Behind the Functioning of the Five Aggregates Lies a Hidden Mystery

Machines manufactured in modern times are all automated processes; some even show no visible manual operation. These machines run ceaselessly, proceeding from one program to the next. All of this running is a dharma of causes and conditions—there are definite causes and conditions that make the machines run; machines do not run without reason. There are many conditions for a machine's operation, and each condition is different. When the conditions differ, the patterns of operation differ, and the products manufactured differ as well. But what is the cause of the machine's operation? Can a machine run automatically all by itself?

Take another example: the washing machine at home, churning the clothes in the water, spinning ceaselessly—this is a process. How does this process come about? Does the washing machine spin by itself? Without a person operating it, a washing machine is just a pile of scrap metal; it can do nothing. It is only when a person presses that button that the washing machine can run. Moreover, washing machines are automated processes designed by humans; only when humans supply electricity can the washing machine work. It runs through one process after another—is this something that exists naturally? What can we see in the operation of a machine?

If a child who does not yet understand the ways of the world, he would not know that machines are operated by people, because when adults are not beside the machine, the machine seems to move by itself. But a person who already understands the ways of the world, even if he cannot see anyone operating the machine, knows that the machine is being operated by someone. The washing machine is a metaphor for our five-aggregate body; the operation of the five aggregates is like the process. This process does not arise without reason, nor does it arise without cause—there are conditions, and even more so there is a cause. What, then, is the cause of the operation of the five aggregates?

Since the five aggregates are not truly existent, yet they can still operate—is this not strange? One should raise the question: Why can something false still have function? Why, exactly? If one takes the five aggregates as existing naturally, one will not give rise to questioning doubt; without raising doubt, one will not investigate, and then one will never know the truth of the facts. When we look at anything, we cannot look only at surface phenomena. How many secrets lie hidden behind the phenomena—do we know? What is the essence of all things? Is it really as it appears on the surface? The wise should investigate, should strive to understand the truth of the facts, and uncover the mysteries within.

Behind the process of the five-aggregate body's operation, if there were nothing real, would the five-aggregate body still operate? Could there still be a process? After the five aggregates of the physical body perish, what remains? After the body is cremated, what remains? After an arhat attains nirvāṇa, what remains? If one believes that nothing remains, that is the view of annihilation—annihilatory emptiness (uccheda-śūnyatā)—which contradicts the Buddha's teachings. If one believes that after the five aggregates perish there is still a spiritually knowing mind that does not perish, a mind that can know all things and can go on to future lives, this is the eternalist view. It does not exist eternally; to claim that it can exist eternally is the eternalist view, which contradicts the Buddha's teachings.