhanda) and recognizes the source--The ability to identify the source of a sensation is the definition of the third skandha. It requires a much more evolved nervous system than that of a starfish. (The classic example is when one knows that the sound of a bell comes from a bell.)
The third skandha occurs on a much higher branch on the tree of life, but, as you might have surmised, we haven't reach the treetop yet.
4. The Fourth Skandha, Samskara, Mental Formations.
The difference in complexity of the fourth skandha from all previous ones is tremendous. I like to imagine a brief silence as life passes from the third to the fourth skandha. I picture it in musical notation: it lasts one measure; it is in common time, that is, four beats to a measure. The measure consists almost entirely of rests, that is, of silence; there is no sound except for a quick note (a sixteenth note) at the very end of the measure, after which comes a long note in the next measure, which is anything but silent. During this sixteenth note, Adam eats the forbidden fruit. He subsequently and suddenly finds himself in the next measure, the realm of the fourth skandha. He now knows the difference between good and evil, because an "I" has arisen within him, giving the first human the absolute conviction that he is an individual separate from the rest of the world. The Western myth is extraordinarily perceptive here: Adam and Eve realize they are naked and, also for the first time, feel ashamed. Now they can recognize their image reflected in a stream. Now they can give each other names and name things they see and thoughts they think of. In actual evolution, of course, there is no disobedience, no command, no God. The transition occurs when the development of the nervous system has become complex enough that the brain can imagine that it, along with the organism in which it dwells, is a separate soul or individual. The Western myth continues with a curse on Adam--men will now have to labor hard to survive, and a curse on Eve--women from now on will have painful labor while giving birth. This is not exactly true; animals have to struggle to survive and an animal's pregnancy can be just as painful as a human one. But if one reads between the lines, one realizes that the author of the creation myth was getting at a deeper truth. The innocence of the animal kingdom has been lost forever; human beings now feel pain and know it. A new intensity of pain has arisen: suffering. (Suffering equals pain as experienced by an individual. Animals can feel great pain, but no suffering. There are some exceptions to this, but they are exceptions that prove the rule. An elephant may be evolved enough to experience a slight degree of suffering. This means that the elephant has only eaten a tiny part of the fruit, while Adam and Eve have consumed the whole thing.)
We must note that the fourth skandha results from neurological complexity, not by the addition of any element. All the elements in the human brain can be found in the outside world, albeit in very different concentrations.
The fourth skandha arose perhaps by chance, but it was naturally "selected" by our unconscious genes, since it conferred tremendous biologic advantages. Our unconscious genes do not work by chance; mutations that give an organism better opportunities for survival are passed on by the inexorable laws of genetics.
Although Genesis views the loss of animal innocence in a negative light, a sense of individuality has allowed homo sapiens to improve their lives in unprecedented ways. True, there is a price to be paid for everything; few of us, however, would want to give up civilized life, lose language and law, for a precarious return to a life among creatures red in tooth and claw. The results of civilization, in my view, are mostly golden, but can be leaden. It has given us Mozart; it has given us Hitler. Man can now periodically withdraw from daily activities in order to think, plan and invent. He is no longer dependent exclusively on sense data; he can imagine new worlds. He is now free to invent tools and gods, and, after technology has advanced sufficiently, he can develop new software, create and test a new vaccine, build bridges, rockets, make exquisite wines, and, alas! more destructive bombs.
If you want examples of the fourth skandha, simply think something and write it down. "I am hungry;" "Seattle is a nice place in which to live;" "I hope the Tea Party candidate loses;" "God loves us just the way we are;" "You really look beautiful tonight;" "Quantum particles can be in two places at once"--All these are examples of the fourth skandha.
5. The Fifth Skandha, Vijñana, Consciousness
In our evolutionary interpretation, the fifth skandha is the greatest transition of all, taking us to the very summit of existence and beyond. It is, however, quite subtle. Many people live entirely in the realm of the fourth skandha, which Hindus refer to as samsara, the wheel of birth and death. This realm contains occasional, sometimes perhaps even frequent, joys, but also much suffering. Many humans are only dimly aware that the fifth skandha exists; many well educated people assert that those who claim they have experienced the fifth skandha are guilty of wishful thinking.
