Post #1341

"All of the aggregates are impermanent, undergo change, and are eventually destroyed. What is new eventually decays, becomes old, and finally ends. We are not a single entity but rather a coming together of the five aggregates (form, feeling, perception, mental formations, and consciousness). These various components will change and eventually come to an end. The components are also not single. For example, a form (such as the body) does not consist of one single unit but is made up of components that are continually changing and being destroyed. The view of the self also is called "the view of that which will be destroyed" because it is a view founded upon the aggregates coming together and then dispersing. Even though elements come together and make up an entity composed of many different things, we think ofthem as a single entity. For example, our body is composed of many parts and yet we consider ourselves to be a single individual. We see ourselves as "one being," as an "I" or a "self' who took birth, has grown older and will die. But, in fact, the self is a composite of changing aggregates that come together, undergo change, and will finally end. As babies we had a small body and the thoughts of a baby. As a grown-up we have another body and the thoughts of an adult. As long as we are not aware of the changes that take place from childhood through adolescence to old age, we think of ourselves as a single individual. If we examine this closely, however, we discover that there is no place where the self exists and that the view of a self is nothing but a delusion. This is the delusion based on ignorance that must be eliminated." Thrangu Rinpoche