The Five Aggregates. For many people when they first look at the Five Aggregates, they think the Buddha has divided us into one part body, four part mind. It's not actually that way. These are processes. They are all five processes that we as a human being use. The body part is actually all of our contacts. The eye sees something. That's a contact. The ear hears a sound. That's a contact. It's a process. When we say Five Aggregates, we're not actually talking about the physical body as something and then the mind as something. We're talking about a process of contact with the world. From that contact, then we put a perception, we put a label on something.
I turn around and I see Sonya. I turn around and I see Mike. I put a label on them due to my past understanding. Somebody else walks up the hill I've never seen before. I cannot put a name on them. But I can put man, I can put woman, I can put Westerner and so on. So that's a perception. Now, again, I turn and I look at all of you, I have a pleasant Vedana. It's nice to see old students. It's nice to see you wanting to learn the Dhamma. I see someone coming up the hill. They're smoking. They're talking loudly even though the sign asks people to speak quietly. They throw their cigarette on the ground, and this and that. I have an unpleasant Vedana. These are our Vedana.
Then it goes right on. Our Perception goes onto the eye contact, the Vedana goes onto the eye contact. These are do to our past conditioning. They just naturally arise. From our perception and our Vedana, then we build the story. That's our Mental Formations. We build a big story around the contact, the Perception and the Vedana. I like it. I don't like it. Maybe this, maybe that, and those are our Mental Formations. Again all these four are processes in the mind and our contact with the world through the body.
Now the fifth one Consciousness, Consciousness is with each part of those four. Whenever we know which one of those four is happening. If we actually know we are seeing something, then Consciousness is with our eye contact. If I know that I'm labeling "Mike" and I know that I have just put that label on him, Consciousness is with that Perception. If I know I'm happy to see all you people, I have a pleasant Vedana, if I know that Vedana, then Consciousness is with the Vedana. If I start thinking to myself, "Well gee, these people have been here for a long time, some of them have been here 15 years, etc.", and I build a story, that's Mental Formations. And if I actually know that I'm having Mental Formations, that means consciousness is with the Mental Formations.
Now sometimes when you're not aware of what you're thinking, the wandering mind goes off for 20 minutes or so. Then you become aware. Okay, consciousness was not with the mental formations in that time. So that's a clear understanding of when it can be with something and when it's not. The Five Aggregates are processes that are happening all the time in this being which we call ourselves.