As stated earlier, according to the earliest Buddhist teaching, the fifth skandha indicates "that which cognizes"--the illusory self, an aggregate. But illusion seems to me to exist completely in the realm of the fourth skandha. I was pleased to learn that certain later schools in the Mahayana tradition saw things differently, and, I believe, more accurately: they considered fifth-skandha consciousness to be the base that supports all experience. In addition, the great Tibetan meditation master, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, (1939-1987), had this to say about the fifth skandha: "It is the final developed state of being that contains all the previous elements"--that is, it subsumes the four previous skandhas. These are very deep insights. This interpretation is in complete accord with advaita Hinduism, the non-dualistic view embodied and taught by the great sage of the twentieth century, Ramana Maharshi. Though he did not call it a skandha, he knew what this transcendent consciousness is; he taught it, he lived it perfectly. It is thus best to finish this essay with a few words about Ramana Maharshi, including a few of the sage's sayings about this self, this consciousness, which is the basis of everything,
Ramana Maharshi (1889-1950), lived in perfect accord with what he taught; once one identifies with one's true self--what we refer to as the fifth skandha--all problems cease. After an encounter with death at an early age, he became convinced that his--and everyone's--true identity is the transcendent self, the I behind the I. After this encounter, he lost all fear of death, and always remained one with the Self. There are many illustrations of this that occurred during his lifetime. He was never selfish, and, after a second near-death experience in his 30s. became a very accessible teacher, devoted to seekers from all over the world. Even while in pain, dying from cancer, he insisted that he must give "dharshan" to the very end, that it, making himself available to those who sought out his presence. He refused any special treatment. He always insisted that all guests be fed before he would eat. The emphasis was always on simplicity. Never could one find the slightest shred of vanity or anger in him. When he lay dying, he was asked if he suffered. "There is pain, he said, "but no suffering"--there was no longer an ego able to lament. If you are not familiar with Ramana Maharshi, I suggest you do some research online and, perhaps, purchase or download some of the many excellent books available at sriramanamaharshi.org.
I will end this essay with two quotes from the sage, which illustrate his perfect identity with the fifth skandha:
First Quote
To him who is one with the formless Self, everything is formless. Existence of the world is merely relative. The world is merely relative. The world is really synonymous with the mind. Since it is knowledge that illumines the world, the former is ulterior to the latter. That Knowledge alone is real which ever remains changeless. Worship under name and form is only a means to realize one's absolute identity with the Nameless and Formless.
That consciousness creates the world is not new in Hinduism. In the West, the creative power of consciousness played a dominant role in the philosophy of George Berkeley, (1695-1753), but it was not until the advent of quantum theory when this view became contemporary again, at least among some physicists.. Here is a quote from Andrei Linde, one of the founders of the inflationary universe:
For me as a human being, I do not know any sense in which I could claim that the universe is here in the absence of observers. We are together, the universe and us. The moment you say that the universe exists without any observers, I cannot make any sense of that.
This is what Michio Kaku in his book "Parallel World" has to say about Linde:
According to Linde's philosophy, dinosaur fossils don't really exist until you look at them. But when you do look at them, they spring into existence as if they had existed millions of years ago. Physicists who hold to this point of view are careful to point out that the picture is experimentally consistent with a world in which dinosaur fossils really are millions of years old.
--Parallel Worlds, page 166
Perhaps the most startling example of the creative power of observation is a recent theory of the origin of the universe. Stephen Hawking, one of the most prominent contemporary cosmologists, along with a colleague, Thomas Hertog, published a paper in 2006 entitled, "Populating the Landscape: A Top Down Approach." In this article he postulates that the universe did not have a single, defined beginning; all possibilities were present together in a quantum fuzz. This he calls the "no boundary" state. He writes, "The no boundary histories of the universe...depend on what is being observed, contrary to the usual idea that the universe has a unique observer-independent history." If Ramana Maharshi had heard of this theory, he would have undoubtedly nodded his head in agreement while smiling a fifth-skandha smile.
