2022-03-28 Satipaṭṭhāna (48) Five Heaps

Insight Meditation Center14min

Gil Fronsdal

00:05

Good morning again. Welcome to our series on this Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta, the discourse on the establishment of awareness.

Gil Fronsdal

00:23

There are many ways in which awareness is lost, subsumed, or collapses into our preoccupation with our lives. One area is with all the different aspects of our beingness – who we are. Whatever it is that we can identify, and cling to as me, myself and mine.

Gil Fronsdal

00:52

This next exercise in the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta has to do with five different areas in which we cling – especially clinging to me, myself and mine. One idea with these five areas is if we cling, we are clinging to one of these five areas. The literal meaning of the Pali word for this is "heaps" – big heaps of stuff. It is not a very technical idea. Though, it has become enshrined in Buddhist philosophy, psychology, and has taken on a more technical feeling. The usual translation in English is "aggregates." The Pali word is "khandha." It is five heaps of stuff.

Gil Fronsdal

01:52

Sometimes modern dharma teachers will say something like: "The Buddha taught there is no self. But there are these five aggregates, these five heaps." The problem with that is that the Buddha never said that. In fact, the Buddha if anything, saw the five aggregates or five heaps as problematic. It was something which was burdensome. The idea is to overcome this burden of the five heaps.

Gil Fronsdal

02:30

So this next exercise has to do with these five heaps. The way it is described is as "five heaps of clinging." The words "of clinging" are added to it. These are five areas in which we cling – five areas from which we cling. They are the five areas in the world of clinging. We are looking deeply into this area of clinging to these five things, and seeing deeply into its nature in a very particular way – in this exercise in The Fourth Foundation of Mindfulness of Awareness.

Gil Fronsdal

03:14

So I want to give an analogy. Imagine that it is a beautiful, peaceful day. You are out on the beach. Or if you do not live near the ocean, make up someplace big – a big, beautiful meadow or field that goes on for a long while. Imagine a beach – a wide, long, beautiful sandy beach with very clean sand. It has very soft, fine textured sand. To walk barefoot feels so nice and comfortable. Feel the warmth of the sand and the softness of it.

Processing audio...