How Do the Five Aggregates Operate?

Let us take drinking tea as an example to illustrate this. Drinking tea is a process of the integrated, harmonious functioning of the five aggregates (pañca-skandha); the five aggregates of form, feeling, perception, volitional formations, and consciousness, as well as the eighteen dhātus of the six faculties, six sense objects, and six consciousnesses, all participate in it, with faculty, object, and consciousness coming into contact and operating together in harmony. The one who directs it is the manas, which is responsible for coordinating and regulating the activities of contact, feeling, perception, and deliberation (manasikāra) of the six consciousnesses with the five faculties and six sense objects. The manas is the most agile and swift; often the mind consciousness completes the task without even noticing anything. The five consciousnesses cooperate as if they had no thoughts of their own, completely faithful to the directives of the manas, and at times the mind consciousness simply cannot fathom it.

The entire process of drinking tea is just like this: if the tea is too hot and spills on the hand, one will be startled and fling it off immediately, with no time for the mind consciousness to discern and analyze it. When the manas wants to pick up the teacup and drink the tea, faculty and object will come into contact, generating the six consciousnesses to cooperate in the operation and carry out the manas's directive, and only then can the tea be drunk. As for the specific operations of the six faculties and the operations of the six consciousnesses, you must observe and match them up yourself; especially the details, which require you to settle your mind and observe them yourself. You need to clarify the concepts of the five aggregates and understand clearly the functions and roles of the eighteen dhātus.