One must note here that the observation that creates the universe has nothing to do with volition. A Darwinian I is unable to fashion the world according to his will. Volition is the realm of the fourth skandha, not of the fifth.
The universe at its most simple, the quantum world, and the universe at its most complex, human consciousness, is indeed very, very strange. One of the most important physicists of modern times, Richard Feynman, stated that at one time only a few scientists understood Einstein's theorems. He is sure, however, that to this day nobody understands what is "really" going on in the quantum world. I find it naive when some scientists assert that one day we will have a complete materialistic understanding of consciousness. (It remains a profound mystery today.) I agree, however, with Niels Bohr, who asserted that its essence will never be completely understood.. . If we can't understand the universe at its simplest level, he asserted, how can we ever hope to understand it at its most complex level? In other words, how can the fourth skandha ever comprehend the fifth?
If consciousness is everything, we now can view the skandhas as a loop, as asserted by the Tibetan sage mentioned previously. The first skhanda gives rise to the other four in an forward direction; the fifth skandha gives rise to the other four in a backward direction. Since the fifth skandha is the creative force, however, it is actually the basis of all.
The universe is weird; consciousness is even weirder.
Second Quote
A figure on the screen in the cinema show appears to watch the whole world. What is the reality behind the subject and the object in the same show? An illusory being watches an illusory world. You and the world are as real as the cinema figure and the cinema world.
All the previous skandhas are ultimately illusory. Notice this screen metaphor of Ramana Maharshi is virtually identical to the Mahayana interpretation mentioned earlier. This is truly the perennial philosophy.
I will end with a warning; this is not mystical mumbo-jumbo, it is reality. It does not require that one view everything as an illusion, The fourth skandha, the level of what I call the Darwinian I, is very powerful. Very few, like Ramana Maharshi, are able to abandon it. Most of us, including myself, don't even want to if they could. But an experience of utter transcendence from time to time helps us to live better in time. Knowing that we are like actors in a cosmic play can help us to take ourselves less seriously and to take the other members of the cast more seriously As Hindu sages have taught from time immemorial, wisdom and love are ultimately one and the same. Experiencing wisdom, the realm of the fifth skandha, can help us become better and kinder actors, whatever our role is in the play.
We at the level of the fourth skandha who have periodic glimpses of the fifth, should take ourselves seriously, but not too--the fifth skandha puts everything into perspective. We must not and need not abandon everything to live exclusively in the fifth skandha, for we have a role to fulfill in this life. (If it were our destiny to live permanently in the realm of cosmic consciousness, the transition would occur naturally and not by an act of will.) We must be grateful for the rare embodiment of wisdom such as Ramana Maharshi; our chances of becoming an avatar of wisdom, however, is as likely as an average kid has to become Mozart. All it takes is practice? I doubt that. Inspired by great musicians, however, most of us can learn to play an instrument at least tolerably, if we put our mind to it; most of us, inspired by wise teachers, can become better actors, even deserving an ovation (from fellow actors in the audience) when we leave the stage.
Tat tvam asi--You are the world. Act like it!
A, THE FIVE SKANDHAS--Traditional Interpretation
The Sanskrit word "skandha" literally means "aggregate" or "heap." They denote five aspects of being human. Buddha placed great emphasis on the teaching of the five skandhas; they were mentioned in his first sermon and many times thereafter. They are a core teaching of all schools of Buddhism, prominent in both Theravada and Mahayana traditions. Buddhism asserts that we are made of these skandhas much in the same way that a puzzle image arises when the pieces are all attached. The image is not a separate entity, it is merely a composite. Thus, what we call the self is merely heaps of elements; the self as such is insubstantial. Clinging to any one of the skandhas causes dissatisfaction; truly recognizing the skandhas for what they are results in liberation.
First let us discuss the skandhas as they are traditionally depicted. (The Sanskrit names of the skandhas have their equivalents in all major languages of lands where Buddhism has flourished. I will use the Sanskrit term for each skandha, along with an English translation.)
1. Rupa, Form. This refers to the material world, which not only includes all external objects--moon, stars, carrots, money, etc. etc., but also includes all internal objects, such as the heart and the brain.
2. Vedana, Sensation or Feeling. An example would be feeling a pinprick without pinpointing its source. It is sensation without any kind of interpretation. The sensation can either be pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral.
3. Samjña, Perception. An example is feeling a pinprick and being aware that it has been caused by a pin. Perception can result from any of the five senses, visual perception, olfactory perception, tactile perception, etc. (A pattern is becoming obvious: we begin with no awareness in skandha one; awareness begins with skandha two and increases in subsequent skandhas.)
4. Samskara, Mental Formations. Buddhism generally considers the action of the mind to be a sixth sense. Its purview, thought, begins by processing the sense data the rest of the body relays to it. Concepts become incredibly complex as data pass through the many billions of neurons which connect with each other in a truly astounding number of ways. Storage of impressions, memories, combined with new sense data and new thoughts gives rise to the thought that there is an abiding self in charge or at least experiencing the workings of the entire machine. The separate existence of this self is what both Buddhism and Advaita Hinduism deny.
Mental formations include opinions, ideas, prejudices, desires, etc. The substratum of mental formations is the ego; mental formations are usually, to one degree or another, personalized. "I wish I were a rich man," is an example of a mental formation.
5. Vijñana or Consciousness This is defined as "that which cognizes," that is, the awareness of being aware. The fifth skandha is a bit redundant--beginning with skandha three, consciousness must be present. Mental formations would be impossible without a highly developed consciousness. The important thing to remember here is that the ability to say, "I am aware I am hungry," instead of "I am hungry," does not indicate that there is a thinking self separate from nature. Although common sense tells us that each of us is a unitary individual, it is not true; personhood can be deconstructed into aggregates, just like anything else in the phenomenal world.
B, THE FIVE SKANDHAS--An Evolutionary Interpretation
Although Buddha utilizes the skandhas to deconstruct sentient beings--especially humans--the light of modern science illuminates something that remained hidden in Buddha's time, namely the course of cosmic evolution from "nothing" to the highest form of life we know. This aspect in no way replaces the original interpretation; it, in fact, strengthens it. The evolutionary interpretation came to me in a eureka moment; I don't think it's ever been written about before. In the evolutionary interpretation, we find not only a path from the simple to the complex; we will discover that it is a two-way path, or loop. The simple gives rise to the complex, and the complex gives rise to all the skandhas of the universe, including "simple" photons, complex stars, and the most intricate things we know of, you and me. It is a mysterium tremendum et fascinans, without a doubt. The thought of the sage, Ramana Maharshi, and of the great scientist, Stephen Hawking--along with many other scientists-- converge in this interpretation, providing its insight with additional validity. Let us proceed to discuss the skandhas in this new light.
1. Skandha one: Rupa, Form.
Modern science allows us to extend the definition of "form" to include the entire universe of matter, dark matter, and the energy of the vacuum. Most of the universe is composed of elements radically different from the matter we are used to, such as suns, ping pong balls and bacteria. The sum total of all luminous matter in the universe--the vast galaxies and even vaster clusters of galaxies--comes to only 4% of the density of the total! An astonishing 23% of the universe is made up of so-called dark matter--and we don't even know what dark matter is. Its effects, however, can be measured. Without dark matter, galaxies would fly apart; dark matter is definitely present everywhere. Even more astonishing: 73% of the universe is made up of so-called dark energy, the energy of the vacuum, which is causing the universe to expand more and more rapidly.
The vacuum is often referred to as nothing, but it is actually a dynamic entity, a thing. This is a very important point. The old question, "How can a universe arise from nothing?" is actually meaningless. There is as much evidence for absolutely nothing as there is for angels on the head of a pin. What we commonly refer to as nothing is space devoid of ordinary matter. (The average material density of the universe is one hydrogen atom per cubic meter of space--thus, most of the universe is made up of this nothing which in fact isn't nothing.) As Einstein proved, space is converted into time as the speed of light is approached, much as water turns into ice when the ambient temperature falls, except space turns into time gradually, in proportion to velocity, and not all of a sudden. Thus, space, like water, is a thing. It is indeed a very strange thing; it is not discrete. Over an incredibly short distance of less than a billionth of a billionth of a billionth of a centimeter, at the so-called Planck length, space breaks down into a very stormy "foamy sea." This is the area in which countless tiny "virtual" particles come in and out of existence. (The conservation of energy law is not violated because positive particles are matched by negative ones and cancel each other out in a very small fraction of a second.) Here's something even more amazing than the existence of this virtual world: it is postulated that, due to quantum variation, an occasional particle will rise from"nothing" with such a large amount of energy that it becomes real. This, in fact, may be the source of the big bang! If this is actually what happened, the universe is the ultimate "free lunch" with no need of supernatural intervention. The Catholic dogma that God created the world out of nothing now becomes: "Nothing, which isn't really nothing, created the world all by itself." We might never know why the vacuum has the properties it does, but we do know this: the vacuum represents the universe in its most simple--and creative--form. Out of this simplicity complexity arises--namely the big bang, followed by the evolution of the universe to the present day.
In summary:
1. Absolutely nothing is a concept which can exist in the mind, but does not exist in nature.
2. What is commonly called nothing, "empty space" or the vacuum, an area devoid of ordinary matter, is, in fact, a thing that has very specific properties.
3. The vacuum is the most simple thing in the universe. It is likely the source of the big bang, thus resulting in the universe we, very complex beings, inhabit.
4. The first skandha, form, in the light of modern physics, reveals the beginning of cosmic evolution --something arising out of "nothing." Both "something" and "nothing" constitute the first skandha.
5. No supernatural intervention is necessary for evolution, whether cosmic or terrestrial. The vacuum may well be eternal, thus predating the big bang. Although there is no evidence for an eternal being, eternal creation is a real possibility.
2. The Second Skandha, Vedana, Sensation
We are now at a critical point of cosmic evolution. "Nothing" has created something, the material, inert world. Now we proceed to the origin of life. We don't know exactly how life first formed, but matter somehow "learned" to replicate, and life began as organisms composed entirely of matter. We do know that life on Earth began shortly after Earth began--life has been present on the blue planet for at least 3 1/2 billion years, which is about a quarter of the time that has elapsed since the big bang. For about three billion years, life consisted of unicellular organisms--deadly cosmic rays prevented the formation of more complex creatures. Then with the so-called Cambrian explosion--a very slow explosion over the course of millions of years--multicellular organisms formed. One of the earliest groups of multicellular organisms belong to the phylum Echinocderm, examples of which are still ubiquitous among marine life. Starfish belong to the class, Asteroidea, of the phylum Echinoderm. I think they are among the weirdest forms of life on the planet. They have been with us for over 450 million years, long before the age of the dinosaurs. Looking at a starfish on the beach is like looking at a star in the sky--We, when observing very distant stars, are looking far back in time; when we look at starfish we are looking far back in time to a much earlier period of evolution. Starfish are truly "living fossils."
This stage of evolution is on the level of the second skandha. I will now explain why this is so. Starfish have hearts but no blood; they pump sea water through their body. Starfish musculature controls the expulsion of water which results in locomotion--at less than a snail's pace. They have no brain, although they do have three neural rings. They do, however, respond to touch, temperature, light and other stimuli. This, of course, represents a major step forward from inorganic matter. I will now explain their ability to react to light in more detail. At the end of each of the (usually) five arms of the starfish, eyespots are located. Remember that old argument against evolution--What good is half an eye? Well, the starfish has much less than a half an eye, which suits it perfectly and represents the very beginning of the evolution of vision. The starfish also has photoreceptor cells in other bodily locations. (Whether the starfish moves toward the light or away from it depends on the species; some are comfortable in tidal areas, other prefer living in darkness at tremendous depths.)
When light falls on a starfish arm, the animal is able to react and to change position. Since it lacks a brain, it has no idea whatsoever about the source of the stimulus There is, of course, no starfish ego telling it, "I feel light; I will approach it." At this stage of evolution, there is just enough neural tissue to react to a stimulus; there is not enough to interpret it. Thus, a starfish has an inchoate eye, but not an inchoate I. Sensation without interpretation; this is the realm of the second skandha.
3. The Third Skandha, Samjña, Perception
With the passage of time, evolution produced more complex life forms. Vertebrates represent a sea-change among sea creatures. They branched off from invertebrates early, during the time of the Cambrian explosion, 500 million years ago. Bones afforded protection for brains, which progressed over hundreds of millions of years, resulting in the extraordinary organ between our ears. But that's the fourth skandha; the third skandha lies in the realm of creatures far less complicated than us, cats, dogs, crows, etc.
A good example of the third skandha is illustrated by my cat, Chai. When my son visits us, he turns from a busy street into our street; our house is located toward the end of the block. Although our street is basically quiet, the cars of neighbors, returning from work or leisure, are by no means rare. Chai is an outdoors cat for most of the day. When my son's car turns into the block, Chai recognizes the sound instantly--certainly before my wife or I do. As my son parks his car, Chai walks over to greet him--even when my son must park a few houses away from ours. Chai hears the sound (the second skhanda) and recognizes the source--The ability to identify the source of a sensation is the definition of the third skandha. It requires a much more evolved nervous system than that of a starfish. (The classic example is when one knows that the sound of a bell comes from a bell.)
The third skandha occurs on a much higher branch on the tree of life, but, as you might have surmised, we haven't reach the treetop yet.
4. The Fourth Skandha, Samskara, Mental Formations.
The difference in complexity of the fourth skandha from all previous ones is tremendous. I like to imagine a brief silence as life passes from the third to the fourth skandha. I picture it in musical notation: it lasts one measure; it is in common time, that is, four beats to a measure. The measure consists almost entirely of rests, that is, of silence; there is no sound except for a quick note (a sixteenth note) at the very end of the measure, after which comes a long note in the next measure, which is anything but silent. During this sixteenth note, Adam eats the forbidden fruit. He subsequently and suddenly finds himself in the next measure, the realm of the fourth skandha. He now knows the difference between good and evil, because an "I" has arisen within him, giving the first human the absolute conviction that he is an individual separate from the rest of the world. The Western myth is extraordinarily perceptive here: Adam and Eve realize they are naked and, also for the first time, feel ashamed. Now they can recognize their image reflected in a stream. Now they can give each other names and name things they see and thoughts they think of. In actual evolution, of course, there is no disobedience, no command, no God. The transition occurs when the development of the nervous system has become complex enough that the brain can imagine that it, along with the organism in which it dwells, is a separate soul or individual. The Western myth continues with a curse on Adam--men will now have to labor hard to survive, and a curse on Eve--women from now on will have painful labor while giving birth. This is not exactly true; animals have to struggle to survive and an animal's pregnancy can be just as painful as a human one. But if one reads between the lines, one realizes that the author of the creation myth was getting at a deeper truth. The innocence of the animal kingdom has been lost forever; human beings now feel pain and know it. A new intensity of pain has arisen: suffering. (Suffering equals pain as experienced by an individual. Animals can feel great pain, but no suffering. There are some exceptions to this, but they are exceptions that prove the rule. An elephant may be evolved enough to experience a slight degree of suffering. This means that the elephant has only eaten a tiny part of the fruit, while Adam and Eve have consumed the whole thing.)
We must note that the fourth skandha results from neurological complexity, not by the addition of any element. All the elements in the human brain can be found in the outside world, albeit in very different concentrations.
The fourth skandha arose perhaps by chance, but it was naturally "selected" by our unconscious genes, since it conferred tremendous biologic advantages. Our unconscious genes do not work by chance; mutations that give an organism better opportunities for survival are passed on by the inexorable laws of genetics.
Although Genesis views the loss of animal innocence in a negative light, a sense of individuality has allowed homo sapiens to improve their lives in unprecedented ways. True, there is a price to be paid for everything; few of us, however, would want to give up civilized life, lose language and law, for a precarious return to a life among creatures red in tooth and claw. The results of civilization, in my view, are mostly golden, but can be leaden. It has given us Mozart; it has given us Hitler. Man can now periodically withdraw from daily activities in order to think, plan and invent. He is no longer dependent exclusively on sense data; he can imagine new worlds. He is now free to invent tools and gods, and, after technology has advanced sufficiently, he can develop new software, create and test a new vaccine, build bridges, rockets, make exquisite wines, and, alas! more destructive bombs.
If you want examples of the fourth skandha, simply think something and write it down. "I am hungry;" "Seattle is a nice place in which to live;" "I hope the Tea Party candidate loses;" "God loves us just the way we are;" "You really look beautiful tonight;" "Quantum particles can be in two places at once"--All these are examples of the fourth skandha.
5. The Fifth Skandha, Vijñana, Consciousness
In our evolutionary interpretation, the fifth skandha is the greatest transition of all, taking us to the very summit of existence and beyond. It is, however, quite subtle. Many people live entirely in the realm of the fourth skandha, which Hindus refer to as samsara, the wheel of birth and death. This realm contains occasional, sometimes perhaps even frequent, joys, but also much suffering. Many humans are only dimly aware that the fifth skandha exists; many well educated people assert that those who claim they have experienced the fifth skandha are guilty of wishful thinking.
As stated earlier, according to the earliest Buddhist teaching, the fifth skandha indicates "that which cognizes"--the illusory self, an aggregate. But illusion seems to me to exist completely in the realm of the fourth skandha. I was pleased to learn that certain later schools in the Mahayana tradition saw things differently, and, I believe, more accurately: they considered fifth-skandha consciousness to be the base that supports all experience. In addition, the great Tibetan meditation master, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, (1939-1987), had this to say about the fifth skandha: "It is the final developed state of being that contains all the previous elements"--that is, it subsumes the four previous skandhas. These are very deep insights. This interpretation is in complete accord with advaita Hinduism, the non-dualistic view embodied and taught by the great sage of the twentieth century, Ramana Maharshi. Though he did not call it a skandha, he knew what this transcendent consciousness is; he taught it, he lived it perfectly. It is thus best to finish this essay with a few words about Ramana Maharshi, including a few of the sage's sayings about this self, this consciousness, which is the basis of everything,
Ramana Maharshi (1889-1950), lived in perfect accord with what he taught; once one identifies with one's true self--what we refer to as the fifth skandha--all problems cease. After an encounter with death at an early age, he became convinced that his--and everyone's--true identity is the transcendent self, the I behind the I. After this encounter, he lost all fear of death, and always remained one with the Self. There are many illustrations of this that occurred during his lifetime. He was never selfish, and, after a second near-death experience in his 30s. became a very accessible teacher, devoted to seekers from all over the world. Even while in pain, dying from cancer, he insisted that he must give "dharshan" to the very end, that it, making himself available to those who sought out his presence. He refused any special treatment. He always insisted that all guests be fed before he would eat. The emphasis was always on simplicity. Never could one find the slightest shred of vanity or anger in him. When he lay dying, he was asked if he suffered. "There is pain, he said, "but no suffering"--there was no longer an ego able to lament. If you are not familiar with Ramana Maharshi, I suggest you do some research online and, perhaps, purchase or download some of the many excellent books available at sriramanamaharshi.org.
I will end this essay with two quotes from the sage, which illustrate his perfect identity with the fifth skandha:
First Quote
To him who is one with the formless Self, everything is formless. Existence of the world is merely relative. The world is merely relative. The world is really synonymous with the mind. Since it is knowledge that illumines the world, the former is ulterior to the latter. That Knowledge alone is real which ever remains changeless. Worship under name and form is only a means to realize one's absolute identity with the Nameless and Formless.
That consciousness creates the world is not new in Hinduism. In the West, the creative power of consciousness played a dominant role in the philosophy of George Berkeley, (1695-1753), but it was not until the advent of quantum theory when this view became contemporary again, at least among some physicists.. Here is a quote from Andrei Linde, one of the founders of the inflationary universe:
For me as a human being, I do not know any sense in which I could claim that the universe is here in the absence of observers. We are together, the universe and us. The moment you say that the universe exists without any observers, I cannot make any sense of that.
This is what Michio Kaku in his book "Parallel World" has to say about Linde:
According to Linde's philosophy, dinosaur fossils don't really exist until you look at them. But when you do look at them, they spring into existence as if they had existed millions of years ago. Physicists who hold to this point of view are careful to point out that the picture is experimentally consistent with a world in which dinosaur fossils really are millions of years old.
--Parallel Worlds, page 166
Perhaps the most startling example of the creative power of observation is a recent theory of the origin of the universe. Stephen Hawking, one of the most prominent contemporary cosmologists, along with a colleague, Thomas Hertog, published a paper in 2006 entitled, "Populating the Landscape: A Top Down Approach." In this article he postulates that the universe did not have a single, defined beginning; all possibilities were present together in a quantum fuzz. This he calls the "no boundary" state. He writes, "The no boundary histories of the universe...depend on what is being observed, contrary to the usual idea that the universe has a unique observer-independent history." If Ramana Maharshi had heard of this theory, he would have undoubtedly nodded his head in agreement while smiling a fifth-skandha smile.
One must note here that the observation that creates the universe has nothing to do with volition. A Darwinian I is unable to fashion the world according to his will. Volition is the realm of the fourth skandha, not of the fifth.
The universe at its most simple, the quantum world, and the universe at its most complex, human consciousness, is indeed very, very strange. One of the most important physicists of modern times, Richard Feynman, stated that at one time only a few scientists understood Einstein's theorems. He is sure, however, that to this day nobody understands what is "really" going on in the quantum world. I find it naive when some scientists assert that one day we will have a complete materialistic understanding of consciousness. (It remains a profound mystery today.) I agree, however, with Niels Bohr, who asserted that its essence will never be completely understood.. . If we can't understand the universe at its simplest level, he asserted, how can we ever hope to understand it at its most complex level? In other words, how can the fourth skandha ever comprehend the fifth?
If consciousness is everything, we now can view the skandhas as a loop, as asserted by the Tibetan sage mentioned previously. The first skhanda gives rise to the other four in an forward direction; the fifth skandha gives rise to the other four in a backward direction. Since the fifth skandha is the creative force, however, it is actually the basis of all.
The universe is weird; consciousness is even weirder.
Second Quote
A figure on the screen in the cinema show appears to watch the whole world. What is the reality behind the subject and the object in the same show? An illusory being watches an illusory world. You and the world are as real as the cinema figure and the cinema world.
All the previous skandhas are ultimately illusory. Notice this screen metaphor of Ramana Maharshi is virtually identical to the Mahayana interpretation mentioned earlier. This is truly the perennial philosophy.
I will end with a warning; this is not mystical mumbo-jumbo, it is reality. It does not require that one view everything as an illusion, The fourth skandha, the level of what I call the Darwinian I, is very powerful. Very few, like Ramana Maharshi, are able to abandon it. Most of us, including myself, don't even want to if they could. But an experience of utter transcendence from time to time helps us to live better in time. Knowing that we are like actors in a cosmic play can help us to take ourselves less seriously and to take the other members of the cast more seriously As Hindu sages have taught from time immemorial, wisdom and love are ultimately one and the same. Experiencing wisdom, the realm of the fifth skandha, can help us become better and kinder actors, whatever our role is in the play.
We at the level of the fourth skandha who have periodic glimpses of the fifth, should take ourselves seriously, but not too--the fifth skandha puts everything into perspective. We must not and need not abandon everything to live exclusively in the fifth skandha, for we have a role to fulfill in this life. (If it were our destiny to live permanently in the realm of cosmic consciousness, the transition would occur naturally and not by an act of will.) We must be grateful for the rare embodiment of wisdom such as Ramana Maharshi; our chances of becoming an avatar of wisdom, however, is as likely as an average kid has to become Mozart. All it takes is practice? I doubt that. Inspired by great musicians, however, most of us can learn to play an instrument at least tolerably, if we put our mind to it; most of us, inspired by wise teachers, can become better actors, even deserving an ovation (from fellow actors in the audience) when we leave the stage.
Tat tvam asi--You are the world. Act like it!
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